Tiffany stood in front of Taeyeon's bedroom door, nervously wiping her sweaty palms on her jeans. Telling herself to not be so nervous. After running errands all morning, she has come back to hang with Taeyeon just as they promised that morning.

After reading up guides on how to approach an introvert and asking advice from Yuri and Jessica, Tiffany had finally come up with a plan to improve her relationship with Taeyeon.

Step 1, Approach slowly.

Step 2, Do not make much eye contact.

Step 3, Be quiet.

Step 4, Avoid sudden movements.

Step 5, Offer food.

It's a bit past noon. Tiffany had bought sandwiches for lunch and she had bought Taeyeon a share. Also some snacks to bribe her with. Hopefully she's hungry and hadn't eaten yet.

Tiffany brings up her sweaty palms into a fist and knocks on the door twice softly, "Taeyeon, I'm coming in." she announces before twisting the door knob and makes her way inside the fort, because there is no way Taeyeon would hear her.

First thing first, she inhales the smell of old books and the soft aroma of air purifier which immediately sends her on a trip to her teenage years. The good part of them, thankfully. She squeezes herself in the small opening between the shelves and a small smile takes over her face when she sees Taeyeon with her big headphones on, concentrated on whatever she's doing.

This time, a mischievous grin takes over. She walks over to stand right behind Taeyeon and peeks over to see what she's doing. Amazon? seems like she's shopping. Tiffany gets a little giddy. She loves shopping, so she watches as Taeyeon moves from the Headphones section, to the video games section, to the food & Grocery section.

So that's how she restocks her ramen...

Although interested in what else Taeyeon shops for, Tiffany had priorities, and her number one priority as of now is get Taeyeon's attention without seeming like a creep even though she's just in denial about it.

As she contemplates on what to do, her eyes sparkle with an idea whens he sees Taeyeon's phone screen light up and she picks it up to answer a text. Before doing anything, she leans over a little to see who in the world Taeyeon talks to.

[Pretty Blonde Bitch - 01:32 PM] Have you eaten anything today yet?

[Taeyeon - 01:32 PM] No.

[Pretty Blonde Bitch - 01:32 PM] I came over last night and put some side dishes in the fridge.

[Taeyeon - 01:32 PM] Thanks.

[Pretty Blonde Bitch - 01:33 PM] You're welcome.

[Pretty Blonde Bitch - 01:33 PM] Don't forget to eat, alright?

[Taeyeon - 01:33 PM] K

Tiffany frowns. Is that Jessica? she stifles a laugh, wondering if the girl knows what Taeyeon has her as on her phone, but then again, she is a pretty blonde bitch. A good pretty blonde bitch. It is affectionate in its own way.

Tiffany has been wondering where the food in the fridge came from. Now she knows. That aside, going along with her plan, she takes out her phone from her back pocket and proceeds to text Taeyeon.

[Tiffany - 01:35 PM] Yah

Taeyeon immediately picks her phone up again and Tiffany is delighted when she sees a small smile from the side of Taeyeon's face she could see without being detected. However, she is a little disappointed when she sees that Taeyeon has her registered in her phone as a mere 'Tiffany Hwang'. Nothing affectionate about that.

[Kim TaeTae - 01:35 PM] Yes?

[Tiffany - 01:35 PM] Look behind you 😜

A few seconds pass. Taeyeon had paused all movements and froze there. Tiffany contemplated whether to text her again or not, but soon enough, she didn't have to as Taeyeon quickly lowered her headphones to her neck and looked back straight at her with a knowing smile.

"Hi." Tiffany says with a sheepish smile.

"Hi..." Taeyeon greets back, rotating in her chair to fully face Tiffany, "How long have you been here?"

"A few minutes." Tiffany shrugs and plops down Taeyeon's bed, "I hope you're hungry, cause I bought food." she shows off the plastic bag to Taeyeon.

"Oh," Taeyeon looks pleasantly surprised, "Thank you. I am hungry." she accepts her share of the food from Tiffany and starts inspecting the sandwiches she received. A kind of excited but small smile engraved on her face.

"Whatchu doin?" Tiffany asks.

"Shopping." Taeyeon states. Not looking up from the sandwich she's currently inspecting the ingredients of, but takes a bite of it only a second later.

"For what?" Tiffany asks.

