fic: who i was, from the start
Yoona crouched in front of the oven to set the timer. The box said to bake for twenty-two minutes but she set it for twenty minutes because she liked the cookies to be a bit doughy.
“I’m starving,” Yuri moaned as she entered the kitchen. She eyed the bowl Yoona and Jiyoung had used to mix the ingredients. “Are you finished with this?”
Yoona nodded and Yuri snatched the bowl, scraping out any leftover dough.
“Don’t eat that, you’re going to get a stomachache,” Yoona said, moving to take the bowl out of Yuri’s hands but the stench that emitted from Yuri pushed her backwards. “Oh God, why do you smell like you’ve been swimming in vodka?”
“Some moron spilled his drink all over me.”
“You just came back from the club?”
It was eight in the morning; Yuri usually returned to the pool house around three or four, five the latest when she DJ’ed.
“Yea. Didn’t I tell you? Seunghyun gave me the full shift but then he invited me to this party afterwards and I accidentally fell asleep there for a few hours.”
Yoona began putting some of the dishes and utensils into the dishwasher.
“Must have been some party,” Yoona mumbled, the jealousy evident in her voice. She had no reason to be, Yuri wasn’t the type to fool around, but Yoona knew exactly what went on at those parties and how they changed people.
“I was exhausted. From work. I was barely awake for that party.”
Yuri leaned on the counter and tilted her head back, enjoying the small pieces of cookie dough. She hadn’t eaten since the day before and had been on her feet the whole time, except for when she took a nap at the party.
Yoona paused in putting away the dishes, entranced by Yuri. She gripped the plate in her hand, her fingernails scraping against the surface. Yuri sucked on the sweet spoon, completely unaware of the effect she was having on Yoona. Yoona licked her lips and let her mouth fall open-she had never been so envious of an inanimate object before.
“That was good,” Yuri sighed in content, dropping the bowl into the sink.
Yoona rushed to the refrigerator and opened the freezer, her warm face greeting the icy air happily. She made a show of looking for something as she asked Yuri, unable to hide her slight stutter.
“Do-do you want me to make you a sandwich? It’s better than eating raw cookie dough.”
“It’s okay. I’m just going to go shower and sleep.”
When Yuri was gone Yoona closed the freezer and put her cheek to the door. There was only so much she could endure before she reached a cracking point, and she was rapidly nearing it.
*
With Yuri out cold, Yoona didn’t have much to do. Usually it was her that would party until Saturday morning, sleep the day away, repeat the process and wait for Monday. She thought she could play with Jiyoung but after making cookies, the girl had crashed from a sugar rush and was snoozing in her bed as well.
A swim would have done her good so she gathered the necessary things and went outside. After a few laps she was distracted with the distant opening and closing of a car door. It could have been one of her parents but the music that played before the car was shut off wasn’t anything her mother or father listened to.
She floated in the water, waiting. When she saw who it was, she wished she could have dived into the water and disappeared.
Tiffany slid her sunglasses on the top of her head as she stepped to the pool.
“How’s the water?”
“Fine.”
Yoona had absolutely no desire in conversing with Tiffany, but Tiffany had other thoughts.
“I’ve always wanted a big pool like this but my family went for the skimpy, fancy kind. I used to hide boys behind the waterfall but they could never hold their breath long enough.”
Tiffany grinned, like she was implying something else but despite how suggestive it was, it was still beautiful. How did a girl like Tiffany manage to be otherworldly sexy but classy at the same time?
“If you’re looking for Yuri, she’s sleeping.”
“So that’s why she hasn’t been answering her phone. I wasn’t sure if I was interrupting anything…” Tiffany bent to slip off her shoes. “If you don’t mind, I’ll stay until the cat wakes up.”
“Cat?”
Tiffany sat at the edge of the pool and put her legs into the water.
“Yea, you know. She sticks her tongue out when she sleeps, like cats sometimes do.”
