hide ➳ taeny ✅

f i v e

The next morning, I woke up feeling a little cold. I frowned when I couldn't feel the arm around my waist, unlike the previous night. I sat up and noticed and not on my nightstand.

"Good morning, Fany-ah!
Sorry I couldn't be there when you woke up. I had an early recording session this morning. I'll be back late tonight, so don't wait up on me. Eat well, okay?
-your Taetae
p.s: the producers finished a couple of songs already and they let me play one for you! I can't wait to show it to you tomorrow. :)"

I sighed thinking about how overworked Taeyeon was. She was so busy lately. She slept late, barely had time to recharge her energy and was called in the studio to record. Like I said, I understood she was doing all this because her solo debut date was approaching fairly... I just wished the company would let her breathe for a while.

Shaking my worry away, I started to get ready for my schedule. I, myself, also had a session for my solo debut, which would be in about a year. Management wanted us to meet up with songwriters and producers to listen to their ideas and whatnot.

"Sunny-ah, I'm leaving for my meeting." I yelled from the front door. I bent down to say goodbye to Ginger and Prince.

"Did you feed Prince?" She yelled from the bathroom.

"Ne! But could you take him for a walk please? He was seriously cranky earlier and wouldn't let me put his leash on him."

"Yah, Taeyeon asked me to walk Ginger too!"

"Please, Sunny! I'll do your chores for the next week."

"Fine, hurry up before you arrive late."

"Thank you so much! Bye, see you later."

"Bye, Tiffany."

At the SM building, I greeted the staff as I walked in and went to the meeting room where my manager was waiting for me. We spent about 5 hours in that room before ending the meeting. "Thank you, everyone." I said as we all stood up and bowed. I was one of the last people to head out.

We were walking to the elevator to leave together since we were still talking about some ideas, but on our way there, someone caught my eye. It was Red Velvet's shining Wendy Son. She was sitting on one of the chairs outside another meeting room and looked nervous. I excused myself from the group and went over to talk to her to make sure she was alright. "Hey, Wendy." I greeted her informally since we were sort of friends by now and formalities weren't necessary. Plus, since we grew up with Western culture, formalities weren't really used between people around the same age.

"Hi, Tiffany-ssi." Her face immediately brightened up. Of course, Wendy always used formal terms because she was extremely polite to everyone... probably got that from growing up in Canada.

"I already told you to drop formalities around me." I chuckled. "Anyways, what are you doing here? Aren't you suppose to be practicing for your comeback?" She nodded and her lips formed a thin line. "What's wrong?" I asked as I sat down next to her.

She shook her head and said, "it's nothing."

"You sure? You look a little worried. Like you're preoccupied by something." Why was she sitting next to this meeting room alone? Was the rest of the group in there? Did she get kicked out for some reason? "Did you get in trouble?" I asked in English.

She looked around and finally responded, in English as well. "The CEO, Mr. Kim Youngmin called Irene and I in because he was suspicious of our 'fan service'... He pulled us out of our practice to talk in that meeting room. He said he already let two SM idols be together in secret and he didn't want to deal with another couple 'like them'."

Two idols in SM dating secretly... was he talking about Taeyeon and I? Hold on, 'another couple like them'? Like Tae and I? My eyes widened in realization. "What are you and Irene..."

Wendy lowered her head and avoided my gaze. "You must be disgusted by me."

"No, of course not!" I chuckled and put one hand on her shoulder. "Are you two really dating?" I asked in a softer tone and lower so no one could hear us. She looked up and smiled gently while nodding, but then looked sad again looking at the meeting room. "Hey, don't listen to the haters. You can't control who you fall for and should be proud of who you are."

"Thank you Tiffany un--- Tiffany, but honestly, sometimes I wish I wasn't the way I am... It would be so much easier to be like others... like you."

"You can call me Tiffany unnie you want." I giggled seeing her hold herself back from calling me 'unnie' as if she wasn't allowed to call me that. I scratched the back of my neck hearing that last part. She didn't know, but I wasn't like the others. I was in a similar situation to hers. Maybe not the exact one since Kim Youngmin-ssi kind of let Taeyeon and I date and I also didn't know if she swung both ways or only played for the other team, but I knew how she felt. Seeing her like this, I decided to tell her the truth. "Wendy, actually, I'm not like the others."

"What do you mean, Tiffany unnie?"

"The couple 'like you'... the other couple at SM who are secretly dating..."

"Yes?" She said slowly.

"It's Taeyeon and I."

"Really?" She whispered loudly. I nodded and smiled. "The girls and I actually thought the couple he was talking about was Yuri-ssi-- I mean Yuri unnie and Jessica unnie."

I giggled and nodded, glad to see her open up to me and loosen up a little. "Actually, those two had a thing in the past... they were forced to separate when the company pulled Sica out of Soshi, but we all like to joke Yul is still seeing her. She's been acting weird lately and we're pretty sure she's seeing someone secretly. Although, it's probably not Jessica because she has a rumored boyfriend who was her boyfriend back in 2013 for a while."

"Wow... I never knew you girls were so open on the subject."

"Yeah, I thought the same honestly and it's hreat your members are very open as well. Believe me, it makes things so much easier... and if you have any problems, just message me on kakao or something. You have my contact right?"

"Yeah, thank you Tiffany unnie."

"It's nothing," I replied and hugged her. "Hey, I just thought about this. Why are you still sitting here?"

"Irene is still in there and I wanted to wait for her. Mr. Kim talked to both of us, but insisted on talking to Irene alone because of her leader position."

Suddenly, the door opened and revealed Irene with her flawless looks as always, despite her puffy red eyes. She looked surprised to see us, but quickly bowed and greeted me. I bowed back and she went to ask what Wendy was still doing here. Wendy switched back to Korean to answer her girlfriend. "I wanted to wait for you and make sure you're fine."

Irene looked reluctant to reply, but I quickly explained what had happened in the last 10 minutes. "Jinja?" She asked. "Taeyeon-ssi and you are a thing? You two are lucky to have each other and be able to be together."

"What did he say to you?" I asked her.

"He wants us to be more careful... he mentioned you and Taeyeon. I told him Wendy and I are just close friends, but he told me he didn't buy it. He said I 'look at Wendy the way Taeyeon looks at Tiffany.' I didn't understand since you two were only best friends, but I sort of assumed and it all makes sense now."

"What else?" Wendy asked this time. "Did he ask us to... break up?" She slowly asked.

Irene didn't answer and we all knew that wasn't good news. Wendy and Irene hugged and with her face buried in Wendy's hair, Irene spoke up. "He gave us a month."

"What?"

"He gave us a month to stay together and then we have to go back to being friends only."

How could he do that to them? They weren't even that obvious. I was a Red Velvet fan myself and their skinship didn't exceed other members'. Hell, even Taeyeon and I were more obvious than them at their age.

I would have to go talk to him later. Even though I barely knew the girls on a personal level and friendly level, I felt the need to fight for them. For some reason, I saw a younger Taeyeon in Irene and a younger me in Wendy.