FOUR

A faint voice was calling out to me.

“Taeyeon … Taeyeon …”

What was that? It was a really nice voice, like that of an angel. Why was it calling out to me? Was it trying to wake me up?

I lazily waved my hand at the source of the voice. “Noo…” I groaned, turning away from it.

I felt a hand on my shoulder, shaking my body. “Taeyeon, time to wake up,” the same angelic voice said.

I groaned, trying to shake the hand off my shoulder. “I’m sleepy,” I replied, turning around once again.

I enjoyed a brief period of silence, only to be broken again by the same voice, but carrying a different tone, “Don’t blame me for this, it’s your fault for tempting me.”

Those words woke me up like a jolt, but by the time I realized I processed her words, it was too late. “Yah, wha-what are you doing?” I said, trying to get up only to be pinned down by Tiffany, who was sitting on my legs.

“You have a nice butt,” she commented as she continued to rub it; it felt good, but I would never admit that to Tiffany.

“Stop it! I’m awake, ok?” I whined, struggling against Tiffany. Fortunately, Tiffany acquiesced and halted her actions, unmounting me. I breathed a sigh of relief, turning around and sitting up.

“As I said, it’s not my fault that you tempted me, your butt was just too cute to not be groped,” Tiffany said in a manner that suggested she felt completely justified in her reasoning.

“How is that even a good ex—” I started, turning around only to realize that she was still completely nude. I snapped my gaze to the side, feeling the tips of my ears reignite. “—excuse?”

“Well, if you were in my position, you’d understand,” she stated defensively, “You can grope me back if you want to.”

It was then that I understood Tiffany’s sentiment, if only a little; without warning, subconsciously, I pictured myself groping her and what it would feel like. It took me a few seconds to snap out of it, and when I did, I felt even more embarrassed than before.

“What? No, why … why are you this bold, anyway?”

Tiffany shuffled off the bed quietly, and I cursed at myself. Stupid Taeyeon. I didn’t even consider that this might be a sensitive topic. Why would I ask that? So much for a psychology minor.

“Hm, well I guess because your reactions are so cute,” she pondered, although I was relieved to hear her reply in the light-hearted tone she was sporting. “Do you mind? Are you bothered by it?”

That relief dissipated with her disheartened response. “No no, it’s not like that,” I said in rapid-fire.

“Oh, so you like it then?”

“I—what?”

Tiffany’s unexpectedly cheerful inquiry caught me off guard. Was she acting just then?

“Wash up and then I’ll take you to my favorite breakfast place,” she said, returning to her bubbly demeanor.

I sat on the bed dumbly, trying to process our conversation. So, she was just acting and wanted to draw that answer out from me? It wasn’t actually that I struck a sensitive topic? Or maybe she was actually hiding it? Aah, this is why I always told myself to avoid overthinking these kinds of situations…

“Taeyeon?”

I looked up at her to see her, thankfully, fully clothed, standing near the bedroom door, peering at me curiously. “Ok, yeah,” I said, climbing out of the bed, “Did you wash already?”

“Yeah; you can use anything you find in the bathroom,” she said, exiting the bedroom, “But if you want to use the vibrator, let me know first.”

“Ok, thank y—wait what?”

I froze after fully realizing what she said, regaining my senses a second later to rush out of the bedroom to see Tiffany happily skipping towards the living room.

“I’m just kidding TaeTae, you don’t have to let me know if you want to use it,” she said in a sing-song voice from the kitchen.

I silently walked to the bathroom, deciding not to grant her statement a response. I’ve only known her since the day prior, but Tiffany never failed to throw me off guard.

After I finished everything, something suddenly occurred to me. “Wait, what about work? Do you have a shift today?”

“Nope, I’m free today,” she replied, excitedly dragging me out of the apartment as soon as I stepped out of the bathroom.

During the elevator ride down, a thought came to me. How preoccupied must I have been these last two days to not even think about this? A subject matter like this was usually my primary concern; I wanted to inquire about it but also wanted to avoid any topic that might be sensitive. The wording only came to me as we stepped outside the building.

“Hey Tiffany, why do you feel this comfortable around me?”

“Hm,” Tiffany pondered, grabbing my hand, “I guess you seemed really sincere to me, and you’re also really cute.”

I seemed sincere? Really? Tiffany’s first impression of me was when that man—Lee JongSuk—was ‘flirting’ with me, with me being oblivious to the situation. Was I displaying ‘sincerity’ in that conversation?

A few minutes of walking later, we arrived at a rather homey restaurant. A waitress quickly arrived to greet us and sat us at a table. But, for some reason, Tiffany saw it necessary to sit on the same side of the booth as me.

“Do you want anything specific?” Tiffany said as she opened up the menu between us, “I’m buying this time.”

“Not really, you can order what you always do,” I said, trying not to mind Tiffany sitting so close that our legs were touching.

“Are you sure? What do you normally eat for breakfast?” she asked, turning her head to look at me.

“Um, it depends, I guess,” I replied, feeling slightly uneasy due to the small gap between our faces, “Mostly Korean food though.”

After briefly flipping through the menu, Tiffany got the waitress’s attention and ordered. “You know, I just thought of what I would have liked to have for breakfast today,” Tiffany said, reaching over the table to bring the plate laying across the table in front of her.

I had a bad feeling about this, but I entertained her anyway, “Oh, what is it?”

“Hm … on second thought, maybe not. I wanted to take you somewhere else today, so I can’t have you barely able to walk.”

“What?” I said, going over her words in my head, “Why would a meal affect my ability to walk?”

Tiffany giggled. “You’re so innocent, Taeyeon. It’s so cute,” she said, patting my thigh, “Maybe later, you’ll find out what I mean.”

No matter how much thought I gave it, I couldn’t pinpoint Tiffany’s thought process; a meal that incapacitates me? Why only me? Or maybe Tiffany didn’t mean ‘barely able to walk’ in the literal sense?

“Where are we going after this?” I tried, attempting to carefully create distance between Tiffany and me in such a manner that wouldn’t be detected.

“You’ll see,” she stated mysteriously.

It took only a few minutes more for the food to arrive: kimchee pancakes accompanied by a glass of milk tea. The plate contained two kimchee pancakes that were approximately 15 centimeters in diameter were prematurely sliced into eight neat, equal parts.