Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Tzuyu sighs, her eyes scanning the row of people critically. She turns to Dahyun with an arched eyebrow. “Do some of these people even know how to use a bow?”

Dahyun shrugs, looking unbothered by the absolute atrocity that’s taking place in front of them. “Take it easy, Tzuyu. It’s only the first day of tryouts. Maybe they’re just nervous.”

“If they can’t handle perform well under pressure, they should’ve gone to soccer tryouts instead,” she mutters, crossing her arms.

Other schools have football or soccer or basketball—sports with huge stadiums and screaming fans and thundering cheers.

Their school has archery. It’s the only thing they consistently win awards and trophies in, and it’s considered the pride and joy of JYP High. Last year’s captain, Lee Sunmi, graduated, leaving Tzuyu with the captaincy and one open spot on the first-string team. Needless to say, Tzuyu’s very stressed on who will be the third member. 

She glances again the group of people who are currently shooting arrows at targets, pursing her lips. Everyone here is terrible. Only a select few can hit the target, and even then, they can only shoot a 7 at most.

Tzuyu pinches the bridge of her nose, looking away. She can’t handle looking at the endless arrows flying past the target and embedding themselves in the dirt. It’s too painful to watch. “Maybe we can convince Mina to join the team again.”

“She’d never go for it,” Dahyun replies. “You know how much she hated it.”

Tzuyu sighs, already expecting the answer but still feeling disappointed. Mina, upon the insistence of Dahyun freshman year, joined the archery team for a bit. She was good enough to compete with the older kids (and Tzuyu) for a first-string spot, but she hated the attention, so she quit soon after in favor of joining the video game club full-time.

She gestures at one of the girls who forgot to put on an arm guard, and now is complaining to a friend about the large red welt on her forearm. “I think Mina is our only chance at getting a good third player.”

“There’s two more days of tryouts,” Dahyun reminds her. “Someone might surprise you, you never know.”

Tzuyu makes a non-committal hum. It would take a miracle to find someone good in the next two days, but she’s praying to literally anyone out there. She’s aiming to win a trophy this year. They narrowly lost conference to SM Academy last year, and she wants nothing more than to beat them this year. 

She’ll find a qualified person, even if it’s the death of her.

“Tzuyu!”

Tzuyu winces at the loud screech from a familiar voice that haunts her nightmares. She notices Dahyun flinch beside her and slowly inch away from Tzuyu’s side. Tzuyu glares at her. If Dahyun leaves her alone, she’ll kill-

“Tzuyu!”

Tzuyu sighs and turns around. “Choonhee,” she says shortly.

“I’ve come to tryout for archery!” Choonhee looks terribly out of place in her low-cut tank top and ridiculously short shorts coupled with the leather glove and quiver strapped to her side.

Tzuyu grimaces. “Tryouts are almost over.” She looks to Dahyun for help, but the blonde girl seems to have vanished. Fucking coward, Tzuyu thinks, making a mental note to herself to murder Dahyun in her sleep later tonight.

“It’s okay, I’m ready to go.”

She searches her mind for a possible reason not to let Choonhee try out. She’s been obsessed with Tzuyu ever since freshman year. Choonhee does anything she can to have an excuse to spend time with Tzuyu, including pulling the fire alarm to get detention the same day Tzuyu had it (don’t ask her about getting detention, it’s a long story). It’s obvious Choonhee has no intention to actually do archery, but Tzuyu can’t come up with a plausible reason for Choonhee to leave.

“You might break a nail,” she ends up saying. She’s not wrong—pulling back and releasing the string could easily chip a few nails. Perhaps it would deter Choonhee from trying archery.

“Anything for you.” Choonhee throws Tzuyu a sickeningly sweet smile, and Tzuyu’s pretty sure she throws up in her mouth a bit.

“Right,” she mutters, accepting defeat. “Grab a bow then, I guess.”

Once Choonhee disappears, Dahyun magically reappears. Tzuyu discreetly flips her off. “I hate you.”

“You can’t blame me,” Dahyun protests. “There’s no way I’m gonna subject myself to the torture of being around her if I have other options.”

“We aren’t friends anymore.”

Dahyun rolls her eyes. “I call left side!” She runs away before Tzuyu can protest.

Great, now she’s stuck with watching Choonhee too. Forget stressing about finding a third member—Tzuyu’s going to kill herself long before the first match is scheduled.

They make it through two rounds without any problems (other than Choonhee’s constant pleading for Tzuyu to help her fix her stance), and Tzuyu thinks she might actually make it out of here alive.

“Tzuyu,” Choonhee says, crushing Tzuyu’s hopes and dreams. “I don’t feel very good.”

“We’ll take a water break in one round,” Tzuyu responds, dismissing it as another tactic to get Tzuyu to talk to her.

She doesn’t expect Choonhee’s eyes to roll up in the back of her head, or for Choonhee to collapse on the ground a second later.

“Water break, everyone!” Tzuyu calls out. She wards away some curious bystanders with a strong glare. “Dahyun, call Jihyo.”

This is what happens when you only drink iced lattes from Starbucks everyday, Tzuyu thinks, kneeling next to Choonhee’s body to check her pulse. Good, she’s still alive. The school administration would not have been happy if someone died under Tzuyu’s watch. She looks at Dahyun. “We should probably move her to the shade.”

“Do we have to touch her?” Dahyun asks, visibly cringing.

Tzuyu rolls her eyes. “Yes, now come over here.”

Right after they finish moving Choonhee under the tree, Jihyo arrives in a golf cart. She takes one look at Tzuyu and Dahyun sitting under a tree with an unconscious body and immediately groans, focusing on Tzuyu. “What did you do.”

“Why do you assume it’s my fault,” Tzuyu mutters. “It could’ve been Dahyun’s fault for all you know.”

“We’ve already had one heartattack this year, Chou Tzuyu. If you caused another one, I swear to god…”

Tzuyu rolls her eyes. Jihyo is so over-dramatic sometimes—she must have learned it from Nayeon. “She’s probably just overheated. Can you take her inside?”

“You could’ve called the trainer. It’s his job, not mine.”

“Then I would’ve had to do paperwork, and you know how much I hate paperwork.” Tzuyu gives her best puppy-dog eyes. “Please?”

Jihyo sighs. “Fine. But you owe me.”

“Thanks,” Tzuyu says. She helps Jihyo carry Choonhee to the golf cart and watches them drive off with a grin. Thank god it wasn’t her problem anymore.

She blows her whistle. “Alright, break time is over! I already used my Jihyo card, so nobody better pass out!”

...

She ends tryouts ten minutes later, brushing off anyone who lingers behind to try and talk to her. When she hears footsteps behind her, she turns around, fully prepared to tell someone off, but when she catches sight of Dahyun’s familiar grin, she relaxes. “Hey.”

“You’re in a rush,” Dahyun notes, nearly running to keep up with Tzuyu’s long strides. Tzuyu slows down a bit. “Everyone back there was waiting to talk to the Chou Tzuyu, and you left right after blowing the whistle.”

Tzuyu shrugs, smoothing back her ponytail. “I have a date to get to.”

“Isn’t this the third one this week?”

“Second,” Tzuyu corrects. Dahyun raises an eyebrow, and she scowls. “The one guy I ditched doesn’t count.”

“Why’d you ditch him? He was smart and good-looking, right?”

“He doesn’t like dogs,” Tzuyu says with wide eyes, frowning at the memory of him saying it. She shudders. “Dogs. How do you not like dogs?”

“Oh, that’s definitely a dealbreaker.” Dahyun throws her a teasing smile, unstrapping her glove and throwing it in the trunk of her car. “Who’s the lucky person this time?”

“Jinsoul.”

“Jung Jinsoul?” Dahyun asks. Tzuyu nods, making Dahyun whistle appreciatively. “I like her. Careful though, I hear she gets jealous easily.”

Tzuyu scoffs, scrunching up her nose. “It’s not like I’m gonna date her.”

“That’s literally what you’re doing.”

“There is a difference between dating and going on a date, Dahyun. I’m going out for a good time, not to find a girlfriend or boyfriend.” 

Dahyun looks at her dubiously. “If you say so.”

“I’m serious.” 

Her last relationship—nearly two years together—ended not too long ago, and she doesn’t see the point in jumping into another one right away. She doesn’t need a relationship, she can enjoy her freedom for the moment. She hasn’t dated anyone else, and she’s never experienced going on all these different kinds of dates. It’s actually kinda fun.

Even if she did want to date, nobody has caught her attention for long. A bit of flirting and a date is the furthest Tzuyu’s gone with someone so far. 

She probably should focus on archery anyways. Tzuyu has to do everything she can to lead the team to victory. The skill of the team reflects back on her, so it’s important that she does well.

She needs to win the trophy this year.

...

“Mom, I’m home,” Tzuyu calls, shutting her front door softly.

“In here,” a faint voice calls, and Tzuyu follows it to the study. Her mom’s bent over her desk, a lamp on and reading glasses perched on her nose. Her mom looks up and gives Tzuyu a tight smile. “How was archery today?”

Tzuyu frowns, reminded of her problem. “It’s...going alright, I guess.”

“Alright? What does that mean?” She takes off her glasses and places it on the desk, giving Tzuyu her full attention, and Tzuyu resists the urge to squirm under the gaze.

“I’m just having trouble finding a qualified third member for the team. I’ll figure it out though, don’t worry.” Tzuyu fiddles with the hem of her shirt, looking at the floor to avoid seeing the frown etched on her mom’s face.

“Okay,” her mom finally says. “Try to figure it out before it becomes a bigger problem. You wouldn’t want to go into your first match with a weak link.”

“I’ll try.”

“Good.” Her mom turns back to the papers on her desk, obviously finished. “Dinner’s on the stove. I didn’t have time to make anything, so I just ordered take-out.”

Tzuyu nods. She almost asks her mom to join her, but she decides against it. Her mom is really busy—she doesn’t have time to eat dinner with Tzuyu. She hasn’t for a while, not since Tzuyu’s dad moved out. 

Her stomach rolls at the thought, and she thanks her mom quietly before heading to the kitchen. It’s dark and empty and lonely. Tzuyu’s already used to it, and she thinks she’s starting to not mind it. Although she doesn’t mind it, she doesn’t particularly like it either. She glances at the sliver of light shining through the crack of the door to the study. Her mom probably won’t come out for another couple of hours.

Tzuyu takes one look at the cold take-out on the counter and makes a decision. She slings her backpack over her shoulder before heading towards the door. Her mom won’t even notice she’s gone, so she should be okay.

She takes a moment to bask in the warmth outside before heading over to the house next door. She doesn’t even have to knock on the door, just gently twists the handle and steps inside. As soon as she steps inside, she’s hit with the delicious scent of food cooking. “Hello?”

“Tzuyu?” She hears the scratching of a chair on tile, and a woman emerges from the kitchen, her smile familiar and warm. The woman pulls Tzuyu into a tight hug. “We haven’t seen you around in a while.”

Tzuyu ducks her head in slight embarrassment. “Sorry, I’ve been pretty busy lately. School and stuff like that.”

“Well, you know you’re always welcome here.” She ushers Tzuyu towards the kitchen. “Come in, we’ve just started eating dinner.”

“Hey,” Nayeon greets when she catches sight of Tzuyu, barely sparing her a glance before turning her attention back on the homemade ramen in front of her. Tzuyu can’t blame her—the ramen looks heavenly. Tzuyu feels her mouth water even before she sits down at the table. Her stomach rumbles, and she turns red. The Ims just laugh at her.

“Here, sweetie,” Nayeon’s mom says, scooping a generous portion of food into Tzuyu’s bowl.

Tzuyu thanks her and digs in. She can always rely on delicious home cooked meals at the Im household, along with a feeling of belonging. Lately, her own house has been feeling more and more foreign. When she’s here, she doesn’t feel as alone.

“So, what have you been up to?” Nayeon’s dad asks her after a couple minutes of everyone eating silently, too busy enjoying the food to talk.

Tzuyu shrugs one shoulder, setting down her chopsticks and taking a small sip of water. “Not much. School’s going well, I guess.”

Nayeon’s mom looks up, her face brightening. “Archery started this week, correct?”

“Yeah. We’re holding tryouts now, actually.”

Nayeon’s dad hums in interest. “How’s it going?”

It’s the same conversation she had with her mother earlier, but it feels completely different. Nayeon’s family seems genuinely interested in how she feels about archery, whereas her mom seemed more concerned about how well Tzuyu might do this year.

Tzuyu frowns and shakes the comparison away, focusing on Nayeon’s family instead. “It’s a bit of a struggle right now. Dahyun and I are having trouble finding a third member for first-string.”

“Nayeon can join,” Nayeon’s dad suggests, a chuckle escaping his lips.

“Have you ever seen Nayeon with a bow?” Tzuyu asks, her tone solemn. “She’s deadly, and I’m not talking about being deadly accurate.”

Nayeon scowls and balls up her napkin to throw it at Tzuyu. “Shut up.”

“Nayeon, you have dishes now,” Nayeon’s mom says with a disapproving frown, reaching over to smack Nayeon’s shoulder lightly. “We don’t do that at the dinner table.”

“I had dishes already,” Nayeon mutters, crossing her arms and reminding Tzuyu of a pouting child. “You love Tzuyu too much to make her do chores here.”

“It’s because she’s an angel. I don’t know how she ended up with someone like you.”

Tzuyu grins and sticks her tongue out at Nayeon. She knows she’s going to end up helping Nayeon with the dishes anyway, but she’ll never stop enjoying the way Nayeon’s parents treat her.

As always, Tzuyu washes while Nayeon dries. It’s a system they’ve worked out when they were young, and she would spend countless nights at Nayeon’s house. Nayeon hates getting her hands dirty, while Tzuyu doesn’t mind. It’s perfect this way.

They wash and dry in relative silence, but Tzuyu can tell something’s off with Nayeon. The older girl is obviously tense. Nayeon waits until her parents are upstairs before turning to Tzuyu and asking, “What’s wrong?”

“What?”

“Something’s wrong. You just show up out of the blue after weeks of not coming over? I’m not saying you’re not welcome here—obviously you’re always welcome—but you used to come over a lot more. It’s just really random.”

Tzuyu avoids Nayeon’s gaze and focuses on washing, even though she’s been washing the same plate for nearly thirty seconds now. “I’ve just been busy. School stuff and archery—”

“You know you can talk to me, right?” Nayeon interrupts.

Tzuyu takes a deep breath and looks up to meet Nayeon’s eyes. “Yeah. I promise I will, just not now.”

“Okay.” They go back to washing the dishes, and they work silently for a few moments. Then she says, “I can’t believe you said I’m that bad at archery when Sana literally almost killed Professor Park.”

Tzuyu winces, remembering the incident quite vividly. “We’re not allowed to bring it up or Dahyun gets all pouty.”

“Right, I forgot.” Nayeon cracks a smile. “Probably my favorite high school memory so far.” She pauses and tilts her head. “Actually, remember when Jeongyeon stood up on a table during lunch and challenged a girl to a straight up duel with lightsabers because she was slandering Jihyo’s name during her campaign for class president? That’s definitely my favorite memory, but Sana nearly killing Professor Park is a close second.”

Tzuyu laughs. “And the principal sent them to detention and told them to ‘work things out’, but when they got out of detention, the girl dropped out of the presidency race as soon as she could? Of course I remember. I still wonder what Jeongyeon threatened to do to the girl to make her drop out of the race.”

“It must’ve been good because she never bothered any of us again.” Nayeon shakes her head with a fond grin. “Jeongyeon may be a complete idiot sometimes, but she’ll do anything to protect her friends.”

There’s something in Nayeon’s voice that makes Tzuyu pause. “Are you and Jeongyeon dating?”

Nayeon does a double-take, turning her head to the side so fast, Tzuyu’s afraid she got whiplash. “Me and Jeongyeon?” 

Tzuyu nods. It’s not too far of a reach, is it? Nayeon and Jeongyeon have been best friends since they were children, and they grew up together. They were there for each other during every moment in their lives, both good and bad. It wouldn’t surprise Tzuyu at all if they were dating. Like many of their other friends, she even expects it at this point.

“No. She’s my best friend.” Nayeon looks at the floor, scuffing the tile floor with her toe. “Besides, I’ve got my eye on someone else.”

This catches Tzuyu’s attention. “Who?”

“You get to keep your secrets and I get to keep mine.”

She looks at Nayeon carefully, wondering if she stares hard enough she’ll find the name of the person tattooed on Nayeon’s forehead. It doesn’t seem to work, and Tzuyu frowns in slight disappointment.

She’ll get it out of Nayeon one way or another.

...

“How did half the people quit already? It’s only been a day!” Tzuyu resists the urge to rip up the piece of paper on her clipboard. Instead, she takes her pen and viciously scratches out names of people who didn’t show up for the second day of tryouts. It doesn’t do much to alleviate her annoyance, and she wonders if she should go shoot a bit before they started.

“I guess we weeded out the participants who only showed up to get a chance to spend time with you,” Dahyun says. “At least we know the ones left are serious about archery.”

“We should probably quit now.”

“You’re being overdramatic,” Dahyun says, rolling her eyes and looking over the people who bothered showing up today.  “They aren’t that bad.”

“We’re doomed.”

“We’ll be fine. I’ll go find more people and ask them to come tomorrow so we’ll have a larger pool to pick from if you’re so worried.”

Tzuyu raises her eyebrows, apprehension spreading through her. “Are you planning on recruiting people who would be good at archery? Or are you just going around asking random people to try out.” 

Dahyun pouts. “I’m not answering that question.”

“Doomed,” Tzuyu repeats, looking down at the clipboard of names. No one really stands out to her, but she supposes she can try and work with what she’s got. Hwang Yeji has the highest scores out of everyone, but she runs track and plays basketball, so she might not have time for archery. Jo Yuri is decent, but she’s a freshman, and she’s inconsistent with her shooting. 

Tzuyu feels a headache creeping up already. And it’s only the second day of her captaincy.

It’s going to be a long year.

…

Tzuyu blows her whistle three times, signaling for everyone to lower their bows so they can grab their arrows out of the target. Dahyun’s recruiting seemed to have worked—multiple new faces showed up today. Unfortunately, Dahyun wasn’t able to find an archery prodigy or anything close to one like Tzuyu had been hoping.

She’ll have to lower her standards, no matter how much it physically hurts her to do so.

“Sorry I’m late,” a voice behind her says, sounding out of breath. 

Tzuyu and Dahyun turn around at the same time to face the newcomer. Dark red hair, short stature, startlingly large eyes—Tzuyu’s sure she would’ve remembered seeing her around school. She must be a transfer then.

“Hey, you made it!” Dahyun says, noticeably brightening. She looks at Tzuyu with a large grin. “This is Chaeyoung. She’s new here.”

Tzuyu hums, glancing at the time on her phone. “She’s also late. Tryouts started ten minutes ago.”

The girl—Chaeyoung—rolls her eyes, mildly surprising Tzuyu. She whispers something to Dahyun and walks off to grab a bow, not bothering to respond to Tzuyu.

When Chaeyoung is too far to hear them, Dahyun flicks Tzuyu’s forehead. “You’re such an asshole sometimes.”

Tzuyu makes a face and flicks Dahyun back. “Late is not first-string material.” She blows her whistle twice, signaling for a new round to start.

Similar to the other days, Tzuyu keeps track of the right half of the people while Dahyun watches the left half. At the end, they usually compare scores to see if anyone stands out. No one on Tzuyu’s side is doing too well, and she hopes Dahyun is having better luck.

After three more rounds, Tzuyu tells them to take a break in the shade and drink some water. It’s hot and the sun is beating down on them, and contrary to popular belief, she’s not completely heartless. Plus, if she lets anyone else pass out while practicing, Jihyo will give her hell, and Jihyo can be terrifying if she wants to be, so Tzuyu is sure to give periodic breaks.

Dahyun looks unusually happy, waving her clipboard and motioning for Tzuyu to come to her. Tzuyu rolls her eyes good-naturedly and obliges. “What?”

“Look.” Dahyun shoves her clipboard in Tzuyu’s face and points at a name at the bottom of the list, a shit-eating grin spreading across her face.

Son Chaeyoung. Tzuyu follows Dahyun’s finger to the scoring. She furrows her eyebrows, feeling surprised and slightly confused. “She-” Tzuyu points a finger in Chaeyoung’s direction. “-shot consistent 8s with a couple of 7s?”

“Hell yeah.” Dahyun looks unbearably smug. “And you said my recruiting was pointless.”

“It was,” Tzuyu mutters, sounding petulant. “The chances of you getting a decent archer was practically nonexistent.”

“Talk to the paper then.”

Tzuyu scrutinizes Chaeyoung with narrowed eyes. She didn’t seem like anything special. For god’s sake, she nocked her arrow on the wrong side of the bow (not that Tzuyu was watching or anything). There’s nothing making Chaeyoung stand out as an archer, and definitely not an archer good enough to make it on Tzuyu’s team. “Chaeyoung and Yeji, you’re up. It’ll be like a real match—you each get three arrows and thirty seconds to shoot each arrow.”

Yeji scrambles up from her position on the ground, and Chaeyoung looks over to lock eyes with Tzuyu. There’s something in Chaeyoung’s eyes making Tzuyu feel on edge, and she doesn’t like it. Tzuyu raises an eyebrow, hoping her discomfort isn’t noticeable, and Chaeyoung straightens up at the unspoken challenge.

Tzuyu blows her whistle to signal for them to step up to the line, watching Chaeyoung carefully. So far, she’s unimpressed. Chaeyoung is all shaky legs and poor posture and erratic breathing—everything an archer shouldn’t be. Maybe the last couple rounds were a fluke? Or Dahyun just couldn’t see very well? Dahyun is legally blind, so it’s not too much of a stretch-

Chaeyoung’s first arrow embeds itself into the 7. The next one hits the ring between 7 and 8. The last one hits the 8 straight on. Tzuyu’s eyes widen almost imperceptibly. Dahyun shoots her a look, as if to say I told you so.

Yeji hits two 7s and a 5.

She reddens slightly when she realizes Chaeyoung and Yeji are staring at her expectantly. Tzuyu clears her throat and nods at the two girls, trying to mask her surprise. “Good. Next two, you’re up.”

No one does nearly as well as Chaeyoung did.

It’s disconcerting how well Chaeyoung can shoot with her obvious lack of experience. Tzuyu’s not an idiot. She knows if she taught Chaeyoung proper form and breathing techniques and such, Chaeyoung would be hitting 9s, maybe even 10s. 

She’s interested now, in more ways than one.

When practice is over, Tzuyu stays behind, feigning interest in her clipboard to ward off any potential people trying to talk to her. Chaeyoung is slow to pack up—she keeps getting distracted by Dahyun. 

“Chaeyoung,” Tzuyu says, catching Chaeyoung’s attention. 

She looks away from Dahyun’s infamous eagle dance and regards Tzuyu with a small frown. “What?”

“Have you done archery before?”

Chaeyoung shakes her head and says, “Not really.”

“Well, you’re pretty good. For a beginner, that is.”

Chaeyoung raises her eyebrows. “Thanks, I guess.” 

Tzuyu grins charmingly—a smile that would make most people at her school weak in the knees. She would know, she uses it all the time. “I can help you learn some tips and tricks if you want. Are you free later today?”

“Yes, but I’m not spending it with you.” Chaeyoung slings her backpack over her shoulder and checks her phone. She turns to Dahyun. “I gotta go, but I’ll see you tomorrow.”

Dahyun nods and waves. “See ya later, Chaeng.”

Tzuyu’s left staring at Chaeyoung’s retreating figure, a dumbfounded expression on her face. She’s never been flat-out rejected like that before. Chaeyoung didn’t even have to think before saying no to Tzuyu, and she doesn’t know how to react.

She hears Dahyun trying to stifle her laugher next to her, and Tzuyu turns to glare at her. “Shut up.”

“I guess your dimpled smile doesn’t work on everyone,” Dahyun says, ducking under Tzuyu’s halfhearted swing at her head. She pats Tzuyu’s shoulder. “It’s okay, we all have to experience rejection sometime in our lifetime—even goddesses like you.”