"Games...and groceries." The second part came a little late and muffled. As if Taeyeon didn't want to say it.

"You grocery shop online?" Tiffany frowns and pretends to be surprised. She's not.

"...yeah...I know it's bad." Taeyeon averts her eyes and starts to cutely sway on her chair right and left. A hand gripping the edge of the chair in the empty space between her legs and the other busy holding the delicious sandwich in front of her mouth as she munches away.

Tiffany fights a huge smile from splitting her face apart and keeps on a neutral expression instead. One, she's glad Taeyeon is eating and she seems to like what she got for her, and two, this girl is just so fucking adorable Tiffany doesn't think she could take it all in at once. "It's not bad, but...why do you hate going out so much?" she takes a chance to ask a question that had been inkling in her mind since...well...since they met.

Silence engulfs the room. Taeyeon keeps strong eye contact between her and Tiffany, as if she's staring into Tiffany's soul. Perhaps trying to figure out her intentions. She opens her mouth but closes it again after a second. She repeats the same action twice before putting her hand behind her neck and rubbing it in an awkward manner.

"What?" Tiffany tilts her head to the side and asks.

"I'm just contemplating whether to tell you this or not. Knowing the kind of person you are." Taeyeon says.

"You don't know what kind of person I am." Tiffany states. She does know what kind of person Taeyeon is, but there is no way the later had figured her out already, considering her lack of common sense.

Taeyeon gives her a small smile, hand going back to their previous position on the edge of the chair, "But I do."

"What kind of person am I, Kim Taeyeon?" Tiffany smirks, challenging Taeyeon. Also interested in what Taeyeon thinks of her.

"Well," Taeyeon starts but gives herself a moment to swallow the food in her mouth before speaking, "You're very forceful, kind of difficult, very demanding most of the time, extremely egotistical, and lowkey secretive." she shoots all at once.

Tiffany frowns, "Why is it all bad things?" she asks.

Taeyeon chuckles, "You're very passionate and diligent, observant, kinda sensitive, also, I could tell that you're truth-loving," she pauses for a moment to swallow, "Hence why you ask so many question to know what's the real deal."

Tiffany stares at Taeyeon in wonder. She just described her as a person in a few words. As if she had known her for months when in reality this is their...3rd time being in each others company long enough to get to know each other.

"How did you figure out all of that?" Tiffany asks in astonishment.

Taeyeon smirks, "I'm smarter than you give me credit for."

Who is this person? - Tiffany asks herself. Is this the same girl who was stuttering and blushing furiously every time she looked at her? damn shy people. They're so different once they get comfortable with you.

Suddenly, Tiffany doesn't feel as laid back as before. She almost feels exposed just from being under Taeyeon's gaze. Now it seems like every time Taeyeon looks at her she learns something new and that contradicts with Tiffany's secretive nature, just as Taeyeon figured her out to afternoon, she learned the same lesson she keeps having to learn over and over again since she moved in to this house.

When it comes to Taeyeon, there is more than meets the eyes.

...

It wasn't the first time that Tiffany was surrounded by books, but there surely is no bedroom like this one in the whole world. Although it's just like a fort, it had an incredibly cozy feeling to it because of that. Also, Taeyeon's room is only quarter the size of Tiffany's own which confused Tiffany, as she thought all the rooms were the same size.

Getting used to the smell of books and air purifier was easy, but it made Tiffany wish getting used to Taeyeon presence was easier. Although she doesn't talk much, Taeyeon's strong presence is unmistakable. Even though she has her back turned to her right now as she clicked away on her mouse, she had her headphones still resting silently around her neck.

Curiosity finally takes the best of Tiffany, "Can I check out your books?" she asks.

"Go ahead. The ones on that shelf are pretty worn out so be careful with them." Without removing her eyes from the monitor, Taeyeon points at the shelf right behind her desk.

"Okay." With a satisfied smile, Tiffany gets off of Taeyeon's bed and starts browsing the books on the shelf right in front of it.

There were a lot of books. A lot of them. The first one that caught her attention was Tom Jones by Henry Fielding. It's a classic in English literature, but what made Tiffany glance at Taeyeon in a curious matter was the fact that the book is about the adventures of a high-spirited orphan boy. Good plot, and...a lot of sex...

