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Jihyo is small.
It’s no big secret. She’s always been small, but somehow it’s not the first thing people notice about her, which is interesting in itself because you’d assume, of course, the first thing someone would notice when they meet someone new is whether they’re big, or small, or somewhere in between.
It hits Tzuyu one day out of nowhere, that, actually - Jihyo Unnie is really tiny.
“Jeongyeon Unnie,” the youngest girl calls out absently, fixated on sharing this new found revelation with whoever was closest, “Has Jihyo Unnie always been so...small?”
The older girl had perked up at her name being called, leaning in with genuine interested that quickly morphed into a teasing smile at the confused question. They’re three minutes into their fifteen minute break during practice, an exhausted pile of loose limbs slumped against the mirror or loud complaints on the chairs opposite, either trying to catch their breath or nudge another member into giving up a little bit of their recovery time to massage away the aches and pains in their calves. Jeongyeon motions for her to budge up a bit and she does, scooting further along the mirror so the older girl can collapse next to her.
“You only just noticed?” She offers a half-drunk bottle of water with a small grin.
Tzuyu takes it gratefully, gulping down most of its contents eagerly. “I mean, I always knew she was small, I just-“
She inclines her head towards the seats across the room and the girl curled up tiredly on them, legs tucked under her chin as she scrolls through her phone. Her mouth opens wide in a sleepy yawn she doesn’t bother to hide, rubbing at her eyes sluggishly to try and wipe away the exhaustion of a full day of schedules catching up with them.
It’s cute.
“- guess I didn’t realise just how small.” She finishes quietly, shrugging in disinterest as she passes the bottle back to Jeongyeon.
The older girl smiles fondly, scooching closer to Tzuyu to slump partially against her shoulder.
“It comes as a surprise, right? You’ve always known her as confident Jihyo - as leader Jihyo with a big personality and an impossibly bigger voice.” She laughs lightly, humming wistfully. “She hasn’t always been like this. God she was so tiny when I first met her.”
“But she’s already so tiny!”
“Yuh-huh. Even tinier than now. I joined the company and imagine my surprise when I learned that the itty-bitty, barely a teenager trainee who didn’t even come up to my chin had already been at the company for five god damn years. God she was so cute - what happened?”
Tzuyu bristles in defence of her leader.
“She’s still really cute.”
“Yeah,” Jeong sighs softly, lips still tugged up in a gentle smile, “She still is.”
Jeongyeon leaves Tzuyu to her thoughts for a few moments, taking several, large gulps of the ice cold water before continuing.
“Makes you just kind of want to wrap her up into a hug all the time, huh?”
She considers denying it, but the older girl is more than just a little right. Because that's exactly what she'd been thinking; just how perfectly Jihyo would fit against her side, or if she came up behind her to rest her chin on top of her head and wrap her arms around her waist. She nods instead, and Jeongyeon smiles warmly.
“Good, because you should you know.”
Tzuyu frowns confusedly. “What?”
“Hug her. A lot.” Jeongyeon watches the girls on the other side of the room carefully and Tzuyu watches with her, looks at the way the sleep seems to melt out of Jihyo's smile as Momo curls up next to her on the floor, “You met Jihyo when she was a lot more confident than the tiny little twelve year old I knew, but trust me when I say she's still that tiny little twelve year old underneath all the bravado”
She doesn't get to respond because their choreographer claps, loud and commanding from the other side of the room, and a chorus of groans resounds from the other girls as they all pull themselves to their feet and get back into position for another stretch of learning this new choreography. Jeongyeon doesn't say anything else. She just smiles warmly, clapping a reassuring hand on Tzuyu's shoulder and dragging the younger girl onto her feet and into the centre of the room with everyone else.
The music starts again and she's already a little tired of this new song; it's not that she doesn't like it, it's just not exactly her taste in music, but her body moves on automatic to the annoyingly familiar rhythm and she can't help but smile as Jihyo falls into step beside her, all traces of sleep gone from her features and fiercely determined as she moves into the next step.