Tzuyu huffs and grabs her duffle bag. She isn’t going to think too much about the rejection. She can literally go up to anyone else in the school and get a date, and although Chaeyoung said no without hesitation and walked away like it was nothing, it really doesn’t matter in the long run.

Son Chaeyoung’s opinion doesn’t matter, and Tzuyu will forget all about this by tomorrow.

Chapter Text

“Oh, fuck,” Chaeyoung says when she shows up late to her new high school with no bearings to where her first class could be located and no friends to guide the way. It’s bad enough she slept through her alarm and just barely managed to lock in her bike outside—now she has to navigate her way through a building full of strangers. The thought is enough to send a jolt of anxiety through her bones. Fucking high school. 

She rummages through her pink bag (filled with scribbles and drawings from times where she was bored out of her mind) and finds her schedule tucked between a paperback novel she’d been reading on the way here. After a quick glance, she puts it away. General Chemistry with Professor Kim. Where the hell could that be?  

Chaeyoung now regrets skipping out on her first day yesterday, only popping in to grab both her schedule and locker combination and leave through the gates minutes afterwards. She didn’t feel like walking in and introducing herself to a bunch of hormone-crazed seventeen-year-olds and just decided to explore the edges of the new hometown she and her family had moved in just a few days ago. 

Now she’s here in the middle of the hallway with barely a soul to see. Everybody must be in their classes then. She sighs, running her fingers through her dark red hair and pulling at the roots. It’s enough to keep her grounded. She looks around again, a permanent frown etched on her face. She doesn’t even know where her locker is. 

She’s contemplating whether or not she should just skip the second day of school when a voice behind her interrupts her thoughts: “Why aren’t you in class?” 

Chaeyoung turns. Standing before her is another student who looks to be a few centimeters taller than she is, with short dark brown hair and large, calculating, chocolate-colored eyes studying her carefully. She’s holding a clipboard against her chest. 

The hair on the back of Chaeyoung’s neck stands to attention. “Er,” she stutters. The other student’s gaze is unflinching. She can’t help but feel like she’s in trouble for something. “I’m kind of lost.” 

“Are you new?” 

“Yeah. I wasn’t here yesterday, though.”

“That explains it,” the other girl says, humming to herself, “Usually we have people who guide the new students on the first day. I’m Park Jihyo, by the way. Student council president.” She extends her hand out and Chaeyoung quickly shakes it. There’s something about Jihyo’s aura that makes her want to do her bidding, no matter what. 

“Son Chaeyoung.” 

“It’s nice to meet you, Chaeyoung. Though I don’t condone students who skip out on their first day of classes, I’ll make an exception.” Jihyo purses her lips, writing something down on her clipboard. "What's your first period?"

"General Chemistry. Professor Kim." 

"That's on the other side of this building. I've got a meeting with a few teachers but I think I can—" The sounds of sneakers screeching against the tiles of the floor catches both of their attention. Chaeyoung looks up, eyebrows furrowed, and watches as another student with long blonde hair stampedes through the hallways, bag bouncing behind her. Jihyo doesn't look up but calmly reaches out with her right hand. When the student passes by them, Jihyo somehow grabs her by the scruff of her neck and ultimately stops her mini marathon. 

It's a miracle the blonde's neck didn't snap at such a grip. Chaeyoung's mouth drops. Is the president a god or something?! 

"Jihyo!" The newcomer yelps, cowering at the harsh gaze Jihyo sends her. "Totally didn't see you there. Hi! How are you? I'm running late to Professor Kim's class, though, so I really gotta get going." 

"I know, Dahyun," Jihyo says, keeping her close, "but I need your help with our new student here."

The girl named Dahyun whines, "Professor Kim's going to kill me. I had him for Physics last year, remember? I nearly flunked the subject cause I was late so many times!" She tries but fails to release herself from the president's hold.

"You should've thought of that before dating Sana," Jihyo chides, "She takes up forever to get ready in the morning. Carpooling together wasn't the best decision." 

Chaeyoung watches Dahyun's expression blossom at the mention of this Sana. It's enough to get her to stop moving around. "Well, I wanted to," she says grumpily, even though there's a smile on her face. 

Jihyo scoffs but she’s wearing a similar look.  "If you say so." She gestures to Chaeyoung, who had been standing awkwardly in front of them with a sullen expression. "This is Son Chaeyoung." 

Chaeyoung waves, forcing a polite smile. Dahyun waves back.

"Chaeyoung, meet Kim Dahyun. You both have the same class this morning so it's best if you guys stick together for the day. Even the week." Jihyo fixes Dahyun with a look. "You'll be her buddy until then, okay? Make sure she's well acquainted with everything. If anything happens to her, it's on you."

Dahyun rolls her eyes. "Yes, mom." 

"Don't call me that." 

"Sorry, Pres." 

"Good." Jihyo finally lets go of her collar. "Now get going. I'll talk to Sana about cutting down her prep time in the morning so that this won't happen again." 

Dahyun nods fervently, glancing down the hallway and gesturing for the newbie to follow. Chaeyoung takes a step forward but then she glances back at Jihyo and says, "Thanks, Pres." 

Jihyo's intimidating exterior quickly melts away into a warm smile. Chaeyoung has to wonder if this is what it feels like for the gates of heaven to open upon mere mortal eyes. She shakes the thought away and hurries to catch up to Dahyun, who walks like her pants are on fire or something. They navigate their way around the hallways without speaking and Chaeyoung chalks it up to Dahyun being extremely stressed about the whole situation. 

They finally reach the door to General Chemistry and Dahyun lets out a huge sigh. "Better late than never," she mumbles. Then she looks at Chaeyoung standing behind her. "Don't mind him when he gets cranky—he's been in this school for like twenty years." 

"So he's a dinosaur then," Chaeyoung muses. 

Dahyun smiles. Her cheeks puff up, giving off a strong resemblance to tofu. "Probably older." 

They both snicker. "Well," Dahyun says after a few moments, her hand on the doorknob, "Let the second day of hell begin." 

…

Chaeyoung lets out a sigh of relief once the bell signalling their lunch break finally rings. Everybody packs up their stuff, barely giving the new kid a glance. She doesn't mind—she knows its better not to stand out anyway. Most of them have probably forgotten her name the second she sat down on her seat at the very back of the room.

“Hey, Chaeyoung!” a voice calls out when she heads to the direction of the cafeteria. 

When she turns, she sees Dahyun running up after her and dodging the wall of students blocking her way. Once the blonde is finally standing in front of Chaeyoung, she gives the shorter girl a wide smile. 

“What’s up?” Chaeyoung asks, adjusting her bag and facing her newfound friend. During General Chemistry earlier, she and Dahyun instantly clicked—the same way a worn rusty key would probably still fit into a forgotten lock after years have passed. They both sat at the very back of the class after being reprimanded by Professor Kim for being ten minutes late. While it was utterly humiliating for a new student in a new school, having Dahyun there made things easier. Still, it kind of pissed Chaeyoung off so she drew a rather rude caricature of their teacher the second she sat down. When Dahyun saw, she immediately added thought bubbles with stupid dinosaur puns that had Chaeyoung giggling like an idiot—can you do it? You bet Jurassican and What do you call a dinosaur with an extensive vocabulary? A thesaurus. 

“Want to join me for lunch?” Dahyun asks, wrapping an arm around Chaeyoung’s shoulders. 

“Sure, I don’t mind.” Chaeyoung tugs at the straps of her bag. A nervous habit. “How was the rest of your classes?” 

“Thankfully, I wasn’t late to any of them.” 

“Yeah, I wanted to ask about that. Why were you so late earlier if you didn’t want to get scolded?” 

Dahyun’s smile turns sheepish as she mumbles something under her breath. Not having heard it, Chaeyoung has to lean in close, making a judgemental expression when the blonde covers her face with one hand.

“Wait, I couldn’t hear you the first time,” she points out.

“I said,” Dahyun says again, removing her hand to reveal pink cheeks; it’s an adorable sight to see, “I was picking up my girlfriend Sana from her house. She takes forever to get ready.” 

Chaeyoung briefly remembers Jihyo mentioning this. “You must really like her then,” she points out, smirking when Dahyun’s face goes even redder. She makes a whipping noise as they round the corner to follow the string of students heading into the cafeteria. 

“Hey! I’m not that whipped—” Dahyun’s phone suddenly starts ringing. When she checks it, her face blossoms into that same lovestruck look Chaeyoung saw earlier. She pulls away from the shorter girl to answer the call. “I’ll be back in a second,” she says, unable to hide the sparkle in her eyes.

Chaeyoung repeats the whipping sound effect again, flicking her wrist at the same time. Dahyun sticks her tongue out at her before pointing at a table in the far corner. “My friend is already seated there. Make yourself at home,” she states. Chaeyoung follows her line of sight and sees another girl with shoulder-length hair hunched over her cellphone on the table Dahyun indicated. 

The thought of making new friends has always made Chaeyoung nervous but she knows that she won’t be able to survive high school without a few close ones. Besides, a friend of Dahyun’s is a friend of hers. Hopefully. Whatever. Let’s just get this over with. She tightens her grip on her bag and heads over to the designated table. 

The girl with the shoulder-length hair has headphones tucked against her ears. But she still looks up when Chaeyoung slides into the seat in front of her. 

Both of them pause. 

The girl is very pretty in a simple manner. The same way a white swan is in its natural habitat or the way the sky gets all colorful when the sun slips out from the horizon to welcome the night. Shoulder-length hair frames her face, paired with wide imploring eyes and a few moles scattered all over her features. Chaeyoung has seen a lot of pretty girls in her short existence here on earth but there’s something about this girl that just seems achingly familiar. 

“Hello,” she says, smiling when the girl puts away her headphones, “I’m Son Chaeyoung. I’m new here.”

“Hi,” the other girl says meekly, “My name is Myoui Mina.” 

“Dahyun invited me, if that’s okay.”

“I don’t mind.” 

Mina . Chaeyoung is pretty sure she’s heard that name before. She can’t just place it now. But before she can ask, Dahyun arrives suddenly and sits next to her, still wearing her whipped expression from her phone call with the girlfriend. She’s holding a tray with her lunch on it: an apple with what looks like three slices of bland pizza. Chaeyoung is grateful that her mom at least packed some sandwiches for her.

“I see that you’ve met,” Dahyun says. 

Mina’s dumbfounded look gives Chaeyoung the impression that she too is trying to remember.  

“Yes,” she says slowly, her expression smoothing, “you always know how to make fast friends, Dahyun.” 

“You should thank Jihyo.” Dahyun takes a bite of her pizza. “She’s always bossing me around.” 

Chaeyoung takes out her packed lunch and watches Mina carefully. She really does look familiar… Maybe they saw each other at some concert or something? Or even at an art gallery? She’s always spending her time and money in those places. Maybe it’s because of that. Oh well. It’s not like there aren’t any other Minas in the world. Chaeyoung chalks it up to having met a lot of people online during her gaming days. 

Dahyun’s phone lights up with a notification. She glances at it and Chaeyoung expects her to get all giddy again. This time, however, her face noticeably pales. “Oh shit,” she says after she reads the text message.

“Tzuyu?” Mina asks without looking up from her bento box. 

“Yeah. She’s freaking out about our third member again.” Dahyun sighs loudly. “Not that she really ever freaks out externally but you can see it in her eyes that she’s getting desperate.” 

“Chou Tzuyu and desperate are two words I wouldn’t normally mix together,” Mina muses. 

“Who’s that?” Chaeyoung asks. 

Dahyun sighs again, looking put off. “Chou Tzuyu’s a junior like us. She’s nice most of the time but when it comes to archery, she’s a pain the ass. She’s the captain this year and we’re missing a third member for first-string. We had a full house for try-outs yesterday but it was obvious that most of those people just came in to get a look at Tzuyu in action.” 

Chaeyoung raises an eyebrow. “Is she really that good?” 

“She’s our ace,” Dahyun proudly says, “Soon, she might probably even get a bullseye without looking at the target.” 

“That’s… commendable.” Chaeyoung bites into her sandwich, thinking thoughtfully. 

“Yeah, she’s really good,” Dahyun continues, “and a total heartthrob. Ever since she and her girlfriend Elkie broke up a few months ago, people have been lining up to get a date.” 

“Huh.” Chaeyoung can already tell that she won’t be liking this Chou Tzuyu—she seems like bad news. “I don’t know many schools that have archery clubs. The last school I went to was pretty big on football,” she adds.

“It’s the pride and joy of JYP High,” Mina says with a solemn expression. 

“Don’t mind her,” Dahyun remarks, “She still holds it against me and Tzuyu for forcing her to join back in freshman year. She was pretty good at it—even Tzuyu was a little bit jealous.”

“Not really. But the amount of people who asked me out after every tournament was… inconvenient.” Mina shudders.

“Only you would think that’s inconvenient,” Dahyun comments. 

“It is.” Mina plays with the wire of her headset. “Everybody kept crowding up on me when I tried to play video games in the corner.”

“Now Mina’s part of the gaming club,” Dahyun tells Chaeyoung cheekily, “Tzuyu’s been trying to convince her to join the club again this year—”

“Over my dead body,” Mina states casually. 

“—but as you can see, it’s not going to work.” 

Chaeyoung perks up at that. “There’s a gaming club here?” When she was a kid, she had a friend who used to come over all the time to play Super Mario Advance on an outdated Game Boy that had fallen so many times it was a miracle it hadn’t broken apart already. She loved that console—her friend even had a small penguin keychain on it to stake her claim. Though she can’t exactly remember her childhood friend’s face, she knows she called her Mitang. 

Mina eyes her. “Yeah, it’s a small club though.”

“Mina’s one of their most dedicated members,” Dahyun shares, “Like she probably has all versions of the game consoles that Nintendo releases.”

“It’s for my collection.” Mina pats the bag next to her on the bench. “I’ve got my favorite ones here, in case I ever get bored.”

“Do you have the Game Boy Advance? GBA? The one they released in 2001?” Chaeyoung asks out of curiosity—it’s the only console she’s ever really treasured, despite it not being hers. 

Mina looks at her strangely. “As a matter of fact,” she says in her soft voice, “I do.” She rummages into her bag and takes out the said console. It's clearly old and yet stable with the screen cracked around the edges. But the one detail that catches Chaeyoung's attention is the penguin keychain strapped on one side, clanking noisily against the surface of the table as Mina slides it across.

It clicks. 

"Holy fuck," she says, eyes wide, "Mitang?" 

Mina smiles, recognizing her too. "So it really is you, Chaengie. Your hair's different." 

Chaeyoung stares at her—the girl who used to stop by her house when they were little kids has grown into the pretty woman sitting before her. She sees the similarities now: the warm eyes, the mole on her nose, the smoothness of her voice. 

It's her childhood best friend. 

Dahyun stares at them in confusion. "I don't get it." 

Mina laughs, her gummy grin radiating happiness at being reunited with one of her most cherished friends. "Chaengie was my neighbor when we were kids. We always played on this beat up Game Boy," she explains, “Then she moved away and I never saw her again. Until now.” 

Chaeyoung makes a mental note to write this down in her diary later. She toys with the penguin keychain, dimpled smile taking over her lips. "Guess it's fate, huh?" 

Mina nods, her own gummy smile never leaving her face. "I guess it is." 

…

When Chaeyoung rides back home on her bike later that day, she feels like she's on top of the world. She doesn’t think she’s ever felt so giddy before. On her first (technically second) day of school, she’s already made two friends—three if she counts God Jihyo, which she will. Her ink splattered sneakers move furiously against the pedals of her bike as she hurries home, anxious to get inside the confines of her room so that she can write in her diary without being disturbed. She doesn’t think anything can ruin this day after she met Kim Dahyun and was reunited with her childhood friend Mitang. 

But then, when she crosses the threshold of her house and hears her parents talking animatedly to her younger brother on the phone, her mood plummets.

“Oh, so you’ve joined the debate club, Jeonghun?” her father asks, pride evident in his tone, as they stand in the middle of the kitchen, their backs turned to Chaeyoung, “Of course you would. You got your brains from your old man, after all.”

“Are your professors treating you right? Do you have close friends? Are they a good influence on you?” her mother asks, obviously worried. 

Chaeyoung shuts the door quietly behind her and lingers by the staircase. 

“It’s good you’ve got some extra curricular activities to focus on besides your studies,” her father says. Then he lets out a huge sigh. “I wish your sister had the same motivation as you do. Her head is always stuck up in the clouds, painting and drawing art all the goddamn time.”

This time, it’s her mother who sighs. “I wish she was as productive as you.” 

Chaeyoung’s throat closes up. She rolls her hands into fists and resists the urge to punch the wall. Instead, she quietly makes her way upstairs to her room, shuts the door behind her and clambers into the comfort of her bed. The silence is ringing in her ears. She grabs her headphones from the bedside table, plugs it on her phone and lets the music take over. It takes a while but then tears steadily stream down her cheeks. She pretends not to feel them, even though they’re burning hot against her skin.

Guess her day is ruined now.

…

It’s lunch break. Chaeyoung is drawing on her notebook. Dahyun is stressed. Mina is on her phone. 

“Tzuyu’s going to kill me if I don’t find a third member,” Dahyun whines as she shoves a hotdog into her mouth, “All the other kids in this school suck balls. Most of them can’t even shoot a 4! It’s a miracle they haven’t shot anybody in the head.”

“You mean, like the time Sana nearly—” 

“If you finish that sentence, I’m ending our friendship.”

Mina snorts, barely looking up. “Whipped.” 

There’s a short pause. “Minariii,” Dahyun begins, using her best puppy-eyed look, “Can you please join the archery club again? I swear that if you do, Tzuyu will beat up any guy who even breathes in your direction—” 

“No.” 

“But you haven’t even heard the best part of my proposition—”

“I will not suffer through an entire year of not being able to play video games in peace in exchange for two large liters of ketchup, Dahyun,” Mina deadpans, finally looking up just to shoot the blonde a calculating look. “I understand that you’re desperate but maybe you’re just not looking hard enough.”

“I was going to say three large liters of ketchup—”

Chaeyoung rips out the page of her notebook, crumples it into a ball and throws it into the direction of a trash can sitting behind Mina. It easily goes in, despite the distance and Chaeyoung’s limited view. She goes back to drawing again, her mind preoccupied with what her parents said about her yesterday. She doesn’t even notice the way Dahyun goes slack-jawed at her little stunt. Mina smirks.

“Why didn’t I think of this sooner?” Dahyun grumbles to herself before she drapes an arm around Chaeyoung, leaning in close. “Hey, Chaengie.” 

“Don’t use my childhood nickname against me.” Mina giggles at that. 

“Okay, okay.” Dahyun grins, chubby cheeks puffing out. “We’re friends, right?” 

“Are you literally forgetting the fact that we just met yesterday?” Chaeyoung puts down her pen and fixes Dahyun with a look. “I have a feeling you’re going to ask a huge favor from me.” 

“So, what if I am?”

“Depends on what the favor is.” 

“Try out for archery, please?” 

Chaeyoung pauses, frowning. “I tried it out in middle school but I’m not really good at it.” She thinks of what Dahyun has told her about the captain. “Besides, I don’t think your ace would appreciate a newbie in your first-string whatever.”

“Tzuyu’s not that bad.” Dahyun yelps when Mina kicks her under the table. “Okay, fine, maybe she is. But it’s for a reason. She really wants to win Conference against SM Academy this year—especially after we lost the last time.”

Chaeyoung meets Mina’s stare. “Tzuyu’s tough,” her childhood friend says, putting away her phone in favor of the conversation, “but she’s not heartless.”

“Besides, I just saw you shoot a ball of paper straight into the trashcan behind Mina," Dahyun points out.

“If you did see that, then you would think I’m more qualified for basketball,” Chaeyoung says dryly. 

Dahyun smirks. "Accuracy is one trait in archery that all first string players need to have," she declares, "and you proved it just now that you have it."

Chaeyoung sighs, rubbing her chin thoughtfully with the top of her pen. "How about… no?" she says, raising a dubious eyebrow. 

Dahyun looks scandalized. "I thought we were friends!" She feigns hurt, hands clutching at her chest as she drops her head against the lunch table. Mina manages to grab her half-eaten hotdog before the blonde's hair got tangled in it. Chaeyoung lets out a sigh at her new friend's antics. 

"What's in it for me if I join?" she asks, still not entirely convinced. She had other clubs in mind, after all. Like the Gaming Club or even the Art Club, of course—

Her father's voice cuts through her thoughts: Her head is always stuck up in the clouds, painting and drawing art all the goddamn time. The beating organ inside her chest constricts.

"Well, if you pass Tzuyu's standards," Dahyum goes on, not noticing the way Chaeyoung suddenly goes silent, "then you get to hang out with me and one of the most popular girls in school." 

Mina snorts again. "Is that a pro? I see it as a con." 

"I would have you know that I am terrific company to have," Dahyun defends before she faces Chaeyoung again, “Anyway, you don’t have a club, right? Maybe you should give it a shot. You’ll never know—you might even be better than Tzu—” 

Mina slaps a hand across Dahyun’s mouth so hard the blonde nearly falls out of the bench. “Don’t say that out loud!” their gamer friend screeches, glancing around discreetly, “Tzuyu’s fanclub might hear you. They don’t like it when you demean their idol.” 

Dahyun pushes her hand away, wincing. “Jesus, you’ve got a mean right hook.”

Chaeyoung’s mood lifts. Dahyun’s her first friend here in JYP High. The least she can do is try out for the team. Besides, she’s pretty sure that if she doesn’t agree, Dahyun will just find another obnoxious way to get her to do so. She might even drag Mina along the way. That’s one reason to try out. On the other hand, with her father’s voice still ringing in her eardrums, Chaeyoung knows her pride is on the line. If she gets into a club he deems unproductive, she’ll never hear the end of it. She’ll always be constantly compared to her younger brother, Jeonghun. 

Even though Dahyun looks like she’s still coming up with reasons to convince Chaeyoung, the shorter girl interrupts her, “Okay, I’ll do it.” 

Dahyun’s expression when she hears these words is priceless—she looks like a kid who’s just been awarded with a puppy.“Seriously?” she exclaims, her eyes wide and her smile even wider. 

Mina glances at Chaeyoung curiously. “Are you sure?” she asks. 

JYP High’s pride and joy is archery. It’s not like Chaeyoung’s going to get in anyway but if she does, then she can’t wait to see the look on her parent’s faces when she tells them. At least then she'll be doing something productive. 

"What time later?" she says as an answer to Mina's earlier question.

Dahyun looks so happy she might even cry. "Four o'clock," she answers, "We'll be at the courtyard." 

Chaeyoung nods, mentally taking note. "Okay, I'll see you there." 

…

Overall, Chaeyoung isn't impressed by the ace, Chou Tzuyu. The captain is exactly as she imagined—a cocky hardass who thinks she can charm her way into any girl’s heart. Chaeyoung isn’t having any of it. Sure, Ace Tzuyu might be downright gorgeous with her stupid dark hair swept over one shoulder, symmetrical eyes calculating your every move, perfect posture making her seem taller than she looks but at the end of the day, she’s just another one of those popular kids who thinks she can get whatever the hell she wants if she uses the right dimpled smile. 

Chaeyoung lets out a huff of breath when she reaches her bike, bending down to unlock it. As she does this, she thinks about tryouts earlier. Even though she tried archery out as a kid, she didn’t really take all the lessons into heart. Now she realizes just how fucking hard it can be. Her arms ache from gripping the bow that felt bigger and taller than her. Her fingers sting from accidentally pulling on the drawstring too hard. Even the arm guards she wore weren’t all that helpful.

Still, she did manage to get a decent score. 

Take that, Chou Tzuyu,  she smugly thinks to herself, throwing a leg over the seat of her bike and then pedalling home. The wide-eyed surprise on Ace Tzuyu’s face when her arrows got 7s and 8s during the match with Yeji is a sight Chaeyoung’s probably never going to forget. 

It’ll be a million times better if she can get her parents to have the same expression on their faces.

