It was December 31, 2012. Every single year Taeyeon would just walk down the streets alone, looking at couples that were holding hands, pecking each other's lips, spending Christmas and New Years together, loving each other. She sighed, all she could do was watch other people be happy, while she was sad. 'Why didn't she just find someone to love and date?', you ask? Well, for Taeyeon, it wasn't that simple.
She was in love. But the problem was.. Well, the problem was that.. She was in love. At least, that's what Taeyeon thought. You see, this wasn't any type of love. It was love for a girl.
Every single year she would walk the same streets, with the same feelings, with the same thoughts. 'Why can't Korea be different? Why do they think it's wrong for a girl to have feelings for another girl? Why can't Korea just accept the fact that love is love?'
I know what you're thinking, 'How comes she's not with her family?'. Well, she would be but her mom worked day and night to support herself and Taeyeon. Her dad died a couple of years ago. And she was an only child. Her mom would apologize every year, "I'm sorry that I can't spend Christmas with you Taeyeon. You understand right?" Taeyeon just nodded in response and replied with a simple "Dae Umma.."
She looked up at the giant screen on the building playing a video clip. 'Another video about love?' She thought and sighed. The video showed boy-girl couples kissing and cuddling. Taeyeon rolled her eyes and kept walking, bumping into a few people.
'I'm kind of hungry..' Taeyeon thought as she walked by the many stores, selling duboki, kimbap, skewered meat and more. Every line was filled with at least 20 people, no surprise since it was Downtown Seoul on New Years Eve. She got into the shortest line she could find, which wasn't short at all. She looked up at the menu board on top of the shack. 'Luhan's Chicken Feet', it read. Scanning across the menu, she realized all of the items were chicken feet. "Damn.." The short girl muttered under her breathe. She turned around looking for other short lines, just to see that all the lines have lengthened. Taeyeon let out a noticeably loud sigh, “I guess I’ll have to settle for chicken feet..”, She mumbled to herself.
“But Tae you hate chicken feet.” She heard a familiar voice say in her ear. ‘Tiffany..? Gosh.. I miss you so much that I’m starting to hear your voice in my head.’ Taeyeon thought as she hit her tilted head. “Tae Tae, why are you hitting yourself?”, the voice called again. “Why won’t you get out of my head?” Taeyeon said, this time using her knuckles to knock on her skull. “Who’s in your head? Taeng?” The girl grabbed Taeyeon’s arm, giving her a small shake. “Tiffany?” Taeyeon finally turned around to see her best friend eye smiling at her.
“You were hungry?” Tiffany offered Taeyeon some of her skewered chicken, at the same time munching on her own piece. “Am I allowed to have some?” Tiffany had a ‘are you stupid?’ expression on. “Of course not. I offered you some because you cannot have any. Babo.” Taeyeon gave Tiffany a glare, not liking Tiffany’s sarcasm. “A simple yes would have been nice.” Tiffany took a piece and stuffed it in the older girls mouth.
“Miyoung ah.. Why were you alone on New Years Eve?” Taeyeon asked in confusion. “My parents are working tonight, and my sister went to spend the night with her boyfriend... So I was left alone. Now, Kim Taeyeon, why are you alone on New Years Eve?” “Mom is working.” She answered nonchalantly. In all honesty, she wasn’t even that sad that her mom had left her. Because every single year, she left. Taeyeon had already learned to deal with it and move on. “Ah...” Tiffany nodded. They continued to walk down the street hand in hand.
