After we were finally seated at the newly opened café, I shot Tiffany the question that had been burning in the back of my mind since the day prior. “Fany, why did you set Sica and I up yesterday?”
She looked at me, confused. “What do you mean? Didn’t she tell you?”
I pursed my lips in thought. “I mean, she did tell me, but I thought about something she said and realized something: most people wouldn’t allow her girlfriend to go on a date with someone else, much less an ex and friend who is in love with said girlfriend.”
Tiffany smiled gently in response. “I don’t know. I’m not going to lie, I felt uneasy all of yesterday, wondering if I made the right choice and afraid that you would leave me for her.” I had to stop myself scoffing from both not wanting to interrupt Tiffany as well as finding the notion ridiculous. “But ultimately, she’s my friend; not only that, but I also still felt guilty for suddenly leaving her in high school, even if I knew it wasn’t my fault. I thought that if Jessica’s love for you went unresolved, since she was your best friend, it would just put strain on your relationship, especially since you’ll be in America together. You know, I found it funny but also endearing that you couldn’t notice your best friend falling in love with you after all that time, but it only took me more or less our first meeting on the beach to figure it out,” she said, laughter in the edge of her voice.
I frowned in protest. “What do you mean? How did you figure it out so quickly?”
“Well, you complimented her swimsuit on that day, right? When you did that, she looked away: it was that action that hinted at it for me.”
“Oh…” I tried to process her words, to understand her thought process, but just found myself unable to. I did remember doing that, I did remember Jessica responding in that way, but … was that enough for someone to notice that Jessica was in love with me? Maybe it was just that Tiffany knew Jessica so well that seeing her reaction was all she needed. “But that could mean anything, right? Like what if she had something in her eye, or what if something interesting caught her attention in her peripheral vision? Why would you interpret it like that?”
“Well, sure you can consider things like that, but to me, it was more likely that she didn’t want you, her longtime friend, to see her embarrassed reaction to the compliment that she had never received before. Plus, you’re just a really lovable person,” she explained. However, my perplexed expression probably gave away my thoughts: did I tell Tiffany all of that before? “Well, I knew she was your longtime friend because of how excited you were when you saw her and I knew you never complimented Jessica on her swimsuit before because she complained that you never went shopping for them before.”
“How do you remember that?”
Tiffany simply smiled, replying, “Every day I spend with you is precious, so of course I remember them all.”
I couldn’t do anything but chuckle, trying my best to mask my rapidly increased heartbeat. Tiffany was just really good at doing this, wasn’t she? “Oh look, is that them?” I said, looking over at the entrance to the café to a group of three. Tiffany followed my gaze, and as the trio walked closer, it became clear that the taller of the trio was a male. “Oh, never mind.”
“No wait, behind them,” she said, me standing back up. Sure enough, behind that trio was another trio of people who had noticed us in turn and were waving frantically—or at least, two of them were. The third—Seohyun—was walking with them, trying not to look embarrassed at her unnies and failing miserably.
“It’s Taeny!” Sooyoung exclaimed as soon as she got close to our table.
“Hi Sooyoung, Sunny, and Seohyun,” I said, standing up and bowing in greeting.
“Come on Taeyeon, there’s no need to be that polite, I thought we were friends,” Sunny said as the three of them shuffled into their seats on the other side of the booth.
“Ah, sorry.”
“It’s ok; more importantly, how have you been? This is our first time all being together since you two got together, right?”
“Yeah, how—”
“Unnie, I’m going to just stop you right there,” Seohyun interrupted the excited Sunny, who just pouted in response.
I giggled in response, entertained as always at the trio’s dynamic. “Thanks, Seohyun.”
“We’ve kissed but nothing more,” Tiffany replied anyway, causing my face to flare up.
“Fany!” I muttered, trying to stop her, to no avail.
“It’s a shame, too, because I’ve never seen Taeyeon in anything less than a swimsuit, and that was before I could enjoy the benefits of her being my girlfriend.”
I buried my face in my hands, the heat in my face burning uncontrollably bright. It was always like this: just when I thought I had it under control, Tiffany would do or say something that made me like this. Honestly though, that wasn’t the only thing that was giving me a red face—the thought of Tiffany in a micro-swimsuit or of her without one, the thing she was hinting at, was overwhelming my brain.
“Oh, then we should go to the beach right after this!” Sooyoung suggested.
Before I could reject the suggestion, Sunny interjected. “I already had plans after this, actually.”
This caused Sooyoung to frown. “Aw, you’re no fun.”
“You should already know this,” Seohyun scolded the taller woman, “especially considering all that time spent figuring out when we were all free.”
“Wow, you guys are really busy, even during the summer, huh?” I said, having spent the majority of the previous summer break resting and traveling as a request from my parents to take a personal break. “What have you all been up to?”
“Well, I have a part-time job at a Burger King and do some voice acting gigs as well as volunteer for a daycare center,” Sunny revealed.
“I got casted as a side character for a drama and am working at that, although most of the shoots are at night,” Sooyoung said.
“I’m working for an internship at Samsung,” Seohyun concluded.
I was speechless: I more or less expected Seohyun to be doing something, although working at such a big company was still pretty insane, but to hear the dynamic duo doing so much caught me by surprise. It wasn’t that I expected them to be lazy slackers, but they were more talented and hard-working then they let off: surely it wasn’t easy for Sooyoung to secure her role and work nights nor easy for Sunny to juggle all those activities simultaneously.
Tiffany wasn’t as impressed as I, replying, “Wow, you guys are going all out this summer again, huh? How’s your internship going, Seohyun?”
“Oh! It’s going great!” an ardent excitement burned in her eyes as she replied, Sooyoung and Sunny stifling their laughter in the background. “It’s been a great opportunity to learn how—what?” she stopped when Sooyoung accidentally let out a chuckle, Sunny hitting her in response.
“Yah, don’t interrupt her,” she said, clearly muffling her own laughter.
“What’s so funny?” Seohyun whined, hitting Sooyoung in kind.
“Hey, why’s everyone hitting me today?” Sooyoung said, bringing her arms in defensively.
“Maybe because you’re an easy target.”
“That’s rude.”
“Seohyun, continue,” Tiffany interjected.
She nodded and resumed. “I learned a lot about how big companies handle working in a team, and especially how they handle the distribution of tasks and what communication methods they use when doing a team project. It’s really eye opening.”
I could do nothing but sit there with a motherly smile and listen to her gush about her internship experience. She always seemed so mature and composed, yet it was instances such as these that reminded me of the fact that she was younger than us all.
“Aw look, Taeyeon’s just giving you this motherly smile,” Tiffany pointed out.
“Oh, sorry, I—”
“Forget your own parents, Seohyun-ah, we want to adopt you as our own child,” Tiffany claimed, her arm around my back.
I half-laughed, half-scoffed, Seohyun replying in a similar fashion. “What are you saying? She’s only one year younger than us,” I said.
“That’s a lot.”
“…Well, you didn’t have to point it out!”
Everyone else burst into laughter, Seohyun especially looking at me with an apologetic gaze. I smiled back at her, trying to convey ‘it’s-ok-I-was-joking’ in my eyes, which thankfully was successfully communicated to her in her knowing nod.
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