THIRTEEN

“We went to a bar near Jessica’s residence because she recommended it. She never really told me why she wanted to go there now that I think about it, but since I had spent the whole day staying at home, I figured it was a good chance to escape my room, so I went.

“We mostly just talked about college stuff and, well, Jessica got drunk pretty quickly because of how skinny she is. At first, it wasn’t that bad, but then Jessica started complaining about her work, saying stuff like ‘its so hard!’ and ‘I feel bad for doing it’, but every time she would say something like that, she would look at me with wide eyes and made a shushing motion, followed by giggling and not talking for a bit before going back to that subject.

“I was thinking that I probably should stop her, and I’m probably a bad person for not doing so, but I was too curious, so I just let her keep talking. As the night went on though, she gradually got more specific and kept saying more. I stopped her and took her back home when she said ‘Actually, you know, don’t tell anyone this, but I’m working for Tiffany’s dad’.

“When I woke up the next morning, I asked Jessica if she remembered anything about the previous night, but she said ‘no’; I more specifically asked about if she remembered saying anything about her job, and she started panicking and asked me if she said anything, but I just told her that she said a lot of what she already told me.”

“Ah, so you’re perfectly fine with sleeping with Jessi but try to run away when sleeping with me?”

If this was an anime or cartoon, my jaw would have dropped to the floor. “That was what you took from all of that?”

Tiffany pouted, crossing her arms and making a humph sound through her closed lips, turning away from me. “Maybe I should go to a bar with you and get drunk too,” she said. I wanted to believe that she was joking—I really did, but I honestly hadn’t the slightest clue about the earnestness in her hypothetical deliberation.

“But I’ve known Jessica for longer, and we didn’t even sleep in the same bed so it’s different,” I retorted. I didn’t bother mention the fact that I had to pull myself away from Jessica in order to sleep on the couch that night.

“Oh,” Tiffany said, the inflection of her voice significantly more joyous, “So I’m beating her in something, at least.”

“Beating her?” I inquired, “What does that mean? Are you competing for something with her?”

Tiffany shook her head, smiling mysteriously. “So did Jessi make any mention of knowing me from before?”

My eyes went wide. “Oh!” I quickly said, panic seizing my body, “No! I, uh, I made sure not to say what you said to me to her,” I said, stumbling over my words a bit in my haste.

Tiffany chuckled at my hectic response. “Ah no I wasn’t talking about that,” she said reassuringly, “I was just saying that if she said that, that would imply she knows who my father is, and therefore knows who I am, right?”

Wow wait … how did I not make the connection earlier? I guess I was so focused on that startling revelation that I didn’t even stop to consider its consequences. I felt stupid for not realizing this sooner; but even if this was so, what did it mean? Just that Jessica remembered Tiffany? That she was hiding that fact for some reason?

“I—I guess, yeah,” I said, “It seemed like she was hiding it because she looked relieved when I told her that she didn’t say much that I didn’t know already.” Tiffany nodded, deep in thought. “Where should we go then?” I queried after a moment’s silence.

“Hm?” Tiffany replied, evidently being brought out of her thoughts, “Oh, yeah. There’s this hotpot ramen place nearby; I’ll send you the address, you can text Jessi the location,” she responded. I nodded, pulling out my phone. Just as I dialed her number, Tiffany quickly interjected by saying, “Oh, and just pretend it’s just you two who’s going; I want to test something.”

“Weren’t you the one who said lying’s bad?” I quickly said to her, holding my phone to the side.

Before Tiffany had the chance to respond, the dial tone stopped and I immediately brought the camera back in front of my face. She made one last pleading motion with her hands before I diverted my attention to my phone’s screen.

“Taeyeon!” Jessica’s bright smile filled the screen, waving cheerfully.

“Hi Sica! Are you busy right now?” I said, carefully maneuvering myself onto the couch as to not show Tiffany in the background.

“No, I’m not busy,” she replied, “I don’t work on Saturdays.”