Chapter Text

Dahyun's heartbroken expression, Chaeyoung decides, is something she'd rather not see for the rest of her life. For some reason, even though they've only just met, Chaeyoung feels like she just stepped on a puppy's tail. Her heart clenches when the blonde shakes her head and sputters out, "Wait, what?" 

"I don't think I'm cut out for archery," Chaeyoung explains, wincing, "It's not something I see myself doing every other afternoon." 

She'd been thinking about it the night before. Just because archery is the pride and joy of JYP high doesn't mean it's the best choice out there. The thought of keeping still, having the right posture, aiming for the target makes Chaeyoung's skin itch. She always prefers moving around, using her feet, feeling exhausted but contented. This is why she likes to ride bikes instead of buses, why she pulled all nighters to vandalize walls back in their old city, why there's always a pen in her hand, ready to recreate scenes she finds beautiful.

Besides, Chou Tzuyu seriously rubbed off her the wrong way yesterday. 

Dahyun turns to Mina, mouth hanging open, "Please tell me she's joking." 

Mina looks at Chaeyoung. "Are you joking?"

"No?" 

The gamer turns back to Dahyun. "She's not joking." 

"I have ears, Mina!" Dahyun wails, dropping her head on the lunch table. This is the second time Chaeyoung's seen her do this in their three-day friendship. Archery must be really important to her then. 

Mina gives the blonde a sympathetic look. 

"Why?" Dahyun asks, her voice muffled, and Chaeyoung winces at the pure sorrow in her words, "I thought we were getting along great! You did so good yesterday that you even made Tzuyu speechless. Not everybody gets to do that, you know, so tell me what's wrong and I'll do literally anything to fix it—" 

"Nothing is wrong, Dahyun," Chaeng points out, sighing loudly, "I just want to try other sports." 

"Blasphemy!" Dahyun cries out, raising her head and planting her hands on her ears. "Thou shall not think of other sports club when archery exists—"

Mina throws a piece of meat at her, effectively shutting her up, "You're being overdramatic," she says, "Tell her the real reason why you're panicking." 

Dahyun flinches. "There is no real reason." 

Now Chaeyoung is interested. "What's going on?" 

Mina sends Dahyun a look. "Go on, tell her." 

The blonde looks like she's going to resist for a few more seconds but then sighs in defeat when Mina's expression goes all soft and nearly puppy-like. "Okay, whatever, you win." She turns to Chaeyoung then, an apologetic expression on her face, "I might've already told Tzuyu you'd be part of our team." 

Chaeyoung blinks. "Eh?" 

"Well, she told me to tell you that you're welcome to join the club and I said that you were already a part of it," Dahyun explains very briefly.

A frown makes it way to Chaeyoung’s lips. “Why would you make that decision for me?”

The blonde grins sheepishly. “Because you and I share the same brain cell?” 

Mina facepalms. Chaeyoung groans and drops her head on the surface of the table, quite similar to what Dahyun did earlier. “Great,” she grumbles, “I can’t even decide my own club.” 

“But—?” Dahyun lets out a sigh. “Okay, fine. I’ll talk to Cap. But are you really sure, though? You did good at tryouts yesterday. You’ll be a great addition to our team.” 

“Your Captain doesn’t even like me.” 

“Tzuyu doesn’t like everybody.” 

“Exactly.” 

“That’s not true,” Mina speaks so softly Chaeyoung has to strain her ears to hear her, “Tzuyu might be mean on the outside but she’s a sweetheart. Do you remember that time she stayed up all night with Momo to help with her choreography?”

“Tzuyu’s always liked Momo,” Dahyun points out, “which is weird because I didn’t think they’d get along as well. Their personalities like seriously clash.”

Chaeyoung raises her head and runs her fingers through her red hair. She’d been thinking of changing it to another color, as some sort of payback for what her parents said about her the other day. They never really liked it when she did things without their permission. “Well, you can tell your captain that I don’t like her too.” 

Mina stifles a snort behind her hand. “What happened between you two?” 

Dahyun looks like she’s deciding whether to cry or laugh. “Tzuyu asked Chaeyoung out,” she explains, laughing instead, “and Chaeyoung said no.” 

The look on Mina’s face, Chaeyoung decides, is something she wouldn’t mind seeing every now and then. Her eyes go wide and her mouth drops open. “Eh?” she asks, looking at her childhood friend, “You said no?” 

Chaeyoung waves her away. “Why would I say yes to somebody I just met?” She thinks about their encounter yesterday. “Besides, it looked like she was trying to kill me in her head the whole time I was shooting arrows. And she said that I wasn’t first-string material.”

“Well, you didn’t look like much when the bow was literally taller than you,” Dahyun comments and Chaeyoung grabs a piece of meat from Mina’s bento box and throws it at her. The blonde yelps and dodges it. “Okay, okay! No joking about the height, I get it.”

“That was my lunch…” Mina mumbles.

“Because of that, Kim Dahyun,” Chaeyoung says slowly, narrowing her eyes at her new friend, “I won’t join your club. Besides, I’ve already signed up for the others earlier. They’re having tryouts for the rest of the week.” 

Dahyun’s face pinches. “Son Chaeyoung, you suck,” she grumbles, “Great, now I have to face the wrath of Chou Tzuyu. Maybe she’ll reconsider Yeji again.” 

The pure sadness on Dahyun’s features is enough to make Chaeyoung guilty. When she turns to look at Mina, the Japanese girl seems to be thinking through the same lines. Mina raises her eyebrows at Chaeyoung and nods slightly. 

“Okay, fine,” Chaeyoung mutters, smirking at the way Dahyun’s head snaps towards her in attention, “If I don’t get in the other clubs, then I’ll join yours as a last resort.” 

Dahyun’s face breaks out in a smile. “You’d do that?”

“Yeah.” 

“Awesome!” Dahyun beams at her before the frown returns again. “Wait, which clubs are you planning to join again?” 

Chaeyoung thinks about it. When she got to school earlier, she’d seen a few posters scattered throughout the school. Even though she really wanted to join the gaming club and hang out with Mina after school, she knew her parents would disapprove. It’s the same thing for the arts club. Instead, she decided to check out most of the sports club, since it’s something she can actually get recognition for. Something her younger brother, Jeonghun, is used to. 

“I was thinking track,” Chaeyoung says, remembering all the times she had to run from the police after nearly getting caught painting on walls, “and then basketball?” 

“Track and basketball,” Dahyun repeats before closing her eyes and whispering what sounds like a prayer under her breath.

“What?” 

“Nothing. I’m just praying you won’t get in.” 

Chaeyoung resists the urge to throw another piece of meat at her. Mina, as if sensing her thoughts, discreetly finishes her lunch quickly. 

“That’s not what friends are supposed to do, you idiot,” Chaeyoung points out. 

“Good to know.” Dahyun smirks. “I haven’t had that many.” 

Before Chaeyoung can say anything regarding that comment, a loud, shrill voice pierces through the air (and consequently, her eardrums): “Tzuyuuuuuuuuu!” 

Dahyun chokes on her own saliva, Mina hides her face behind her bangs and Chaeyoung turns around to see this all-boobs, no-brains ditzy-looking girl walking over to the front of the line, hips swaying to some imaginary beat only she can hear. She cranes her neck and realizes that Chou Tzuyu is the center of the girl’s attention. To her credit, Tzuyu looks like she’d rather be anywhere else than in that moment. Standing next to her are two older-looking girls Chaeyoung doesn’t recognize. 

“Who’s that?” she asks, directing her question to Dahyun.

“Lee Choonhee,” the blonde answers, immediately ducking under the table when Tzuyu’s eyes sweep through the cafeteria, apparently looking for someone. 

Chaeyoung and Tzuyu’s gazes meet. The ace’s expression sours before she turns back to Choonhee again, her smile faker than that girl’s boobs. 

“What’s her deal?” Chaeyoung asks out loud, glancing at Dahyun still hiding under the table. 

“Oh, Choonhee’s been chasing after Tzuyu since freshman year,” Dahyun says, poking her head out, “It’s obvious Tzuyu doesn’t like her but Choonhee’s freaking relentless.” 

“Huh.” 

“Ever since Tzuyu and her ex-girlfriend Elkie broke up, Choonhee’s like ‘it’s free real estate’ and Tzuyu’s been trying to use me as a buffer for it. Mina, do you remember that one time she literally threw me in front of her after Math last year?”

Chaeyoung’s eyes are still fixed on the scene. Tzuyu is now nodding politely to whatever Choonhee is saying. One of the girls behind her, sporting long hair, steps forward and says something. The other one, who has shorter hair, laughs loudly. 

“I’ll bet you my lunch money that Im Nayeon just destroyed Chonhee in a single sentence,” Dahyun tells Mina, having reappeared next to her. 

“Well,” Mina says, quite uninterestedly, “she is the Im Nayeon.” Chaeyoung assumes they’re talking about the long-haired girl whose smile looks like it can kill. 

“Jeongyeon sounds like she’s dying again.” 

“The one with the short hair?” Chaeyoung asks, still watching as Tzuyu tries and fails to hide her smile. Choonhee scoffs, sounding offended, before she storms off. The short-haired girl, whom Chaeyoung assumes to be Jeongyeon, nearly falls over with the strength of her laughter. 

“Yeah, captain and star of the basketball club.” Dahyun hums. “You’ll be meeting her when you try out. Careful though, she can be tough when she’s in her element.” 

“What about Nayeon?” 

“Drama club,” Mina answers, “She’s too carefree to be the leader so they have Jennie Kim for that but don’t let that fool you—apparently she’s born for the stage.” 

Chaeyoung turns her attention back to her two friends. Dahyun is giving Mina a smug look now, smirk firmly in place. “You’ve never missed a performance from her, right?” she asks, “Tzuyu drags me to those plays with Jihyo and Momo. I always see you at the very back. A hoodie won't hide your blinking headphones, Minari."

“What can I say?” Mina puts away her bento box. “I love theatre.” 

“Sure.” 

“I’m going to ignore you now.” 

Dahyun turns to Chaeyoung. “She totally has a crush on Naye—hey, dude, what the hell!” The rest of her words end in a surprised yell as Mina pushes her off the table and stumbles into a run, heading straight for the door and forgetting to bring her bag with her. Chaeyoung jolts, caught off guard by the sudden change of scene, before she realizes why Mina ran off in the first place. 

Tzuyu, Nayeon and Jeongyeon all collectively pass their table, talking to themselves. Chaeyoung sees Nayeon frowning and sweeping her gaze over the seat Mina has so kindly vacated. Dahyun rises from the floor for the second time that day and waves at the three friends. Chaeyoung pointedly keeps her head down when Tzuyu glances at her. 

“Well,” Dahyun says, as the trio sit at their own table, “that was fun.” 

“You’ve got something in your hair.” 

Dahyun checks, revealing the greasy piece of meat that Chaeyoung had thrown at her earlier. “Dang,” she says, sighing, “today is so not my day.” 

…

When classes later end that day, Chaeyoung plans on heading to the track field immediately, thinking about the earlier events. Today was okay. She found out she, Dahyun, Mina and Tzuyu shared a Biology class together. The frosty welcome Chaeyoung received from Tzuyu forced her and Dahyun to sit at a table a couple feet away while Mina sat next to the ace, looking pouty. At least Chaeyoung can rely on Dahyun once they need partners. She can imagine the chaos if she was ever paired with Tzuyu.

She only manages a few steps away from her locker when a familiar weight settles over her shoulders. She sighs, already feeling a headache coming in, as she turns to see Dahyun’s tell-tale smile directed at her. 

“Yo,” the blonde says. 

“What do you want?” 

“I figured you’d want some company while you’re off trying out for the fake sports.” 

“Track and basketball aren’t fake?” 

Dahyun waves her off, pulling out her necklace from under her collar. The cross at the end of it glints under the fluorescent light. “I’m a Catholic, Chaengie,” she says cheekily, “I believe in the one and only sport and that’s archery.” 

Chaeyoung is seriously reconsidering her entire friendship with Kim Dahyun when she spots Mina emerging from a nearby classroom, headphones plugged in. She waves at her. Thankfully, Mina spots them and heads on over. If there’s one thing Chaeyoung can depend on, it’s her childhood friend’s ability to keep her level-headed in situations involving Dahyun. 

“What did Dahyun do now?” Mina asks, raising an uninterested eyebrow as she pulls off her headset.

“I think she’s going to come and sabotage my chances with the other clubs,” Chaeyoung states, narrowing her eyes at the blonde. 

Dahyun looks offended. “I would never—”

“Were you planning on distracting her with your infamous eagle dance again?” Mina questions.

The look on Dahyun’s face is enough confirmation for both of them. Chaeyoung sighs and shakes her head. Still, she has to give credit where it is due. Dahyun is determined to get her into the archery club. That takes guts. Or maybe desperation. Probably both. 

"I'll come with you, then," Mina says, smiling at Chaeyoung, "for moral support and to keep Dahyun in check. Besides, I haven't seen Sana and Momo since classes started." 

"You mean Dahyun's Sana, right?" 

Dahyun grins happily. "Sana is her own person," she says, wrapping her free arm around Mina's shoulders and leading them to the track field, "but yeah, she's mine." 

When they get to the track field, Chaeyoung spots a bunch of cheerleaders practicing in the center, even though school has literally only just started. Both Mina and Dahyun wave happily at two girls standing apart from the group and the one with pink hair blows a flying kiss straight at Dahyun, who catches it with one hand. That must be Sana, then. The other girl, sporting long dark hair with her bangs swept to one side, must be Momo. She pretends to gag at Sana's antics.

The track team's practice is already in session. The members are stretching their limbs or chatting with each other. Most of them are taller than Chaeyoung, which makes sense. The longer your legs, the more distance you cover. She's hoping she can prove them wrong. 

"Wish me luck," Chaeyoung says, double-checking her shoelaces, after Dahyun and Mina take a spot in the stands. 

"I hope you trip," the blonde tells her before she winces, apparently hurt by her own words, "I'm kidding. I hope you do good." 

Mina rolls her eyes before raising both of her hands in a cheer. "Go, go, Chaeng-Chaeng!" Her voice is still so soft but Chaeyoung whips her head around in fear that somebody might've actually heard her use the dreaded childhood nickname her parents used to call her. 

Dahyun bursts out laughing, dropping to her knees and wiping non-existent tears from her eyes. "Oh, dang, that just made my day." 

Chaeyoung steps close to Mina. "I will literally buy you all the ketchup packages you want to never say that again." 

"What about me, Chaeng-Chaeng?" Dahyun asks cheekily and Chaeyoung throws her a deadly glare. 

"If you say that one more time then I won't join your stupid club." 

"You play a hard bargain." Dahyun pretends to zip her mouth and throws away the key. "I'll keep that in mind." 

Chaeyoung rolls her eyes and heads down to the field, completely missing the way Dahyun leans towards Mina and asks for more embarrassing childhood stories revolving around Chaeyoung. To her credit, Mina hesitates for about five seconds before she cracks a grin and begins the tale of Chaeng-Chaeng and The One Time She Thought Frog Princes Were Real. 

"Hi," Chaeyoung says to the captain, whom she recognizes as Jeon Somi, one of her classmates in English. 

"Hey, new kid," Somi says in return. She's pretty in a unique way—Chaeyoung wouldn't mind drawing her. "You here to try out?" 

Chaeyoung nods, bouncing on the balls of her feet. The rest of the team are already doing laps so there's nobody to listen to their conversation. Somi assesses her, leaning back and checking if Chaeyoung's figure is worthy for the sport. 

"I heard you tried out for the archery club," Somi says, raising an eyebrow, "and that you rejected the Chou Tzuyu." 

Is that what everybody is going to think of when they meet Chaeyoung? She resists the urge to roll her eyes and shrugs noncommittally. "She was being rude." Also, why on earth is there a the before Tzuyu’s name? She must be that popular.

Somi laughs. "Well, she is the ace to JYP high's pride and joy. Puts a lot of pressure on her shoulders. Rejecting her? That takes guts. I'm pretty sure you have a target on your back now. Especially from Tzuyu's fanclub."

"For what? Saying no?" 

The captain shakes her head, nodding at a group of gossiping girls on top of the stands, several seats away from where Dahyun and Mina are still chatting. Chaeyoung follows her line of sight. Sure enough, she sees Lee Choonhee in front of the herd, already smiling sweetly down at her. 

"For making a fool out of Tzuyu," Somi says, letting out a sigh, "That's high school for you. Anyway, let's see what you've got." 

…

Chaeyoung didn't have that many friends in her old school. Sure, she's nice and easy to get along with but she's always been into focusing on her craft. While other kids were hanging out with friends or enjoying the usual parties, Chaeyoung was spray-painting all over murals and writing songs in coffee shops. She didn't like to join cliques or have some sort of obligation to a group of people she barely knew. She thinks of herself as lone wolf, wandering around in search for something that would take her mind off certain matters. 

So when Somi blows the whistle and Chaeyoung runs, she's thrown off by the sounds of Dahyun and Mina cheering her on from the stands. It's an entirely foreign experience but Chaeyoung manages not to look up and break her concentration. She runs around the field, the wind in her face and her heart soaring. 

When she was vandalizing walls in her old city, she did it alone. When she visited sketchy tattoo shops to decide on a design (she still hasn't), she was alone. When she cried herself to sleep every time her parents disapproved of her art, there was no one to confide in because she was alone. Nobody had been there for her. Nobody was there to see her ups and downs. Nobody whom Chaeyoung let in. 

It's different now. 

Now she has Dahyun and Mina—Dahyun who's an idiot most of the time but is still one of the nicest people she's met and Mina, whom she shared most of her childhood with and who apparently hasn't changed that much since then. 

As Chaeyoung runs, she finds herself smiling. So this is what it's like to have friends. She didn't imagine it'd be like this—Dahyun pounding on the railing as she screams her name and Mina yelling 'go go go go go' in her soft voice over and over again. Thank God she didn't yell the embarrassing childhood nickname. Chaeyoung would've died on the spot. 

She finally finishes, coming to a stop next to Somi, who looks impressed. "You did better than I expected," the captain says, "I thought you'd be slower." 

"Don't underestimate short people," Chaeyoung says, accepting the bottle of water Somi hands her. 

"I got you." Somi glances at her stop watch. "We're still holding tryouts until tomorrow. I'll tell you my decision then." 

Chaeyoung nods, pleased with herself. "I'll look forward to it." 

"I'm almost scared to let you in," Somi tells her, chuckling, "I'm afraid Tzuyu might kick my ass." 

"Why?" 

Somi shrugs, waving her off. "When Tzuyu wants something, she usually gets it." 

…

When Chaeyoung trudges over to where Dahyun and Mina are seated, she sees that they aren't alone. The cheerleaders from earlier are talking animatedly with them. The pink-haired one, Sana, has her arms wrapped around Dahyun's middle, snuggling with her. On the other hand, the dark-haired one, Momo, is leaning against Mina and whining about being hungry. 

"Hey!" Dahyun visibly brightens at the sight of her. "How did it go?" 

Chaeyoung shrugs, wiping the sweat off her forehead with the back of her hand. "I'll know by tomorrow." 

"You did good," Mina quips. 

"Thanks." 

There's a pause. Then Dahyun yelps, apparently having been pinched by Sana. 

“Dahyunnie,” Sana says with the utmost patience, batting her eyelashes, “introduce me to your new friend.” 

“Oh, right, sorry.” Dahyun nods at Chaeyoung. “Sana, this is Son Chaeyoung. She’s a new student. Chae, Minatozaki Sana. My girlfriend.” Her cheeks turn pink at the last sentence and Chaeyoung can’t help but smile at the sight. 

“Dahyun’s mentioned you a couple of times,” she tells the pink-haired girl.

The cheerleader smiles brightly at her girlfriend. “Aren’t you the sweetest?” She leans in for a kiss and Dahyun looks so starstruck that she falls off the bench. Mina, Momo and Chaeyoung all facepalm. Sana looks put off before she giggles and helps Dahyun up.

“I’m Hirai Momo,” the other cheerleader introduces herself, since Dahyun still looks stunned, “I’m sorry about Sana. She has trouble toning down her PDA. It got worse ever since she and Dubu started dating.” 

Sana gasps, feigning hurt. Dahyun rolls her eyes fondly and intertwines their fingers together. Chaeyoung resists the urge to gag. She wonders how Mina can survive with this image everyday. Sure, it’s sweet and all but it must’ve been sickening at some point. 

“So,” Momo begins, “I heard you rejected Chou Tzuyu yesterday.” 

“The Chou Tzuyu?” Sana repeats, gasping once again. 

Dahyun pouts. “Babe, I told you that this morning.” 

“Oh.” Sana looks like she’s thinking deeply before she faces Chaeyoung again. “Why’d you say no? Are you, like, oh my God, straight?” At the mention of the world, the pink-haired girl looks ready to faint. 

“What?” Chaeyoung has never been more offended in her life. “No! I’m not straight. It’s just—well, Tzuyu was being—is this what people are seriously thinking about when they meet me?” Her last sentence is punctuated with a small whine, making Sana and Dahyun coo. 

Momo nudges Mina. “Can we adopt your friend? She’s like a puppy.” Rolling her eyes, Mina lets out a soft grunt in response. 

“Chaeyoung, sweetie,” Sana says, “in this school, rejecting the Chou Tzuyu is like a capital sin.”

“Am I going to get stoned to death?” Chaeyoung deadpans. 

“Worse.” Momo crosses her arms. “You get talked about.”

“That’s high school for you.” Chaeyoung takes a seat next to Sana, frowning. This isn’t how she imagined her junior year would start. But of course, nothing has exactly gone to plan, after all. She expected to be the same lone wolf she was back in her old school. Apparently, being late on her first day was the catalyst for the strange events to occur—being late led to Kim Dahyun, who led her to Mitang, then to archery and later on, Chou Tzuyu.

She wonders if the captain of the archery club is going to haunt her for the rest of her junior days. 

“But seriously!” Sana suddenly says, turning to Chaeyoung and nearly giving her a heart attack, “I can’t believe you rejected Chou Tzuyu of all people! Weren’t you charmed by her gorgeous eyes, her stunning visuals and that dimpled smile? Like girl, you missed a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity! And don’t even get me started on her height! Can you imagine being wrapped in her slender arms and having to tilt your head up just to kiss her? Son Chaeyoung, I don’t know about you but you’re definitely going to look back one day and be like ‘damn, why didn’t I—”

Dahyun clears her throat, looking slightly annoyed. Sana stops her monologue, blushing furiously, before she turns back to her girlfriend and starts peppering her with kisses. “Awww, Dahyunnie,” the pink-haired girl coos, “don’t be like that.” Chaeyoung groans, looking away. She sees Mina and Momo wearing identical expressions of disgust. 

“Don’t mind them,” Mina tells Chaeyoung, grabbing her bag from under the bench and tucking her headphones back in place, “Dahyun can be a bit jealous when it comes to Tzuyu.” 

“I do not!” the blonde says defensively, melting into Sana’s side. 

Momo follows after Mina, letting out a sigh and pointedly ignoring her friends’ public displays of affection. “You see, Chaeyoungie,” the cheerleader explains, “Last year, Satang here asked Tzuyu for help in asking Dahyun out but Dahyun thought that Sana was in love with Tzuyu instead. It was a train wreck. You should've seen Dahyun's face every time Tzu and Sana went away to discuss their plans for her." 

“Hey!” Dahyun lets herself be wrapped in a hug by Sana. “You would think the same too if you see your crush hanging out with Tzuyu all the time!” 

“Aww, you had a crush on me, Dahyunnie?” 

“Babe, that’s literally how we started dating.” 

Momo smirks, turning back to Chaeyoung. “That’s why it’s such a shocker when somebody rejects Tzu,” she says, reaching out and pinching the shorter girl’s cheeks, “I think it’s never been done before.” 

Chaeyoung rolls her eyes, pulling away. “Now you’re just exaggerating.” 

“I wish I was.”

Mina extends her hand for Chaeyoung to take. “We should get going.” 

