THAT THREE LETTERED WORD
Author: homunculus5390 (formerly known as homonculi5390)
Written: March 29, 2010
Copyright © 2010 by iel
All rights reserved.
Please do not sell or redistribute without permission.
CHAPTER 1
Summer flings. They’re short, sometimes unavoidable, but mostly a distortion of the truth. She knew that, but she wasn’t entirely sure if her friends knew better than to involve themselves in such a scandalous event. She hadn’t said anything about her lingering thoughts regarding their upcoming trip, but she guessed that her actions screamed of the matter more than she could actually permit to escape from her own mouth. Indeed, she was right.
“Taeng, you okay?”
The last-minute grocery shopping before a summer trip was supposed to be exciting and the adrenaline rush should have been enough to push her toward the aisles at the speed of light, allowing her to grab everything she could before dumping them into her cart. Sadly, the anxiety far outweighed every other emotion she could produce at the time. She nodded at the girl who asked about her state and let out a slight smile. Then both of them went on with their stroll over to the other side of the aisle.
“I wonder where the others are.”
She was wondering the same thing. While keeping her eyes open for her friends, a few thoughts started to run and the cold handles under her palms as she pushed the still empty cart was making her long for the beach and the warm, white sand, the swaying breeze and the water lapping at the shore. Unconsciously, she closed her eyes to image the breathtaking scene. Not too long after, she heard a crash.
“Woah! Taeng, what are you doing?!” “I’m sorry! I didn’t—”
“Owww…”
She quickly picked up the bags of chips and rolled the cart over to the side to avoid further inconveniencing the other shoppers. She bit her lip in regret and sighed.
“Fany, I’m sorry. Are you okay?” she said after dumping the bags of chips into the cart. Out went the familiar eye-smile. “Don’t worry TaeTae. I’m not hurting anywhere.”
She never could get enough of that charm-filled gesture and would always find herself clearing her throat, struggling to respond with what little words she was left with.
A raised eyebrow met the eye-smile. “You could’ve dodged it, you know?”
“Well, sorry Jessi. I don’t actually think about being rammed with a cart for every second that I’m conscious,” Tiffany scoffed.
Staring back and forth at the two, Taeyeon decided to let out a cough followed by a smile. “Guys, break it up. Let’s just get the shopping over with so we can all go home, okay? I know everyone’s tired from exams.”
Jessica let her folded arms fall to her sides and then patted Tiffany’s back. “I didn’t mean it like that, Tiff. It’s just that it could’ve been easily avoided, you know?”
“Yeah, but…” Tiffany shrugged. “Wait a minute! I’m the victim here! Why aren’t you getting mad at TaeTae instead?” She turned to their expressionless friend while pursing her lips.
Taeyeon gripped the edge of her shirt and nodded. “I’m really sorry. I promise to make it up to you. I’ll pay for your shopping, too. Is that okay?” she bargained, trying hard not to look away from Tiffany’s slightly watery eyes. She knew she caused that pain and that no amount of money could compensate for it, but she asked herself what else she could have done and immediately gave up the act of self-pity.
Out went another eye-smile with that matching rising of the shoulders. “Yey! That seems pretty fair.”
“How convenient.” Jessica shook her head as she turned to Taeyeon, widening her eyes to signal that her friend had just made an unreasonable offer. “Can you even pay for your own shopping, Taeng?”
“I haven’t bought anything yet, see?” Taeyeon pointed to the cart, which only contained Tiffany’s bags of chips. “Anyway, let’s just get going. I bet Yuri and the others are almost done.” She grabbed hold of the cart’s handles again and started walking. Tiffany and Jessica followed closely behind.
Aisle after aisle, row after row. The cart was filled up fast as Tiffany grabbed one of every product available on the shelves. Jessica was secretly rubbing her temples in worry while Taeyeon was left with no choice but to silently hope that her wallet would be able to take the blow.
“Danshin buddy!”
A familiar squeak came from behind the trio followed by a massive crashing of bodies as a few companions pulled them into a big hug, disturbing the other shoppers and then causing a ruckus.
“Ack! Sunny-ah!!” Taeyeon struggled, her hands still wrapped around the handles of the cart while her small frame was seized tighter by equally small arms.
The sudden outburst of laughter was inevitable after Jessica knocked over an entire stall of candy bars in an attempt to escape from a combined aegyo attack from her newly-arrived friends. She stood there dumbfounded as the other shoppers stared at her mess while some scowled at the juvenile behavior the group was exhibiting.
“Good thing this isn’t a break-it-you-buy-it section.”
A toothy grin became the sole response to the nosy shoppers who left after shaking their heads one last time at the troublesome group. Taeyeon sighed and finally got Sunny to let go of her while Tiffany turned away, covering her mouth to suppress the ongoing laughter.
“Hey princess, cheer up!” another smiling figure nudged Jessica to knock some sense into her. “Hello?”
“Yeah, yeah. I heard you, Hyo.” Jessica tucked her hair behind her ears, straightened her shirt and diverted her eyes from her friends’. “What?” she frowned after noticing that they were still staring her down.
Tiffany cleared her throat after no response was gained from the rest of the group other than that visibly childish toothy grin from the one who cleared up Jessica’s mess. She still felt like laughing and leaned closer to Taeyeon, letting the sides of their heads touch while she giggled, instead of covering her mouth.
“Kwon Yuri! Stop looking at me like that!” Jessica whined, stomping her feet. She almost knocked over another display.
Sunny and Hyoyeon giggled as Yuri continued to tease the angered Jessica with her mocking grin. Taeyeon had already forgotten about the situation the moment Tiffany started whispering a few held back laughs into her ear while trying not to let Jessica see.
“I said stop it!”
Yuri had just finished stacking the chocolate bars back on the shelf. “Why should I?”
“Ugh!” Jessica released a big breath and then stormed off past her friends, toward another aisle with her arms folded across her chest.
The giggling did not stop, but Yuri’s smile had turned crooked. She glanced at Taeyeon who then looked like she had no interest in the matter whatsoever. Yuri did not expect less. “I’ll see you guys later. I better run after her.”
They watched Yuri leave and then turned their attention back to each other with smiles plastered on their faces
“She’s obviously pissed. What’s the matter with her anyway?” Sunny said, making it obvious that she was pertaining to Jessica by lowering her voice. They all had a habit of being discreet when it came to the said friend due to their fears of facing her wrath or the most common case: a deadly glare.
Taeyeon began to push the cart with one hand while the other was in Tiffany’s grip. Fortunately for her, Tiffany chose relatively light snacks or else she would not have been able to move the cart as far as an inch. “Leave her alone for now. All of us know that she doesn’t respond well to jokes, right? Yuri was sorta pushing it if you ask me. I know she was only waiting for that ‘thank you’ from Jessica anyway.” She laughed.
“But are you sure she’s okay, TaeTae?” Sunny asked while poking Taeyeon’s back with two fingers, one from each hand.
“I’m the only one who’s allowed to call her that, Sunny-ah!” Tiffany pouted, turning her head slightly to face Sunny who was directly behind them.
“Careful. You might get shoved into a locker again, shorty.” Hyoyeon snickered after seeing another side of Tiffany’s, one that was almost identical to that of Jessica’s.
“That was in fourth grade!” Tiffany defended with a puff of air escaping her nose. “Why is everyone making me look like the bad guy? TaeTae…”
Taeyeon smiled to herself after she heard that distinct possessive tone come straight out of Tiffany’s mouth. Conversely, she frowned when she felt that Sunny was giving her a cheeky smile coupled with those bright eyes that always seemed to highlight her moments of ‘spazzing,’ for lack of a better term.
“Hmm… You don’t like sharing me, Ti-ppany?” Taeyeon added to the teasing in hopes of seeing Tiffany pout more. It was truly an enjoyable sight.
