TWENTY FOUR

“Tiffany!” Seohyun greeted Tiffany, hugging her after opening the door. “Hi Taeyeon! It’s nice to see you again.”

Before I could return the greeting, the dynamic duo emerged.

“Oh, Taeyeon!” Sunny interjected, stepping forward with her hand outstretched. I raised my free hand to receive it, but she stopped when she saw Tiffany and my interlocked hands.

“Ooh, what’s this?” Sooyoung sang in a teasing voice, grinning at Tiffany, “Tiffany holding hands with Taeyeon? Is there something between you two?”

I found my face turning pink in response to her words. I thought I had already come to terms with this fact, but the way Sooyoung said it somehow made it even more embarrassing.

Tiffany, on the other hand, took it in stride. “Is it so strange to hold the hand of my girlfriend?”

Sooyoung stopped, pointedly looking at Tiffany; not long after, Seohyun pulled Sooyoung’s arm while Sunny squealed happily. “Oh my god, I’m so happy for you! When did it happen?”

“Yesterday,” Tiffany stated proudly. “It was Taeyeon who confessed, actually.”

“Good going, Taeyeon,” Sunny playfully used her elbow to push me.

“Ah, it’s—” I didn’t know how to respond, but luckily, Seohyun came to my rescue.

“Stop teasing them so much unnie, let them come in first at least. I’ll get some tea,” she said, offering a pair of slippers to each of us. Sooyoung was standing behind Seohyun, looking sad—apologetic?—for some reason.

“Thank you, Seohyun,” I said, accepting the slippers and stepping into the apartment. Seohyun shuffled into the kitchen area, Sunny leading the way into the living room.

“So … how far have you two gone?”

“Sooyoung!” Tiffany whined whiled I looked away in embarrassment. Whatever it was that I appeared to have seen was replaced with that I was more used to,

“Surely you two have kissed, right?”

This time, Tiffany didn’t respond, her face turning pink this time.

“Ooh!”

“How was it?”

“Tiffany’s a good kisser, I bet.”

“Sooyoung!” Sunny hissed at her, hitting her leg. Shortly after, Seohyun entered the room with a tray with 5 cups of tea.

Not wanting to jump to conclusions while also wanting to trust Tiffany’s earlier claim of having been single since her arrival in Korea, I turned to look at Tiffany, who was just smiling in a manner I haven’t really seen before: it almost looked like she was holding herself in, like she going to snap at any moment. While she didn’t look angry, necessarily, she appeared more … impatient?

“Ah, well, I personally wouldn’t know by the way, Taeyeon. Tiffany’s been single ever since she came to Korea. I was just joking, it was a bad joke though, sorry,” she said, seemingly panicked. I couldn’t make heads or tails of the extremely bizarre situation: it didn’t really seem like something she had to apologize for. While it was true that Tiffany’s friends and I weren’t necessarily that close, especially me with Sooyoung, that kind of statement was obviously just a joke. Then again, with how Tiffany reacted … no, I shouldn’t overthink this. Tiffany has secrets of her own, and if she wasn’t comfortable sharing them with me, then that was her prerogative.

I briefly considered the irony regarding the implications of Tiffany keeping secrets and her hate of liars, but I disregarded it. Tiffany was already so perfect, who was I to judge her for having one flaw, if that could even be called one? I would be a hypocrite if I did so.

“Just don’t mind the two of them,” Seohyun said, handing me a cup of tea, which I graciously accepted, “They always worry about Tiffany’s romantic life because she was never interested in that kind of stuff, and now that you’re here as her girlfriend, they’re too excited to think sanely.”

“Yah, who are you calling insane?” Sooyoung complained.

“Don’t lump me with her,” Sunny whined, scooting away from her.

“Don’t pretend you don’t love me,” Sooyoung said, extending her arms in an attempt to hug Sunny but was stopped short by Sunny’s extended arm.

“Get away from me, you crazy person. I can’t afford to have your craziness rub off on me after I graduate and find a job.”

“Everyone likes a teacher that’s a little crazy, right?”

“Yah, that’s only you! Don’t associate my precious future students with yourself!”

“As I said,” Seohyun said, sitting on the other side of me, “Just don’t mind them. Did you guys get any couple items already? Is that what’s in those bags?” she inquired, nodding at the bags Tiffany was holding.

“Yeah!” I said excitedly, accepting the bags Tiffany wordlessly handed over with one hand while retrieving my phone with the other. “We chose each other’s phone cases and accessories,” I said, holding up my phone to her as well as the shopping bag.

“Oh, that’s cute!” she said, leaning forward to more closely observe it, briefly glancing inside the bag. “Right, Tiffany did like Totoro; actually, I have a story about that, do you—”

Tiffany hastily waved her hands, cutting Seohyun off. “Seohyun! You’re doing this too?” I quickly peered at Tiffany’s face to see hints of pink on her cheeks. A smile sprouted on my face in reaction to it.

“Fany, let me hear it~” I pouted, grabbing her arm.

Tiffany’s panic vanished when I made eye contact with her. “I mean—fine, just … it’s embarrassing,” she murmured, sitting back down on the couch.

“Oh, this is a funny story,” Sooyoung commented, evidently having finished her argument with Sunny, if it could even be called that.

“So you know how ‘My Neighbor Totoro’ is more aimed at children, right?” I nodded in response. “Tiffany apparently has never seen it before, so after we befriended her, she invited us to her apartment and—”

Tiffany got up at that moment. “Actually, I’m not going to stay and listen to this. I’ll use the bathroom,” she announced; however, I grabbed her hand before she moved much more.

“Staay~” I requested, attempting to use aegyo. Fortunately, it worked, as I easily managed to pull Tiffany back onto the couch.

“It’s not fair, you can’t just use your aegyo like that,” she said, plopping back down next to me.

“Wow, you’re so whipped, Tiffany,” Sooyoung noted, to which Sunny and Seohyun laughed. I smiled in embarrassment, grabbing Tiffany’s hand.

Just as Seohyun was about to start again, Tiffany made a proposal. “How about we play a game instead? The winner gets to request whatever story they want from whomever they choose.”

The mischievous glint in the eyes of the dynamic duo didn’t go unnoticed.

“Sure! How’s this: the winner of each game gets to decide the next game. It’ll be best-of-three, us deciding the game first,” Sunny said. Tiffany nodded readily, even before I had the chance to rebuke their offer. Surely Tiffany could see their ulterior motives in their eyes as well: just how far was Tiffany willing to go to avoid that story? It just made my curiosity swell even more. Maybe it wasn’t that: maybe it was that Tiffany was confident in winning, for some reason.

“Sooyoung, Sunny, go easy on them, if not for Tiffany’s sake, for Taeyeon’s sake,” Seohyun said. I thanked her with my eyes, but unfortunately, her words seemed to fall flat on the two.

“Ok, let’s start simply with the ‘of course’ game,” Sooyoung started.

“What are the pairs? Sooyoung and Tiffany, me and Taeyeon?” Sunny offered. Tiffany accepted, albeit with some initial hesitation: it seemed like she was suspicious of Sunny, but didn’t say anything of it. Instead, Tiffany and Sooyoung situated themselves on the smaller couch and faced each other.

“You’ve fantasized about Taeyeon before, haven’t you?”

“Of course.” I felt my face explode in heat at Tiffany’s almost instant response. “And you’ve fantasized about Sunny before, haven’t you?”