There was one reaction Tiffany expected right off the bat from Yoona-anger-which Yoona showed quickly but there was hidden resentment there as well, as if she was jealous Tiffany got to see such an intimate act and Yoona didn’t. Tiffany wasn’t pestering Yoona for fun; it was a proven fact that a person was more likely to tell the truth than lie when angry.
“You haven’t seen it yet? That’s a shame, it’s kinda cute.”
Yoona suddenly felt very naked in her swimsuit, even if the water covered her. It also didn’t help that Tiffany had some upper hand; Yoona wasn’t used to being the one bullied.
“Does Yuri talk about me?”
The water was getting cold and Yoona wanted out but she really didn’t want to walk out half naked in front of Tiffany. Instead, she swam to the corner of the pool and responded without looking at Tiffany.
“No.”
Tiffany wasn’t offended but it wasn’t the answer she wanted. If Yuri was over Tiffany, then she should have had no problem talking about her. However, it was possible she never came up in a conversation. None of it mattered though, if Tiffany couldn’t see Yoona’s reaction than there was no point in further irritating Yoona. People lied, but the face never did.
Luckily for Yoona, Yuri had awoken and came outside. She looked between the two of them warily.
“Tiffany, hey.”
“Afternoon loser. Sleep well?”
“Yes…” Yuri drew out the word, still very unsure what Tiffany was doing here. “Did you need to talk to me?”
Tiffany took her legs out of the water and stood, taking her shoes with her.
“The insurance company sent me some papers you need to sign. I came by to drop them off.”
Yuri followed Tiffany to the car hoping Tiffany would give her the papers and leave.
“You can’t just show up like this Tiffany.”
“I called, Yuri. I’m sorry for thinking this was too important to wait.”
Yuri didn’t mean to be rude. But Tiffany was a bit unhinged sometimes and Yuri feared what the girl talked about with Yoona.
“You surprised me, I’m sorry.”
Tiffany sat in the driver’s seat with the car door wide open while she opened the glove box and obtained the large manila envelope for Yuri.
“I gave the guy my address since I didn’t know where you were going to be staying at the time so that’s why I got it. He told me that on your birthday you have to get these notarized, bring them back to the office and the house is yours. For good.”
It was less than two weeks away. Yuri would be back home and in her bed in less than two weeks; the feeling was unbelievably relieving.
“Thank you.”
Tiffany turned on the car and leaned against the headrest while she looked up.
“You need to talk to Yoona about us.”
The sudden change in topic flustered Yuri.
“W-what?”
“She knows we were more than friends. Or she at least suspects it.”
“How do you know that? What’d you tell her?”
“I didn’t tell her anything, but she looks at me like I’m the child of Satan and I don’t think she would if she didn’t think I was sleeping with you. You need to reassure her because if you don’t do it now and often, there will be problems later on.”
“Are you telling me as a psychologist or a friend?”
“Both. Neither of you trusts the other implicitly and that’s already going to start shit-”
“You don’t know what we were like before, things were different.”
“Exactly, that was years ago. Don’t fool yourself into thinking you can go back to being happy go lucky BFFs.”
It was a miserable thing to hear, but true. Yuri wasn’t sure if they could fix everything that broke them and that scared her more than anything. The look of worry on Yuri’s face hurt Tiffany more than it should have. She took Yuri’s hand and tried to sound as encouraging as she could.
“But that doesn’t mean you can’t be better.” Tiffany thought that would lift Yuri’s mood but the girl’s expression didn’t change. “Want to know a secret?”
Yuri grinned, anticipating some cocky or suggestive advice but was instead met with the utmost sincerity.
“Don’t let anyone tell you that love isn’t enough, because it is. All the issues people use as excuses to end relationships-trust, loyalty, honesty-if you love someone, really love them, then you’ll work it out.”
“That seems a bit idealist.”
Tiffany was never pessimistic, but she was never this optimistic either.
“Would you rather have me be a cynical cranky prick?”
That would have been impossible, it just wasn’t in Tiffany’s nature. It was why Yuri had always been so attracted to the girl.