Gripping Taeyeon’s hand tighter, Tiffany began to take bigger steps forward, forcing Taeyeon to walk faster and push the cart harder in response. Sunny and Hyoyeon stared at each other in
amusement.
“I was just kidding!” Taeyeon explained as she struggled to keep the cart moving in a straight line. Tiffany did not look like she was listening. “Hey! Seriously, we’re going to bump into people if we keep going like this.” She turned to Tiffany and frowned. As a response, she instantly felt her fingers crack from the pressure. Ouch, she thought.
And then out went yet another eye-smile. “You can pay now, TaeTae. You’re in a hurry, right?”
They were already at the counter and Taeyeon took a few more seconds to realize it. She thought Tiffany was actually upset and she guessed that that was what clouded her mind. She sighed in relief.
“Uhh… People are staring,” Tiffany whispered.
Taeyeon grinned. “Don’t mind them. I’m sorry Fany-ah.”
They both unloaded the cart and Taeyeon actually felt like kneeling down and praising the gods for letting her have enough money in her wallet to pay for everything. There was bound to be a down side though, but she just couldn’t pin-point what it was exactly. They exited the grocery store.
“You didn’t buy anything?!” Sunny and Hyoyeon replied with widened eyes, almost in unison. The tallest laughed.
Taeyeon was holding all of Tiffany’s grocery bags and could only nod and smile to greet the rest of their friends. “Seohyun, mission accomplished?” she winked.
With a cute little salute and two grocery bags in her other hand, the youngest replied, “Yes unnie. We still have a lot of money left.”
“Hyunnie… Have mercy! Let me buy some dumplings,” a sulking figure begged. Seohyun smiled slightly. “Uh… Ahh… Yoona unnie, please don’t tug on my shirt.” “Aw, poor Yoong.” Tiffany pursed her lips. “Why won’t you let her eat, TaeTae?”
Taeyeon’s mouth flew open. “It wasn’t me! Yuri was the one who arranged all of this. That sadist!” The tallest grabbed hold of the bags Taeyeon was holding and quickly retreated to the other side of the street. “Thank you!”
“Sooyoung, you—” Taeyeon unlinked her arm from Tiffany’s and followed suit.
The rest of the group laughed as the two played tag. Yuri and Jessica had just emerged from inside the grocery store, hand-in-hand.
“What’s going on?” Yuri asked, scratching her head with her free hand. Yoona’s eyes lit up. “Unnie! Please let me eat!”
Jessica shook her head in annoyance as she turned to Yuri. This time, it looked like she was even angrier. “You idiot! I can understand not letting Sooyoung buy food, but why would you let Yoona suffer like this? This is no way to treat your juniors, you understand?”
Seohyun quietly handed Yuri the small pouch containing the remaining bills and then patted Yoona’s back to comfort her. “Are you sure this is okay, unnie?” she asked Yuri.
Yuri sighed. “Look, this is the club’s money. I’m risking a lot – expulsion, to be specific – just by bringing the money outside the school! We can’t possibly spend it all. And Yoong, stop overreacting. I know you at least had something to eat while we were gone. I can smell your breath.”
After a little whimper, Yoona straightened up and giggled. “I’m sorry, unnie. I was just joking.” “Good.” Yuri returned the smile and then shot Jessica an ‘I told you so’ glare. The latter didn’t seem too pleased and rolled her eyes.
From across the street, the rest of the group could still hear Taeyeon fighting for the grocery bags despite the huge discrepancy in height between her and Sooyoung. Everyone turned to Tiffany and silently teased her with their eyes.
Pretending not to notice the pairs of eyes glued to her, Tiffany sighed. “I think I better stop those two. TaeTae doesn’t stand a chance.”
She hurriedly crossed the street after seeing the other vehicles slow down to make way for her. She gave a wide smile and mouthed a ‘thank you.’ Taeyeon had already given up and was then leaning on a shop window while Sooyoung stuck her tongue out in victory.
“Sooyoungie~” Tiffany purred, trying to see if her charms worked on the tallest like they easily do on Taeyeon. “Please give the bags back.”
A smirk formed on Sooyoung’s face followed by a glare directed at Taeyeon. “See? This is what I’m talking about. You should ask politely, too, Taeyeon,” she said with that condescending tone.
“You used to call me unnie, you know?” Taeyeon stood up straight and finally got a hold of Tiffany’s bags again after Sooyoung handed them over.
“Sorry. It’s just that you’re way down there.” Sooyoung emphasized the distance between the top of her head and Taeyeon’s.
Tiffany pouted. “Sooyoung, don’t be like that.”
Sooyoung could feel her fingers and toes curling up. “Mmmnnn… That is just so—” she replied, barely having enough strength to finish the sentence. “You’re just too good!”
Tiffany didn’t hesitate to agree. “I know. Anyway, let’s get back to the others. It’s getting late.” She offered to carry the bags instead, but Taeyeon gently denied her the opportunity. “But—”
Taeyeon smiled. “No it’s okay, really.”
Just like that, she forgot about the disrespectful dongsaeng and found herself walking Tiffany home after bidding farewell to the rest of the group. She had always warned herself about having some form of temporary amnesia and considered it a joke until she realized that it was actually happening more and more often. How am I going to survive this summer? She thought.
“Which do you like better? The gummy worms or the gummy bears?”
“Both,” Taeyeon replied. They were already at Tiffany’s front porch and she was still holding on to the bags, not wanting to let go because doing so would mean goodbye. “Why?”
Tiffany tilted her head and then bit her lower lip. “Because I didn’t know which one to get awhile back. It’s a good thing I got both then. Come earlier to the station tomorrow, okay? Let’s eat them together.”
That was when the ‘down side’ reared its ugly head. Taeyeon would have agreed to the offer if it weren’t for the emptiness her wallet was experiencing. The only way to get to the station Tiffany was referring to was to take a bus or – as she dreaded now that she had no money left to spare – walking. She smiled nonetheless.
“I’ll try.”
“Aw, don’t be like that. Don’t try. Do.”
“You make it sound so easy. I still have to wake up early, you know? And then cook breakfast for mom and dad and clean and then take over oppa’s chores. Do I still have to go on with the long list?”
Tiffany laughed as she easily grabbed her grocery bags from Taeyeon’s clutches. “Well, that’s your fault, isn’t it? You’re the one who agreed to their conditions just so you could go to the beach with us. Or are you regretting that decision now?” she finished with a pout.
“No, no. It’s not that!” went the immediate denial. Taeyeon frantically waved her hands in front of her to show that she didn’t mean to sound like she was regretting.
“I’m kidding. You’re so jumpy today!” Tiffany lightly poked Taeyeon’s forehead. “Silly.”
The streetlights had just lit up. One by one, they filled the neighborhood streets and left the two girls in partial brightness with their shadows stretching behind them, side by side. Other than the loss of the grocery bags, Taeyeon knew of another signal for goodbye.
“I better get going. It’s gonna get darker soon. I’ll see you tomorrow. Good night.” “Don’t push yourself.”
“Sorry?” Taeyeon leaned closer with her ears perked to try and catch what Tiffany had just said. “I said good night.”
With one last charm-filled eye-smile from Tiffany to last her the night, Taeyeon settled for the abrupt goodbye. It took her quite long to realize that she was waiting at the bus stop for nothing when she pulled her wallet out to get some bills and found that there weren’t any. There it was again: some kind of temporary amnesia. She no longer found it funny and was then considering visiting a doctor. What the
hell is happening? She thought as she started walking.
Summer. It had already begun and just as she thought, her friends had noticed her bizarre behavior. She thought back to what they said before they parted ways, and though they made it sound like they were joking, they were obviously directing all the pressure on her.