Tiffany clears her throat awkwardly as she puts the book back to its place and moves on to the next one that caught her eye. She smiles when she sees Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, Moby-Dick by Herman Melville, Alice's Adventures In Wonderland by Lewis Carroll, The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame, and many more. All of her childhood favorites.

Seems like the two of them have a lot of common ground when it comes to books.

A soft smile could be seen on Tiffany's face when she saw Three Men in a Boat by Jerome K. Jerome and As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner. Although both comedy, one of them was rather darker than the other.

There were sure a lot of classic titles all put in this certain shelf, however, when Tiffany moved to the next shelf, she frowned when she spotted a certain book she had read a long time ago. "Taeyeon?" she calls. When she hears Taeyeon hums for her to continue she turns around to look at her with the book in hand, "Why do you have Lolita?"

Taeyeon quickly looks at her with a straight face, her eyes rest on the book and then back at Tiffany, "That's a Christmas present from Yuri. Though I hadn't read it yet. Is it good?"

Tiffany chuckles awkwardly when she sees Taeyeon look back at her screen nonchalantly, "O- Oh, you hadn't read it. I- I wouldn't know if it's good or not since I didn't read it either...ha ha ha...moving on." Just in case you did not know, Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov is about Humbert Humbert - a 37-year-old scholar - who has fallen completely and utterly in love with Dolores 'Lolita' Haze, his landlady's gum-snapping, silky skinned 12-year-old daughter.

After putting the book back to its place quickly, Tiffany didn't even continue browsing the shelf and moved on to the next one. She tried to read the titles, but she couldn't. Because they were all in a language unknown to her. "Taeyeon, what language are these?"

"Some are Japanese and others are Chinese." Taeyeon says, not having to look up to know what books Tiffany is talking about.

Tiffany's eyes widen, "You can speak Japanese and Chinese?"

Taeyeon hums, "Just the basics though."

"I...I see." this sparked some interest for Tiffany in just how smart Taeyeon really is, especially after how she described her personality in a few words earlier, "Did you go to college?" she asks.

"Yeah." Taeyeon nods.

"What did you study?"

"I have a bachelor degree in literature."

Obviously, Tiffany thought to herself. She should have been able to figure it out on her own, but then again, Taeyeon might have chosen something unexpected to study.

"What about you?"

Tiffany's head shot up in surprised. Taeyeon just asked her a question about herself. She's showing interest in her. Tiffany had to swallow a lump in her throat before speaking, hands a little shaky for some reason as Taeyeon looked at her straight in the eyes, "I have diplomas in both mass communications and liberal arts."

"Hm. I see."

There was a moment of silence in the room. Tiffany was about to look back down at the book in her hand but Taeyeon spoke again.

"What do you do for work?"

Tiffany paused everything. Is she seriously asking this question now? Even though they have been living together for a few months already, she still doesn't know what she does? Well, considering how the interview went, she wouldn't know. Unless she googled her and found her social media. Which clearly she didn't.

Tiffany sighs and face palms, "I'm an editor at Vogue."

Taeyeon squints, "What's Vouge?"

Tiffany's eyes widen as she gasps lightly, "Taeyeon! How do you not know what Vogue is?! You're a girl! It's only one of the most popular fashion magazine in the world!" she exclaims.

After one second of silence, Taeyeon nods slowly, "Noted."

"Ohhh my god," Tiffany shakes her head, "You're unbelievable, Tae."

Tiffany throws Taeyeon a last glance. She had her usual straight face on and have already turned back to her monitor. She's different and she doesn't care. Really, is what Tiffany think.

After spending about an hour in silence, Tiffany closes the last book she had picked up, which is on the shelf next to Taeyeon's bed. She glances at Taeyeon to see what she's doing. Playing a game apparently. Judging from the animated characters moving and fighting monsters on the screen.

"What are you playing?" Tiffany asks. Breaking the silence between them and showing a slight interest in gaming just because Taeyeon likes doing it.

"Elsword." Taeyeon answers in monotone. Hearing nothing but silence from Tiffany, she continues, "It's a 2.5D real time action MMORPG."

Tiffany nods slowly, mouth slightly open. The colors are pretty and Taeyeon seems to be having fu-...well, it's not showing in her attitude but Tiffany's sure she's having fun. "Can I try it?" she asks.

The sound of the keyboard buttons being clicked furiously fast stops for about 5 seconds before Taeyeon resumes playing and says, "Sure."