Taeyeon is the person that deemed most magical to Tiffany. The girl was in no question, enthralling and sweet. She was warmth and love personified and made Tiffany feel like her heart could stop and she'd still be alive. Taeyeon made her feel so bare...
…And so in love.
Was she in love? Tiffany couldn't be sure. It only happened to her once, when she was young and stupid. She remembers, fleetingly, how she felt for her first girlfriend way back in high school. Clumsy kisses shared at the backseat of her car and late night phone conversations about almost anything. Yes, it was love and yet it wasn't. Because what she felt back then couldn't even compare to what she feels now.
Tiffany didn't realize she was capable of loving someone so much to the point that even her self-logic is defied but there she was—stupidly and deeply in love with an extraterrestrial being whose smile outshines even the sun itself.
Smiling, she buries her face on Taeyeon's back and pulls the alien who sat in between her legs closer. A giggle reaches her ears and she hears it so clearly even amidst the blaring sound of the television. Tiffany recalls, just two years ago, how they would sit on opposite ends of the couch and how, with time, the space between them started to cease. How they used to sit on opposite ends of the table for meals (they now eat with their elbows touching) and how they used to sleep in separate rooms at opposite ends of the hallway (Tiffany no longer leaves Taeyeon's room after cuddling the alien to sleep).
Her heart flutters and butterflies storms in her stomach. She thinks she's about to reach her limit and just confess everything right there and then but with great self-control, she restrains herself and dissolves what could have been an heartfelt 'I love you' into a sigh. Tiffany wasn't sure if Taeyeon would understand. She's not even sure if she herself could understand it.
This is hopeless, she mentally concludes.
Tiffany snaps out of her thoughts when she feels Taeyeon squirm and shift in her hold. She loosens her arms around the girl's waist and is surprised when Taeyeon abruptly turns and locks her legs around her waist. Warm and gentle hands cups her cheeks and Tiffany tries to fight down the sudden violent stirring of emotions within her as she finds herself looking into Taeyeon's heterochromatic eyes. The alien's smile was there but Tiffany notices the worried edge on her lips. She tries not to mind how intimate their position was and Taeyeon didn't seem at all bothered by the almost nonexistent distance between their faces.
"Is something wrong?" Tiffany asks, her voice falling midsentence but Taeyeon hears her nonetheless.
The alien's thumb softly and gently tries to lift a corner of Tiffany's lips. "I should be asking you that. What's with the sad face? Do you not like the movie?" the girl grins when she manages to gain a small smile from Tiffany.
"I like it," Tiffany lies as she can't possibly like a movie that she wasn't paying attention to.
"Then why—"
"Do you miss home?"
Taeyeon was taken aback from the rather unexpected question judging by how her smile turned upside down. "What do you mean?"
Tiffany sighs, her hand unconsciously fisting on Taeyeon's shirt. "Out there. Do you miss it?"
"Sometimes… I guess." Taeyeon mutters and her hands moved down to rest on Tiffany's shoulders. She was starting to feel uneasy as she listened to the unusual mellow tone in Tiffany's voice.
"Do you ever…" Tiffany pauses as she felt herself falter a bit when the answer she could get wouldn't be pleasant. But she had to know. "Do you ever think about going back? Permanently?"
Taeyeon doesn't miss a pause as she answered, "Only if you were there with me." Sincerity bled in her tone and Tiffany sees the maturity in Taeyeon's eyes. "Everytime I think about it... everytime I think about going somewhere…it's always with you." Her frown deepens as her eyebrows furrowed in puzzlement. "I don't understand it but I do know that I always want to be with you."
Tiffany blinks, not having expected to hear an answer akin to the one she just received. She tries to breathe and realizes that she has been holding her breath all the while. She stares back into Taeyeon's green-speckled brown eyes and she almost laughs when it dawns on her that this Taeyeon isn't the same childlike and curious as cat alien she had agreed to take care of two years back. Taeyeon now, although still childlike and curious at times, was also a lot more…mature. Emotionally wise specially.
She grins, heart skipping when Taeyeon grinned along with her. Tiffany's hand leaves the alien's lower back as she moved it to brush away the strands of blonde hair that covered the girl's face. She lets her fingers tuck the stray locks of fringes that fell over Taeyeon's eyes to the back of her ear and give herself an unhindered view of her most favorite pair of eyes in the entire universe.
"Do you think you love me?"
Taeyeon giggled. "Weren't we already clear on that years ago?" she playfully knocks her forehead against Tiffany's but is flustered when the previously passive hand on her cheek moved to the back of her head and held her in place. She feels her instincts stir when she notices how Tiffany's eyes drifted down to her lips.
Tiffany was teetering on the edge and she forces herself not to do anything stupid or rash. She feels that she should wait a bit more, when Taeyeon would understand matters that regarded personal romance and for herself to be clearer on her own feelings.
Deciding to prolong the personal torture, she averts her eyes from the alien's mouth and was about to offer to continue watching the movie but Taeyeon surprises her when soft lips were pressed on a corner of her mouth—almost touching hers and just a bit of movement from Tiffany would completely seal their lips but she stays still.
This was different from the usual pecks she had received from the alien because Taeyeon's lips lingered long enough for it to be a more than platonic gesture. The smile on Taeyeon's face was infinitely brighter when she pulls back and Tiffany catches the pink hue that covered her cheeks all the way to her ears.
Tiffany was about to speak but she finds herself at loss for words and it isn't until they registered the sound of gunshots from the television did they erupt in laughter.
"Let's rewind the movie?" Tiffany smiled and Taeyeon nods before shifting to face the television again and comfortably leaning her back on Tiffany's front. She grabs the remote and rewinds the movie to a familiar scene before tossing the remote beside her and she secures her arms around Taeyeon's waist.
Feeling a bit bolder, she leans over the alien's shoulder and returns the kiss Taeyeon had given on the corner of her lips.
"Thank you for always wanting to be with me." She murmurs on the soft skin and pulls away to casually dig her chin on Taeyeon's shoulder and pretend to be immersed in the movie. She smiles though, as fingers slowly filled the gaps between her own and she feels Taeyeon softly squeeze her hand in affection.
And Tiffany thinks to herself,
I really do love her.