“Why are you even worrying about this, Taeng? There are tons of other people out there.” “Yeah, danshin buddy. We’re not sure if… you know… you and HER should…”
CHAPTER 2
She rushed out the front door with two duffel bags, their straps draping over her shoulders. The dry air greeted her milky white skin and before she knew it, she was already sweating. She couldn't care less. The gummy bears and the gummy worms were calling out to her, but more importantly, she needed that eye-smile. "Hwaiting, hwaiting, hwaiting!" she muttered after every intake of air.
The beads of sweat trickled down from her forehead down to her cheeks and then finally traced her chin before landing on the warm concrete ground. "Where is she?" she whispered as she adjusted the bag straps on her shoulders and continued to peruse the station where quite a number of people had already gathered.
"TaeTae—”
She quickly spun around and smiled, interrupting the other girl's sentence. A drop of sweat sank into one of her dimples as her smile got bigger the closer the other girl got to her.
"You really did come early!"
"Of course. Ya got the goods?" Taeyeon raised an eyebrow and smirked, imitating a gangster from one of those classic mafia movies.
Tiffany laughed and then cleared her throat. "Yeh. You got the dough?" she played along, adding the accent and pretending to chew on an imaginary tobacco stick.
“I ain't gots ‘em. Are you gonna arrest me, copper?" Taeyeon continued with the role-play, not minding the sweat that continued to build up on her forehead and the back of her neck.
Tiffany laughed again. "Okay. That isn't the right line. But whatever.” She took out a
small handkerchief from inside her shorts’ pocket and dabbed Taeyeon's cheeks with it. “Want those gummy bears now?”
"Yey, gummy treats!" Taeyeon cheered. The passers-by could have mistaken her for an
elementary school kid instead of a high-schooler getting ready for college entrance exams. That seemed to be the permanent first impression of her.
"Here we go." Tiffany ripped the pack open with ease and quickly popped one bear inside Taeyeon's mouth.
"Urrmm..." went the surprised gasp. The sweet, slightly fruity taste filled her mouth as she happily chewed after getting over the surprise feeding attack from Tiffany.
"This is really sad," Tiffany said after swallowing her first bear. She peered into the pack of sweet treats and pouted.
"Why?" Taeyeon asked after she got two more bears and bit their heads off. She seemed to be enjoying herself.
"There are no pink gummy bears. I wonder why. Every other color is in here. Even brown! Who in their right mind would make cola-flavored things anyway?”
Taeyeon got one brown gummy bear and bit its head off like she did with the previous two and then held the headless treat in front of Tiffany’s mouth. “They taste good. Try one.”
With a slight frown, Tiffany stuck her tongue out to lick the cola-flavored, headless bear because she only wanted to make sure that it tasted okay. She didn’t want it inside her mouth and then later on realize that it tasted awful. After all, she had the idea that cola was only for drinking, never chewing.
“Does it taste okay?” Taeyeon asked after Tiffany finished her first lick. Tiffany shrugged and then leaned closer to taste more of the treat. Taeyeon’s eyes widened as she pulled her hand back. “Omo! You just licked my finger!”
“N-no I didn’t!” Tiffany shook her head. “Bleh! The brown ones taste awful!” She quickly did a follow-up to divert the conversation.
Taeyeon popped the rejected, headless, cola-flavored bear inside her mouth and let it roam inside to savor the sugar and then quickly chewed before swallowing. “They taste okay to me.”
“Well, I don’t get why they would put brown bears in here and not cute little pink ones.” Tiffany peered inside the pack again and upon not seeing even the tiniest shred of pink, she handed it to Taeyeon. “Finish the rest so I can open the gummy worms next.”
A mischievous smirk suddenly formed on Taeyeon’s face. “I want you to feed me to make up for dirtying my finger,” she smugly proposed, pushing her luck.
“Fine,” went the reply.
She didn’t mean to be perverted, but in her head, mentioning the word ‘finger’ had her feeling quite giddy. Regardless, it felt good having Tiffany press the soft treats against her lips before gobbling them up. The smell of Tiffany’s lotion, which spread even to the tips of her nails, entered Taeyeon’s nose just before she could open her mouth to accept the treat. Consuming the formless strawberry-like aroma would have been better, she thought for a second or two. Indeed, her thoughts had gone past just mentioning the word ‘finger.’
“Okay, gummy worms next!” Tiffany hurriedly grabbed the pack from one of her bags and opened it. “Do I still have to feed you these?” she asked Taeyeon, who looked like she was lost in some kind of trance with her eyes wide open. Blinking seemed to be impossible, too.
“Fany-ah, I’m sorry.” “Eh? For what?”
“No, I mean… I’m sorry.”
She felt guilty about thinking of – no, wanting – to violate the girl sitting right next to her, but it seemed to be inevitable. The way Tiffany’s eyes would close in on hers always catches her off guard, making her look away against her will. And every time they touch… Some say it’s normal, but who would dare trust a bunch of high school girls with such a sensitive topic, much less her oblivious friends? Not Taeyeon. That was for sure.
“You’ve been acting really strange. Why don’t you tell me about it?”
No way, Taeyeon replied in her thoughts. She smiled and took one gummy worm. “Here, I’ll feed
you instead to make up for my spacing out.” “Ehh! Seriously! Tell me!”
Taeyeon shrugged Tiffany’s request off. “Saaaay ahhh!!” she dangled the elongated treat against Tiffany’s lip. “It really wants to enter, Fany-ah,” she teased with a grin. There it was again. If it wasn’t
temporary amnesia then it would be her sex drive screaming inside her head. No matter what the result, it would always be because of this eye-smiling girl.
Those pinkish, soft lips parted and welcomed the gummy treat. “There are no pink gummy worms either, huh?” Tiffany muttered while she chewed.
Taeyeon grabbed the pack of gummy worms from Tiffany’s hand and fed herself a piece as well. “Yeah. I don’t think there are any. There are these reddish… uhhh… orange-ish ones though,” she said to try to appease Tiffany.
“Never mind. We shouldn’t be worrying about kid stuff like this,” Tiffany replied after she swallowed.
The bullet trains settled themselves on the tracks, opened their doors to let the passengers alight and then accepted new ones before closing them again. Tiffany checked her watch and part of her regretted coming so early, but a bigger part was telling her she made the right decision when she saw the pack of gummy worms slowly being emptied by none other than her childish, dorky friend.
“Leave one for me, will ya?” she pinched Taeyeon’s arm.
“Aigoo!” went the muffled scream as Taeyeon bit down hard on her lip to suppress the pain. “I wasn’t going to eat everything! Of course I would leave you some.”
Tiffany giggled and flashed an apologetic smile. “Sorry. Please don’t get mad.”
Taeyeon wasn’t mad. That pinch was more of a wake-up call from the rest of her fantasies rather than an annoying, friendly gesture. She ought to have thanked Tiffany. And she was about to when two familiar figures approached them.
“Good morning!” the youngest greeted them, wiping beads of sweat off of her neck with the back of her hand. Sooyoung, the tallest among the group, smiled and yawned.
“Where are the others?” Taeyeon asked right after feeding Tiffany another gummy worm.
Seohyun settled her bags against the legs of the bench that Taeyeon and Tiffany were sitting on and then rubbed her shoulders. She was guessing that they had turned red after taking the full weight of her possessions. “I dropped by Yoona unnie’s house, but her mom said she had already left. I thought she was already here. I ran into Sooyoung unnie and she was told the same thing. I wonder where Yoona unnie could be.”
Sooyoung asked Taeyeon to scoot on over so she could sit down. Her morning jog had turned into her worst experience with physical activity to date. If it wasn’t for their trip then she would have
settled for waking up late and stuffing her face whenever she felt like it. Unfortunately, being a teenage girl had her worrying about her self-image and thus, the workouts.
“Do you guys have some water or something?” she asked.
Taeyeon shook her head and so did Tiffany. Seohyun was already rummaging through her bag for the tumbler she packed. “Here you go, unnie.”