“Yeah, I’ve got some things to do back home.” Chaeyoung takes Mina’s hand and allows herself to be pulled up to her feet but the two of them don’t let go. They don’t notice Momo’s calculative stare. Meanwhile, Sana and Dahyun are too busy being wrapped up in each other to even give a damn.

“Do you want to come over sometime?” Mina asks. She doesn’t notice the way Momo’s eyes widen at the casual way she just invited a girl over to her place. “We can play Super Mario Advance on the Game Boy.” 

“I can’t believe you still have that old thing,” Chaeyoung says, slinging her bag over her shoulder, “Didn’t it fall like a hundred times?” 

Mina giggles, her eyes crinkling at the corners. “Yeah, but I take care of the things that matter to me.” 

Warmth explodes in Chaeyoung’s chest. She grins happily. “I’ve missed you,” she tells Mitang. 

Before Mina can respond, Momo suddenly comes in between them, looking terribly confused but territorial at the same time. “Are you dating?” she asks, her voice pinched with shock. “Mina, are you over Nayeon? Wait, when did this happen? We don’t see each other for three days and you’ve already gotten yourself a girlfriend?” Momo turns to Chaeyoung this time, her mouth dropping. “No wonder you rejected Tzuyu!” 

Behind them, Sana stumbles as she tries to unwrap herself from Dahyun. Thankfully, the blonde catches her in time. “Did I hear someone say girlfriend?” the pink-haired girl shrieks, her eyes wide as she looks between Mina and Chaeyoung. 

To her credit, Mina remains calm. Meanwhile, Chaeyoung’s brain is trying to process what just happened within the past few seconds. All she did was agree to go to Mina’s house and suddenly, people are thinking that they’re dating? Damn, high school is wild. She opens her mouth to refute the claims but Mina beats her to it. 

“Momoring, Satang,” she says, nodding at her friends, “Do you remember that childhood friend I told you about a few years ago? The one who moved away?” 

The two cheerleaders nod, wearing equal expressions of confusion and expectation. Mina raises the hand still clasped within Chaeyoung’s. “Well, this is her,” she explains, rather blandly. 

It’s kind of hilarious how Momo and Sana seem to share the same brain cell because the two of them simultaneously say “oh” before nodding furiously. Then Sana frowns, tilting her head to the side. Momo looks like she’s thinking through the same lines. The signal is strong between them, Chaeyoung guesses. 

“I thought you were over Nayeon for a second there,” Momo says, looking relieved. Mina rolls her eyes, muttering under her breath, “I don’t have a crush on Nayeonnie.” Her pink cheeks say otherwise. 

“Wait,” Sana begins, still with the same frown, “didn’t you say your friend’s name was Chaeng-Chaeng?” 

Mina quickly lets go of Chaeyoung’s hand and jumps over the railing, completely disregarding the fact that the ground is literally ten feet below her. She manages to land steadily on her two feet, brushing off the dust from her knees, before she breaks into a run across the track field. Chaeyoung watches her go, mouth hanging wide open. Momo and Sana’s confusion only grows. 

Dahyun lets out a sigh, stands up and closes Chaeyoung’s mouth for her. “Come on,” she says, pushing her down the stairs, “you can kill her tomorrow during lunch.” 

…

Basketball, Chaeyoung decides, is definitely not for her.

When she walked up to Yoo Jeongyeon the next day and told her she was trying out for the team, she didn’t expect the captain to throw the ball straight at her stomach and challenge her to a one-on-one match right there and then. Dahyun and Mina, who had been watching from the sidelines, only shook their heads when Chaeyoung looked at them in panic. She can be tough when she’s in her element, she remembered Dahyun saying. Lord, she was going to regret this. 

Now she’s in the middle of an embarrassing match up with the star basketball player of JYP High. The score is 12-3. She only managed to score those three points in the first few seconds of the match, when Jeongyeon was still on the other side of the court. Dahyun was right—her accuracy is on point. The only problem is, after that awesome three-pointer, she just can’t seem to catch up with Jeongyeon’s quick reflexes and harsh steals. 

Even though she’s losing miserably, Dahyun and Mina are still cheering her on. It’s been nearly half an hour already. Chaeyoung’s legs feel like they’re about to fall apart as she dribbles the ball in one hand. Jeongyeon faces her, eyebrows furrowed in concentration. 

“Can’t you just take the ball from me already?” Chaeyoung whines, already feeling exhausted. 

“Tired?” 

“Obviously!” 

Jeongyeon smirks. “If you get into the team, it’s going to be twice as hard,” she says, almost mockingly, “so are you going to quit now?” 

Chaeyoung may be a lot of things—art hoe, family disappointment, the new kid—but she isn’t a quitter. So she takes a deep breath, grits her teeth and tries to sidestep Jeongyeon in order to reach the goal. However, Jeongyeon anticipates this move and easily sweeps the ball from Chaeyoung’s grip. Before the shorter girl can even digest what happened, Jeongyeon is already sprinting towards the other side of the court, away from where the ring is. The entire room holds its breath as Jeongyeon effortlessly jumps up and shoots the ball from quite a distance away, her eyes fixed on the basket. Chaeyoung’s mouth drops open as it goes in, scoring the senior three points. Even though she lost in such in an embarrassing way, she can’t help but admire the older girl for being so cool. 

15-3.

Somebody blows a whistle. The rest of the girl’s basketball team claps politely. Their captain crosses the court to where Chaeyoung is still standing, staring up at the goal that seems impossibly far away the more she thinks about it. Jeongyeon pauses, as if waiting for her to notice that she’s there before saying, “Hey.” 

Chaeyoung looks up at her. “You’re so cool,” are the words that pop out of her mouth. 

Jeongyeon, startled, manages a laugh. “Gee, thanks,” she says, wiping the sweat from her brow, “That’s not what I usually hear after I beat someone.” 

Chaeyoung chuckles weakly. “Have you heard of humility? It’s a thing, by the way.”

“Sorry. Got carried away.” Jeongyeon catches the towel a fellow team member throws at her and hands it to Chaeyoung who takes it gratefully. “You did good, though. With practice and training, you could be a force to be reckoned with. That three-pointer you did? Not easy.” 

“Yeah.” Chaeyoung looks back at the basket. “Well, what’s your verdict then?”

Jeongyeon follows her gaze. “I’m not gonna lie. If you join now, you’ll be benched for most of the season.”

“Thought so.” Chaeyoung dabs the towel to her face, frowning. “Thanks, though.”

“No problem.” Most people would be walking away by now but Jeongyeon seems intent on staring hard at the basket as well. It dawns on Chaeyoung that the older girl probably wants to ask a question. She racks her brain for anything significant that might’ve happened the past few days and comes to one clear conclusion. 

She lets out a heavy sigh. “Are you here to ask me why I rejected the Chou Tzuyu?”

Jeongyeon cracks a grin. “That obvious, huh?”

“People have been asking me the same question left and right.”

“You don’t have to tell me why, though.” Jeongyeon hums. “Tzuyu’s got a reputation in this school.” 

“I would assume so,” Chaeyoung says, “since everybody keeps referring to her as the Chou Tzuyu. What is she, a goddess or something?” Based on looks alone, Tzuyu can definitely pass off as a daughter of Aphrodite. If she didn’t freaking insult Chaeyoung and then ask her out, the artist wouldn’t have minded sketching her features.

“That gets on her nerves, by the way.” 

“Huh.” 

“I was kind of surprised that you showed up here,” Jeongyeon says lightly, patting her on the shoulder and subtly leading her to the stands, where Dahyun and Mina are waiting, “Tzuyu told me that you were already part of the archery club.” 

“Dahyun made that decision for me,” Chaeyoung says, “so I’m not really a part of it.” 

“Yet.” 

Chaeyoung gives the senior a look. “What makes you think I have any plans of joining?” 

“You don’t seem like the type of person who enjoys things from the sidelines,” Jeongyeon comments, high-fiving Dahyun, who tackles Chaeyoung in a bear hug despite the shorter girl being all sweaty, and nodding at Mina, who hands her childhood friend a bottle of water. 

It’s true—Chaeyoung is the type of person who, when she sees something she likes, has to try it out herself. It’s the best way to learn new experiences and discover things about her capabilities. So she releases a deep breath, pats Dahyun on the back and tells Jeongyeon, “Thanks for letting me try out anyway, even though you did beat me.” 

Jeongyeon cracks a smile. Chaeyoung’s admiration grows. Despite being a hardass in basketball, the senior is definitely a nicer captain than Chou Tzuyu. “Who knows? You might beat me next time.” 

“Yeah, if she grows a foot taller,” Dahyun mumbles. 

“I heard that,” Chaeyoung says in a menacing tone. 

“Heard what?” 

“Fucking moron.”

Jeongyeon lets out a laugh, ruffling Dahyun’s blonde hair. “I see that you’re becoming fast friends.” The smile she sends two juniors is tinged with fondness. Chaeyoung can’t help but feel like she’s been praised by her own mother. The feeling is foreign, light but exciting at the same time. So this is how it feels. 

Mina suddenly mumbles “oh shit” which is something Chaeyoung would never expect her childhood friend to say. They all turn towards the entrance where, sure enough because it’s high school and the universe just loves ruining Chaeyoung’s day, the bane of her existence Chou Tzuyu walks through the doors with Im Nayeon in tow. The girls in the basketball team all simultaneously go quiet for a few seconds before a few of them pushes their friends forward with heated whispers of, “now’s your chance!” filing the air.

Jeongyeon snorts, crossing her arms. “This is what you get when two of the hottest girls in school walk in a room full of hormonal basketball players.” 

Chaeyoung pushes Dahyun off her, already slightly panicking. The girl she rejected is here. After Nayeon finishes entertaining and talking with her fangirls, Tzuyu rolls her eyes and shoves her towards where their tiny group is talking. Mina looks like she’s about five seconds away from bolting and leaving the room but Dahyun, as if sensing her inner fight-or-flight instinct, casually wraps an arm around the Japanese girl and roots her on the spot. 

Mina’s entire face reddens when Tzuyu and Nayeon reach them. 

“Practice ended early,” the star of the theatre club tells Jeongyeon. 

Jeongyeon raises an eyebrow. “What am I supposed to do with this information?” 

“You’re my ride, Yoo,” Nayeon whines, dramatically placing the back of her hand on her forehead, “and if I don’t get home now, I’m going to faint from exhaustion.” 

“You literally just said that practice ended early.” 

Nayeon sticks her tongue out at her friend. Then, because it’s high school, Chaeyoung watches with amusement as Nayeon sweeps her eyes over their little group and makes a decision. She takes a seat next to Mina. Because of this, Mina turns to Dahyun, her eyes wide and her cheeks red, and says, “Bathroom.” 

“What?” Dahyun says, feigning innocence. She still doesn’t let go. 

“Ba—ba—bathroom,” Mina stutters. 

“You just went.” 

Not a total lie. Chaeyoung saw Mina go earlier while she was being beaten viciously by Jeongyeon. 

“Stop torturing Mina,” Tzuyu tells Dahyun, raising an unimpressed eyebrow. 

“You’re torturing her?” Nayeon asks, suddenly interested. 

“I need to go.” In one quick, fluid motion, Mina throws Dahyun’s arm off her, grabs her bag and bolts out of the basketball court. It happens so fast. Chaeyoung blinks and she’s already gone. She turns to Nayeon who looks disappointed for a few seconds before the said girl looks up at her, devious smirk already in place. 

“You’re Son Chaeyoung, right?” the senior asks, “You’re cuter in person.”

The hair on Chaeyoung’s arms stand in attention. It’s the same feeling she had with God Jihyo. “Uhm, I—uh…” 

“Ah.” Nayeon smirks. “So you’re the one who rejected the Chou Tzuyu.” 

Chaeyoung needs to see Tzuyu’s birth certificate and check if there really is a the before her name. “Uhm,” is what she says in response to Nayeon’s query. 

Tzuyu isn’t having any of it, however. “I will murder you in your sleep, Nayeonnie.” 

Jeongyeon snorts, taking a seat next to Nayeon and nodding at Chaeyoung. “She just tried out for the team,” she shares, “so we haven’t really done any real practice yet. Do you mind waiting?” 

“You know I’ll always wait for you, Jeongie.” Nayeon winks. If it had been anyone else, Chaeyoung is sure they would’ve had a heart attack already. But Jeongyeon just frowns and rolls her eyes, mumbling a “Whatever, Nabongs” under her breath. She looks tense, though.

Chaeyoung slowly backs away from the two seniors and makes a beeline for her bag, fully planning on leaving before any rumors start up again. Dahyun announces that she’s heading after Mina and Chaeyoung mentally curses her. Because now she’s stuck in a basketball court with two seniors who look like they’re about to start arguing any second now and one Chou Tzuyu. She sends a quick prayer to the gods watching over them and turns to say her goodbyes to Jeongyeon, only to come face-to-face with Tzuyu.

Well, not face-to-face. 

More like face-to-neck. 

Fucking tall girls. 

“I thought you were already part of my club,” Tzuyu says, crossing her arms. 

Chaeyoung drops her bag. “Well,” she says, mirroring her position and craning her neck to look at the captain, “plans change.”

“Dahyun said that you would join.” 

“Dahyun isn’t my mom.” 

Tzuyu snorts. “Anybody can be your mom with your height.” 

What is up with people and her height? 

Thankfully, Dahyun returns from her pursuit of Mina empty-handed. Chaeyoung shoots her a look over Tzuyu’s shoulder. The blonde, immediately understanding the situation, quickly rushes over. “Hey, hey, Cap,” she says, patting Tzuyu’s back hard, “you don’t look too happy here.”

“You told me she was going to be part of the team,” Tzuyu states, barely flinching, “I already told Yeji that she can be part of the second one because she isn’t first-string material.”

“Damn,” Chaeyoung finds herself saying, scoffing out loud, “you just love crushing people’s self-esteem, don’t you? How cruel.”

Dahyun winces, as if the words were meant for her. Tzuyu pauses, narrowing her eyes at Chaeyoung. “It’s not called being cruel,” she says lowly, “it’s called being truthful.” 

“Whatever helps you sleep at night.” 

Dahyun comes in between them, raising her hands. “Hey, hey,” she begins, her eyes full of panic, “there’s no need to get all tense here. We’re all juniors. We’re all friends.” 

Tzuyu lets out her own scoff. “I’m not friends with her.” 

“Well, you have to, if you want her to join the club.” 

The words seem to physically pain Tzuyu. She rolls her eyes and takes a step back, spewing out words like Chaeyoung doesn’t even exist: “She doesn’t even look like she wants to join. We need dedication, loyalty and passion if we want to win Conference this year, Dahyun.” The taller girl throws Chaeyoung a withering look. “She doesn’t look the type to have any of those traits. The club doesn’t need that.” 

“Maybe it’s less with the club and more to do with the captain,” Chaeyoung spits out.

Silence. It feels like the entire world has heard her statement and it prickles at her anxiety. Tzuyu narrows her eyes at Chaeyoung again. “What’s that supposed to mean?” she asks, her tone rising in volume. It manages to catch the attention of both Nayeon and Jeongyeon who take a break from their bickering to gape at them. 

“You figure it out,” the shorter girl snaps. 

“The dwarf wants to fight, huh?” 

“Shut it, Goliath.”

“Guys…” Dahyun shrinks back, looking helpless. From the corner of her eye, Chaeyoung sees her pulling out her cellphone. 

Meanwhile, Tzuyu glowers at the shorter girl. “Do you have a problem with the way I handle my team?” she asks, her entire posture stiff and tense. 

Chaeyoung doesn’t back down. Not a quitter, not a coward, either. “I have a problem with your attitude, ace,” she shoots back, the last word dripping with sarcasm. 

“You know, we don’t need you,” Tzuyu grumbles, “You’re probably not good enough to stay in first-string, anyway. Lessens the headache I have to deal with.”

“Yeah, well, maybe I didn’t want to join a club with the Chou Tzuyu in the first place.” Chaeyoung sighs in frustration, her emotions bubbling to the surface. It’s bad enough that people are hounding her for answers as to why she shot down Tzuyu. Now she has to deal with the captain herself.

Tzuyu smirks. “Your loss then.” 

“You’re so full of yourself—”

A loud, shrill, drawn-out honking suddenly fills the air. Chaeyoung immediately covers her ears with her hands, trying to find the source of the sound. Tzuyu winces as she plugs her fingers into her own ears. The entire room moans in agony as the sound continues to go on. Dahyun curls into a ball by Tzuyu’s feet, digging her head into her arms. Meanwhile, Nayeon has her face buried in Jeongyeon’s shoulder as the short-haired girl wraps her arms around her. For a split second, Chaeyoung thinks it’s a fire alarm. Then her eyes fall on the student council president, Park Jihyo, standing by the entrance of the court, holding an airhorn up to the ceiling. Jihyo’s large eyes are fixed on her and Tzuyu.

Shit, Chaeyoung think, I’m going to die by the hands of God Jihyo herself. 

The noise finally stops. Jihyo calmly takes out the plugs from her ears and walks over towards them. There’s silence—loud and stifling. Chaeyoung swallows nervously.

“Dahyun,” Tzuyu says exasperatedly, “did you seriously use your Jihyo card on me?” 

“You guys didn’t look like you were going to stop anytime soon,” the blonde says from where she’s seated on the floor, “I had no choice.” 

“Tzuyu,” the president begins, putting her hands on her hips; she looks like a disappointed mom, “are you honestly picking a fight with the new kid? I thought you knew better than that.” 

Tzuyu looks scandalized. “She—she—” Once again, the captain is at a loss for words. 

“I don’t care who started it.” Jihyo turns to Chaeyoung next. This feels a whole lot like Judgement Day so the redhead recites a quick prayer in her head as the president assesses her carefully. “Son Chaeyoung, I already caught you skipping class on your first day. Don’t give me any reason to keep a closer eye on you.” 

Chaeyoung doesn’t say anything. Every time she’s faced with people with authority, she’s always had the insane need to lash out and prove them wrong. But there’s just something about Jihyo’s aura that holds her hostage. One wrong move and she feels like the weight of the president’s wrath could physically kill her. 

“Don’t do this again,” Jihyo warns, frowning, “It’s only the first week of school.” 

Chaeyoung nods. Tzuyu scowls. When Jihyo’s frown deepens, the taller girl reluctantly nods as well. The tension between them is palpable. It weighs heavily on Chaeyoung’s shoulders. She can’t believe she’s already in trouble because of the stupid Chou Tzuyu. 

“Good.” Jihyo seems satisfied. “Tzuyu, I need to talk to you this Monday about some council things. Would you mind meeting up with me before class?” 

Even though Tzuyu still looks pissed off, she nods her consent. 

Chaeyoung internally rolls her eyes. Of course Tzuyu is part of the student council. That explains her strong dislike towards the captain. She’s always hated authority figures. Well, maybe except for Jihyo. 

Dahyun taps her on the shoulder. “Do you want to go?” she asks meekly.

Chaeyoung doesn’t bother looking back at Tzuyu and grabs the bag she dropped on the floor earlier. She’s aware that everybody in the gym is staring at them. Great. Without even meaning to, she’s brought more attention to herself. There’s really something about Chou Tzuyu that gets under her skin. It’s like—she doesn't know what it’s like but she just knows it’s annoying as hell. 

“I’ll see you around, Cap,” Chaeyoung hears Dahyun tell Tzuyu before she follows after the shorter girl. She doesn’t hear Tzuyu’s response.

As they leave the court and head towards the parking lot, where Chaeyoung keeps her bike, the silence between them is almost unbearable. It’s not really Dahyun’s fault that Tzuyu is such a pain in the ass to deal with but Chaeyoung can’t help but resent her for everything that’s happened. She shouldn’t have tried out for the club. Maybe she’d be spared from this mess. 

Chaeyoung kneels next to her bike to unlock it. Dahyun stands next to her, waiting. 

“Hey,” the blonde says after Chaeyoung swings her leg over the seat, “I’m sorry.”

At once, all of Chaeyoung’s frustrations and anger melt away at the sight of Dahyun’s kicked-puppy look. “It’s fine,” she says, waving her off, “your ace just gets on my nerves.” 

“It’s okay.” Dahyun leans against somebody’s car, her arms crossed. “I shouldn’t have told her that you’d join the team. Tzuyu doesn’t… deal with rejection well.” 

Chaeyoung thinks about the wide-eyed shock on Tzuyu’s face after she rejected her the other day. “No kidding, Sherlock,” she comments.  

Silence again. Dahyun looks so miserable it makes Chaeyoung’s heart ache. 

“Don’t worry about it,” the redhead tells her, trying to ease her worries, “We’ll get over it.” 

“It’s not just that…” The blonde nibbles on her lower lip before letting out a sigh and turning to Chaeyoung. Her eyes are shining. “Somi came by the court earlier while you were playing against Jeongyeon.” 

“Right.” Chaeyoung nearly forgot about having tried out for the track team. “Did she say anything?” 

“She said that you got in.” 

Oh. No wonder Dahyun looks so sad. Their deal was that if Chaeyoung can’t get into the other two sports club, then she’d join the first-string archery team. She should feel happy about having gotten in a club that she’s actually interested in and which allows her to move around a lot. But instead, all she feels is a growing sense of restlessness. 

You’re probably not good enough to stay in first-string, anyway.

Chou Tzuyu really got under her skin. 

If there’s one thing that Chaeyoung likes about herself, it’s her drive to prove other people wrong. 

“That’s too bad,” Chaeyoung tells Dahyun, whistling, “I’m kind of disappointed.” 

The blonde frowns at her. “But you wanted to get in, right?” 

“Yeah,” the shorter girl agrees, shrugging, “but I’ve already got a club, remember?” 

It takes Dahyun a few seconds to get what she’s trying to indirectly say. Then her eyes turn into half crescent moons as a smile blossoms on her lips, her chubby cheeks all puffed up and turning bright pink. It’s an endearing sight to see and Chaeyoung immediately knows that she’s made the right decision. She lets herself be wrapped up in a tight hug from Dahyun who actually sounds like she’s going to cry any second now. “I’m sorry about this but I kind of prayed to God that you wouldn’t get in,” the blonde mumbles against her shoulder. 

Chaeyoung laughs, patting her back. “All is forgiven, Dubu.” 

Dahyun’s friendship, she decides, is definitely worth the hell she’ll go through because of Chou Tzuyu. 

Chapter Text

“I heard someone finally rejected the Chou Tzuyu yesterday.”

Tzuyu looks up from her phone to send Jeongyeon a withering glare. “Stop calling me that.”

Normally she’d sit in her car until the last possible minute before the bell rings, but she had to come in early to help Jihyo with student council duties, and she didn’t even have coffee, and it’s way too early in the morning for her to be harassed by her friends. 

Most people would crumble under her scowl, but Jeongyeon just laughs and sits on the seat across from Tzuyu, spinning the basketball she always seems to carry around with her on her finger. “I have caffeine.”

Tzuyu’s head snaps up, and she eyes Jeongyeon carefully. “Where?”

“Well, I don’t have it. Nayeon does.” Jeongyeon checks the time on her watch. “She should be here any second.”

Right at that moment, Tzuyu hears Nayeon’s voice—far away but crystal clear. She’s complaining about incompetent crewhands and ridiculous costume designers. Rehearsals just started for the school’s fall musical, and it’s been a stressful time for Nayeon. And if it’s a stressful time for Nayeon, it’s a stressful time for all of them because Nayeon complains to them all day, every day. 

She needs caffeine in her system soon because she doesn’t think she can handle Nayeon’s complaints half-awake and barely clinging to sanity. Once Nayeon gets close enough, she holds out her hand expectantly, making Nayeon roll her eyes and hand Tzuyu a cup.

“Did you hear?” Jeongyeon begins, looking at Nayeon with thinly veiled amusement. “Tzuyu got reject—”

“Fuck off,” Tzuyu mutters, elbowing Jeongyeon in the ribs and making her yelp. “Don’t you have better things to talk about?”

“Oh, I heard about that!” Nayeon sits down across from Tzuyu and Jeongyeon. “It was the new kid, right? Chaeyoung?”