“No, I guess not. What am I going to do when you get your license? I’m not going to be able to afford your advice.”
Tiffany’s small moment of seriousness passed and she smiled, running her fingers up Yuri’s arm.
“I’m sure I could find you a different form of payment.” Yuri laughed and shooed Tiffany’s hand away. “Alright, I’m going to go. When I left, Sooyoung was playing Rock Band and sometimes she gets a little bit too into it. I keep telling her that when the dude on the screen starts smashing his guitar, it doesn’t mean she has to but she never listens.”
Yuri laughed again and told Tiffany goodbye before stepping back from the car. She stayed on the driveway until Tiffany’s car was out of sight and then walked back to the pool. Yoona was still in the water and Yuri didn’t speak until Yoona swam to the edge.
“So, that was Tiffany. I was hoping I’d be there when you met her.”
“It’s okay, we didn’t wait long.”
They talked long enough for Tiffany to come up with an analysis and that was already too long for Yuri.
Yuri put the envelope with the papers on a pool chair and sat down with her legs in the water as she asked Yoona in a nonchalant manner.
“What did you guys talk about?”
“Nothing really. Like I said, we didn’t wait long,” Yoona replied, resting her elbows on the tiles not far from Yuri.
Obviously, it was a lie but Yuri didn’t push. It mustn’t have been anything too incriminating.
Yoona wanted to know more about Tiffany’s relationship with Yuri but she needed to be careful and act like she was completely clueless. She rubbed her finger on the grout between the tiles as she asked her question.
“Is she a friend of the family or…?”
Yuri took a deep breath; this was what Tiffany had mentioned and even though Yuri didn’t think it was necessary, she thought it would be better to be safe than sorry. She began explaining from the day she met Tiffany.
“No, we met in high school.”
“High school? Our high school?”
“Yea, but you’ve never seen her before because she had already graduated by the time you came to the school.”
Yoona found that odd, because it was rare for a senior to ever interact with lowerclassmen, especially someone as low as a freshman.
“So you met her when she was a senior?”
Yuri picked up on Yoona’s hint of disbelief.
“I wouldn’t have if it weren’t for my circumstances.” Yuri paused, recollecting her memories. It wasn’t something she liked remembering let alone talking about but she pushed forward. “After the accident, I stopped eating. My appetite was gone completely and on some days I had to force myself to eat something as small as an apple or a piece of bread. It got so bad that teachers started to notice and I was sent to the counselor because everyone thought I was anorexic.”
With each word Yoona felt like an angry hand was squeezing the blood out of her heart. She wasn’t there to see Yuri in that state because she was still in middle school but that wasn’t an excuse. If they had remained friends then she would have known.
“Since I had no one to pay for proper therapy, the school issued a mandatory counseling session a couple of times a week. Part of that counseling was to talk to someone, a “peer,” as they put it. Someone close to my age, who could understand the stress of being a student, loss-that kind of stuff.”
“And the person was Tiffany,” Yoona inferred, fitting all the pieces into place.
“At first I didn’t understand how anyone let such a crazy person be part of counseling because sometimes the things that came out of her mouth were just-”
Yuri didn’t finish and remembered those sessions with Tiffany as she smiled. They were outrageous and often had nothing to do with counseling but maybe that was the point. Maybe Tiffany knew it was better to laugh about something stupid than to let Yuri painfully wallow in the memories of her lost parents.
“But it worked, didn’t it? She helped you.”
Yuri nodded and leaned forward with the heel of her palms gripping the edge of the pool. The water slapped against the walls of the pool as she moved her legs.
“She did. I gradually started to eat more and returned to a healthy weight. But I didn’t stop seeing Tiffany after the counseling was over.” She had never been ashamed of being with Tiffany, but explaining it to Yoona was something she didn’t think she’d have to do this soon. “By that time I had alienated so many people, I didn’t really have any close friends in high school. Tiffany stuck by me for the rest of the year. She said I was more mature than half of the seniors she knew.”