The look on her face makes it that little bit harder to believe the words Jeongyeon had just told her, because there's no way this Jihyo could be anything other than upfront and demanding; strength in every part of her, from the way she executed each move with pinpoint precision and power, to the rigid, determined expression set on her face as she watched herself in the wide mirror. Too lost in her thoughts, Tzuyu stumbled in her next step, catching the eye of the watchful choreographer in the mirror. She gulps under her piercing, all knowing gaze, forcing any thought that wasn't related to dancing to the back of her mind and counted every single step in her head. Didn’t notice the way Jihyo diligently watched her instead of herself after that.
The music ends. It starts. They do it all over again, and again, until their limbs are sore and their choreographer finally, finally calls it a day just before Chaeyoung sprawls dramatically on the floor with Dahyun following closely behind her, and Momo and Sana use this as an open invitation to take advantage of their tiredness to start an impromptu cuddle puddle of exhausted limbs and sleepy giggles amidst all of them trying to gain their breath back on the floor. They're a mess; loud and distracting enough that Tzuyu was almost too busy watching Dahyun accidentally wedge her elbow into Momo's sternum to see Jihyo automatically make a beeline for Nayeon on the other side of the room.
The way Nayeon extends her arm in an open offer is automatic, Jihyo slotting tiredly against the oldest girls side and leaning heavily on her as Nayeon swipes through her phone and the countless notifications she'd gotten since they'd stepped into the room and consequently the ‘no phone zone’.
Nayeon isn't tall by any means. She's definitely not as small as most of the other members in the group, but she's definitely not tall, because Tzuyu can still see straight over the top of her head if she stands in front of her and Nayeon has to look up to look her in the eyes when they speak. And yet, somehow, she seems to be the largest person in the room with Jihyo tucked against her side.
It doesn't make any sense. None at all. Jihyo couldn't possibly be that small. She was taller than Chaeyoung and Dahyun for sure, but why could Tzuyu not wrap her head around the fact that Nayeon looked positively giant with Jihyo nuzzling more and more firmly into her sweater. Nayeon looks down at the younger girl fondly even though she doesn't see it, eyes tightly shut as she all but relies on Nayeon to guide her through the door and down the hallway to the van waiting in the garage, and it starts to dawn on Tzuyu that Jihyo being small has nothing to do with measurements or her size at all.
Maybe, just maybe, Jeongyeon had been right.
She notices it more after that.
Mostly when all the cameras were off and they could finally retire to the sanctity of their dorm for the night, out of sight and out of mind of the thousands of eyes watching their every move every day without fail. It might be because she was looking out for it more, because surely she must have been blind not to notice it before - how Leader Jihyo takes front and centre the second their schedules begin and from the moment they take that first step out of the dorm in the morning, all the way through the day until their schedules are done and they don't have to practice and they can finally, finally, stop putting on a face for the world.
It's not all that bad, really. She loves the life she's chosen, and the people she's walking on this path with, but constantly being monitored and scrutinized for every little change in expression or slight slip of the tongue is… taxing, to say the very least, and she thinks she speaks for all of them when they say that one of the best parts of the day is getting home.
(Momo always says it's the stage, without fail. Dahyun too, but hers is seeing the faces of every single once, old and new watching them with the same, dedicated adoration that they do on the very first day they come to support them.)
Regardless, the relief is palpable as nine pairs of tired feet shuffle through the door, bags and coats getting tossed on the racks as several bodies immediately head for the couch to lie down, several more heading straight to the bathroom to clean away the day and take off the makeup that feels a little too constricting from time to time.
Tzuyu waits, and watches. Nayeon stretches her limbs with an exaggerated groan as she slumps back over the arm of the couch, complaining loudly when Chaeyoung swings her feet up into her lap but still pulls the younger girl more comfortably up amidst the grumbling and griping. There's a commotion in the hallway as Momo and Jeongyeon set off at a dead sprint towards the unoccupied bathroom, Momo whining as Jeongyeon makes it there just before her and spins around to stick her tongue out at the forlorn dancer and slams the door in her face.
Momo slumps against the door in frustration, before Mina kindly points out that it's just Sana in the other bathroom and she probably wouldn't mind sharing it with the other girl. Momo perks up, shooting Mina a gratuitous grin as she slinks off down the hallway in the direction of the other dancer.