Of course she heard about it—the gossip mill practically has Nayeon’s name on it. Whenever something remotely important happens, Nayeon somehow knows before anyone else. It terrifies Tzuyu just how well-informed Nayeon is about their school and any other school in a ten-mile radius. 

Nayeon and Jeongyeon both turn to look at Tzuyu, and she huffs. “Whatever, it’s not even that big of a deal.”

“That big of a deal?” Nayeon repeats, her eyebrows rising in disbelief. “Sure, it’s not like most of the people in this school would kill for a chance to go on a date with you.”

“Who is this girl anyway?” Jeongyeon asks.

Nayeon shrugs. “All I know is Mina used to be friends with her, and Dahyun’s taken a liking to her.” She tilts her head at Tzuyu. “Is she joining the archery team?”

“Dahyun said she was,” Tzuyu says. On one hand, it’s good she found a suitable third member of her team, but on the other hand, being around Chaeyoung will be unbearably awkward considering Tzuyu made a pass at her and quickly got shot down.

Do it for the trophy, she reminds herself. She and Chaeyoung may have gotten off on the wrong foot, but she’s sure they can get through the year without anything too terrible happening. They’ll need to get through the year because Tzuyu will accept nothing less than beating SM in conference.

Jeongyeon laughs. “I’m sure it’ll be fun constantly being reminded of your rejection.”

Tzuyu grabs the basketball that had rolled by her feet earlier and throws it at Jeongyeon, but Jeongyeon catches it with ease. Tzuyu expects this—Jeongyeon’s captain of the basketball team for a reason—and she chucks a balled-up piece of paper before Jeongyeon can recover. It hits her square in the forehead, making Tzuyu grin. “Do I need to remind you of that one time-”

“That was eighth grade!” Jeongyeon interrupts with a scowl. “Let it go.”

“Never,” Tzuyu says. “I watch the video every night before going to bed.”

Jeongyeon stiffens, the blood draining from her face. “You still have the video?” Her voice is nearly a whisper, but Tzuyu can easily detect the horror.

“Of course. I can’t ever forget the time you tried to ask someone to a formal by filling their locker to the brim with love notes and rose petals.”

“Such a romantic,” Nayeon pipes up with a mischievous smile.

“Well at least she said yes,” Jeongyeon fires back, a comment clearly directed at Tzuyu.

“That was a low blow, Yoo Jeongyeon,” Tzuyu says, kicking Jeongyeon’s leg under the table. 

Jeongyeon glares at Tzuyu. “I don’t care how tall you are, I will fight you right now…” She quiets down suddenly, looking behind behind Tzuyu’s shoulder.

Tzuyu feels the air around them shift, and she automatically straightens up and folds her hands in front of her. “Hi, Jihyo,” she says without looking back.

Jihyo stares at Tzuyu and Jeongyeon suspiciously while she sits down, her eyes darting between the two of them. “What did you do?”

“Nothing,” they both chime in unison, smiling pleasantly at Jihyo.

Jihyo frowns. “It’s too early to deal with you two.”

“Literally I got up at five in the morning to help you with student council when I could’ve been happily asleep in my bed,” Tzuyu protests vehemently. “We didn’t even have an official meeting today, you just enjoy trying to see how little sleep you can get while still being able to function.”

“It’s good for character,” Jihyo responds, waving Tzuyu’s complaints away and taking her cup of coffee from the tray. Tzuyu winces as Jihyo downs the coffee—probably made up of way too much caffeine and way too little sweetner—with a straight face. Jihyo is insane.

“I found Chaeyoung’s Instagram,” Nayeon announces suddenly, hunched over her phone with a mildly interested expression.

“Oh, didn’t she reject Tzuyu yesterday?” Jihyo asks.

Tzuyu groans and drops her head on the table. Why do so many people know about this? She swears there were only one or two people on the field yesterday to witness the event, other than herself, Chaeyoung, and Dahyun. Word travels fast around this school, and it completely sucks .

“I wanna see her Instagram,” Jeongyeon says, making grabby hands at Nayeon’s phone. “She must be special if she rejected the Chou Tzuyu.”

“I’m going to kill Jeongyeon,” Tzuyu declares to the table. She pauses. “Sorry, I mean the Yoo Jeongyeon.” Two can play that game.

“Her fangirls might retaliate,” Jihyo says, a small smirk appearing on her face. “I’d be scared if I were you.”

Nayeon shakes her head and hands her phone off to Jeongyeon. “They wouldn’t dare touch Tzuyu. She’s practically a goddess, and everyone thinks she’ll smite them if they wrong her.”

“You guys suck,” Tzuyu whines, burying her face in her arms. She seriously needs to find new friends.

“She doesn’t have any pictures of her,” Jeongyeon complains, sliding Nayeon’s phone back to its owner. “How am I supposed to stalk her if she has nothing on social media?”

“Not everyone posts weekly pictures of themselves looking sweaty while playing basketball,” Nayeon responds, pulling up Jeongyeon’s Instagram account to prove her point. It’s true—Jeongyeon’s page is filled with live-action pictures of her playing basketball, with the occasional group photo of friends. 

Jeongyeon reddens slightly, and she points an accusing finger at Nayeon. “Like you’re any better. Your entire account is you standing on a dark stage, a single spotlight on you while you look contemplative about life.”

“Because I’m fabulous in these,” Nayeon says, flipping her hair behind her shoulder in an exaggerated motion. She nudges Jeongyeon with her shoulder and flutters her eyelashes. “Don’t you agree?”

“I—well—no...shut up,” Jeongyeon gets out, tripping over her words.

“She’s quite the artist,” Jihyo mentions, having pulled up Chaeyoung’s Instagram on her own phone. Tzuyu leans over to peek at the account. There’s lots of drawings, along with some pictures of coffee shops, and a couple murals here and there. “Oh, I found a picture of her.” 

It’s one that someone tagged Chaeyoung in—Chaeyoung looks a lot younger, her hair is much longer, and she’s just as short as she is now. She wears a white shirt covered in handprints along with a couple of other people, and they’re holding out their painted hands with large grins. 

Tzuyu looks up and sees a group of people blatantly staring at their table, and more specifically, Tzuyu. She covers her face and waits until they leave. Jihyo raises her eyebrow and glances behind her to watch the group disperse. “Everyone knows Chaeyoung rejected you. You might wanna keep your fanclub on a leash. Chaeyoung is new, she doesn’t need Choonhee and her followers to give her any trouble right now.”

Tzuyu thinks back to yesterday evening, when Chaeyoung casually rejected her and walked away. “I’m pretty sure she can handle herself.”

“It’s Lee Choonhee,” Jeongyeon adds, her eyes wide. “That girl can be downright feral sometimes. I wouldn’t wish her on my worst enemy.”

“I’m not wishing her on Chaeyoung,” Tzuyu mutters. She doesn’t hate Chaeyoung, she just finds her irritating. Change has always annoyed her, and Chaeyoung is everything Tzuyu isn’t used to. Still, hate is too strong of a word to use. It was just one rejection. She’ll be fine.

…

Tzuyu is not fine. She swears she’s never been more annoyed in her life, and it’s only halfway through the day. She prays for any spare patience, lest she loses her temper and murders half the school.

“Tzuyu?” Nayeon says carefully, noticing Tzuyu’s sour expression. “What’s up?”

Tzuyu scowls. “If one more person tells me they’d never be crazy enough to reject me, then proceeds to ask me on a date, I swear to god…”

Jeongyeon snorts, looking around at the many people indiscreetly staring at them in the lunch line. “Is that seriously happening?”

“I wish I was joking,” she replies. “If it’s like this for the rest of the year, I don’t think I can make it.”

“This will blow over,” Nayeon says. “You’ll do something to make the entire student body fall for you, and they’ll completely forget about Chaeyoung.”

“It better be soon,” she mutters under her breath. If she knew how much trouble Chaeyoung would be beforehand, she wouldn’t even have dared to look twice at the girl.

“Tzuyuuuuuuuuu!”

Tzuyu winces and automatically tries to hide behind Jeongyeon and Nayeon, but it’s to no avail. Choonhee already has her eye on Tzuyu, and once she sees Tzuyu, there’s no stopping her.

“Kill me,” she whispers to Nayeon. There’s a cup full of tiny plastic knives right next to them, and she’s certain Nayeon can figure out a way to kill Tzuyu with them before Choonhee can make her way over.

Nayeon looks over Tzuyu with a small frown, and she whispers, “I need a bigger knife for a giant like you.”

Tzuyu elbows Nayeon in the ribs before looking around the cafeteria, hoping to find Dahyun in the midst of the students so she could use the excuse of discussing archery club to escape, but the blonde is nowhere to be found. She locks eyes with Chaeyoung instead, and her mood plummets even further because she’s vividly reminded of yesterday’s events.

She turns back to Choonee, a painfully fake smile on her face. Normally, she wouldn’t think twice before telling someone off, but Choonhee’s family has lots of influence in their town. Tzuyu’s mom always tells her to stay on Choonhee’s good side.

“Yes?” she asks through her teeth, reminding herself to take deep breaths.

“I have been looking for you all day!” Choonhee says with an annoyingly high-pitched giggle. “Have you been avoiding me?”

“Take a hint,” she hears Jeongyeon murmur behind her. Tzuyu pointedly ignores it.

“I’ve been really busy, I guess.”

“I just wanted to ask you about archery tryouts. Did I get in?”

Tzuyu resists the urge to make a face. Choonhee never showed up to the second and third day of tryouts. Tzuyu thought Choonhee’s passing out was enough for the girl to never try archery again, but it was just obviously misplaced hope.

“Um, I think all the spots are filled, but maybe next year?” Tzuyu says, smiling harder to try and soften the blow. She probably looks like a clown right now, but so does Choonhee, so it’s fine.

Choonhee pouts. “I thought I did well enough to get on first-string this year.”

Nayeon hums, “I think you need to actually be able to hit the target before thinking about first-string.”

Jungyeon bursts out into laughter at Choonhee’s expression, and Choonhee’s eyes flick over to glare at Jeongyeon. Tzuyu tries to hide her smile behind a cough, but judging from Choonhee’s pursed lips, it doesn’t work too well. Choonhee takes one last look at their group before storming off, leaving Jeongyeon gasping for air and Nayeon smirking at Choonhee’s retreating form.

Tzuyu rolls her eyes, turning towards Nayeon. “You really shouldn’t do that. You know how Choonhee’s family is.”

“I can handle anything they try and throw at me,” Nayeon says while they start to walk back to their table. Tzuyu doesn’t doubt it. The Lees may be influential, but the Ims are a force to be reckoned with, considering Nayeon’s dad is the top lawyer in town.

“Still, they can cause a lot of trouble for you.”

“I’ll be fine,” Nayeon says, her eyes darting behind Tzuyu curiously. Tzuyu turns to see Chaeyoung sitting by herself and looking down at the table, while Dahyun rises from the floor with a tiny wave. Tzuyu squints at the blonde, noticing something strange seems to be stuck in her hair, but Dahyun doesn’t seem concerned, so Tzuyu doesn’t say anything.

She considers stopping to talk to Dahyun and Chaeyoung about scheduling, but Jeongyeon pulls her and Nayeon away from the table before she can decide, so she sticks with waving at Dahyun instead.

Chaeyoung, predictably, keeps her head down. Tzuyu isn’t surprised. She’s only interacted with Chaeyoung once in her entire life, but it only took one time to recognize Chaeyoung’s aversion to her. Whatever, the feeling is mutual.

…

Biology is her last class of the day, and Tzuyu’s been looking forward to it for the entire day. The amount of people dragging up her rejection has her this close to committing a murder. Her ego’s already bruised—she doesn’t need constant reminding of it. Biology is her break from the nonsense of the student body. She has both Mina and Dahyun in her class, and she’s certain neither of them are suicidal enough to bring up yesterday. 

Well, Biology is supposed to be her break time. When Tzuyu sees Chaeyoung and Dahyun walk through the door together two minutes before the bell rings, she already knows this class is no longer her break time. 

“Tzuyu, Mina,” Dahyun says cheerfully, standing in front of the table where the two of them are sitting along with Chaeyoung, who doesn’t even spare Tzuyu a glance. “Chaeyoung’s schedule moved around, so she’s in this class now.”

Tzuyu gives them a tight-lipped smile, not really in the mood for acting nice. She’s at her wits end right now, and she doesn’t feel like entertaining Dahyun and Chaeyoung when she already knows Chaeyoung dislikes her.

Chaeyoung nudges Dahyun and nods her head at another unoccupied table. After a few seconds of Dahyun looking conflicted, she heads over with Chaeyoung to sit at the other table. Tzuyu clenches her jaw, feeling slightly hurt. She can feel Dahyun’s eyes on her, but she purposefully doesn’t look over.

Mina nudges her gently with her elbow ten minutes into the teacher’s lecture. She’s wearing a tiny frown that instantly makes Tzuyu feel bad. “You could’ve been nicer.”

“I didn’t see her making an effort,” Tzuyu grumbles, keeping her eyes glued to her notes.

“She could be saying the same thing about you,” Mina reasons, and Tzuyu hates how she’s probably right. 

“She doesn’t like me, and I don’t like her. I don’t see the point in forcing ourselves into being fake,” Tzuyu says, finally glancing back at Dahyun and Chaeyoung. The two of them are hunched over a notebook, giggling quietly together and definitely not paying attention to the teacher. Tzuyu faces forward again, ignoring the stab of annoyance.

Mina looks back and sighs. “You know Dahyun means well. She’s just caught in the middle, and she doesn’t know how to handle it.”

Tzuyu pushes back her scowl. “You don’t need to explain. I’m not mad.” 

Mina raises her eyebrows. “You said the same thing to me when Sunmi took me to a tournament instead of you when we were freshmen. I know you, Tzuyu.”

“Can you just leave it alone for now?” Tzuyu pleads. “I really don’t want to think about it right now. I’m having a really shitty day.”

Mina’s frown deepens. “What happened?” Her voice lowers until Tzuyu could barely make out what she was saying. “Did one of the football players try something again?”

“No,” Tzuyu reassures her, knowing how Mina feels about that particular subject. “People just keep bringing up me getting rejected. Not exactly the thing I want to hear about right now.”

“I get that but don’t take it out on them.” Mina tilts her head in Dahyun and Chaeyoung’s direction. “Besides, Chaeyoung’s actually really nice.”

“I’m sure,” Tzuyu says, more as a way to veer away from the topic of Chaeyoung than actually listening to Mina. Chaeyoung has yet to prove herself to Tzuyu, and so far, she isn’t off to a very good start.

…

Chaeyoung isn’t a really nice person like Mina claimed. At least not to Tzuyu. She grits her teeth, still heated about the argument in the gym, and starts her car. She needs to get out of here before anyone is unlucky enough to run into her path.

It’s only the first week of school and she already pissed off Jihyo, basically alienated Mina and Dahyun, and she doesn’t even have a full archery team. Fantastic. She turns up the music in her car in an effort to drown out her thoughts. It doesn’t really work.

“Mom, I’m home!” she calls, setting her backpack by the stairs and making her way towards the study. As always, her mom’s hunched over her desk with multiple cups of coffee surrounding her, looking intently at some papers.

Her mom looks up and smiles, tired but pleasant. “Hi, sweetie. How was your day?”

Tzuyu shrugs, not wanting to burden her mom with today’s events. She can handle it on her own. However, she knows she needs to rip the archery band-aid quick because her mom will find out anyway. “I may have lost the third member of my team today.”

Her mom’s eyebrows knit together, and she looks at Tzuyu through narrowed eyes. “Already?”

“Yeah.”

“That’s...unfortunate. Do I want to know the young lady’s name?”

Tzuyu shakes her head quickly. “It’s done with anyway, there’s nothing you can do. I’ll just have to find someone else.”

Her mom leans back in her chair, looking contemplative. “You’ll need to find someone soon, but make sure they’re up to par. Archery is scholarship money, after all.”

Not just scholarship money, Tzuyu almost says, but she manages to bite her tongue at the last second. Archery is so much more to her. It takes her to simpler times—back when she was young, and she and her parents would go out to the archery range every weekend because they were a big, happy family who still lived together and ate meals together and loved one another. It all fell apart a couple years later, obviously, but archery reminds her of better days. It reminds her of a home that is still complete.

“I will,” she says instead. “Scholarships are important to me.”

“Good. You know we need it now that your father—”

“I get it, mom,” she interrupts. “You’ve told me a hundred times already.”

A flash of hurt passes over her mom’s face before it settles into the calm, cool woman Tzuyu’s used to. “Dinner’s on the counter.”

“I’m not hungry,” she mumbles. “And I have dance anyway.”

Her mom nods, and Tzuyu has the feeling she didn’t hear Tzuyu. She probably heard her, but not really.

It’s been like that for a long time now. She’s used to it.

…

Sohee claps her hands once the music stops, a proud smile on her face. “Everyone’s looking fantastic! We can end a little early tonight. Go home and get some rest, and don’t forget to drink plenty of water.”

Most of the people in the room groan in relief and immediately head over to try grab their stuff and leave as quickly as possible. Tzuyu hangs back, sipping water and trying to regain her breath. Once she feels well enough to talk without feeling like she’s going to throw up, she finds Sohee. “Mind if I stay a little longer? I can’t seem to get this one move down…”

It's a lie. Tzuyu is pretty sure she can dance the routine they’re learning in her sleep at twice the speed, but Sohee doesn’t need to know that. Besides, this is a regular occurrence, so Sohee has no reason to question Tzuyu.

Sohee smiles and shakes her head. “I’d tell you to go home and sleep instead, but I know you won’t listen to me.” She slings her bag over her shoulder. “Don’t forget to lock the door on your way out and don’t overwork yourself!”

Tzuyu nods in thanks and waits until Sohee leaves before cranking up the music until it’s deafening, and she lets it wash over her until it’s the only thing she can focus on. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. 

Then she dances. She dances until she's soaked in sweat and her lungs burn and her legs feel like jello. And she keeps dancing. She isn’t sure how much time passes. It could’ve been five minutes or it could’ve been five hours for all she knew. When she dances, nothing else matters. It provides a distraction from life, and she desperately needs a distraction, no matter how mind-numbingly tiring it is.

A hand encircles her wrist, preventing her from dancing the next steps. Tzuyu turns to lock eyes with Momo. Momo’s saying something, but Tzuyu can’t understand. All she hears is the beat thundering in her mind. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. Rinse, wash, repeat.

Momo thrusts a water bottle at Tzuyu and looks at her expectantly. On autopilot, Tzuyu unscrews the lid and takes a sip. It soothes her raw throat. Tzuyu gulps the rest of the water, and she realizes how thirsty she actually had been.

“Tzuyu,” Momo says softly, her words finally registering within Tzuyu. Momo's voice is impossibly loud in the quiet room. Tzuyu realizes the music is off. It may have been like that for a while. Has Momo been here the whole time?

Momo leads them to the bench and grabs her bag to dig around for something. After a moment, she pulls out a loaf of bread in a plastic bag and looks at Tzuyu with a small smile. “Do you wanna talk about it?”

“There’s a lot to talk about.” Tzuyu sighs, leaning her head against the wall. She rips off a chunk of bread and offers it to Momo, who shakes her head and wrinkles her nose.

“I don’t understand how you can eat plain bread,” Momo mutters. “It tastes like nothing.”

“It’s good,” Tzuyu defends, shoving a piece in her mouth just to prove her point.

“Sure.”

After a few more chunks of bread, Tzuyu reseals the bag and takes a deep breath. “Life is hard sometimes.”

Momo hums but stays silent, obviously waiting for Tzuyu to expand.

“I’m sure you’ve heard about me and Chaeyoung,” she says, and Momo’s expression gives her away. “Yeah. People keep bringing it up, and getting rejected isn't exactly something I want to talk about it. Then Chaeyoung and I got into this argument with a good portion of the school there to witness it, and it ended with Jihyo having to publicly scold us. Dahyun seems to be taking Chaeyoung’s side in this whole thing, even though we’ve been friends for years . And to top it off, I just found out today the third member of my archery team quit, so I don’t have a full team, and now my mom is putting the pressure on me to find a new member so I can do well and draw in scholarships.”

Everything spills out of Tzuyu’s mouth effortlessly. With Momo, she doesn’t need to hold back. Momo and Tzuyu have always been honest with one another, a habit dating years back.  Momo is easy to talk to. Tzuyu’s friends are great, but being so close with each other led to unconscious expectations, and Tzuyu didn’t want to let them down. Momo didn’t have any expectations Tzuyu needs to live up to, and that made it easier to show the cracks in Tzuyu’s facade.

Momo thinks hard, then says, “I could join the archery team.”

Tzuyu recoils slightly, terror flashing across her face. “No, it’s okay. Thank you though.” Aside from when she’s dancing, Momo is one of the clumsiest people Tzuyu knows. She can’t imagine the accident waiting to happen if Momo had a dangerous weapon in her hand.

“What are you going to do?”

Honestly, she has no idea. She supposes she can tell Yeji to come back, but Yeji seemed genuinely happy to make second-string when Tzuyu told her yesterday, since she’s already so busy with other extracurriculars. Yuri is always another choice, but she’s so young…

Tzuyu shrugs, playing with a loose string that’s fraying on her pants. “I’ll figure it out.”

“I’m always here if you need me,” Momo says, sending her a small smile.

“I know.”

Momo nods and stands up, holding out her hand to Tzuyu to help her stand. “C’mon. It’s getting late and you should probably head home."

She tugs Momo in for a quick hug. “Thank you,” she whispers, feeling a wave of affection rush through her. She and Momo don’t talk much in school—something Tzuyu is starting to seriously regret. Their friends have never really mixed, and Tzuyu doesn’t have any classes with Momo, so there was never really any reason to talk during school. Tzuyu wants to change that. “Do you wanna hang out tomorrow? There’s this new ice cream joint that me and my friends are going to tomorrow.”

Momo’s eyes light up. “Sure! Can I bring Sana?”

“Yeah, of course.” Tzuyu gets along well with Sana. She remembers last year, Sana asked her for help in dating Dahyun. Tzuyu isn’t exactly sure why since she’s only dated Elkie, but Sana and Dahyun are dating now, so Tzuyu must have done something right. 

“Great, I’ll see you guys tomorrow.” Momo beams.

…

From: Momo

is it ok if i bring a couple more friends today

Read at 8:17 PM

To: Momo

Sure

Delivered at 8:22 PM

...

Tzuyu grabs her keys and opens the front door. “Mom! I’m going out!” Predictably, there isn’t a response. Tzuyu thinks she’s either sleeping, or she’s concentrating too hard on her work. Tzuyu isn’t too worried. She’ll probably be back before her mom ever realizes she was even gone.

She knocks on Nayeon’s door, and Nayeon’s dad opens it. She shoots him a small smile and glances behind him. “Is Nayeon here?”

He chuckles and steps to the side to let Tzuyu through the doorway. “She’s still getting ready. You always need to tell her to be ready thirty minutes before you actually need to leave so she’ll be ready on time.”

“I did,” she responds. Of course she knows Nayeon’s always late, and of course she knows how to deal with it. She jogs up the steps and knocks on Nayeon’s bedroom door. “Nayeon, hurry up! We gotta leave in a few minutes.”

The door swings open, revealing Nayeon wearing pajama pants and a blouse, her hair tied in a messy bun, and a toothbrush sticking out of her mouth. She mumbles out an indecipherable greeting before disappearing back in her room.

Tzuyu rolls her eyes and checks her phone. “I told you to be ready ten minutes ago.”

She hears the water running and some gargling of water before Nayeon shoots back, “It takes a lot of time to get as beautiful as me.”

“Like you would know anything about being beautiful.”

Nayeon sticks her head out of her bathroom, her hair no longer in a messy bun anymore. She shoots Tzuyu a glare. “Rude.”

Tzuyu sighs and falls back on the bed, knowing this will probably take at least ten more minutes. She takes a look around Nayeon’s room. There’s countless pictures of her with her friends or performing on a stage, along with multiple certificates for acting in plays. It’s obvious Nayeon was born for the stage.