Sooyoung hurriedly gulped the contents down and let out a big breath afterwards. “Ah! That’s the spot! Thanks, Seohyun.”
“Would you like something to eat, too, unnie?”
There was a bit of hesitation. “You’re just too good to be true, kid.”
Taeyeon and Tiffany finished the gummy worms while Sooyoung ended up not eating anything after seeing Seohyun’s vegetable-filled lunch box. She wanted to go for the sweet potatoes, but remembered her sense of shame when she realized that the youngest loved them entirely with her precious little heart.
Tiffany turned to Taeyeon to break the silence. “Wanna check out the train route?” “S-sure.”
They both stood up and walked over to the glass display a few meters from the bench they were sitting on. The stretched map stood before them, sporting countless lines, dots, and curves. If they didn’t know any better, they would have mistaken it for a big coloring book.
“Where do we get off anyway?” Taeyeon asked while tracing one of the curves with her fingers. Tiffany was tracing a line as well. “I have no idea.”
“Then what are we doing here?”
Tiffany laughed. “I don’t know. I just thought it would be easy to figure out. I guess I was wrong.” “Silly dork.”
“What did you say?!”
Tiffany pushed Taeyeon hard and frowned, pretending to be mad. Taeyeon knew better than to fall for it and just laughed it off.
“Hey, why don’t you start from this dot?” Taeyeon pointed to a red spot near the edge of the map. “And then I’ll start from this blue dot. Let’s see who gets to the yellow dot first!”
Tiffany was about to raise an eyebrow as a response to the childish game, but found herself already placing her finger on the red dot Taeyeon mentioned. “Are there any pink dots here?” She went for a last-minute scan.
“You’re such a kid! Always looking for your favorite color in everything! I’m actually surprised that you aren’t wearing pink today!”
“Me? What about you and tracing lines?! You’re the kiddie one here and you even look like it! And I’m wearing white today because I was…”
Tiffany had already shut her mouth tight before the next word could make it out. “Was what?”
“Nothing.”
Trying hard not to laugh, Taeyeon guessed. “You’re saving all of your pink shirts for the rest of our week at the beach, aren’t you?”
“Yah! Let’s just get this game over with, you silly kid!”
Taeyeon was already half-way through the curve she was tracing and so was Tiffany. She took the last statement as a compliment and, as usual, just took it in. It came from Tiffany after all.
“I’m gonna get there before you!” Tiffany smugly declared. She had quickly gotten her mind off the ‘kid’ talk and, instead, set her eyes on the yellow dot.
“Nuh-uh!”
Both of them hurriedly let their fingers glide on the glass to reach their goal like their very lives depended on it. Indeed, the two appeared to be like playground buddies competing for a spot in the sandbox.
“Yeah!! Getting closer!” Taeyeon yelled in excitement as she eyed the last loop she had to trace to get to the yellow dot.
“No way! Me first!” “Nooooo!!” “Yaaaah!”
Peace returned to the corner of the train station as the two girls finished their game. They had tears in their eyes and dirt stuck to their fingers. They left the glass display to make way for those who had arrived to check it.
Taeyeon wiped her dirty finger with her shirt. Tiffany was wiping hers on her shorts, being careful not to let anything land on her white shirt. “You okay?”
Tiffany nodded and let the lone tear fall to the ground. “You?” “Of course.”
They both laughed at their admittedly childish behavior and made their way back to their friends. For some unknown reason or a random calculation of fate that resulted to coincidence, neither of the
routes they decided to trace led to the yellow dot and, instead, the tips of their fingers crashed into one another just as they were exerting full force to reach the finish line. Ouch, Taeyeon thought again like the previous day when Tiffany squeezed her hand. This time, Tiffany’s nail had caused a small gap to appear on the surface of her skin.
It was useless to hide the reddish wound and Jessica had made it even more obvious. “What happened to your finger?”
“Just a little accident,” Taeyeon replied with a smile. “So is everyone here?”
After checking the scene, it appeared that Sunny, Hyoyeon and Jessica were the only ones who had recently arrived while Yoona and Yuri were still missing. Taeyeon heard a little whimper from behind her.
“Sica…”
Everyone turned their attention to where the sounds were coming from. “Yuri?” Tiffany asked. She seemed to be talking to a stack of bags with legs rather than a person carrying bags.
Sunny giggled. “Poor, poor kid.”
“Here, let me help.” Hyoyeon stepped forward to assist Yuri with the bags she was carrying. She carefully took the one on top of the stack and settled it on the ground. Then she took one more, revealing a sweaty Yuri.
“Th-thank you.” Yuri finally had the chance to gasp for air.
Mouths had already opened, ready to react to Yuri and her predicament, but before a sound could emerge, the speakers crackled and out went an announcer’s voice. The group titled their heads upwards as if watching a meteor shower, while listening to every word that came out of the little box.
“… That is all. Have a nice day.”
Every head popped back down after those last four words. “Where’s Yoona?” Taeyeon asked as she took her duffel bags and hung the straps over her shoulder. Everyone’s eyes were on Yuri again.
“What?” Yuri’s eyebrows shot upward. “She said she’s on her way!”
Almost everyone shrugged and went off to prepare their things, following Taeyeon’s example, except Jessica who already had Yuri handling her luggage with Hyoyeon’s help.
“Yoong’s late because of you, isn’t she?” Jessica stared at Yuri with her arms crossed on her chest. Her friends secretly worried about her obvious mood swings.
“Me? No!”
“I didn’t!”
Another train had passed by, left its passengers and then took in new ones before it departed. The swift woosh barely passed through the girls’ ears while they listened to the two argue. Seohyun couldn’t stand the bickering and so she resorted to eating some of her vegetables to calm herself down. Her unnies stood by with only their eyes moving from Jessica to Yuri, and back.
“I swear I didn’t ask her to do it!”
“Wait, wait. Is this about the club’s money?” Sooyoung waved a hand in between the two to call for their attention. “She seriously went to school for that?”
Yuri shook her head. “I don’t know. What are you talking about?”
“You said you were risking being expelled, babo! Do you think she would let that happen? I told you to treat your juniors better, remember? You know how much that kid admires you,” Jessica spoke up, her eyes flaring. Whether because of anger or concern, no one knew for sure.
Taeyeon slipped her hand – the one that didn’t have the injured finger – into Tiffany’s and, without a word, brought the latter closer to the edge of the platform where newly-arrived commuters were still gathered. She sighed.
“We haven’t even left yet and I’m already tired,” she said.
“You always worry about others, don’t you? That’s why you always feel that you’re tired!” Tiffany loosened her grip on Taeyeon’s hand and then tightened it again. “So let me take your blood pressure, TaeTae,” she chirped.
Taeyeon stared at her hand being squeezed and then let go, squeezed and then let go, squeezed and then let go. The process seemed endless. “What are you doing?”
“Uh, haven’t you heard of sphygmomanometers? That thing they use to take people’s blood pressures, I mean. You know… the one with that soft, oval thing that you squeeze, like you’re pumping something?”
The what? Taeyeon pondered in her thoughts. It was during times like these that she wished
Tiffany would stick to acting ‘normal’ instead of pulling out random tricks out of her hat. ‘Normal’ Tiffany already had her awww-ing in her head, but ‘random’ Tiffany would always leave her blanking out, wondering how to contain her happiness. Either way, she realized she didn’t have the heart to complain.
Tiffany giggled and stopped ‘taking Taeyeon’s blood pressure’ after she saw that slightly confused look on Taeyeon’s face. “Never mind. I was just trying to cheer you up.” Her hand firmly fit in Taeyeon’s again, their fingers intertwined.
After a giggle of her own, Taeyeon smiled. “So how’s my blood pressure Doctor Hwang?” “Your eyes say you’re fine.”