“What happened when she graduated?” Yoona asked, drawing closer to Yuri.
“She went to college but she visited often. I assumed it was to see her parents, or that she was homesick but she started staying at my house almost every time she came to town. I thought she pitied me or something, but it turned out it was more than that.”
Yoona’s voice dropped down to a whisper when she spoke.
“She fell in love with you.”
Yuri smiled sadly and she shook her head.
“Tiffany loved me, but she never fell in love with me. She said it messed people up and she was already considered insane by most so she couldn’t afford to be even more damaged. She said she didn’t want to be like the patients she would treat.”
Yuri remembered being furious, she remembered telling Tiffany to never come back, she remembered crying because she didn’t understand why everyone kept leaving her. But Tiffany did come back, and Yuri hadn’t been strong enough to keep pushing her away.
“Did you fall in love with her?”
Yoona almost didn’t want an answer. Yuri talked about Tiffany like the girl was some lost love. Yuri might as well have told Yoona she didn’t stand a chance, so why bother.
“I could have, but she didn’t let me.” Yuri used her index finger to smudge some of the water on Yoona’s arm. The skin was covered in goosebumps. “You should get out of the water, it’s getting dark.”
Yoona hadn’t noticed the gray clouds that hid the sun. She swam to the steps and walked out. Yuri waited for her with a towel and draped it over Yoona’s shoulders. She took the corner of the towel and tenderly wiped Yoona’s cheeks and neck.
“Would you have fallen for her now if she let you?”
The question paralyzed Yuri for a second. She quickly recovered and resumed drying Yoona. Her hand moved to Yoona’s chin, her thumb dangerously close to Yoona’s mouth. She smiled because the answer couldn't be any clearer for her.
“No, because I’m already in love with someone else.”
**
AN: A shorter one, but YulTi's history is revealed. Speaking of YulTi, I'll be posting up a YulTi oneshot that takes place in the AU of who I was, from the start sometime later in the week. And I have a formspring! Anything you're too scared to ask here, ask there. I'll try to answer every question :D Update on the 5th :]
“I’m starving,” Yuri moaned as she entered the kitchen. She eyed the bowl Yoona and Jiyoung had used to mix the ingredients. “Are you finished with this?”
Yoona nodded and Yuri snatched the bowl, scraping out any leftover dough.
“Don’t eat that, you’re going to get a stomachache,” Yoona said, moving to take the bowl out of Yuri’s hands but the stench that emitted from Yuri pushed her backwards. “Oh God, why do you smell like you’ve been swimming in vodka?”
“Some moron spilled his drink all over me.”
“You just came back from the club?”
It was eight in the morning; Yuri usually returned to the pool house around three or four, five the latest when she DJ’ed.
“Yea. Didn’t I tell you? Seunghyun gave me the full shift but then he invited me to this party afterwards and I accidentally fell asleep there for a few hours.”
Yoona began putting some of the dishes and utensils into the dishwasher.
“Must have been some party,” Yoona mumbled, the jealousy evident in her voice. She had no reason to be, Yuri wasn’t the type to fool around, but Yoona knew exactly what went on at those parties and how they changed people.
“I was exhausted. From work. I was barely awake for that party.”
Yuri leaned on the counter and tilted her head back, enjoying the small pieces of cookie dough. She hadn’t eaten since the day before and had been on her feet the whole time, except for when she took a nap at the party.
Yoona paused in putting away the dishes, entranced by Yuri. She gripped the plate in her hand, her fingernails scraping against the surface. Yuri sucked on the sweet spoon, completely unaware of the effect she was having on Yoona. Yoona licked her lips and let her mouth fall open-she had never been so envious of an inanimate object before.
“That was good,” Yuri sighed in content, dropping the bowl into the sink.
Yoona rushed to the refrigerator and opened the freezer, her warm face greeting the icy air happily. She made a show of looking for something as she asked Yuri, unable to hide her slight stutter.