“Ah, ok, good,” I said, briefly readjusting the phone’s angle as I scooted back on the couch. Tiffany had carefully maneuvered herself onto the couch to my right, carefully staying out of sight of my phone’s camera. “There’s this hotpot ramen place that I discovered, do you want to go there?”

“Oh!” Jessica said. I knew this was coming, but she continued before I could interject, “So you’re inviting me on a date?”

I moved the phone again, this time to block Tiffany from my view. “Yah Sica, you can’t just say that every time I invite you out,” I scolded her.

She pouted. “What’s a date between friends?”

I sighed. “Fine, if you want to see it as a date then you can do that. I’ll text you the address; can you be there in an hour?”

She nodded excitedly. “Of course!” she exclaimed, jumping up from her sitting position, “Taeyeon asked me out~ Taeyeon asked me out~” she repeated in a singsong voice.

“Are you going into your closet?” I inquired as Jessica waltzed into a smaller, more confined space.

“Yeah, I have to look good for my date!” she responded. I sighed again. “Taeyeon, don’t sigh; every time you do so, a little bit of happiness escapes from you.”

“Ok ok, I got it,” I said, shifting my phone again. I peered at Tiffany from the corner of my eye, and sure enough, she was fuming. Playfully, I hoped. “Well see you then!”

“Do you want to see me change?”

I hung up before she could continue. “Fany, Sica was—” I stopped short as Tiffany got up and plopped herself to my immediate right. “—kidding,” I finished, shifting away from Tiffany.

“So that’s how it is, huh? Have you been on many dates with her?”

My eyes flickered about the room. I wanted to create some distance between Tiffany and I, but she wasn’t allowing it, having put her arm around my waist. “Not romantic dates. I’m straight, remember?”

Those were the words that came out of my mouth, but they seemed to be more of an automatic reaction than anything else.

I felt Tiffany’s gaze bore into me for a veery long couple of seconds before releasing her grip on my waist, getting up. “Do you need anything? A drink or something?”

I let out a deep breath. “No thank you,” I replied, grabbing my phone and texting Jessica. “How far away is it?”

“It’s a ten-minute walk,” she replied.

“Ok, so when do you want to go?”

Tiffany stopped just outside her bedroom, turning around. “Maybe twenty minutes? I wanted to prepare something first,” she said.

“Ok, twenty minutes,” I replied, setting my phone down. As I did so, Tiffany suddenly broke out into a smile. “What?”

“Don’t we seem like a couple, talking about stuff like this?”

I felt my face burn pink. Tiffany promptly walked into her room, leaving me sitting on the couch in her living room with nothing but the plant to accompany me. To say how pleasant the thought of Tiffany being my girlfriend was never crossed my mind would be an outright lie.

After a bit over half an hour, we arrived at the restaurant and took a seat at a booth. The restaurant had a homey feel; the interior comprised of furnished wood so shiny that I could almost see my reflection on the walls. The booth itself was constructed from a similar material padded with soft red-velvet cushions. In the middle of the table laid a large stove, presumably for the pot containing the soup, the noodles, and the ingredients.

“How did you end up meeting Jessica anyway?” Tiffany asked as we sat down.

I stopped in the motion of opening the menu. “Why? Are you going to start complaining again?”

Tiffany smiled innocently. “No. I promise to be on my best behavior, mommy,” she replied in a cutesy, child-like voice.

I nearly snorted. “Ok, good job Fany,” I said, regaining my composure and reaching across the table to pat her head. “I met Jessica in a freshmen speech class; although I knew English from the first few years I grew up in America, I didn’t really practice it much after moving back here apart from in school, so I became unconfident in my English. Since I was shy and the class was about talking, I wanted to force myself to talk to others, but the only person I was comfortable talking with was Jessica because she was the only Korean in the class, so I approached her and we started to talk every day before class started.

“We didn’t really talk much outside of class though; it was after we had a partner speech and had to exchange phone numbers that we started spending time together outside of class, but she started acting more like you later that year, when I brought her to a Korean Association club meeting at our school. Apparently, I was popular there and Jessica found this really interesting.”

“Started acting like me?” Tiffany said, bemused.