They experienced minor tremors while standing so close to the edge of the platform as the train approached. The doors opened and both of them stepped aside to make way for those who were about to get off. From the corners of their eyes, they could already see their friends getting ready to board. Once inside, they occupied two rows.
“Beach here we come!” Sunny sang, clutching her backpack to her chest as it rested on her thighs.
Taeyeon’s eyes widened. “Wait! Where’s Yoona?!” “Unnie!”
A cheerful face greeted Taeyeon and out came laughter from the rest of the group. A sigh of relief escaped Taeyeon next. “What happened to you?” she asked.
Yuri hadn’t stopped laughing. The whole vehicle was filled with her joy. “Whew. Taeng, that look on your face was—” out came another big laugh.
“I’m sorry I was late, unnie. I just had to get the money back to the club room so Yuri unnie wouldn’t get in trouble. I hope I didn’t worry you too much,” Yoona answered Taeyeon’s question despite Yuri’s unstoppable expression of amusement.
Taeyeon quickly glanced at Jessica and was unconsciously showing off a ‘So you were right’ look. Luckily, Jessica looked like she had already drifted to sleep on Hyoyeon’s shoulder or else Taeyeon would have received a smug smirk in return.
Stop after stop, the passengers increased and the group of friends had to squeeze themselves together as well as pull their bags closer to avoid potential theft. The variety of expressions on their faces could have been worthy of a hall of fame.
Jessica was indeed asleep. Hyoyeon was biting down on her lower lip and bobbing her head to the beat of what she and Sunny were listening to on her iPod. Yoona, unlike Sooyoung, had no shame and so invaded the rest of Seohyun’s vegetable-filled lunch box. Afterwards, she talked to Seohyun about
how delicious everything was while chewing. Sooyoung and Yuri were thumb-wrestling to decide who would treat who to ice cream. Taeyeon was refereeing.
“Gee, I’m so excited!” Tiffany couldn’t help but twist in her seat every time she looked out the window to check where they were.
“I am, too,” Yuri reacted, her eyes glued to Sooyoung’s thumb, which swayed back and forth as if to taunt. “Too bad we can’t tease Taeng about it. I really thought she wouldn’t be able to come today.”
Sooyoung had just made an attempt to pin Yuri’s thumb down. The latter made a quick escape. “Aish! Hm, anyway, how were those chores? You must be pretty tired, Taeyeon.”
Taking the refereeing task seriously, Taeyeon called for a foul. “Yuri wins.” “What? Why?!” Sooyoung scowled.
“Because you insulted the referee and didn’t call her ‘unnie.’” “That’s so unfair!”
“You asked me to referee so here I am fulfilling my rightful duty.” Taeyeon stuck half her tongue out, obviously wanting to get back at her dongsaeng.
Yuri was resisting bursting into laughter again while Tiffany looked serious – a sudden shift from her excited self. The latter turned to Taeyeon. “I didn’t realize that you felt tired because of chores. I’m so sorry. It totally slipped my mind. Are you okay?” After recalling her ‘blood pressure’ act, she felt stupid for not being aware of how Taeyeon was really feeling.
Taeyeon turned away from Tiffany. She couldn’t bear those worried eyes. “About that…” “Meh. I bet she didn’t have to do anything,” Sooyoung interrupted, cleverly getting Taeyeon back again for declaring her the thumb-wrestling loser.
With a bit of hesitation, Taeyeon nodded. “Apparently, mom and dad really have fun messing with me so don’t look so worried, Fany-ah.”
“Yah! Silly dork!”
CHAPTER 3
Finally. Whistling breezes, shuffling sands, and whispering waves. The only complaint the group of friends had was the scorching sun, which seemed to burn more than Jessica’s temper.
Looking like a pile of luggage with legs again, Yuri followed. Before taking another step, she turned to Hyoyeon one last time and mouthed ‘help,’ but only got two thumbs-up in return. She felt that it meant either ‘you can do it!’ or ‘hope to see you in the afterlife.’
Sunny had already set up a beach blanket on the sand and placed it under the big umbrella Yoona put up. “Can you move it a little to the right, Yoong?”
“Okay, unnie,” Yoona promptly responded. She started pulling the umbrella’s stem out of the hole in the ground that she had just filled. The tight grip of the warm sand kept her from taking it out with one hard pull. “Ayiii!”
“Need some help, unnie?” “Oh thanks, Hyunnie.”
Seohyun grabbed the upper part of the umbrella’s stem while Yoona had both hands on the lower portion. “On three, okay unnie?” the youngest said.
“Sure.”
“One, two… three!”
Stomachs sucked in and teeth clenched, the two did their best to keep their sweaty palms from slipping against the plastic stem as they pulled. The sand seemed to be sucking the stem in the more the two exerted effort.
“U-Unnie! Maybe we should ask for help.”
“From who? From Sunny unnie?” Yoona cleared her dry throat and pointed at Sunny who was already trying to comfortably lie on her blanket, half of her being hit by the sun and the other half being kept safe by the umbrella. “I doubt that she’s even listening to us struggle here.”
“What was that Yoong?” Sunny quickly replied, proving Yoona wrong. “Nothing, unnie.”
After countless attempts, the umbrella remained in the same position. Yoona was starting to get dizzy from the heat and Seohyun had already let go of the plastic stem to wipe her palms with her shirt.
“Step back, Hyunnie. I’m going to pull it out! No mercy this time!” Yoona cheered, her fist shooting up in the air.
Seohyun giggled. “Go, go Yoona unnie!” “Okay! Here I go! Hwaiting!!”
Sunny silently laughed at her dongsaeng who sounded like the typical anime series protagonist. She rolled on her side to escape from the sun’s rays. “You done yet, Super Yoong?”
“Ngggh!! Al-most the-re… Yaaaaah!!”
The umbrella shut by itself and went flying right out of the loosened hole in the sand. Of course, it took Super Yoong with it.
“Aaaah, dammit…” “Unnie, you okay?”
Yoona rubbed her forehead, which turned red after the collision with the umbrella. She struggled to get up when she found herself touching something soft. “Hyu-Hyunnie?”
“Yes unnie?” “Yaaah!”
Yoona scrambled to get up and extended her arm toward Seohyun who was lying flat on the sand with a slight smile. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to touch it! I’m sorry!”
The younger took her unnie’s hand and kept her smile as she was pulled up. “No worries unnie. It’s okay.”
“Are you…” Yoona let go of Seohyun’s hand and stared at the ground, realizing that other than Seohyun’s hand, she had just touched something ‘off-limits.’ “Did it hurt?” she asked, the guilt taking over her.
Seohyun shook her head. “Not at all. My arm will be okay. Please don’t worry anymore.”
Arm? Yoona saw the thought fly right past her eyes. “Ah. Good, good.” She let out a chuckle. “Uh,
you wanna go to the lodge now? Our things might melt out here.” “Oka—”
“Umbrella please, Yoong!”
Yoona sighed. “Just give me a second, all right?” she gave Seohyun a little wink before taking the umbrella and turning her attention back to Sunny.
“Hi guys!”
The plastic stem had just started penetrating the surface of the sand. Yoona let go of it and got ready to run. “Hello unnies! Please take care of the umbrella. Bye!”
“Hey wai—Woah!”
Taeyeon and Tiffany had just finished wading through the shallow part of the beach. Neither one expected to be nearly crushed by the big umbrella. “Fany, were you hit?”
Taeyeon ruffled Tiffany’s hair. “Too close if you ask me. I wonder what those kids are up to.” She barely saw her dongsaengs’ faces before they turned and ran with their bags held to their chests.
“Maybe they needed to pee.” Tiffany stroked her chin while Taeyeon fixed her hair after messing it up.
Both of them wouldn’t go in at the same time, would they? Taeyeon thought. “Pee?”
“Yes. Pee.”
A sudden movement caused the two to suspend their conversation. “Uh, guys? Hello?”