“Do-do you want me to make you a sandwich? It’s better than eating raw cookie dough.”
“It’s okay. I’m just going to go shower and sleep.”
When Yuri was gone Yoona closed the freezer and put her cheek to the door. There was only so much she could endure before she reached a cracking point, and she was rapidly nearing it.
*
With Yuri out cold, Yoona didn’t have much to do. Usually it was her that would party until Saturday morning, sleep the day away, repeat the process and wait for Monday. She thought she could play with Jiyoung but after making cookies, the girl had crashed from a sugar rush and was snoozing in her bed as well.
A swim would have done her good so she gathered the necessary things and went outside. After a few laps she was distracted with the distant opening and closing of a car door. It could have been one of her parents but the music that played before the car was shut off wasn’t anything her mother or father listened to.
She floated in the water, waiting. When she saw who it was, she wished she could have dived into the water and disappeared.
Tiffany slid her sunglasses on the top of her head as she stepped to the pool.
“How’s the water?”
“Fine.”
Yoona had absolutely no desire in conversing with Tiffany, but Tiffany had other thoughts.
“I’ve always wanted a big pool like this but my family went for the skimpy, fancy kind. I used to hide boys behind the waterfall but they could never hold their breath long enough.”
Tiffany grinned, like she was implying something else but despite how suggestive it was, it was still beautiful. How did a girl like Tiffany manage to be otherworldly sexy but classy at the same time?
“If you’re looking for Yuri, she’s sleeping.”
“So that’s why she hasn’t been answering her phone. I wasn’t sure if I was interrupting anything…” Tiffany bent to slip off her shoes. “If you don’t mind, I’ll stay until the cat wakes up.”
“Cat?”
Tiffany sat at the edge of the pool and put her legs into the water.
“Yea, you know. She sticks her tongue out when she sleeps, like cats sometimes do.”
There was one reaction Tiffany expected right off the bat from Yoona-anger-which Yoona showed quickly but there was hidden resentment there as well, as if she was jealous Tiffany got to see such an intimate act and Yoona didn’t. Tiffany wasn’t pestering Yoona for fun; it was a proven fact that a person was more likely to tell the truth than lie when angry.
“You haven’t seen it yet? That’s a shame, it’s kinda cute.”
Yoona suddenly felt very naked in her swimsuit, even if the water covered her. It also didn’t help that Tiffany had some upper hand; Yoona wasn’t used to being the one bullied.
“Does Yuri talk about me?”
The water was getting cold and Yoona wanted out but she really didn’t want to walk out half naked in front of Tiffany. Instead, she swam to the corner of the pool and responded without looking at Tiffany.
“No.”
Tiffany wasn’t offended but it wasn’t the answer she wanted. If Yuri was over Tiffany, then she should have had no problem talking about her. However, it was possible she never came up in a conversation. None of it mattered though, if Tiffany couldn’t see Yoona’s reaction than there was no point in further irritating Yoona. People lied, but the face never did.
Luckily for Yoona, Yuri had awoken and came outside. She looked between the two of them warily.
“Tiffany, hey.”
“Afternoon loser. Sleep well?”
“Yes…” Yuri drew out the word, still very unsure what Tiffany was doing here. “Did you need to talk to me?”
Tiffany took her legs out of the water and stood, taking her shoes with her.
“The insurance company sent me some papers you need to sign. I came by to drop them off.”
Yuri followed Tiffany to the car hoping Tiffany would give her the papers and leave.
“You can’t just show up like this Tiffany.”
“I called, Yuri. I’m sorry for thinking this was too important to wait.”
Yuri didn’t mean to be rude. But Tiffany was a bit unhinged sometimes and Yuri feared what the girl talked about with Yoona.
“You surprised me, I’m sorry.”
Tiffany sat in the driver’s seat with the car door wide open while she opened the glove box and obtained the large manila envelope for Yuri.
“I gave the guy my address since I didn’t know where you were going to be staying at the time so that’s why I got it. He told me that on your birthday you have to get these notarized, bring them back to the office and the house is yours. For good.”