Tzuyu smiles, shaking her head slightly. There's an accompanying soft chuckle just behind her, and she turns around to see Jihyo closing the door and shuffling to the shoe rack to take off her shoes. She'd been watching Momo and Jeongyeon too, a certain soft fondness on her face and in the small smile etched into her cheeks.
Tzuyu can't help but smile a little wider.
She tries not to loom when her little leader stands comfortably by her side, knowing how annoyed Chaeyoung gets when Tzuyu makes it obvious that she's magnifying their difference in height, but it's… more than a little difficult. Especially when Jihyo is slumped over from the exhaustion of a long day, even leaning slightly against her as she takes a moment to take in the relative peace and quiet of being home.
She's small enough that Tzuyu can see entirely over her head and into the kitchen. Small enough that she could even rest her chin atop her head without having to stretch even a little. A perfect sort of fit. The kind that makes Tzuyu want to wrap an arm around the older girl and let her rest her tired head against her shoulder, have her safe and warm in her arms.
The thought of Jihyo falling asleep on her flashed through her mind. She didn't even fight just how appealing it sounded right now.
Her arm is this close to actually stretching out and pulling her in when the peace and quiet is shattered by a matching set of ear piercing screams, causing Chaeyoung to almost fall off the couch if Nayeon didn't react fast enough to grab her arm. They all jump at the disruption, Jihyo and Tzuyu both instinctively moving closer into each other and every head snapping to the source of the screams to hear swift Japanese expletives and rapid fire arguing following it.
“Okay,” Mina breaks the uncertainty in the room quietly, slightly sheepish, “Maybe Sana did mind sharing.”
Jihyo sighs. Loud, and heavy.
“You can’t just walk into the bathroom while I’m in here!”
“It’s not like I haven’t seen it all before, I’m- OW! STOP HITTING ME!”
The way Jihyo grows is fascinating. Puffing up like a balloon, filling herself with the air and the effort to be the leader for a few moments longer amidst the pained screeches and the slaps echoing down the hallway. But she’s still little, and Tzuyu finds herself reaching out to pull her close before she thinks about it.
She was right about everything, because Jihyo slots ever so perfectly under her chin even if she has to stretch her neck the slightest amount. All the air Jihyo had filled into her lungs gets stuck for a moment, the older girl not entirely sure what to do with it now that there’s nowhere for it to go. Tzuyu can’t see, but she knows Jihyo has that look on her face. The confused one, where her eyebrows scrunch together slightly and her mouth disappears into a little firm line - the look that means Jihyo is confused, and it doesn’t happen often but Tzuyu just knows it’s there.
“Someone else will handle it,” Tzuyu sighs softly, arms reaching around to settle her hands loosely on Jihyo’s tummy, making sure there was no room for disagreement by simply tugging the older girl more firmly against her. Being the leader can wait a while longer.
She hears the intake of breath as she goes to speak, but Nayeon is already groaning from the other side of the room before she can voice her thoughts. Chaeyoung groans too as the eldest girl pulls her up off of the couch with her, saying something about needing reinforcements and some muscle to bash some heads together in the bathroom - and of course the younger girl practically beams at being referred to as the ‘muscle’, squashing down any complaint as she lets herself get put on the front-line of this newly formed dormitory war.
It’s only when the dynamic duo are halfway down the hallway, faces striped with war paint, that Jihyo finally lets out all the breath she’d been keeping in. The way she deflates is wonderful to feel, as though all the stress and worries in her body melted away in that one moment and she burrows more comfortably back into Tzuyu’s chest.
And Tzuyu likes every Jihyo. The strong Jihyo, who overcame every obstacle the world they lived in had thrown her way. And the kind Jihyo, who was warm, and welcoming, and made Tzuyu feel like she belongs in this foreign country that she’s never really been able to call home. But it’s close - she almost can. And that’s because of Jihyo.
It’s all Jihyo.
The screaming down the hallway has only amplified with Nayeon and Chaeyoung’s intervention, and Tzuyu’s not exactly sure who’s killing who at this point or if it’s just a free for all down there, but all that noise somehow fades in comparison to the contented hum that slips out of Jihyo when her fingers slip between Tzuyu’s.
(And maybe, just maybe, she thinks she likes tiny Jihyo best.)