Something on Nayeon’s desk catches her eye, and Tzuyu straightens up with a tiny frown. She takes a closer look. It’s a stuffed penguin, a small type that you’d see in one of those claw machines at any classic arcade. It sticks out to Tzuyu because she’s practically grown up with Nayeon, and last time she checked, Nayeon definitely did not have a small stuffed penguin on her desk. Nayeon didn’t even like penguins that much. She hates going to see them at the zoo because the exhibit is always too cold for her.

Tzuyu waits until Nayeon’s out of the bathroom and brushing her hair before asking about the penguin.

“That?” Nayeon says, her eyes darting to the stuffed toy. “What about it?”

“Why do you have it?”

“They’re cute,” Nayeon says, her tone getting just a bit defensive at the end. Nayeon is a master of hiding and manipulating her emotions. That’s what being an actor is all about. But Tzuyu can see through Nayeon’s mask, a perk of knowing her before Nayeon even knew what acting was. Tzuyu knows there’s something more about this penguin that Nayeon wasn’t saying. It wasn’t just cute. 

She also knows Nayeon doesn’t do well when she’s cornered, so Tzuyu doesn’t push the matter. She understands the need to keep things secret for a bit of time.

“Lions are cuter,” Tzuyu says instead. 

The slight, almost imperceptible panic disappears from Nayeon’s eyes, and she scoffs. “Those things are terrifying, Tzuyu. They’re dangerous.”

“They’re probably big softies on the inside.”

“They could eat you.”

“They’re so cute though.”

“You’re crazy,” Nayeon mutters, placing her hands on her hips and regarding Tzuyu with raised brows. “Why are you laying down? We’re going to be late.”

Tzuyu huffs while Nayeon drags her out of bed to the car. “I was waiting for you!”

“Sure,” Nayeon says, sending her a look that means she doesn’t believe Tzuyu.

Tzuy gives up. She knows when to pick her battles, and this is one she doesn’t want to risk. Nayeon, who is most likely sleep-deprived and uncaffeinated, is a danger to anyone within a five foot radius. Instead, she allows Nayeon to fiddle with the radio while they go to pick up Jeongyeon.

“Jihyo just texted me and said she isn’t coming,” Jeongyeon says when she climbs into the car. 

Nayeon whips around in her seat to stare at Jeongyeon. “Seriously?” At Jeongyeon’s nod, she huffs and takes out her phone. “I’m calling her.”

After a few seconds, Jihyo’s face pops up on the phone. “What?”

“Why aren’t you hanging out with us?” Nayeon asks with a tiny glare.

“I need to finish planning how to decorate the school for—”

“Jihyo,” Tzuyu interrupts, already knowing what this is about. “Homecoming isn’t for another month and a half. You have plenty of time.”

“Yeah, hang out with us today!” Jeongyeon pipes up from the backseat. She leans forward to fix Jihyo with a glare of her own. “You’re never able to hang out anymore!”

“I have student council duties...”

“Fuck student council duties,” all three of them chime at the same time and stare expectantly at Jihyo through the screen.

Finally, Jihyo sighs and rubs her temples. “Fine. I’ll go get ready.”

Jeongyeon cheers loudly while Nayeon allows a self-satisfied smile spread across her face. “I expect to see you there in ten minutes.”

“Ten minutes?” Jihyo repeats, her eyes widening. “I can’t—”

Nayeon hangs up before Jihyo finishes her sentence. At Tzuyu’s questioning glance, Nayeon shrugs and says, “She’ll be fine.”

…

Nayeon was right. Jihyo was more than fine, in fact. When the three of them pulled up to the ice cream shop, Jihyo was already sitting there at a table and waiting for them, looking more ready than any of them did.

“What took you so long?” Jihyo asks. The beginnings of a smirk appears on her lips.

“Shut up,” Nayeon says in response. Jeongyeon doesn’t bother answering, instead sitting down next to Jihyo and tugging Nayeon to the seat beside her.

Tzuyu sits down on Nayeon’s other side. Jihyo cranes her neck to look at Tzuyu, opening her mouth, but Tzuyu holds up her hand before Jihyo can get a single word out. “If you’re going to say something about student council, I’m going to dump this water all over you.”

Jihyo closes her mouth. Wise choice.

It doesn’t take long Momo to walk in with Sana and Dahyun in tow. Tzuyu smiles and waves them over.

“Hey,” Momo greets, sitting down next to Tzuyu. “There’s a couple more coming, just so you know. They’re just having trouble parking the car.”

“We can probably order while we’re waiting,” Jeongyeon suggests. There’s a chorus of agreement, and everyone goes up to the front to order.

“Has cheer season started?” Nayeon asks when they sit back down, directing her attention to Momo and Sana.

Sana groans and immediately starts ranting about a group of freshmen girls who just joined the team. Tzuyu tunes her out. Unlike Nayeon, gossip always bored Tzuyu. If she didn’t know the person well, she didn’t really care. Plus, most gossip turned out to be grossly inaccurate, so she makes it a habit not to put too much faith in anything she hears.

The bell on the entrance of the little shop jingles, catching Tzuyu’s attention. She looks up in mild interest, wondering who else Momo invited.

Once her brain registers the other two people walking in, a scowl automatically comes to her face.

Leading the way is Mina. No surprise there—Tzuyu had guessed Mina would be one of the friends the moment Momo asked to bring more people. The person following Mina, however, is the one Tzuyu has a problem with.

Chaeyoung locks eyes with her, and a similar scowl makes its way on Chaeyoung’s face. She nudges Mina and whispers something in her ear, making Mina shrug and continue walking towards the table, dragging Chaeyoung behind her.

Once Mina gets closer to the table, her eyes widen. She looks at the only unoccupied pair of seats across from Tzuyu and Nayeon with unusually rigid posture. Tzuyu feels herself tense up too because it means Chaeyoung would be sitting across from Tzuyu, and this might not turn out the best. She’s still a little angry over the argument in the gym.

Momo grins, not noticing the tension, and motions for Mina and Chaeyoung to sit down, and after a reluctant pause, they both oblige. Tzuyu settles with mumbling a quick greeting, not trusting herself to speak to Chaeyoung civilly so soon. Mina gives her a small smiles while Chaeyoung just purses her lips and averts her eyes. Tzuyu pushes down a scoff and settles with glaring into her glass of water.

“We already ordered,” Dahyun mentions to Mina and Chaeyoung. Mina just glares at Dahyun and flicks her eyes over to Nayeon, but Dahyun just grins in response. Tzuyu watches the exchange in confusion. Is Mina mad they ordered earlier? It wasn’t that big of a deal.

Mina rips her eyes away from Dahyun and taps Chaeyoung’s shoulder, directing a hopeful smile towards the shorter girl. “Chaengie, will you order mine?”

Chaeyoung rolls her eyes, but it’s obviously all in good-humor. “Oreo, right?”

Mina nods, her face lighting up in surprise and excitement. “You still remember my favorite flavor?”

“How could I forget? We went to the same ice cream shop every Friday after school.”

Mina makes a small noise of recognition. “That was my favorite part of the week. I always looked forward to it.”

Tzuyu realizes Nayeon abruptly stopped speaking in the middle of her conversation with Sana. Tzuyu takes a sideways glance and notices Nayeon regarding Chaeyoung and Mina with sharp eyes. 

Chaeyoung must notice Nayeon too because she looks away from Mina to raise an eyebrow at Nayeon. When there isn’t a response from Nayeon, Chaeyoung frowns and redirects her attention to Mina again. She repeats Mina’s order for confirmation before going up to the counter.

“Momo,” Tzuyu hisses as soon as Chaeyoung is out of range, turning to glare at her. “Seriously?”

Momo holds up her hands in surrender. “In my defense, Mina used her puppy eyes while asking me to invite Chaeyoung earlier. You know no one can resist her puppy eyes.”

Tzuyu turns her glare to Mina, who sighs and pulls out said puppy eyes. “Tzuyu, she’s new and she doesn’t have any friends.”

“It’s not like she exactly wants to be my friend,” Tzuyu grumbles, though her initial anger mostly dissipates. Momo is right—no one can resist Mina’s puppy eyes.

“You and Chaengie just need to get to know each other more,” Mina says. “I think you’ll like each other.”

Tzuyu scoffs. “Sure.” She and Chaeyoung have only had two actual conversations with each other, and both went fantastically terrible. She didn’t have much faith in Mina’s words, puppy eyes or not.

That topic of conversation quickly gets thrown out the window when Chaeyoung came back. Now, there are three different conversations happening between the group, and Tzuyu isn’t paying attention to a single one. She’s too distracted by Nayeon’s agitated demeanor beside her. The senior is doing a good job at hiding it from everyone, but Tzuyu can tell something’s bothering her.

The worker at the counter informs them their ice cream is ready. Mina looks expectantly at Chaeyoung, and Chaeyoung scrunches up her nose. “You’re lucky I like you.”

Nayeon coughs loudly, making Mina’s eyes dart towards her. Immediately, Mina looks away. Tzuyu glances between the two of them, sensing the weird tension in the air but unwilling to say anything. Instead, she braces herself against the table and stands up to go to the counter.

Chaeyoung passes her on her way there, and they don’t acknowledge each other at all. Tzuyu’s mood plummets even further. All she was asking for was a nice, simple day with her friends, not whatever this is.

“Here,” she mumbles, sliding over Nayeon’s ice cream. Nayeon gives her a tight smile and thanks her.

Tzuyu sits back and eats her ice cream silently, opting to observe everyone else instead. Sana is currently in the middle of forcing Dahyun to take a disgustingly cute, couple-y picture with her. Momo and Jeongyeon are arguing about who has the worse conditioning between cheer and basketball, and Nayeon is staring into her ice cream sullenly. Tzuyu isn’t really sure who to look at.

“Want some?” Chaeyoung asks, catching Tzuyu’s attention. She looks up to see Chaeyoung offering some of her ice cream to Mina.

Strawberry. Tzuyu feels like someone punched her in the stomach. She can’t breathe. 

Elkie loved strawberry ice cream.

Chaeyoung lifts the spoon up to Mina’s mouth, and Tzuyu unwillingly thinks back to the past—back to when Elkie would do the exact same thing. Suddenly, all Tzuyu could taste were strawberries.

The screech of wood on tile pierces the air, and Nayeon disappeared into the bathroom before Tzuyu registers the older girl even got up from her seat. Jihyo and Jeongyeon share a look, and they immediately follow Nayeon, leaving Tzuyu sitting with her half-melted ice cream and many, many questions.

“Oh, I think Nayeon’s a little jealous,” Sana pipes up, tilting her head at where they disappeared into the bathroom. Dahyun’s eyes widen, and she smacks Sana’s shoulder. Mina turns pink and glares at Sana. Momo shrugs and spoons another bite of ice cream.

This day is getting weirder and weirder for Tzuyu.

“Is she okay?” Mina asks, her voice small and concerned.

Tzuyu shrugs. She debates going after Nayeon too, but she doesn’t want Nayeon to feel cornered, and if there were three people up on her in a tiny bathroom, she will definitely feel cornered. She’ll ask later when they’re in the safety of Nayeon’s home.

“I’m sure she’ll be fine,” Tzuyu says, more as a way to reassure everyone else than anything. Tzuyu’s doing damage control. Nayeon has an image to keep. She doesn’t like getting personal about anything, especially with people she isn’t close with. Tzuyu knows Nayeon wouldn’t want anyone at the table to think too much about what just happened.

“You sound concerned,” Chaeyoung mutters, looking on edge. 

Tzuyu glares at her and tries to stay level-headed. It doesn’t work too well. “What’s your problem? I haven’t done anything to you.”

Chaeyoung scoffs and crosses her arms, ignoring Dahyun’s frantic motions for her to stop speaking. “I’ve only known you for a week, but you’ve been the biggest pain in my a—”

“Okay!” Dahyun interjects, nearly launching herself over the table to slap a hand over Chaeyoung’s mouth. “That’s enough for today—”

“I’m a pain in your ass?” Tzuyu repeats in disbelief. “You’ve literally caused me to get grey hairs from all the stress after you quit archery.”

Chaeyoung licks Dahyun’s hand, making the older girl screech and rip her hand away. Chaeyoung wipes her mouth and fixes Tzuyu with a deadpan expression. “Oh no, not grey hair,” she says mockingly. “God forbid you get grey hair.”

“Tzuyu...” Momo says, looking in between Chaeyoung and Tzuyu in slight fear. Tzuyu ignores her.

“You could’ve at least told me you were quitting, but I had to find out when I caught you trying out for the basketball team!”

“I never said I would join either!”

Tzuyu opens her mouth, and Momo quickly shoves a spoonful of ice cream into it before she can respond to Chaeyoung. Tzuyu jerks back, the plastic spoon sticking out of her mouth, and she scowls at Momo. She plucks the spoon from her mouth. “Seriously—”

A blinding pain explodes in her head, and she grabs her head. Fucking brain freeze. She’s going to murder Momo once her head stops feeling like it’s going to split in two.

“Can’t handle a little ice?” Chaeyoung asks. “That’s kinda ironic.”

Tzuyu looks up, fully ready to murder Chaeyoung, brain freeze or not, but someone speaks up before she can.

“What happened here,” Jihyo asks, looking around the table. Chaeyoung’s standing on her tiptoes to try and match Tzuyu’s height; Momo’s looking fearfully between the two of them while sipping her ice cream from the bowl; Mina’s cowering behind a chair; Sana’s smirking at them from the end of the table; and Dahyun’s pouring an unusual amount of hand sanitizer on her palm.

Both Tzuyu and Chaeyoung point at each other and say, “She did.”

Nayeon narrows her eyes at Chaeyoung and steps in front of Tzuyu. “What did you do.”

There’s a flash of black hair, and Mina blocks Chaeyoung by mirroring Nayeon’s position. She glares at Nayeon. “I think we should all calm down.”

Nayeon scowls, and her eyes flash dangerously. “I think your girlfriend needs to lay off Tzuyu. She’s been rude all day.”

Mina turns red and glances back at Chaeyoung in confusion. “Girlfriend? She’s not my girlfriend.”

“Sure,” Nayeon scoffs. “You were all over each other earlier.”

Mina and Nayeon seem to have some type of staring contest for a long moment, and Tzuyu, along with everyone else, holds her breath. She can practically feel the tension smothering everyone.

A giggle cuts through the air, high-pitched and loud. They all slowly turns to see Sana covering her mouth, a large grin on her face and tiny chipmunk sounds escaping her lips. Even after she notices everyone’s stares, she doesn’t stop giggling and looking smug.

“Okay, everyone,” Jeongyeon says after shooting a strange look towards Sana. She picks up her bowl. “Break it up, we just want to eat some ice cream.

“Seconded,” Jihyo says, sending a warning glare in every direction. Wisely, everyone takes a seat without another word. They know not to cross Jihyo.

The rest of the time is spent in awkward silence and occasional forced conversations. No one was really up for talking at the moment.

“So, how’s archery,” Jeongyeon asks in her third attempt to start up a conversation.

Tzuyu sees Dahyun visibly flinch in her peripheral vision, and she smiles painfully wide. “Oh, you know. It’s a bit stressful at the moment.” She sends a pointed look towards Chaeyoung.

Chaeyoung returns the smile, looking even more fake than Tzuyu’s. “Oh really? I can’t imagine why it’s so stressful for you.”

“Well, one of my players bailed on me last minute, so I’ve been running around trying to find another teammate.” Tzuyu looks back at Jeongyeon, who looks like she regrets being born. “Did you hear about that, Jeong?”

“She’s actually joining...” a quiet voice cuts through their conversation, and Tzuyu whips her head to fix Dahyun with a look of pure disbelief.

“What?” she whispers, her head pounding much worse than when Momo gave her a brain freeze earlier. 

“You got that right, ace.” Chaeyoung’s expression is so smug, Tzuyu almost bangs her head on the table. “I’ve decided to join the club.”

“Couldn’t make it into anything else?” Tzuyu shoots back.

“Actually, I made the track team. I just figured you needed me more.”

Tzuyu clenches her jaw because Chaeyoung is right. She needs Chaeyoung on her team if she wants even a tiny chance at winning a trophy this year. And even though Chaeyoung makes Tzuyu want to rip her hair out every time they saw each other, Tzuyu wanted to win more. She’ll do anything to win, even if it means putting up with Chaeyoung for the rest of the year.

She stands up abruptly, surprising everyone at the table. She fixes Chaeyoung with one of her infamous stares. “Fine. I’ll see you Monday then.”

Chaeyoung stares back, her eyes dark and challenging. “I can’t wait.”

Tzuyu huffs, not used to people meeting her gaze head on. Chaeyoung truly is strange. She slaps the bill on the table and walks out, prepared to spend a while in the car while waiting for Nayeon and Jeongyeon and Jihyo to come out.

She hears the door open behind her and turns around to see Sana following behind her. Sana gives her a shit-eating grin, not unlike Dahyun’s, and says, “I can feel the sexual tension from here.”

Tzuyu rolls her eyes and faces forward again. “Shut up, you asshole.”

“She really left you all wound up, didn’t she.”

“Sana, I swear to god I’m going to strangle you.”

Sana laughs. “You should probably tell Chaeyoung you’re into that type of stuff.”

Tzuyu turns around, but before she can say anything to Sana, Nayeon walks out the door. Sana’s face lights up like she won the lottery, and she sidles up next to Nayeon. “Hey.”

“Sana,” Nayeon says shortly, used to Sana’s antics at this point.

“I heard you developed an affinity for... penguins,” Sana says, her voice low, like she’s sharing a deep, dark secret. Nayeon’s cheeks turn pink, and she shoves Sana away, mumbling something under her breath.

Tzuyu’s eyes widen. Is Sana being serious? Does Nayeon really have a strange obsession with penguins? She thinks back to the stuffed animal, and something in her mind clicks.

“Oh my god,” she mutters, pulling Nayeon towards the car quickly. Once they’re inside the car, she turns towards Nayeon in concern. “Do you have something to tell me?”

“I—what—no!”

“You know I won’t judge you.”

Nayeon looks at her in disbelief. “Yes you will. You judge me all the time!”

Tzuyu pauses and contemplates her words. “True, but I won’t judge you if it’s something like this.”

“What are you talking about?”

Tzuyu lowers her voice. “You know...the penguin thing?” At Nayeon’s blank expression, she sighs. “They’re cute? ”

Nayeon blinks. “I still don’t get it.”

The door opens, surprising them both. Jeongyeon pokes her head in with a tiny frown. “What’s going on?” she asks while shoving Nayeon towards the backseat, Jihyo following close behind.

Tzuyu locks eyes with Nayeon. “Do you want to tell them or should I.”

“What—”

“Nayeon is a furry,” Tzuyu tells Jihyo and Jeongyeon. She shushes Nayeon’s protests by slapping her hand over Nayeon’s mouth. “Sana just said something, and it all makes sense now.”

Jihyo raises an eyebrow and looks at Nayeon, unimpressed. “I’m not surprised.”

Nayeon rips Tzuyu’s hand away. “WHAT THE FUCK!”

Chapter Text

Tzuyu glances down at her phone again and hums. “She’s late. Again.”

Dahyun sighs. “It’s only been three minutes. Chill.”

Tzuyu rolls her eyes and doesn’t bother with responding. Instead, she watches the second-string team shoot arrows at the various targets in mild interest. Perhaps with lots of training, some of them could pass Tzuyu’s standards, but she doesn’t have enough time to teach them how to shoot. Chaeyoung is her best bet, no matter how much it pains her to say.

Tzuyu hears pounding footsteps behind her and turns around to watch Chaeyoung skid to a stop right before she runs into Dahyun. She grins widely at Dahyun. “Hey, dude.” She catches sight of Tzuyu and her smile disappears. “Captain.”

Everything about Chaeyoung, from the sarcasm dripping from her voice to the unimpressed salute, gets on Tzuyu’s nerves. She purses her lips. “Late once again.”

Chaeyoung rolls her eyes. “Some of us actually have things we need to do and can’t obsess over archery 24/7.”

“I came straight from student council to here,” Tzuyu snaps back. “What were you doing?”

Chaeyoung stays silent, and Tzuyu takes it as an admission of guilt. “Right. One lap around the field for being late.”

Chaeyoung’s jaw drops. “What?”

“You heard me.”

“This is archery,” Chaeyoung says slowly, like Tzuyu doesn’t know what the sport is. Tzuyu just nods. “You don’t even run in archery. You literally stand there and pull a string back three times.”

“It builds character, which you obviously need.”

Chaeyoung narrows her eyes at Tzuyu and drops her backpack, obviously accepting the challenge. “Whatever you say, captain .” 

Once Chaeyoung breaks into a jog, Dahyun glances at Tzuyu with a raised brow. “Seriously? It was five minutes. I’ve been five minutes late plenty of times before.”

“She needs to learn. She can’t just talk back to me like that.”

“She’s in the same grade as us. It’s not like you have much seniority.”

“I’m still the captain,” Tzuyu says, looking over the rest of the team with calculating eyes, who go back to pretending they didn’t watch that entire exchange. “She isn’t setting a good example for everyone else.”

“You act like you’re the commander of the army and not the captain of some high school archery team,” Dahyun says, rolling her eyes. “You don’t need to be a hardass, ya know.”

“Sure, take her side again,” Tzuyu mutters, pointedly not looking at Dahyun. She knows if she did, Dahyun would be looking at her with her sad pout, and Tzuyu isn’t sure she can handle that at the moment.

Dahyun falters. “I’m not taking her side!”

Tzuyu scoffs. It hasn’t felt like that. Ever since Dahyun met Chaeyoung, Dahyun’s been glued to Chaeyoung’s side. It was like it was Chaeyoung who was Dahyun’s good friend since middle school, not her. It stung, but she wouldn’t tell anyone that.

“Tzuyu,” Dahyun says, taking a step towards her.

Tzuyu clears her throat and ignores Dahyun, instead focusing her attention on Chaeyoung, who is rounding the third corner to finish up the lap. Now she feels a bit bad for making Chaeyoung run. She’s had people run before for various reasons, but it’s a punishment she rarely uses. Perhaps she’s acting a bit harsh. It’s hot and probably miserable to be running right now.

“Is that all you got?” Chaeyoung asks when she’s within earshot, not even a little bit out of breath. “Because I can do this all day.”

Tzuyu’s grip on her clipboard tightens, and she resists the urge to throw it at Chaeyoung’s stupid, cocky smirk. She straightens up and crosses her arms. “Fine, do another one then.”

Chaeyoung does two more laps before Tzuyu finally resigns. By this point, the rest of the team keeps throwing fearful glances back at her when they think she isn’t looking, and Dahyun has wisely stopped encouraging Chaeyoung to stop running, or Tzuyu to stop making Chaeyoung run.

“Gear up,” Tzuyu snaps when Chaeyoung makes it back to her. It doesn’t look like Chaeyoung is going to stop anytime soon, and Tzuyu wants to actually get to practice today. 

“As you wish, captain,” Chaeyoung mutters. At least she’s out of breath now. Tzuyu wouldn’t know what she would do if Chaeyoung seemed unaffected after running three laps in this heat. She’d probably quit archery altogether.

Tzuyu ignores her. She just needs to tolerate Chaeyoung for a few months—long enough to win the trophy. After that, she won’t need to see Chaeyoung for the rest of the year. Just a few more months, then she’ll be free.

She steps up to an open target, nocks an arrow, and draws back. Everything around her seems to blur into nothing. It’s why she loves archery so much. The only thing that matters is the tiny circle in the middle of the target, nothing else.

Her first arrow slams itself right on the edge of the 9. Her second and third land in the outer ring of the 10. By her standards, it’s decent. She’d prefer to be more on the inner ring, but she’ll take what she can get.

Dahyun and Chaeyoung are on her left side, both getting ready to shoot. Tzuyu purses her lips and walks towards Chaeyoung. Tzuyu lets Chaeyoung shoot her first shot without saying anything. Chaeyoung hits the line between the 6 and 7, which is surprisingly good for the obvious lack of experience. Still, there were some changes that needed to be done to Chaeyoung’s stance and techniques.

Tzuyu takes a step towards Chaeyoung. “You nocked it on the wrong side.” 

