"Please don't die! I'll be good from now on I swear! Fany don't—"
"I'm not dying you idiot."
Tiffany's voice sounded horrible, even to her own ears. She clears her throat and winces when she only managed to make the soreness burn even worse. But looking at Taeyeon, the girl crying a river and sniffing loudly to retrieve the snot that ran down from her nose helplessly, she cracks a small smile. She shifts to her side to allow her hand to pat Taeyeon's head, hushing the alien's worries.
Ever since she had woken up with a headache the size of a planet and unable to even set a foot out of her room, Taeyeon had never left her spot on the floor beside her bed. The girl looked absolutely deep in worry and distraught, practically terrified at the thought of Tiffany dying (seriously she should cut down Taeyeon's TV drama time) and had started wailing like a child.
Annoying as it should be, Tiffany finds her heartstrings pulled on instead. It had been only a few months but Taeyeon had grown so impossibly attached to her and Tiffany would have found that unbelievable if only she didn't somehow find herself in the same shoes as the alien as well.
…Taeyeon adored her. And she did adore Taeyeon too.
"Giggles, stop crying. I'm okay. It's just a small cold, nothing serious." Tiffany suspects it's a bit more than a small cold but she wouldn't risk having the alien start a crying fit again.
Taeyeon sniffed, wiping at her nose with the sleeve of her sweater. "You don't… you don't have cancer?" her voice was trembling like a leaf and Tiffany noticed how the green in her eyes that she was so fond of is magnified amongst the tears that welled in them.
But seriously. Cancer? What the fuck. "Tae, it's just a cold." She repeats, giggling and taps the girl's nose before returning her hand to the top of her head and she remembers that one time when she gave the alien a lengthy explanation about what 'cancer' is after Taeyeon and her watched a drama that had a cancer-ridden character. "Stop watching those dramas. You're turning into a drama queen." Tiffany smiled, feeling the softness of Taeyeon's hair under her fingers.
Taeyeon scoots closer, placing her chin on the edge of the bed. "…So you're okay?"
"I'm okay."
"You're really, really okay?"
"Yep. I'm really, really okay." Tiffany unconsciously smiles when Taeyeon started to grin but it blossomed down to a worried frown again when the itch in Tiffany's throat suddenly demanded for her attention. She hurriedly turns her face away from the alien's as she broke into a coughing fit. When she returns to her prior position, she once again finds the troubled expression all over Taeyeon's knitted brows and downcast eyes with her lips drawn into a half-frown, half-pout.
A corner of Tiffany's mouth lifts in amusement when she notices how determined Taeyeon looked in holding back her tears. "Taetae," she breathes, letting the nickname roll off her tongue smoothly and smiles when the girl looks up. "Why don't you get me a glass of water? It'll help a lot. And you know that small white box in the cupboard? That too, please."
She grins when a different kind of determination gleamed in Taeyeon's eyes. The girl nodded and almost tripped on her own feet as she scrambled to get up and run out of the door.
"Oh." She hears Taeyeon squeak as she stopped half-way out of the door. Taeyeon puts a hand on the door frame and Tiffany is confused and flustered (the girl was only wearing a sweater and underwear plus her favorite alien themed socks and the view was rather…ehem) when Taeyeon started hopping in place as her other hand struggled to take her knee socks off. When the alien was done removing the said article of clothing, she wordlessly makes a beeline back to her previous spot beside Tiffany's bed and places the knee socks neatly on the covers near Tiffany's hand.
"These socks make me happy. I'll let you hold them for a while so you can be happy too!" Taeyeon grinned, her heterochromatic eyes flaring with sincerity and Tiffany feels a whole new level of affection for the girl wash over her.
She instinctively holds her breath when the alien moves closer. Taeyeon's hand somehow made its way to the top of her head and she feels a different kind of lightheadedness when the girl mimicked the way she had pat her head a while ago. But overwhelmed couldn't even begin to explain the plethora of warm emotions that sucked her whole when Taeyeon leaned in and pressed her lips on her forehead gently.
Tiffany is left wordless and she could only stare as Taeyeon pulled back with a shy grin and a flustered blush over her cheeks but her eyes… her brown and green eyes were at their brightest.
"I'll be back, okay?" Taeyeon whispered, her voice dancing on an intimate note and Tiffany only nods, wondering why she had never heard the girl sound like how she just did.
Tiffany finds her own voice, coated with the same low whisper and unexplainable affection.
"Come back soon."
It was ridiculous. Taeyeon was only going to a short trip to the kitchen not even a kilometer away but Tiffany misses her badly when the door shuts close and she is left with Taeyeon's prized possession in her hands.
Ridiculous, right?