It was less than two weeks away. Yuri would be back home and in her bed in less than two weeks; the feeling was unbelievably relieving.
“Thank you.”
Tiffany turned on the car and leaned against the headrest while she looked up.
“You need to talk to Yoona about us.”
The sudden change in topic flustered Yuri.
“W-what?”
“She knows we were more than friends. Or she at least suspects it.”
“How do you know that? What’d you tell her?”
“I didn’t tell her anything, but she looks at me like I’m the child of Satan and I don’t think she would if she didn’t think I was sleeping with you. You need to reassure her because if you don’t do it now and often, there will be problems later on.”
“Are you telling me as a psychologist or a friend?”
“Both. Neither of you trusts the other implicitly and that’s already going to start shit-”
“You don’t know what we were like before, things were different.”
“Exactly, that was years ago. Don’t fool yourself into thinking you can go back to being happy go lucky BFFs.”
It was a miserable thing to hear, but true. Yuri wasn’t sure if they could fix everything that broke them and that scared her more than anything. The look of worry on Yuri’s face hurt Tiffany more than it should have. She took Yuri’s hand and tried to sound as encouraging as she could.
“But that doesn’t mean you can’t be better.” Tiffany thought that would lift Yuri’s mood but the girl’s expression didn’t change. “Want to know a secret?”
Yuri grinned, anticipating some cocky or suggestive advice but was instead met with the utmost sincerity.
“Don’t let anyone tell you that love isn’t enough, because it is. All the issues people use as excuses to end relationships-trust, loyalty, honesty-if you love someone, really love them, then you’ll work it out.”
“That seems a bit idealist.”
Tiffany was never pessimistic, but she was never this optimistic either.
“Would you rather have me be a cynical cranky prick?”
That would have been impossible, it just wasn’t in Tiffany’s nature. It was why Yuri had always been so attracted to the girl.
“No, I guess not. What am I going to do when you get your license? I’m not going to be able to afford your advice.”
Tiffany’s small moment of seriousness passed and she smiled, running her fingers up Yuri’s arm.
“I’m sure I could find you a different form of payment.” Yuri laughed and shooed Tiffany’s hand away. “Alright, I’m going to go. When I left, Sooyoung was playing Rock Band and sometimes she gets a little bit too into it. I keep telling her that when the dude on the screen starts smashing his guitar, it doesn’t mean she has to but she never listens.”
Yuri laughed again and told Tiffany goodbye before stepping back from the car. She stayed on the driveway until Tiffany’s car was out of sight and then walked back to the pool. Yoona was still in the water and Yuri didn’t speak until Yoona swam to the edge.
“So, that was Tiffany. I was hoping I’d be there when you met her.”
“It’s okay, we didn’t wait long.”
They talked long enough for Tiffany to come up with an analysis and that was already too long for Yuri.
Yuri put the envelope with the papers on a pool chair and sat down with her legs in the water as she asked Yoona in a nonchalant manner.
“What did you guys talk about?”
“Nothing really. Like I said, we didn’t wait long,” Yoona replied, resting her elbows on the tiles not far from Yuri.
Obviously, it was a lie but Yuri didn’t push. It mustn’t have been anything too incriminating.
Yoona wanted to know more about Tiffany’s relationship with Yuri but she needed to be careful and act like she was completely clueless. She rubbed her finger on the grout between the tiles as she asked her question.
“Is she a friend of the family or…?”
Yuri took a deep breath; this was what Tiffany had mentioned and even though Yuri didn’t think it was necessary, she thought it would be better to be safe than sorry. She began explaining from the day she met Tiffany.
“No, we met in high school.”
“High school? Our high school?”
“Yea, but you’ve never seen her before because she had already graduated by the time you came to the school.”
Yoona found that odd, because it was rare for a senior to ever interact with lowerclassmen, especially someone as low as a freshman.
“So you met her when she was a senior?”
