Taeyeon had a big frown on her face; she sighed so many times that day after Tiffany's performance, she lost count of how many. Seeing Tiffany perform with Jessica and then the strange talk with Sunny.
"TaeTae!" Tiffany greeted her cheerfully, happy she finished the performance and very much expecting some compliments from her best friend.
"Hey."
"Did you like my performance? I am so glad it's over; this year's performances are so much harder than last year's." Tiffany started talking about how she felt during her performance with Jessica without realizing Taeyeon's long face.
"Yeah. Yeah. I liked it. Sure." She said hastily, wanting to get some answers to her doubts. "Have you talked to Sunny?"
"Mhm, I talked to her after I changed out of my performance outfit. Why didn't you come with her?"
"Didn't she tell you?"
"...No, all she told me was she is going to study at home for the rest of the semester and asked me to take the remaining notes for her. She said she got to help her mom with something. How come?"
Why does no one tell me such things? Ugh. And God damn it! I could have visited Tiffany after the performance! Feeling worse from all the disappointing news. "Let's talk on the bus home."
"Tae, what's wrong?"
Tiffany followed the girl in silence to their bus stop.
...
"Alright, what's going on in that strange mind of yours." She asked the shorty beside her once they settled on the bus.
"Why didn't you tell me that you were going to perform with Jessica?"
"Huh?" Tiffany raised her eyebrows, not expecting the question. "Because I thought you weren't interested?" Tiffany answered.
"Didn't you say you guys weren't talking anymore?"
"We still talk, Taeyoon-ah. Jess and I have known each other since we were kids."
"Oh." Taeyoon gave a slight pout but was still visible to Tiffany.
"I knew you two didn't get along. That's why I didn't tell you so you could still be excited about my performance. Because if I told you if Jessica was to perform next to me, you will just not bother coming at all."
"But you know that I will see you with Jessica eventually, and you even told Sunny! When did you two start talking again?" Taeyeon asked perpetually, one question after another. She doesn't even know why she needs the answers to these questions so anxiously. All she knows is that she wants to know everything Tiffany does with other girls, and there is a fit of jealousy burning inside her.
"We always talked, just not as much as before. And it was because Sunny asked and was interested in my performance. But Taeyoon-ah, so what if I dance together with Jessica? Why do you have to care about what she and I do together? Haven't I been talking to you almost every day after school and during lunch?"
"Yea," Taeyeon admitted, her mood brightened up a little and lips curling back up from a frown.
"It's actually a thing that Jess and I did since middle school. We would dance and sing together." Tiffany explained.
Taeyeon nodded. "I thought you were going back to Jessica and forget about me."
"Pabo! You are both my best friends." Tiffany said and couldn't help herself but pat the girl's bobbed haircut. "Now, why didn't you come to see me with Sunny?" After fluffing the girl's hair, she felt an unusual bump on her forehead. She brushed back the girl's hair to see a bruise mark covered by a single piece of a band-aid. "When did you get this?" She asked her with concern.
Taeyeon contemplated that question for a bit while biting her lips. "I fell and hit my head."
"Really?" Tiffany had an unimpressed look on her face. She knew the shorty was lying to her. "That's a lie. You always bite your lips to think of a stupid answer when you are about to lie."
"We were having a snowball...fight, and I got hit pretty hard," Taeyeon said, omitting the details.
"We? Huh? Did Jess pick on you again?" Tiffany rubbed her thumb gently over the band-aid. "Does it still hurt?"
"It's just a small cut." She shook her head. "How did you know Jessica picked on me?"
"You? Snowball fight? With whom? Sunny?" Tiffany questioned her with a skeptical look, knowing fully that Taeyeon had no one to play snowball fights with. At least one that would injure her like that.
"Yoona?" Taeyeon suggested, guiltily chuckling.
"Come on! Be a little more realistic. Your sister wouldn't do that! Throwing a snowball at your head?"