The umbrella was slowly moving forward. Taeyeon pulled Tiffany away from it and stretched her arms to her sides, blocking Tiffany from whatever it was that was coming for them. “Wait. Sunny?”
“Duh! Of course it’s me! Get this thing off of me!!”
Rather than being worried, the two responded with loud laughter. It took them awhile, but they managed to get the umbrella to stand firmly on the sand, this time in the right angle and just as Sunny wanted it to slant. It was too bad that by that time there was no need for it anymore.
“Oh the sunset! Let’s go watch it up close guys!” Tiffany proposed, already tugging on Taeyeon’s shirt while poking Sunny’s leg with her foot.
The whistling breezes were now seemingly howling at the palm trees that surrounded them. The shuffling sands were moving faster than the waves, like they wanted to spread farther out into the sea to bury the salty water and the whispering waves were, in defense, lapping at the shore to drench the sand to halt its movement. The scorching sun was slowly being reduced to a harmless orange orb, hiding behind the mountains perhaps to regain its illustrious glow to again reveal another tomorrow.
“You coming, danshin?” Taeyeon asked. Sunny was silent. “Sunny-ah~” Tiffany added.
“Don’t mind me, other danshin. You go on ahead.”
Taeyeon kicked a pile of sand onto Sunny’s beach blanket in a joking response. “See you at the lodge later then.”
Hand-in-hand like always, Taeyeon and Tiffany hurried to the shore where the sands were obviously losing to the tides. The experience wasn’t as breathtaking as Tiffany imagined. Instead, her inhales were cut short after every splash that hit her face.
“Dammit…” she started muttering. She tugged on Taeyeon’s hand to signal that she wanted to leave for another spot.
Taeyeon heard clearly and giggled. “I’ll handle it,” she whispered. She squatted, letting the water reach slightly higher than her ankles. “Hi kids!”
“Hi ahjumma!!”
The response was almost instant. Taeyeon kept her smile. “Uhm… You know, it’s not nice to splash other people with water. It’s not—”
A fresh batch of seawater drenched her eyes, but that smile was still plastered on her face, unfazed and unfaltering. The midgets, as Tiffany would call them, were obviously not listening to Taeyeon’s words of wisdom.
“Let’s go TaeTae. The sunset’s gonna end soon. I really wanna watch it in peace,” she emphasized, her eyes widening, directed at the midgets who caused her blood to boil.
“Ahjumma! Ahjumma! Your eyes are weird!” said one boy who was floating around clad in a flotation vest. The smaller girl next to him was trying to hold onto him for support. “Oppa!!”
“I said let’s go,” Tiffany repeated, trying to ignore the fuss the midgets were causing. Taeyeon pulled her back and smiled to signal that she should squat as well to try to get along with the troublesome bunch.
The oldest among the three midgets paddled his way toward Taeyeon and nodded while stroking his chin. “Hmmm… I think the other ahjumma is prettier.” His eyes snaked their way toward Tiffany.
“WHAT?!” came the immediate response from Tiffany.
Taeyeon laughed with her mouth wide open and her eyes almost getting teary. “You have good taste little guy.” She did a thumbs-up. The other two surprisingly calmed down and started listening in on the conversation. “How old are you anyway?” Taeyeon added while patting the oldest midget’s head.
“Oooh! He’s this!” the youngest held out her hand and waved all five fingers in front of Taeyeon’s face and tried to count them. “Uhm… One, two, th-th-thwee? Errr…”
The waves began to crawl farther, conquering the sand’s front lines and invading part of Taeyeon’s pants’ legs even after she rolled the edges up. Tiffany nudged her to get up, but she quietly whispered that it was okay. “Three, four, five!” she pinched the youngest midget’s remaining fingers to finish the count-off.
“Th-th-thweeee, f-fouuuwr, fa-fa-fwive!”
“Thweeee—” “Three!” “Fany.” “What?!”
Taeyeon leaned closer to Tiffany’s ear and said in her most hushed tone, “They’re kids. Relax.”
While Taeyeon and Tiffany were discussing within their cone of silence, the youngest midget busied herself with trying to pronounce the numbers right and getting the flotation vest midget to check if she was doing it correctly. The oldest was carefully eyeing Tiffany’s expression, which changed after Taeyeon had leaned closer to her ear.
“So you’re five years old now, huh?” Tiffany turned to the oldest of the three, taking Taeyeon’s advice about being calm and friendly.
The oldest scratched his head. “Ahjumma, you remind me of someone.”
‘I am going to strangle this little twerp’ was written all over Tiffany’s face, but she managed to muster a smile. “Really? Who?”
Taeyeon lent one ear to the main conversation and kept the other occupied with the youngest midget’s speech practice. She found it cute.
“Our big brother’s friend,” the oldest answered. “She’s really pretty, too, and her eyes go like this,” he squinted to copy Tiffany’s eye-smile, “but that’s only when my brother says ‘I love you.’ Pretty cool, right?”
Tiffany found herself laughing. Maybe kids aren’t that bad, she thought. “Yes. It’s pretty cool. Your brother must be really happy to have a friend like that.”
“Oh he is! So how about making me happy by being my friend?”
The flotation vest midget interrupted as he paddled back to where Tiffany and Taeyeon were with a gleam in his eyes as he got closer to Tiffany. He left the youngest midget a few meters away, the latter talking to herself about having her tongue fixed. She told herself that it probably got broken when the stork dropped her off at her parents’ house.
“Butt out, man!” the oldest splashed water on the flotation vest midget. “I saw her first!” “Yeah but I called dibs! The power of dibs means it’s final! She’s mine!”
Taeyeon got both of her ears back and stood up to hold both boys apart in hopes of keeping them from hitting each other. “Hey! Hey! Calm down kids!”
Meanwhile, flattered Tiffany stood up to get the youngest midget who was floating farther and farther away the longer she tried to say ‘three’ properly.
“Three,” Tiffany slowly uttered for the youngest to copy. “Got it?” The youngest let out a little breath. “Thwee.”
“Th—Oh never mind. You’ll get it someday, okay?” “Mnnnn… Okay!” went a gummy smile.
Tiffany waded through the already forceful waves with the youngest in her arms. She stumbled upon Taeyeon desperately trying to keep the two boys from tearing each other apart, though they appeared harmless with their soft fists and little battle cries.
“Help me!” Taeyeon called out.
Tiffany gently put the youngest down and told her to stay still while she attended to some business. The youngest obediently followed.
“Mine!”
“As if! I’m cooler than you! She’s mine!”
The situation had gotten out of hand. With less than an hour spent with Tiffany, the two boys believed with all of their might that she was theirs. No one could blame them for processing that way when all they could base their actions on was how their favorite cartoon characters reacted after setting eyes on the first girl that passed by. If reality permitted it, the two young boys would have had big, red hearts popping out of their eyes right about then, just like how it happens on TV.
“Settle down kids. This ahjumma doesn’t like noisy little boys.” Tiffany tried to charm her way to victory. How hard could it be? She proudly thought.
The two shut their mouths, but kept staring at each other with expressions that screamed ‘She’s mine!’ more than their actual words. Taeyeon was beginning to lose her patience and the unfazed smile was sinking just like the sun. She finally let go of the two boys and relaxed her arms.
“Noona.” the oldest faced Tiffany with his arms firmly placed on his sides like a soldier. “Awww… You finally called me ‘noona.’ Thank—”
Tiffany’s celebration was cut short when the older added, “You have to choose. It’s between me or him so please take your time and think about it.”
Taken aback by the sudden proposal, Tiffany glanced at Taeyeon to get an opinion. The latter merely shrugged. She turned her attention back to the boys and bit her lip, realizing that it wasn’t as simple as she thought. “You’re both very cute but I really can’t choose.”
“You have to!” the older clenched his fists. “Just tell him that it’s me to make it simple!” “No fair! You can’t choose for her!” the other argued, ready to pounce on his rival.