Yuri picked up on Yoona’s hint of disbelief.
“I wouldn’t have if it weren’t for my circumstances.” Yuri paused, recollecting her memories. It wasn’t something she liked remembering let alone talking about but she pushed forward. “After the accident, I stopped eating. My appetite was gone completely and on some days I had to force myself to eat something as small as an apple or a piece of bread. It got so bad that teachers started to notice and I was sent to the counselor because everyone thought I was anorexic.”
With each word Yoona felt like an angry hand was squeezing the blood out of her heart. She wasn’t there to see Yuri in that state because she was still in middle school but that wasn’t an excuse. If they had remained friends then she would have known.
“Since I had no one to pay for proper therapy, the school issued a mandatory counseling session a couple of times a week. Part of that counseling was to talk to someone, a “peer,” as they put it. Someone close to my age, who could understand the stress of being a student, loss-that kind of stuff.”
“And the person was Tiffany,” Yoona inferred, fitting all the pieces into place.
“At first I didn’t understand how anyone let such a crazy person be part of counseling because sometimes the things that came out of her mouth were just-”
Yuri didn’t finish and remembered those sessions with Tiffany as she smiled. They were outrageous and often had nothing to do with counseling but maybe that was the point. Maybe Tiffany knew it was better to laugh about something stupid than to let Yuri painfully wallow in the memories of her lost parents.
“But it worked, didn’t it? She helped you.”
Yuri nodded and leaned forward with the heel of her palms gripping the edge of the pool. The water slapped against the walls of the pool as she moved her legs.
“She did. I gradually started to eat more and returned to a healthy weight. But I didn’t stop seeing Tiffany after the counseling was over.” She had never been ashamed of being with Tiffany, but explaining it to Yoona was something she didn’t think she’d have to do this soon. “By that time I had alienated so many people, I didn’t really have any close friends in high school. Tiffany stuck by me for the rest of the year. She said I was more mature than half of the seniors she knew.”
“What happened when she graduated?” Yoona asked, drawing closer to Yuri.
“She went to college but she visited often. I assumed it was to see her parents, or that she was homesick but she started staying at my house almost every time she came to town. I thought she pitied me or something, but it turned out it was more than that.”
Yoona’s voice dropped down to a whisper when she spoke.
“She fell in love with you.”
Yuri smiled sadly and she shook her head.
“Tiffany loved me, but she never fell in love with me. She said it messed people up and she was already considered insane by most so she couldn’t afford to be even more damaged. She said she didn’t want to be like the patients she would treat.”
Yuri remembered being furious, she remembered telling Tiffany to never come back, she remembered crying because she didn’t understand why everyone kept leaving her. But Tiffany did come back, and Yuri hadn’t been strong enough to keep pushing her away.
“Did you fall in love with her?”
Yoona almost didn’t want an answer. Yuri talked about Tiffany like the girl was some lost love. Yuri might as well have told Yoona she didn’t stand a chance, so why bother.
“I could have, but she didn’t let me.” Yuri used her index finger to smudge some of the water on Yoona’s arm. The skin was covered in goosebumps. “You should get out of the water, it’s getting dark.”
Yoona hadn’t noticed the gray clouds that hid the sun. She swam to the steps and walked out. Yuri waited for her with a towel and draped it over Yoona’s shoulders. She took the corner of the towel and tenderly wiped Yoona’s cheeks and neck.
“Would you have fallen for her now if she let you?”
The question paralyzed Yuri for a second. She quickly recovered and resumed drying Yoona. Her hand moved to Yoona’s chin, her thumb dangerously close to Yoona’s mouth. She smiled because the answer couldn't be any clearer for her.
“No, because I’m already in love with someone else.”
**
AN: A shorter one, but YulTi's history is revealed. Speaking of YulTi, I'll be posting up a YulTi oneshot that takes place in the AU of who I was, from the start sometime later in the week. And I have a formspring! Anything you're too scared to ask here, ask there. I'll try to answer every question :D Update on the 5th :]