Chaeyoung’s eyes dart backwards to meet Tzuyu’s, and she frowns. “What?”

“Your arrow,” Tzuyu says, gesturing to Chaeyoung’s bow. “It’s supposed to go on the left side of the bow.”

“You couldn’t have said that before,” Chaeyoung grumbles, nonetheless nocking her arrow on the left side of the bow. This time, she scores a solid 7.

Tzuyu hums, eyeing Chaeyoung carefully again. “Your feet are too close together,” Tzuyu tells her. “They need to be shoulder-width apart.”

“Does it matter?”

“Yes, it’s supposed to help with balance.” 

Chaeyoung raises her eyebrows. “What if I feel pretty balanced right now.”

Tzuyu clenches her jaw and takes a deep breath. “Can you just listen to me for once? I’m trying to help you out right now.” 

Chaeyoung sighs and does as she’s told. The arrow also hits the 7, close to the previous arrow, and Chaeyoung turns to shoot Tzuyu an unimpressed glance. “Any other advice then?”

“Straighten your back and shoulders,” Tzuyu says and bites back a tiny smirk. “You need the extra height.”

Chaeyoung looks back and gives Tzuyu a dirty glare. “I heard that.”

“And?”

Chaeyoung turns around with a murderous expression on her face, the bow still in her hand and one arrow left in the quiver. Dahyun looks sharply at the two of them and clears her throat, not exactly wanting to break up a fight between the two of them when there were plenty of sharp objects in reach.

Tzuyu holds Chaeyoung’s gaze for a moment longer before breaking it. “Keep going,” she says. Chaeyoung doesn’t move for a long moment—another tiny form of rebellion—and Tzuyu almost tells her to run another lap, but then Chaeyoung draws her bow back. Tzuyu knows when to pick her fights.

Tzuyu keeps her face passive while watching with critical eyes. There are numerous other things she has to teach Chaeyoung, but for now, positioning and posture would be enough. She needs Chaeyoung to have those basics down before transitioning into the more complex things.

Chaeyoung huffs as her final arrow hits the 7 once again. “I don’t think it’s working.”

“Getting better takes time. Patience.”

“Patience is the last thing I have when you’re around,” Chaeyoung says, walking up to pull her arrows from the target.

Tzuyu raises an eyebrow, a tiny smirk playing at her lips. “I think I’ve heard that before.”

Dahyun’s eyes widen in surprise while Chaeyoung turns pink and turns around to wave an arrow at Tzuyu. Though it’s not very threatening, not with the scowl that makes Chaeyoung look more adorable than scary.

“Shut up,” Chaeyoung mutters after a moment. She flicks her eyes over towards Dahyun, who’s coughing into her sleeve to hide her surprised smile at Tzuyu’s comment. “You too.”

Dahyun lifts her hands in surrender. “I’m not doing anything.” 

Chaeyoung glares and flips her off, which only makes Dahyun smile charmingly at Chaeyoung. Judging from Chaeyoung’s annoyed yet fond eye roll, it works. The sight simply serves to reiterate how close Dahyun and Chaeyoung have become in such a short amount of time. Tzuyu finds a pang of annoyance run through her, and she turns away.

Most people wouldn’t ever guess of Tzuyu’s insecurities regarding her friends due to her overwhelming popularity at school, but it hasn’t always been this way. Back when she was younger and quieter, friends were a rare thing to come by, especially the close ones. 

She soon learned the quiet kids were usually the outcasts, and she slowly forced herself to be more outgoing and confident. This, along with the rapidly growing interest about her looks and her new, shiny relationship with Elkie, created her popularity in school to skyrocket, yet she only considered a select few as her actual friends. It’s not like most of the school truly wants to be her friend anyway.

She holds onto these few friendships tightly, never able to forget watching other kids laugh and play together while she sat alone. Perhaps it’s childish to be jealous when she sees Dahyun joke around with some brand-new kid, but Tzuyu can’t help it. She feels left behind, and she isn’t sure what to do.

Tzuyu will just have to get used to it. Archery lasts a couple months at the very least if they don’t move onto conference, and she is already fully prepared to win conference. She has to—losing isn’t an option. Other aspects of her life may seem uncontrollable at the moment, but archery is something she’s always found solace in, and she’ll channel that energy into working to build up her team. 

This, she thinks while drawing the string back to her cheek, is something I control. She takes a deep breath and focuses on the tiny circle in the middle of the target.

Bullseye.

…

Tzuyu sighs and sets her pencil down to turn and look at Sana, who has been staring at her for the past two minutes without blinking. “Yes?”

“How was archery yesterday?” Sana grins widely, and the sight scares Tzuyu just a bit. When Sana grins like that, it never means anything good.

“It was fine,” Tzuyu responds, looking at Sana suspiciously.

“Yeah, I’m sure it was fine.” Sana wriggles her eyebrows, making Tzuyu roll her eyes. She seems to be doing that a lot lately.

“I’m not into Chaeyoung, and she is definitely not into me.”

“Sure,” Sana says, the sarcasm dripping from the single word. Sana pretends to think for a moment. “Who was the one who asked her out again? Was it you?”

Tzuyu waves her off, though she feels her face heat up.  “I ask plenty of people out. It doesn’t mean I’m into them.”

“Plenty of people ask you out,” Sana corrects. “The last time you asked someone out was…” She trails off at Tzuyu’s warning glare.

Elkie was the last person Tzuyu ever asked out. She never noticed it until Sana brought it up, but Chaeyoung is the only person she’s asked out of the many people who’s shown interest. Tzuyu tries not to think about it too much. It doesn’t mean anything anyway, no matter what Sana’s expression seems to say.

“What was that thing about Nayeon?” Tzuyu says, changing the subject so Sana doesn’t focus on her and Chaeyoung any longer. Plus, Tzuyu is kinda curious about Sana’s odd comment.

“What? She likes penguins?” Sana gives her a sly smile. “I thought you already figured it out.”

Tzuyu huffs and fixes Sana with a light glare. “You let me think Nayeon was a furry.”

“That was all you. I had nothing to do with it.” Sana holds her hands up in surrender, though her eyes sparkled with mischief. It’s something so Sana, Tzuyu isn’t even surprised anymore. She should expect weird, out-of-context things like this.

“You knew exactly what you were doing,” Tzuyu mutters with a tiny pout.

Sana shrugs, not even the slightest bit apologetic. “It’s not my fault you jumped to conclusions."

“So what do the penguins really mean.”

Sana shrugs again. “I don’t know, you tell me.”

The one thing about Sana and her gossip is that she never lets anyone else’s secrets slip out. Sana seems to know everything about anything regarding love, but she never exposes anyone. Tzuyu’s pretty sure even Momo doesn’t get told anything, and Momo has best friend rights. It’s something Tzuyu respects. Gossip is always a messy subject, but Sana makes it work somehow.

Tzuyu guesses she’ll have to get the information she wants directly from the source: Nayeon herself. Unfortunately for her, she’s almost 100% sure Nayeon isn’t going to tell her, so this entire thing is hopeless. Maybe she can convince Sana to tell her somehow? She could try kidnapping Dahyun and hiding her until Sana decides to spill the information, but then that’d mean she’d have to see Dahyun, and Tzuyu really doesn’t think she can face Dahyun right now.

“What do you think about the question?” Sana asks, noticing Tzuyu’s subtle shift in demeanor, trying to change the subject.

Tzuyu glances up to look at the board where the daily question is usually posted. What is true friendship? It seems like the universe has it out for her. Honestly, with how her month has been going, she isn’t surprised.

“True friendship,” Tzuyu repeats, a wry smile spreading across her face. When she stays silent, Sana looks at her strangely. 

“Someone you feel comfortable enough to be yourself around them, right?” Sana asks tentatively, not really knowing why Tzuyu is acting like this.

Tzuyu thinks back to when she and Dahyun first started getting to know each other. It took forever for her to open up to Dahyun, yet here comes Chaeyoung, who seems to be Dahyun’s best friend despite it only being a week since they first met. 

“Tzuyu?”

Tzuyu blinks, refocusing on the task at hand. “Yeah, that sounds good.”

“You okay?” Sana asks, furrowing her eyebrows in obvious concern. 

Tzuyu sends her what she hopes is a reassuring smile and looks down at here paper. “I’m good, don’t worry.”

Sana doesn’t look convinced, but she doesn’t comment further. Sometimes it’s better not to push the matter. Tzuyu’s grateful. She doesn’t want to talk about Dahyun right now, and she definitely does not want to talk about Dahyun with Dahyun’s girlfriend. 

Tzuyu settles with pushing the feeling down for now. She’ll deal with it when she has to, and hopefully, she won’t have to for a very long time. She’s always been good at ignoring things, after all.

…

“Party at my house Friday,” Nayeon announces when she slides into a seat of their lunch table. “My parents will be out of town.”

“Will the theme be something with penguins?” Jeongyeon asks, a wide grin on her face. She reaches over and plucks the apple away from Tzuyu’s lunchbox, biting into it and staring at Nayeon expectantly.

Nayeon just glares at her and crosses her arms petulantly. “I’m not a furry.” She’s established that she is, in fact, not a furry, but that doesn’t stop anyone in their little group from giving her a hard time. Tzuyu’s pretty sure she’s heard at least five penguin-related jokes today, and it’s only lunchtime.

Jihyo snorts and raises an eyebrow at Nayeon. “Could’ve fooled me with how much you seem to know about penguins recently. Honestly, you’re like a walking encyclopedia now.”

“They’re interesting!”

Jihyo just hums, unconvinced, and Jeongyeon elbows Nayeon with an amused twinkle in her eye. “What’s a penguin’s favorite relative?” At Nayeon’s blank stare, Jeongyeon breaks out into a grin. “Aunt-Arctica!”

Nayeon rolls her eyes and pokes Jeongyeon’s forehead lightly. “I think that’s your worst one yet.”

“That was a good one!”

“Sure, Jeong,” they all chime at once.

“You people wouldn’t know good humor if it bit you in the ass,” Jeongyeon mutters with a pout, slouching back in her seat. Tzuyu pats her on the head as consolation.

“Tzuyu, mind extending the invite to Dahyun?” Nayeon asks.

Tzuyu purses her lips and hopes her face gives nothing away. She hasn’t talked about her problem with Dahyun to any of them, and she’d prefer to keep it that way. As far as her friends know, she and Dahyun are just as friendly as they used to be. Appearances, even with her close friends, matter. “Sure.”

“You can tell her that Mina and Chaeyoung are welcome to join too.”

Tzuyu’s grip tightens a bit on her backpack, and she looks at Nayeon questioningly. Nayeon doesn’t seem to think it’s a big deal—she’s glancing down at her nails in disinterest. Tzuyu wonders if Nayeon accidentally fell down the stairs and hit her head again. It’s happened before, and Tzuyu doesn’t doubt it could happen again.

“Are you sure that’s a good idea?” Tzuyu asks, carefully keeping her tone neutral. “Do you remember what happened last weekend? Does the ice cream shop ring any bells?”

Nayeon waves her off. “I think we were all a little on edge that day. You and Chaeyoung must be getting at least a little better, right? Archery practice should help.”

Tzuyu gives Nayeon a look that she hopes conveys how spectacularly wrong Nayeon’s statement is. If anything, she and Chaeyoung are getting worse because of archery. Yesterday, Tzuyu nearly made Chaeyoung do twenty push-ups for a snarky side comment, but she had managed to restrain herself. “Not exactly.”

“It’ll be nice if they come,” Jihyo reasons after a long pause. “Mina rarely gets out of the house, and this could be a good time for Chaeyoung to meet new friends. I doubt you’ll even see them at the party.”

Tzuyu isn’t so sure about that. Nayeon’s house is big, but somehow Tzuyu and Chaeyoung will somehow bump into each other, and it’ll be World War Three. It’d be just her luck. Still, Nayeon asked if Tzuyu would extend the invite, and so she would. “Yeah, I’ll text Dahyun later.”

Nayeon smiles gratefully, and Tzuyu ignores the feeling of dread rising in her stomach.

…

“I think I might kill someone,” Jihyo says calmly while everyone begins to pack up their things and filter through the door. She wears a smile on her face, but the glint in her eyes is anything but happy.

Tzuyu winces and waits for the room to empty before saying, “Well, that sucked.”

“Tell me about it,” Jihyo mutters, finishing off the last of her coffee and tossing it in the trash can without looking. “At this rate, we’re never going to get anything done.” She pauses and scribbles something out on her paper. “Homecoming sucks.”

Tzuyu raises an eyebrow at her. “You only say that because you never go to homecoming for fun—you only go there to monitor everything happening.”

Even during freshman and sophomore year, when Jihyo wasn’t the student body president, just the class president, she didn’t go to homecoming with her friends. It was always her running around, trying to make sure everything was running smoothly while everyone else had fun. For as long as Tzuyu’s known Jihyo, it has been like this. Jihyo’s the person in the background pulling strings and making sure everyone else is happy, never focusing on herself. While it’s great to have someone like that in her life, it isn’t fair to Jihyo.

“You should go to homecoming this year,” Tzuyu blurts out.

“I go every year,” Jihyo answers, confusion coloring her voice.

“No, I mean actually go. Go dress shopping with us and get ready with us beforehand, and go to dinner with us and to homecoming with us and then the after-party with us. You’ve never actually gone to homecoming.”

Jihyo sighs, twirling her pen in her hand. “I’m just really busy...”

“It’s high school, and it’s your senior year!” Tzuyu says, trying to emphasize exactly just how important this should be. “Make some more memories before you leave for some fancy, smart-people college.”

“My resume—”

“—is literally perfect, along with your GPA. What college wouldn’t accept you?” 

“Stanford,” Jihyo murmurs, almost too low for Tzuyu to hear.

The name triggers something familiar, and Tzuyu tries to remember what it could be. Then it clicks. Sunmi, her old archery captain, went to Stanford. Tzuyu still remembers the day she got accepted. Sunmi’s mom had called Sunmi in the middle of practice and told her they just received a letter from Stanford. Sunmi promptly ended practice, sped home, and Tzuyu didn’t hear from her for two hours. She had feared the worst until Sunmi called her, nearly deafening Tzuyu with her screams.

If Sunmi can do it, Jihyo definitely can. No offense to Sunmi, who definitely deserved that acceptance letter, but Jihyo’s qualifications are endless. 

“Stanford will accept you. Who in their right mind would reject the Park Jihyo?”

Jihyo chuckles and leans over to halfheartedly swat at Tzuyu. “Don’t call me that.”

Tzuyu ducks away from Jihyo’s arms. “It’s true. Any college would be crazy not to accept you. Stop focusing so much on college and be a high school kid for once. You’re going to the party, right?”

“I have to. Nayeon’s house is gonna get trashed if no one is there to try and stop the chaos.”

Tzuyu gives Jihyo a knowing look. “You’re doing it again.”

“I can’t not do it,” Jihyo protests. “Someone has to be responsible here, and you know Nayeon and Jeongyeon are not to be trusted.”

“But why does it always have to be you?”

Jihyo smiles, reassuring and warm. “I don’t mind. After all, part of my Ten-Year Plan includes making sure all of you get through high school successfully.”

Tzuyu laughs and thinks back to when Jihyo wrote that plan. It was the summer before eighth grade for Tzuyu, and the summer before freshman year for everyone else. She, Jihyo, Nayeon, and Jeongyeon were lounging around Nayeon’s room, trying to stay cool and talking about high school. Suddenly, Jihyo had closed her laptop and announced she had created a ten-year plan to get through school and become wildly successful at the ripe age of twenty-four. Needless to say, it had countless steps and rules, and Tzuyu can’t remember all of them.

So far, Jihyo’s done a fantastic job of sticking to her plan, including becoming student body president, most definitely going to become valedictorian, participating in multiple after-school clubs, collected more volunteer hours than Tzuyu’s spent at high school, and so many other things that Tzuyu can’t name off the top of her head.

Jihyo is also doing a good job at following her Number One rule.

“No romance?” 13-year old Tzuyu asks, partly curious and partly in disbelief. Wasn’t high school supposed to be where all the romance occurs? That’s what the TV shows taught her, at least. There’s no way Jihyo can go all of high school without any romance.

“No romance,” 14-year old Jihyo repeats, shaking around her newly-handwritten list of her Ten-Year Plan. “Romance is lots of work, and I won’t have time for it if I want to complete my plan.”

Nearly four years of high school, and Jihyo has still not gone on a single date. It’s actually quite impressive considering how many people asked her on dates initially. Once people started realizing Jihyo wasn’t going to accept, the offers began to trickle away. Still, even Tzuyu knows the second Jihyo shows interest in dating, the offers will come flying back in.

Unfortunately, the Ten-Year Plan lasts until Jihyo’s twenty-four, so it looks like any hopeful suitors are only going to be disappointed.

“Speaking of the party, have you texted Dahyun yet?”

Tzuyu frowns and shakes her head. She’s been putting it off for the entire day, not very eager to text Dahyun because Dahyun might ask her about what’s wrong, and Tzuyu still wants to postpone that conversation until...well, until she’s dead, hopefully.

“You should probably do that now,” Jihyo suggests. Tzuyu sighs but pulls out her phone regardless.

To: Dubu

Nayeon’s having a party at her house on Friday
Please come
Mina and Chaeyoung are invited too

Delivered at 6:54 PM

“Can you somehow get Mina to come too?” Jihyo asks. “It’ll be really helpful.”

“What? Why?” Tzuyu asks. Not that she doesn’t want Mina to come, but everyone knows about her strong aversion to parties. Jihyo must have slept too little to think Tzuyu could somehow convince Mina to attend any party, much less Nayeon’s start-of-the-year party.

“It’ll be good for her to get out of the house.” Jihyo shrugs nonchalantly, but Tzuyu can tell there’s something Jihyo isn’t telling her. Still, what Jihyo says is practically law, so Tzuyu does as she’s told.

To: Dubu

Mina has to come
Jihyo’s orders

Delivered at 6:54 PM

To: Dubu

If you love me...
The least you can do is come when I ask you to

Delivered at 6:55 PM

Tzuyu sighs and sets her phone down. She wants Dahyun to attend the party, awkwardness or not, but she knows if Dahyun goes, Chaeyoung will most likely follow. She pushes it out of mind for now.

…

“So, about the party…” Tzuyu trails off, fixing Dahyun with a curious expression.

Dahyun hums, strapping her glove tight around her hand. “I haven’t been able to convince Mina or Chaeyoung to join, if that’s what you’re going to ask.”

Tzuyu sighs. She’s disappointed, but not surprised. “They haven’t budged?”

“Nope,” Dahyun replies, popping the ‘p’. “Why is it so important that we all come anyways? You’ve never had a problem with us skipping the other years.”

“It’s everyone’s senior year. It’d be nice if we went to their final kickstarter party.” Tzuyu frowns, thinking back to her strange conversation with Jihyo. “And Jihyo made it sound really urgent that all of you come. Don’t ask me why.”

“Huh, weird.” Dahyun grabs the rest of her gear, and they start walking towards the practice area. “I dunno, Tzuyu. You know parties aren’t really my thing.”

Tzuyu thinks hard for a long moment. “Sana will be there.”

Dahyun shoots her a dirty glare. “Low blow, Chou. You can’t use Sana against me every time you want me to do something.”

“Does it work?”

“I—” Dahyun looks down in defeat and mumbles a quiet, “Yes.”

“Whipped.” Tzuyu grins, and for a moment, it feels like they’re back to normal—back to laughing and joking around without any awkward tension stifling them. It feels good.

It’s broken when they reach the top of the hill and spot Chaeyoung putting on her gear. Tzuyu sees the large grin break out across Dahyun’s face as she calls out Chaeyoung’s name. Dahyun walks a little faster to get to Chaeyoung. Tzuyu stays behind.

She likes Chaeyoung more than me.

She’ll always choose Chaeyoung over me.

She doesn’t need me anymore.

Tzuyu swallows and pushes down the whispers that have begun to plant seeds of doubt in her mind about her friendship with Dahyun. Dahyun can have other friends. Tzuyu shouldn’t be getting jealous over something as simple as another friend. It’s ridiculous.

Her logic doesn’t help her feel any better.

A ping from her phone has her scrambling for the small distraction. When she reads the message, she inwardly groans.

From: GodJihyo

(image received)
Might want to go over rules for staying on the team

Read at 2:49 PM

To: GodJihyo

Thanks
I’ll talk to her about it

Delivered at 2:51 PM

She turns off her phone and sighs. It’s only the third week of school. How the hell is Chaeyoung nearly failing biology? They’re literally in the same class, and Tzuyu doesn’t remember Chaeyoung looking lost during the lectures. Not that Tzuyu looks at Chaeyoung a lot or anything—Chaeyoung just happens to be in her line of sight.

“Fuck me,” she mutters, shoving her phone in her backpack. She takes a deep breath and cups her hands around her mouth. “Alright, let’s start warming up. Dahyun, Chaeyoung, can you come here?”

The two of them exchange confused looks, but nonetheless comply with Tzuyu.

“Cap,” Dahyun greets and salutes her.

“Captain,” Chaeyoung echoes and mimics the salute, though it’s not nearly as enthusiastic as Dahyun’s.

“You both know about the minimum GPA required to stay on the team, correct?” she asks. It’s probably best just to rip the band-aid off quickly. “I’m just gonna remind you that you can’t be failing any classes to be able to play.”

Dahyun laughs. “You should probably remind me in another week or two after our first bio test goes in. You already know that’s gonna drop my grade by three letters.”

Chaeyoung looks down at the ground, and Tzuyu winces because Chaeyoung’s grade has already dropped by three letter grades. Tzuyu doesn’t even know how. The only grades that are in is homework, and that’s graded for completion.

“Well,” she begins, choosing her next words carefully. “If you need help, Mina and I are always here to help. You know Mina’s practically a genius with any science, and I’m alright at bio.”

“Aye aye, captain.”

Tzuyu accidentally makes eye-contact with Chaeyoung, who frowns and looks away quickly. Tzuyu bites her lip and busies herself with her gear. “Let’s go.”

While they warm up, Tzuyu is pleased to see Chaeyoung following her advice from the other day despite how reluctant she initially seemed. Maybe there was some hope for that trophy after all.

Hopefully Chaeyoung takes her advice from today and tries to get some help for biology.

…

Tzuyu’s currently laying on her bed and reevaluating her choice to attend Nayeon’s party. And her life choices in general. As one of the biggest parties of the year, most of the school, along with people from other schools, are going to be there. With Tzuyu’s newly-single status, she’ll most likely be getting hit on, and Tzuyu doesn’t really want to deal with that. 

There’s also the problem of Dahyun, who’s definitely going to the party tonight because Sana is there, and Tzuyu really doesn’t want to run across her, especially if there’s the chance of her saying something due to the alcohol running through her system.

But then again, this is the last kickstarter party they’ll ever have before the seniors leave, and Tzuyu wants to make good use of the time left with her friends.

From: Nabongs

where r u

Read at 7:43 PM

To: Nabongs

Be there soon

Delivered at 7:44 PM

“Mom!” she calls, her hand on the knob of her front door. “I’m going out.”

“Have fun,” her mom says, her voice faint. Tzuyu’s already halfway out the door  by the time she responds.

“Thanks,” she mutters, closing the door and making her way towards Nayeon.

There are plenty of cars scattered around Nayeon’s house, and plenty more are driving through their street. Once Tzuyu walks through the door, (deliberately ignoring the couples making out on the front porch), she’s immediately hit with the smell of cheap beer and sweat. She wrinkles her nose and maneuvers her way through the many bodies. It’s actually quite impressive how Tzuyu manages to make it to the kitchen unscathed.

“Jeong!” she yells over the deafening music, making her way towards the bar to where her friend is rummaging through the cooler. 

“Hey!” Jeongyeon offers her a drink, and Tzuyu accepts it gratefully.

“Where’s Nayeon?” she asks, popping the tab to the can and taking a long drink. It isn’t very good—it’s the cheap stuff that always frequents any high school party—but it gets the job done. Tzuyu’s sure she won’t be able to make it through the night completely sober, so she’ll take what she can get.