Tiffany was at a loss for words. Handling kids had never been easy for her and this time it was a bit more complicated. “I really can’t—”
“Oppas!!”
All heads turned to one direction after a shrill cry. Taeyeon was somehow relieved. She pointed at the direction of the youngest midget who was standing by a couple who had their arms around one another. “Looks like your parents are here.”
“Noona! Please choose before mom and dad drag us out of here!” the flotation vest midget
pleaded, his cheeks rounded as he pouted.
“But—“
“Me.” “TaeTae?”
Taeyeon easily slipped her arm around Tiffany’s waist and pulled her close. “She chooses me, okay? So just get outta here before I tell your mom and dad that you’ve been really bad!”
Tiffany was silent. She smiled to play along with Taeyeon’s idea and noticed the two boys’ shoulders fall in defeat.
“Noona plus ahjumma?” the oldest turned to the flotation vest midget and tilted his head. “Is that normal?”
The latter shrugged and then examined the ‘couple.’ “Take care of our noona, okay ahjumma?” Taeyeon’s arm moved up from Tiffany’s waist and up to around the latter’s neck. “Sure.”
The oldest of the three midgets didn’t seem to be as happy as his younger brother. “Just wait and see! I’ll get more advice from our big brother and I’ll steal her away from you for sure!” he pointed at Taeyeon, his confidence brimming.
Being the ‘little big kid’ that she was, Taeyeon stuck her tongue out and held Tiffany closer, leaving no space between them. “I’d like to see you try! I’m never going to let go of this noona, you understand?”
“Oppas!!” went another call from the youngest. The two brothers took one last look at their first summer crush and secretly thought about having their arms around her, too, but after being rendered unable to reply to Taeyeon’s taunting, they retreated to the care of their parents.
From the spot where the two boys had their ‘fight for love,’ their smaller foot prints, which led to one direction, were slowly disappearing from the surface of the sand while two sets of slightly bigger foot
prints continued to stretch toward the opposite direction. It wasn’t just their feet. Their palms left a few marks of their own.
“Let go for a sec. My palms are sweaty.” “That’s fine. Mine are sweaty, too.” “Fine. If you say so… Uhm, Fany?” “Yes?”
“Sorry you didn’t get to see the sunset.”
Out went an eye-smile. Despite the dim surroundings, Taeyeon got a good glimpse. “If I hadn’t insisted on talking to those kids then we could’ve found a better spot to watch it from. I feel bad,” she confessed.
With her palm sliding slightly against Taeyeon’s, Tiffany shook her head. “Don’t feel bad. I actually had fun. It felt nice to hang around noisy little twerps. They’re like huge energy balls!”
Taeyeon turned her head to the side and mumbled, “Energy balls with freaking wild imaginations.”
“You have a pretty wild imagination, too.” Tiffany chuckled as they started walking again, making more foot prints. “Saying I choose you and stuff. Pffft! As if…”
“I just said that to get you out of that mess! You oughtta thank me!”
“For what? For letting those boys think that ‘noona plus ahjumma’ is normal? I oughtta spank you not thank you!”
“Tch…”
The thought never crossed their minds, but the seemingly infinite stretch of sand had an end point and there they were, standing right on the spot: the palm trees swaying right above them and the waves still crashing on the shore. They finally released each other’s hands and sat on a nearby rock formation.
“You’re not mad, are ya?” Tiffany nudged the frowning Taeyeon. The latter shook her head. “Oh come on! Don’t be such a kid.”
Taeyeon wiggled her toes to get rid of the sand that hung in between them. “I’m not being a kid,” she replied with her head down.
The cold surface of their seat had them both feeling like snuggling with each other to gain warmth. Fortunately, one of them had the nerve to do so. “You know what? I suddenly remember that quote.” Tiffany let her head land on Taeyeon’s shoulder.
“The one about foot prints. Look, ours are disappearing.” Tiffany pointed to the remnants of the trail they left. “Anyway, there’s this quote about a distressed guy who talked about his life. He said that during his best moments there were two sets of foot prints, but during the hardest, most excruciating times, there was only one set. He was complaining about being left alone when he needed help the most. What he didn’t know was that during those hard times, there was one set of foot prints because his friend carried him all throughout the rough journey. It’s touching, isn’t it?”
I think I know where she got this one from, Taeyeon thought. “Yeah it’s quite good,” she
answered despite her dwindling interest in the subject.
With her head still on Taeyeon’s shoulder, Tiffany took Taeyeon’s hand again, not minding if it was still sweaty. “I used to think about that quote all the time back when I transferred. It was hard adjusting. Back then, I guess I prayed that someone would carry me, too.”
“Did someone come along?”
“He doesn’t ‘come along,’ TaeTae. He’s just there.”
Taeyeon hoped Tiffany’s answer was her name, but that would probably have been too much to ask for. She knew who Tiffany trusted the most and accepted that fact long ago. Besides, who could
argue when it’s her faith we’re talking about?
Right then, she longed to feel like saying ‘Finally. The whistling breezes, shuffling sands, and whispering waves.’ But all she had was a smiling Tiffany, dripping wet pants’ legs, and disappearing foot prints… No ‘her and Tiffany.’
CHAPTER 4
The sun was long gone and the silver orb had finally settled itself in the middle of the sky. And there she was, not even knowing what it feels like to have the sand stick to her toes or how to have the seawater dry on her skin or how painfully soothing it would have been to let the sun’s rays enter her eyes. She had no idea just how much she had missed, and how much she was gaining. It was supposed to be an agonizing defeat.
“I can’t believe you gave in like this,” Hyoyeon said with her chin resting near the edge of the table. She watched as crumbs fell short of the plate’s face, joining the other leftover foodstuffs on the tablecloth. “Well, at least show some table manners when you eat in public! Tsk. This just proves that I forgot how impulsive you are.”
The munching went on but there came a reply. “You forget a lot of things. Duh! Look, no one’s watching me eat anyway so what’s the use of table manners? And besides, I haven’t eaten like this in days! Maybe weeks! Can you imagine how I must feel right now?”
It was supposed to be agonizing for Sooyoung to let all of her hard work and exercise go to waste but there she was enjoying every minute of it. She once thought being a teenager was hard. Of course it is, her friends would tell her, but keeping herself busy with eating and tasting everything the world had to offer made that ‘of course’ sound like a joke. In the end, there was nothing better than letting herself go and keeping herself healthy by keeping her sanity instead of dieting and straining her body. And the only way to maintain that straight thinking was to fill her stomach and let her taste buds enjoy.
“No, I don’t know how you must feel.” Hyoyeon lifted her head from the table and slumped on her chair.
Sooyoung was almost done with her onion rings and her shake. She swallowed and then giggled. “You must have forgotten how to imagine, too, huh?”
Hyoyeon did a fake laugh. “That was funny. Now, finish your food so we can go back to the lodge. We haven’t even chosen our beds yet or maybe you want to sleep on the floor for the rest of our week here?”
Another plate arrived at their table and Sooyoung could only flash a slight smile at Hyoyeon while she chewed. I feel somewhat guilty that I’m keeping her here, she thought.
“No freaking way! You ordered another plate?!” “Yeah. I’m sorry—”
“We’ll take this to go!”
The waiter had barely moved an inch away from the table when Hyoyeon handed him the plate of fresh shrimp. His heart must have skipped a beat when he found the plate already back in his hands without even feeling it land on his palms.
“Can we please get the tab, too?” Hyoyeon added. The flamboozled waiter simply nodded and slowly took a few steps back to the counter to attend to his customer’s requests.
Hyoyeon got back to slumping on her chair while Sooyoung picked up the crumbs and pressed them against her lips before gobbling them up. As she expected, Hyoyeon’s reflexes were at their best and her hand was quickly swatted away before she could go for the rest of the crumbs.