"Heheheh...ow!" The chuckling started into a laugh when she tried imagining her sister throwing a snowball at her face. Unexpectantly earning her a smack on her shoulder when Tiffany thought she wasn't taking it seriously. "Why do you look so demented when you are worried about me?"
"Because you love making me worry, don't you? Remember that magazine? I asked you 100x to try and find the real one, and you still wouldn't listen. Remember me telling you not to always pick a fight with Jessica? You had to bump into her on purpose. I even told you to go and at least try to talk to Jess. You end up pouring red ink all over her backpack!"
"SHE WAS PICKING ON SUNNY!" Taeyeon retorted.
"Yeah, right! I don't see Sunny being any happier by you pouring ink all over Jess! You shouldn't have done that."
"You still don't believe your Jessica is a bad person. But I didn't need to listen to you anyway. I got her back in the end!" Taeyeon boasted.
"And how many more problems did that cause you?" Tiffany couldn't count how many times she rolled her eyes at the girl just from their first semester together.
"Ok. Ok. Momma Tiffany, what you going to do about it, huh?"
"Did you just momma me?"
"I would lover-zone you if I could!" Taeyeon laughed playfully, and she almost felt a bit hopeful. She realized that she didn't mind at all if Tiffany was her girlfriend.
"You not coming to me with Sunny had something to do with that snowball fight, didn't it?"
"No. It's nothing. Tiffany, let's go to your house!" Taeyeon suggested nervously, wanting to change the topic.
"Why are you avoiding the topic!? You can't come to my house until you tell me what's going on!"
She smiled smugly, as she knew Tiffany would not be able to resist this offer.
"I let you come to my house. Come on, I know you want to?"
Tiffany looked at her, unable to utter a word after her enticing offer. She opened and closed her mouth, then finally gave in to the irresistible offer. "Taeyoon!" She whined.
------
After weeks of begging and pleading, Tiffany finally got the chance to visit Taeyeon's place. When they arrived, it was like Taeyeon's parents had seen a ghost. They had not expected her to bring a friend over, let alone a friend that's this pretty and so neatly dressed. Especially when it had been weeks since they asked her about her personal life at school. In their Monday weekly meetings, they asked her how she was doing academic-wise due to her visible annoyance when they brought up personal matters. Even when Mrs. Im asked her if there is anything she wants or need for school, she politely refused her offer. When they asked if she had any friends then, she said she just talked to some people and not much more than that. Taeyeon often kept personal things to herself. As much as she tried to trust her adoptive parents, she couldn't, and all she knew was to depend on herself. Part of it was due to her own will, and the other part was a bit more mysterious to her. A voice kept on telling her that she could only depend on herself.
Her mother eventually settled that the child must have been brought up in an entirely different family environment, thus the behaviour. However, she was grateful that Taeyeon had always been well behaved regardless of how annoyed or rude she sometimes was. Even when Mr. Im scolded her, she remained calm and collected. If her father refused to listen to her, she just stood there and listened. Maybe it was something that was taught before they had met her. She never really caused any trouble for them as adoptive parents. She did most of the family's chores despite Mrs. Im explicitly telling her it was unnecessary.
"What?" Taeyeon looked at her parents as if they got no reason to be surprised.
"She...is your friend?" Her mother asked, the word stuck in her mouth, but pleasantly surprised from the view of Tiffany. She was the friend she had always wanted for Yoona, neatly dressed, well mannered and had good grades. Well, Tiffany only had two of those things. However, she is studious.
"Her name is Tiffany. We are just going to study together." Before Tiffany could say 'hi', Taeyeon pulled Tiffany to her room. Tiffany gave Mrs. Im an apologetic look and a slight bow as she followed Taeyeon's pull.
"...Don't you think you should introduce us..." Mrs. Lim yelled after her daughter, who ran past her hastily towards her room. "AISH! Why are you like this!?" She yelled after annoyance.
Yoona is not home yet as expected. She was probably studying at school like always. Which to Taeyeon was a relief as she wants some time with Tiffany alone. There are some things that she wants to talk to Tiffany about without interruptions.
