STRAWBERRY KIT KAT (COMPLETED)

Strawberry Kit Kat (3)

"No seriously. What are you doing here?" Taeyeon repeats her question for the third time. She has pulled Tiffany inside one of the smaller meeting rooms to question her after the supervisor has dismissed them.

"I'm here to finish that project," says Tiffany, reciting the same answer she's been giving Taeyeon. "How many more times must I tell you that?"

"But... what about the budget cuts? How come they let you fly all the way here just to finish the project?"

"So you don't want me here?"

"What?! Of course I do! It's just-..." Taeyeon inhales sharply when she realizes what she just said. "I-I mean, it's good to have you here, of course, for work purposes, you know. Not implying anything here. But I just... I mean... I guess I'm still shocked," she rambles, blushing a bit.

Tiffany lets out a laugh that sounds like music to the smitten Taeyeon's ears. "Well, believe it because they want this project done before I fly back home."

"When is that?"

"In a week or two."

"Oh."

Taeyeon's joy is quickly replaced by the harsh realization that this visit is only temporary and that she would have to say goodbye to Tiffany again soon.

Tiffany sees the downturned smile but before she's able say anything, there's a knock from the door and Taeyeon's supervisor appears, telling them that he wants to introduce Tiffany to the team.

The next couple of hours are like a blur for Taeyeon. She keeps her eyes on Tiffany the whole time, even when the supervisor takes the girl around the office, introducing her to everyone. Her mind, in the mean time, is still trying to adjust to the fact that Tiffany's really here. It's no longer just a what-if. Tiffany is here in the flesh. Right there within arms reach.

Unfortunately, unlike in Japan, Tiffany is not seated next to her even though they will still be working closely together. The Seoul office is set in a particular way and it's impossible to tell her colleague to move desks just for a temporary visitor no matter how important the project is.

So she sits down on her chair after the supervisor has told everyone to go back to work and silently exhales, trying to calm herself –especially her heart– down.

"I got you something," Tiffany says as she suddenly appears next to Taeyeon, startling the latter. She pulls out a large green bag from behind her back and grins. "Ta-da!"

Taeyeon takes the bag of green tea Kit Kats and smiles from ear to ear. "Thank you! You shouldn't have."

"It's the least I can do to repay all those strawberry Kit Kats you've given me."

"Too bad we don't have them here."

"Don't worry. I plan to continue our little tradition," says Tiffany, smirking.

"How?"

"You'll see. Now get to work. We have a lot to do."

Taeyeon watches Tiffany walk away towards her cubicle with the smile still on her face. Our little tradition, huh? Her eyes land on the green bag and she has to remind herself that she's at work before she hugs and kiss that thing like it's a bag of jewels.

—-

Tiffany looks back and smiles when she sees Taeyeon staring at the Kit Kat bag, holding it like it's the most precious thing she owns.

It wasn't easy to convince her supervisor and team leader to let her go to Korea.

The idea came when the big boss himself visited the department and insisted on getting a thorough briefing on the progress of the project a few days ago. As happy as he is with the results thus far, he feels that the teams are taking too long. The whole point of bringing one of the designers from the Korean office, he said in the meeting, was to speed up the project. Although they seemed to have achieved that desired speed when Taeyeon was there, everything dropped to its initial pace after Taeyeon left. He told the team leader and the department manager to figure out a way to finish this project as soon as possible, and gave them two weeks tops.