“Eeew! Stop that!”
“I don’t care! First you’ll start eating things off of a table and then you’ll be eating off of the ground! Who knows what that’ll do to your health?!”
Simply because she wanted to get the equivalent of what she was paying for, Sooyoung didn’t heed her friend’s advice and finally ended her meal by taking each fallen crumb and eating them. The shrimp came not long after in a brown paper bag and, in exchange, she left the money on the table.
That was their cue to leave for the lodge.
“Sica? Yuri? Anyone here?”
The front door wasn’t locked and the lodge’s living room was hidden in the dark. Being the unfamiliar area that the lodge was, Hyoyeon and Sooyoung found themselves hesitating to proceed inside. They decided to call out once more.
“Anyone here? Guys!”
There was still no response. Sooyoung took the first step, Hyoyeon’s hand in hers. “Geez. The lights should be around here somewhere, right?”
“Maybe.”
With her free hand, Sooyoung groped around for anything that felt like a light switch. The walls were slightly cold and smooth and it reminded her of the texture of the shake she just had. It was now half-way through her digestive system. “Here it is. I think I got it—”
There was a short pause. “Uhh… Okay, I think there’s something wrong.” “What is it? It’s not the light switch?”
Sooyoung backed away quickly and gripped Hyoyeon’s hand tighter with every step. “Light switches don’t move, do they?”
“Of course not,” Hyoyeon quickly replied. She pulled Sooyoung forward toward where the ‘light switch’ was, thinking that she was being played with again. “Quit joking around so we can—
AHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!”
What was then a solid, smooth wall felt like flesh when Hyoyoen reached out to turn on the ‘lights.’ She jumped back and stumbled on the floor together with Sooyoung, both of them shaking from what had just transpired.
“HAHAHAHAHA!!”
Light finally filled the room after one flick of a switch by the youngest who looked like she was about to cry. “U-unnies, are you both okay?” Seohyun turned to Sooyoung and Hyoyeon who had just stood up.
Yoona’s mouth was wide open, exposing both rows of teeth and even her uvula as she released laughter. Sooyoung and Hyoyeon’s eyes were already burning through her and another pair had her on lock-on from behind.
“Yah! What the hell is with all this noise?!” “Je-Jessica unnie?”
Seohyun was already near tears having to face the guilt of pulling a prank on two of her unnies and was now tearing up after sensing the anger in Jessica’s tone. “We’re sorry. We didn’t mean to disturb you. Please—”
“Don’t worry, Seohyun. It’s not your fault.”
Sunny had emerged from one of the rooms with a fan in her hand. Another figure emerged from another room, wiping her hands on her shirt as she approached.
With her signature toothy grin, Yuri raised a hand to call everyone’s attention. She stroked Jessica’s back with one of her newly cleaned hands. “She’s just like this because it’s so hot in here and we can’t get the AC in her room to work. It’s really my fault, okay Seohyun?”
“You’re lucky you got the room with the AC, Sica. You should be happy,” Sunny added while fanning herself.
Jessica gave a quick response. “It’s useless if I can’t even turn it on, you know?”
“Yeah, yeah. I promise I’ll get it to work,” Yuri claimed. “But in return, I get to sleep in your room for the rest of the week, okay?”
“Ehhh!!”
“Take it or leave it, Sica.” “Tch. Fine.”
“Nice! You see that Seohyun? She’s really mad at me, not you, okay?” “But, unnie I—”
Jessica smiled, assuring the youngest that there was no reason to cry. “She’s right. I’m sorry for yelling like that, Seohyun. Don’t worry about it, okay?”
On the other hand, Yoona’s mouth was finally sealed, her knees involuntarily shaking. She might have had escaped Jessica’s lock-on glare, but she had other things to worry about.
“Hey, hey! We’re the ones who should be mad around here!” Sooyoung waved a fist in the air. Hyoyeon had already plopped herself down on the couch, enjoying the show with her feet up on the couch’s arm.
Not feeling the effect of the threat, Yoona released another big laugh. “I wish it wasn’t so dark so I could have seen your faces!”
“Why you little—You are so dead!”
The chase was inevitable and with the lodge’s spacious living room, it became even more unlikely for Sooyoung and Yoona to stop running about. Sunny had already retired to her room while still trying to cool herself with her fan.
Meanwhile, knowing that nothing good would arise from the horseplay, Jessica instantly spun Yuri around and pushed her back to the room where they came from, obviously wanting the toothy grinner to get back to working on the air-conditioner. Seohyun had wiped her eyes dry and was then sitting on the empty space on the couch where Hyoyeon was lying.
“Unnie, I’m sorry for earlier.”
“It’s all good. I know Yoong just talked you into it. I can’t believe I fell for that lame move though. Tsk.”
“Lame?!” Yoona raised an eyebrow while still swiftly avoiding Sooyoung. “Yeah! You heard me!” Hyoyeon teasingly growled back.
“It was so not lame and you were dead scared, unnie! Admit it!” “Why should I admit—”
There was a sudden knock on the door. The chase ended and silence arrived. All eyes were on the slightly shaking door.
Sooyoung didn’t hesitate to ask: “Okay, is this another prank, Yoong?” Yoona shook her head. “N-no. It’s not me, I swear.”
The four of them exchanged glances but only one approached the door. “Maybe it’s just Taeyeon unnie with Tiffany unnie. They’re the only ones who aren’t here yet,” Seohyun guessed as she held the doorknob and unlocked the door.
“Oh great it’s open—Wait… Huh?”
An unfamiliar figure stood before Seohyun and the odds of the person being Taeyeon or Tiffany were well below negative. Seohyun stood there holding the knob, blinking twice as fast as she normally does, like it was the answer to the unfamiliar one’s question.
“Who are you people? And what are you doing in our lodge?”
“Y-your lodge?” Sooyoung walked over to stand by the startled Seohyun. Yoona and Hyoyeon weren’t that far behind them.
The unfamiliar figure wasn’t alone. Her companions stood behind her, each one with more than one bag in their possession. None of them could fathom why their reserved lodge was being occupied by such a noisy bunch.
“Look, this is our lodge, okay? You guys are trespassing!”
The gloves were about to come off and just when Hyoyeon was about to step up and give the unexpected visitor a good scolding, one of the companions interrupted and gave a big bow.
“We’re very sorry to barge in like this, but it took us a really long time to get here and all we want to do for now is rest. We really did reserve this lodge for a week so we’d appreciate it if you could let us enter and arrange for another lodge of your own.”
Seohyun swallowed. “I don’t mean to be rude, but we reserved this lodge for a week. I’m sure there’s just some kind of misunderstanding.”
From the looks of it, the unfamiliar figure had an argument of her own. “There’s a
misunderstanding, all right! This is our lodge and you guys are technically trespassing! You should just clear out right now or I’ll call security and have you kicked out on your butts!”
Hyoyeon and Yoona were already closing in on their ‘opponents,’ their teeth clenched and hands balled into fists. “You’re the ones who are trespassing! We paid for this lodge and we’re not leaving just because some cuckoos say it’s theirs. Dream on!”
“Are you people deaf?! I said this is our lodge so—” “Sohee, that’s enough!”
The bowing companion stepped into the scene once again. She turned to Hyoyeon and Yoona and smiled. “I’m really, really sorry about our friend. She’s young and… well, she just missed a lot of sleep so her mood is messed up. Any—”
“Sounds like someone we know.” Hyoyeon nudged Yoona in the midst of the conversation. Both of them giggled.
Ignoring the chatter, the polite bowing companion went on. “Anyway, I don’t want to argue with anyone, but this really is our lodge.”
“Yeah! So just get the hell outta here!” “Sohee!”
“What?! It’s true, isn’t it? We’re wasting time standing here and talking to these—” “What’s going on? Again with the noise?”