"Wasn't that a bit rude to your parents?" Tiffany asked her after she shut the doors to her room, looking very unimpressed by her rude behaviour.
"Nah, if I introduce you to her, she is going to ask you like a million questions," Taeyeon commented coldly.
Tiffany studied Taeyeon for a moment before preparing to speak again. Although Taeyeon had agreed to let her come to her house this time, she could tell that she didn't want to. At first, she thought maybe it's that her adoptive parents were strict, but from her first impressions of Mrs. Im, it didn't seem to be that way. Mrs. Im seemed to be friendly and very interested in getting to know her daughter.
"So. tell me, what do you usually do when you come home this early? Since you 'don't study." Tiffany repeated the words she remembered her saying from their first conversation at the cafeteria.
"I work on my own things," Taeyeon said, sitting on her bed; she pointed her finger to her laptop.
Tiffany took it as an invitation, so she walked over to her desk and sat down before her laptop. After looking through the directory Taeyeon told her to navigate to, she was baffled. Then Taeyeon did some magical things to it, and it somehow made this website pop up in a new browser window.
"Wow, this is so pretty. I love the colour scheme!" Tiffany was awed at the beautifully laid-out website. The website had mini-games, a calendar, and a bunch of other neat widgets. But in the same folder of the website, she noticed a file named 'personal diary', which was not on the website. She knew it might be private, but her curiosity got the best of her.
Her shoulders sunk a bit when there wasn't much there except a single short paragraph.
"When I woke up, I didn't know why I woke up here out of all places. Nor did I know where I was. This world and the world that I felt that I was used to, there are many differences. But many areas were closely related too.
Do I want to remember?"
Tiffany turned her head towards the girl now lying on her bed browsing her phone. One hand holding her phone, the other used its fingers and swiped cutely around the screen. Whatever Taeyeon was looking at must be very interesting. Her eyes were wide open, staring at the screen, and she never noticed the eyes that rested on her.
Tiffany wondered what the paragraph meant, what world Taeyeon was talking about, especially the differences and similarities that she mentioned. After reading that paragraph, she grew more interested in Taeyeon, the mysteriousness that surrounded this unexpectedly intelligent kid. Taeyeon claimed that she made the website on her own and the many projects from the website. But how did she learn all of this when she was so young? It indeed required a lot of dedication and focus on accomplishing such tasks. Just what this kid's childhood must have been like? Shouldn't kids be jumping around, playing, throwing things and go on playdates? Tiffany made herself a silent goal to get the girl to go out more, plus she thinks that the girl needs it from her small appearance.
"Are you done yet?" Taeyeon looked at her, who's attention returned to the laptop.
"Huh?" Tiffany blinked twice and snapped out of her thoughts. "Yeah, how did you make it?" She asked a question regarding the website, feeling like she looked at something not meant for her eyes.
"Books and Internet. But that's not what you wanted to ask, is it?" Taeyeon foresaw the uncertainty in her question.
Tiffany furrowed her eyebrows. "What?"
"You saw something interesting, didn't you?"
"The entire website is interesting." She said, sounding a little nervous.
"Even if I wanted to tell you, I would not be able to remember a thing," Taeyeon answered the question on Tiffany's mind. She then got up from the bed and opened up the tab that contained the short paragraph.
"Can I ask some questions?" Tiffany asked carefully.
"Can you promise not to tell anyone else?"
"I will keep them a secret if you answer some personal ones too."
Taeyeon gave her an unimpressed look. "Are you kidding me? You don't have to threaten me. You can just ask...."
"Oh." Tiffany pouted. "I just thought it's personal, so...?"
"Yes, you may ask me questions." Part of Taeyeon is amused to see Tiffany stutter.
She let out a sigh, trying to remember what she had done for the past few years. When she woke up in the hospital, it felt like she was born again. She had no recollection of anything that happened prior. The only thing she noticed was some behaviours and feelings that may be a small clue of what she was like. However, she feels like her current self is an entirely different person.