Taeyeon lifts her head when she hears a knock on the door. "Come in."
The den door opens and in walks Seohyun, holding her phone. "Unnie. I have bad news."
"What bad news?"
"I couldn't reach Mrs. M or her assistant so I finally called her office receptionist. She's taken a long sabbatical and she hasn't been practicing for over a year."
Taeyeon sighs, puts her pen down and leans back in the large leather chair. "When will she be back?"
"No one knows. But there is someone else," Seohyun hesitantly says.
"Let me guess... the Chimney?"
"Yes. I'm afraid that's your only option right now."
"Fine. I guess she'd have to do."
"Alright. I'll set it up." The tall woman dials a number on her phone as she leaves the room.
--
It's been days since their conversation at the back porch and Tiffany still carries the guilt with her after snapping at Taeyeon like that, especially since she hasn't had a chance to talk to the blonde in private.
Now that the new stables are finished, they've been busy making sure that everything is ready for the animals to live in. Then they moved the three horses from the old stable, observed them for a day, and added a couple more horses Taeyeon had bought.
The guests' lodging is also taking shape and another batch of construction workers have arrived, this time to build the small log cottages-villas-Taeyeon wishes to have spread around the ranch to compliment the main lodging.
Needless to say, the blonde's been busy overseeing things, talking to Sunny and the engineers, going to and fro from the den where she does her paperwork and holds meetings to the construction sites. Sometimes she'd even leave on her chopper to attend to her other businesses in other cities before coming back to the ranch in time for dinner with everyone.
Tiffany doesn't know how or when she'd get a chance to talk to Taeyeon privately so she'd wait at the back porch every night, only to be disappointed each time.
Finally, on the day before Taeyeon's supposed to leave the ranch, she hears the wooden floors creak and the back door opening.
Turning her head, she sees Taeyeon walk out and their eyes meet.
"Oh. Sorry. I thought no one was here," says the blonde, ready to turn around and go back inside.
"Wait." Tiffany quickly gets up from the swing. "Can I talk to you for a second?"
"Sure. Anything I can help you with?"
"I..." Tiffany clears her throat. "I want to apologize for the other night. I shouldn't have snapped at you like that. I was just... It's just... tough," she says, looking away.
Taeyeon cracks a small relieved smile, finding this side of Tiffany strangely cute. "Apology accepted. I'm sorry too, for being nosy and preachy. You should deal with things at your own pace. It wasn't my place to say otherwise," she says, quoting Seohyun.