“I saw her with Jihyo last,” Jeongyeon responds.

Tzuyu shoots her a thumbs-up and a grin. Jihyo shouldn’t be hard to find at all. Jihyo’s voice is able to carry throughout any room easily, regardless of how loud it is. In fact, Tzuyu can hear her right now if she focuses hard enough.

“Don’t break that vase! It’s worth more than your life!”

Tzuyu slips out of the kitchen and follows the voice to where Jihyo’s currently glaring at two kids dancing dangerously close to the expensive, antique vase Nayeon’s parents bought in Germany. 

Tzuyu catches Jihyo’s eye and waves before mouthing Nayeon’s name with a questioning look. Jihyo shrugs before whipping around to fix some handsy couples with a warning glare. “I have Nayeon’s parents on speed dial if you even think about going upstairs and having sex on their bed!”

And that’s Tzuyu’s cue to leave. Hopefully Nayeon was smart enough to lock her bedroom doors before the party. Tzuyu makes her way through the house until she spots Nayeon talking to Dahyun. She pauses, unsure if she should wait until Dahyun leaves, or if she should just go and say hi to both of them.

“Did Mina and Chaeyoung come?” Tzuyu overhears Nayeon ask Dahyun.

Dahyun laughs loudly, and Tzuyu frowns because it’s Dahyun’s nervous laugh—the one she uses to diffuse tension or break awkward silences and other things like that. “Who?”

“Mina and Chaeyoung?” Nayeon repeats, her brows furrowing in slight confusion. “Your friends?”

“I don’t know a Mina.”

Nayeon squints at Dahyun suspiciously. “Are you high?”

Dahyun shakes her head, a painfully wide smile on her face. “No no, I just don’t know of this Mina you’re speaking of.” She looks around the room, and her face lights up after a moment. Dahyun reaches over and grabs Chaeyoung by the collar of her shirt, pulling her over and slinging an arm around Chaeyoung’s shoulders. “I only know my good friend Chaeyoung.”

And although there’s something strange about the situation because Dahyun’s obviously acting weirder than normal for some reason, Tzuyu can’t help but feel like someone has punched her in the gut. It’s a harmless comment, something Dahyun probably didn’t think twice about, but it digs at Tzuyu’s insecurities in all the wrong places.

She swallows back the lump in her throat, downs the rest of her beer, and disappears back into the crowd. She can go see Nayeon later.

Tzuyu needs something else to drink, and she needs a big distraction.

That’s how she finds herself standing at the beer pong table, across from two football boys and currently losing the game because she has Sana as her partner, of all people. Tzuyu never knew anyone could be so terrible at beer pong until tonight.

Tzuyu prays to any god out there to let Sana hit a cup, just one cup. No one up there listens to her prayer. Sana giggles as her shot completely misses the table and bounces off the wall behind their opponents. Tzuyu groans, staring at the many cups they needed to get in order to win. The boys are already ahead by three cups, and she regrets agreeing to play this dumb game with Sana.

“Sorryyy,” Sana says. Normal Sana already has zero hand-eye coordination, but drunk Sana is something else. It’s unreal how bad she is. Thank god she is not on the archery team. One near-death experience is enough to last a lifetime.

One of the boys makes it into a cup, and they whoop loudly and fist-bump. Tzuyu winces and picks up her beer. She drank the last four times because she doesn’t think Sana should be drinking anymore alcohol for the rest of the night. Unfortunately for her, it means she’s drinking twice the amount, which just isn’t ideal in any situation right now.

The two boys eye Sana and Tzuyu, and they whisper something to one another. “If we win this game, will you ladies go on a double-date with us?” one asks, a wide grin on his face.

Tzuyu doesn’t recognize either of them, so they probably go to a different school. SM Academy perhaps? Or YG Institute? They’re both good-looking—probably used to girls swooning over them all the time. They probably think she and Sana are no different.

“We’ll take you to that fancy restaurant downtown,” the other one adds. “We’ll pay and everything.”

“Fancy restaurant?” Sana exclaims, looking excited. “I wanna go! I’m hungry!” 

It takes every ounce of willpower for Tzuyu not to strangle Sana right then and there. 

“You heard her,” the Frat Boy #1 says, shrugging and throwing a lazy smile towards them.

For god’s sake, does Tzuyu have to do everything in this household? She thinks for a moment, then says, “I’ll take your bet, but only if I’m the one shooting from now on.” Sana has already proved she is not to be trusted, and Tzuyu’s starting to think she should take this game a little more seriously. She is an archer after all—accuracy is supposed to be her specialty.

“Deal!” Frat Boy #2 agrees. They fist-bump again, looking pleased at the turn of events. They probably think Tzuyu can’t make seven cups to win, and they’ve bagged two dates easily.

Tzuyu picks up the ping pong ball and rolls it between her fingers for a second. Then she focuses on a cup, aims, and shoots. The satisfying sound of the ball making it inside the red solo cup seems to echo around the room, and Tzuyu bites back a smile.

The two boys gape at the ball for a second before shaking off their surprise. #1 takes a swig of his beer while #2 lines up for his shot. It bounces off the edge of the cup, and he sighs in disappointment.

The disappointment turns to disbelief when Tzuyu makes a second cup casually within the span of five seconds. Sana cheers and starts counting, her numbers slurring together. Then, to Tzuyu’s horror, she begins to do a cheer routine, shouting “Go Tzuyu” as she does it. Once she tries twirling around, she stumbles sideways and trips over nothing. 

“Oww,” she mutters in a slight daze, sprawled across the floor and staring up at the ceiling.

“You’re fine,” Tzuyu says, waving her off and waiting for #1 to shoot. “Just stay there.”

He’s nowhere near the cups, and when Tzuyu raises an eyebrow at him, he chuckles and rubs his neck. “Just trying to give you a chance.”

Her next shot shuts him up quickly.

A tiny crowd has gathered now, attracted by Sana’s drunken cheers and the whispers of a bet that included a double date with Chou Tzuyu and Minatozaki Sana. They all roar as Tzuyu sinks the ball in another cup, her third in a row.

The two boys are beginning to look a little worried now. They’re even at four cups each, and if Tzuyu keeps making shots like this, they’ll lose in no time.

Frat Boy #2 finally makes a cup, and he breathes in relief and grins at Tzuyu. “Just getting back in the groove of things.”

“Sure,” Tzuyu says, unimpressed. She drinks from her bottle, then picks up the ball and barely looks twice at the cup before shooting.

The two boys stare at the ping pong ball floating in the cup for a long moment, and Tzuyu turns away to hide her smile. Three more left. 

The boys miss their next two shots. Tzuyu makes both of them, leaving her with a two cup lead and a single cup left to finish the game. Frat Boy #1 misses the shot by a foot, predictably. They’re both looking a bit upset now at the unexpected outcome of their hopeful bet.

Tzuyu tosses the ping pong ball between her hands, wanting to draw this out a bit longer. The crowd is hyping her up, and she glances at them with a large grin.

Somehow, she catches sight of a figure in the back on the steps, leaning against the wall. It’s Chaeyoung, and she’s staring at Tzuyu with furrowed eyebrows and dark, narrowed eyes. Tzuyu feels like Chaeyoung is picking her apart and examining her, waiting for her to make a mistake.

It brings out Tzuyu’s competitiveness more than both of the Frat Boys combined. She eyes the last cup carefully. The whispers around her grow quiet, vividly reminding her of an archery match. She’s in her element now.

Line up to the cup. Position the ball on the tips of the fingers. Breathe in and out. Pull back and release.

Bullseye.

Everyone breaks out in deafening yells. Sana screams and wraps her arms around Tzuyu’s neck, and Tzuyu shoots a smirk at the two boys. They both look a little properly abashed now that she’s beaten them in a round of beer pong, but they still look somewhat hopeful as well.

“So, about that date…?”

“Sorry, but it’s a solid no from both of us,” Tzuyu responds, not even looking their way. She’s too busy trying to support Sana, who decided that using Tzuyu to lean on while standing up to take a nap seemed like a good idea. “Damn it, Sana.”

“Tzuyu? Sana?” a voice behind them says. Tzuyu turns around, still supporting Sana by the waist, to see Dahyun break free of the crowd, looking around in concern. Dahyun’s eyes lock on Sana, and she takes a step forward to take Sana off of Tzuyu. “What’s with this bet I’m hearing about that includes my girlfriend as a consolation prize?”

Tzuyu rolls her eyes when she hears the thinly-veiled possessive nature of Dahyun’s question. “Don’t worry, I took care of it.”

Dahyun sighs in relief, shooting the two boys across the table a dirty glare. “Thank you,” she says, smiling gratefully at Tzuyu. “I don’t know what would’ve happened if you weren’t there.”

I only know my good friend Chaeyoung.

“You should look after the people you care about better,” Tzuyu snaps, then recoils slightly. She’s pretty buzzed right now—she can always blame it on the alcohol tomorrow. But this newfound resentment isn’t something that will just go away instantly, and Tzuyu doesn’t know how to handle it.

Dahyun frowns and opens her mouth, but Sana slips away from Dahyun and disappears into the crowd before Dahyun can say anything. She and Tzuyu exchange a look before rushing after Sana.

They find her just as she’s climbing up on the coffee table to dance with another girl from the cheer team.

“Sana, come here!” Tzuyu shouts, praying Sana doesn’t decide to start stripping. The last time Sana danced on a table, she almost took off her top, but a very unhappy Dahyun intervened before she could.

“If that coffee table breaks, I will murder you!” a faraway shout comes from the back: Jihyo’s voice. Well, Tzuyu can see where she’s coming from. The table’s an antique from Nayeon’s great-grandmother, and it’d be very unfortunate to explain to Nayeon’s parents how it cracked under the weight of two drunk girls dancing on top of it.

“Babe,” Dahyun says and takes a cautious step forward, just in case Sana decides it’s a good idea to jump from the coffee table into Dahyun’s arms. “If you come down, I’ll buy you mozzarella sticks and we’ll watch your favorite movie.”

“The Notebook?” Sana gasps, stepping down immediately and throwing her arms around Dahyun.

Dahyun nods, a resigned look on her face. “Yes, we’ll watch The Notebook for the fourth time...this week.” 

Sana cheers and drags Dahyun behind her. The two of them head towards the exit, leaving Tzuyu and everyone else behind. Thank god for Sana’s weird obsession with the notebook because Tzuyu can put off talking to Dahyun about the tension. She can live in her own little, oblivious bubble for just a bit longer.

She turns around, ready to go find the cooler again, when someone bumps into her—hard enough that Tzuyu nearly falls over. She regains her balance and straightens up, throwing a dirty glare at the offender, who’s already walking away from her.

Tzuyu frowns, recognizing the bangs anywhere. “Momo?” Momo keeps walking. Maybe she didn’t hear Tzuyu? Tzuyu rushes to catch up with Momo before she loses the older girl in the crowd. “Momo!”

Momo stops and turns around. Tzuyu’s heart drops. Momo’s eyes are wet and red-rimmed, and it’s obvious she’s barely holding back more tears. Tzuyu rushes forward to guide them both upstairs. They pass by Nayeon’s room, and she catches sight of Mina and Nayeon sitting on Nayeon’s bed.

Tzuy pays them no mind, only focused on getting her and Momo inside an unoccupied bedroom. She knows where the extra key is to the guest bedroom from frequent nights spent here, and she grabs it on the way.

“Hey, talk to me,” she murmurs once they’re in the privacy of the room, closing the door and muffling most of the sounds from the party. 

Momo chokes back a sob and throws herself against Tzuyu, nearly knocking her over with the force of her body. Tzuyu half-drags Momo to sit on the bed and encourages Momo to let it all out. Tzuyu just stays quiet and whispers soothing nonsense while Momo cries on her shoulder. She’s seen Momo this bad only one other time.

It was when Sana and Dahyun told everyone they were officially dating.

Tzuyu tightens her hold on Momo just a little bit, wishing she could do something to help lessen the pain, but this is a weight Momo chose to bear on her own. Tzuyu can’t do anything but offer an ear for listening, or a shoulder to cry on, and it absolutely kills her.

Momo’s sobs have tapered off into tiny sniffles and the occasional hiccup, and Tzuyu feels the need to say something, but she has no idea what. She’s never been too good at comforting people—that’s always been Jihyo’s specialty. 

Nayeon sometimes likes to tease her by saying she’s emotionally stunted. Tzuyu sometimes wants to kill Nayeon.

Momo mumbles something indecipherable against Tzuyu’s shoulder, and Tzuyu frowns. “Hm?”

“That used to be me,” Momo says a little louder, moving her head so she isn’t muffled against Tzuyu’s shoulder. “When we’d have sleepovers, we’d make the coolest fort and watch The Notebook over and over, and then we’d talk until one of us passed out from exhaustion.” The smile on Momo’s face is wistful and sad. “We haven’t had a sleepover in forever.”

Tzuyu doesn’t know how to respond. 

They stay on the bed in their own little room for an undefinable amount of time. It could’ve been thirty minutes or it could’ve been three hours for all Tzuyu knows. She looks down at Momo, who’s eyes have begun to flutter closed. It must have been an exhausting night for the older girl, understandably.

Her phone begins to buzz in her pocket, and she grabs it, expecting it to be Nayeon calling her to demand where in the world she disappeared to.

She doesn’t expect it to be her dad.

Tzuyu shoots up in alarm, causing Momo to stir and move away from Tzuyu to hug the pillow.

Someone knocks on the door. “Tzuyu, are you in here?” It’s Jeongyeon. “Nayeon said she thought she heard you come up here a little while ago and texted me to check up on you.”

Tzuyu rushes over to open the door, startling Jeongyeon. She pulls Jeongyeon inside the room and shoves her towards the bed, and subsequently, Momo. “Please take care of her. I’m really sorry, I have to take this.”

She runs towards the bathroom, which, by some miracle, isn’t being occupied by anyone. Tzuyu shuts the door and taps the answer button before it can go to voicemail. “Hello?”

“Tzuyu, hi.”

Tzuyu tenses at his voice, a roller coaster of emotions rushing through her. She takes a deep breath to try and get her emotions under check. “Dad.”

There’s an awkward pause, and she hears some shuffling on the other side of the line. She can imagine him standing on the porch pacing around, trying to figure out what exactly to say to a daughter he barely sees anymore. Finally, he sighs and asks, “How are you?”

“I’m fine,” she says shortly. He’s probably on the porch, keeping his voice low so his family can’t hear him talking to her. He probably said he’s going on a walk so no one goes out and checks on him.

“Yeah? What’s been happening with you?”

“Not much.” Her eyes scan the wallpaper in the bathroom, picking out the places where it’s starting to peel to keep herself somewhat distracted.

Her dad sighs again, and she can tell he’s becoming exasperated. “There’s really nothing that has happened since the last time I called?”

It’s been what, a couple of months since he last called? She’s pretty sure it was the end of last school year. “Not really.”

“Tzuyu,” her dad says sharply. He takes a moment to rein in his irritation. “Can you at least try—”

“Like you tried with mom?” she interrupts, feeling her anger boiling over and the liquid courage coursing through her veins allowing her to say that.

She can hear him exhale harshly on the other end. “We are not talking about this again.”

“We never did talk about it,” she says, her voice frosty and void of emotion.

She remembers the day she got the news. Her parents sat her down at the kitchen table after school and told her they were getting a divorce. They wouldn’t exactly specify the reason, but one day her dad was here, and the next day, he was off living at another home with another woman and two new little girls.

“Tzuyu,” he begins, sounding incredibly tired all of a sudden. It only serves to fuel her anger. He doesn’t get to be tired when he was the one who left them. “I know you’re mad at me but don’t you think it’s time we get over this?”

It’s been two years. “I thought you were good with sending a monthly check in the mail.”

“You know that’s not true.”

“That’s what it feels like.”

Another long, awkward pause. “Let’s just take a step back here. It’s obvious our emotions are running high right now.”

“I have to go,” she says, suddenly feeling incredibly trapped in this tiny bathroom. “Bye.”

She hangs up before she hears his response, and she lurches forward to wretch the door open. The warm air inside the house does very little to help. She several deep, calming breaths to try and reorient herself. She needs to get out of this house.

“Tzuyu?”

She turns around to find Nayeon standing in the middle of the hallway, blocking the steps. Tzuyu plasters on a smile, hoping it's too dark for Nayeon to see how fake it is. “Hi.

“Hi.” Nayeon fiddles with the hem of her shirt, acting shy and not at all like the Nayeon Tzuyu is used to seeing. “Um, about that thing with Mina. I was just asking her for homework help.”

“What?” Tzuyu mumbles in confusion. She has absolutely no idea what Nayeon is talking about, but she hopes the older girl wraps up the conversation soon so Tzuyu can get the hell out of here.

“That’s why she was in my room. I, um, needed homework answers.”

Tzuyu just nods, not really processing Nayeon’s words. “Yeah, sounds good. Sorry, but I really have to go. I’ll see you later.” 

“Bye?” Nayeon says as Tzuyu slips past her and heads down the steps. Tzuyu sends a quick wave before she disappears into the crowd.

It’s incredibly hot and crowded at this point, and Tzuyu feels like she’s going to throw up if she doesn’t get out of here soon. She squeezes through the multitude of bodies, mumbling her apologies, until she finally reaches the back door.

The cool, night air feels incredibly refreshing, and it helps calm her down a little. She takes a deep breath and closes her eyes, relishing the feeling.

A twig snaps to her left, and she looks over, expecting to see one of the stoners smoking out here, or maybe a couple who couldn’t find a room. She’s encountered those before (and has been scarred for life).

She doesn’t think she’d see Chaeyoung out here. Well, she’s 99% sure it’s Chaeyoung. After all, there can’t be too many people who are as short as Chaeyoung. She watches as Chaeyoung curses quietly and continues to walk around in the dark, illuminated by the dim light from Nayeon’s back porch.

Maybe it’s the alcohol, or maybe it’s the restless energy she has after the phone call. Either way, Tzuyu has this insane urge to follow Chaeyoung, so she follows her instincts.

Tzuyu winces as she steps on a particularly crunchy leaf and freezes, waiting for Chaeyoung to turn around and get freaked out, but Chaeyoung doesn’t seem to have heard Tzuyu. The shorter girl just continues to walk towards the street, humming loudly to herself.

Tzuyu watches the girl mount her bike, and she feels a sense of disappointment run through her. There’s no way she can keep up with Chaeyoung on a bike, and even if she could run that quickly, she would not at all be inconspicuous. 

She watches Chaeyoung pedal off with a slight frown. Then she squints through the darkness to get a better look at Chaeyoung. The girl is singing to herself now, and she’s riding her bike, but she’s pedaling fairly slow and she keeps weaving from side to side.

Okay, so it’s obvious that Chaeyoung isn’t sober at the moment. It’s either that, or Chaeyoung is a lot weirder than Tzuyu first thought.

Tzuyu glances between her house and Chaeyoung, feeling conflicted. She should probably follow Chaeyoung—it’s her duty as the archery captain, as well as Dahyun’s friend, to make sure Chaeyoung doesn’t get run over by a car or kidnapped by a random stranger, right?

“Fuck this,” Tzuyu mutters under her breath, doing a half-jog to close the distance between her and Chaeyoung. 

She makes sure to stay far enough away so Chaeyoung hopefully won’t notice her, but to stay close enough to keep a good eye on the girl. She hopes Chaeyoung doesn’t live too far away because it’s going to be a bitch to walk back home, but she’s gotten this far. She can’t leave Chaeyoung now.

Tzuyu frowns when Chaeyoung pedals into the school parking lot. She expected Chaeyoung to live fairly close to school—she does bike to school everyday—but why the hell is Chaeyoung actually going into the school parking lot?

Chaeyoung lazily rides over to a wall near the back and dismounts her bike. She goes over to the brick wall and looks at it, tilting her head from side to side. Then, she slings her backpack off her shoulders (since when did she have a backpack) and reaches into it.

Tzuyu frowns. Is that…?

Chaeyoung shakes the spray paint canister in her hand for a few seconds before holding it up to the wall. The hiss of the can permeates the air, and Tzuyu feels her mouth fall open disbelief.

Son Chaeyoung is really vandalizing the school right now. Tzuyu isn’t sure if she should stop Chaeyoung, or if she should just let it happen. She doesn’t want the girl to get in trouble with the school, no matter how much Chaeyoung gets on her nerves, but the chances of Chaeyoung getting caught and punished are actually quite low. The cameras in the parking lot are just there for show, and it’s not like the school will have a manhunt for some spray paint on the wall.

Unless it’s something vulgar, of course. Is Chaeyoung the type of person to paint crude pictures on public property? She squints, trying to catch sight of what Chaeyoung’s painting. The top is green, and the rest is bright red. As Chaeyoung fills in the outline and starts to paint black dots on it, it clicks in Tzuyu’s mind. 

Chaeyoung is drawing a strawberry. It’s an interesting choice, but Tzuyu supposes it’s better than a penis. At least Chaeyoung isn’t one of those people. She watches in mild interest as Chaeyoung continues to draw two more large strawberries. For vandalising their school, this is quite tame. Chaeyoung steps back and examines her work in satisfaction. 

Tzuyu checks the time on her phone. It’s getting late, and although she doesn’t live too far from the school, she has a job interview tomorrow morning and she needs to be well-rested. She can’t leave Chaeyoung here though, especially if the girl isn’t sober.

To: Mina

Can you come to the school
Chaeyoung is here
Please take her home

Delivered at 9:39 PM

From: Mina

I’ll be there in a few minutes.

Read at 9:43 PM

Tzuyu sighs in relief because it looks like Chaeyoung isn’t planning on going anywhere for awhile, judging from how Chaeyoung is now sitting against the wall and closing her eyes. 

Is she seriously taking a nap at 10 PM right beneath the proof of her vandalism? Tzuyu sighs and hopes Mina gets here soon. She’s not sure how much longer she can keep up with Chaeyoung’s stupidity. 

A few minutes later of Chaeyoung sitting motionless against the wall, and Tzuyu herself starting to nod off, she hears footsteps approaching. Tzuyu sits up in alarm, thinking it could be a teacher or a cop, but when she looks back, she just sees Mina walking into the parking lot.

“Mina,” she whispers, standing up from her spot on the pavement.

Mina lets out a tiny shriek and turns around to glare at Tzuyu. “Why are you hiding in the shadows?”

Tzuyu looks down, feeling her face grow warm for some reason. “No reason.” She gestures to Chaeyoung. “Do you mind taking her? I need to get home soon.”

Mina turns to glance and Chaeyoung, and she sighs. “Why’d she even come here?”

“I dunno. I’m pretty sure she’s high though.”

“Lovely,” Mina responds, shaking her head. “Thanks for keeping an eye on her.”

Tzuyu shrugs. “It’s no big deal.” She pauses, scuffing her toe against the ground. “Um, can you not mention to her that I was here?”

Mina tilts her head, looking curious but knowing not to push it. “Sure. Thank you again.”

Mina goes to approach Chaeyoung. Mina sits down, and they talk lowly to each other. She checks the time on her phone again. She should probably go, but she feels compelled to stay for just a little longer.

Tzuyu raises her eyebrows as Chaeyoung rests her head in Mina’s lap. Not dating, huh.

It doesn’t take long for a car to pull up with Kai in the front seat. Mina leads a very sleepy Chaeyoung to the car. Mina glances in Tzuyu’s direction as they walk by, but Tzuyu thinks she’s too hidden by the shadows for Mina to see anything.

Once the car is far away, Tzuyu leaves her hiding place, fully intent on walking home and going to bed before it gets any later, but something makes her stop. She glances back at the wall and after a long moment of contemplation, finds herself standing in front of the wall.

The strawberries are good, especially when she realizes Chaeyoung was high and half-asleep while painting. Upon closer inspection, Tzuyu realizes Chaeyoung drew a tiny face on each strawberry.

Cute, she thinks, taking her phone out and taking a picture. She doesn’t know why—she just feels like she needs to save the painting since it most likely will be washed away as soon as the school authorities see it. 

She looks at the wall one more time, smiles to herself for some odd reason, and begins her walk back home.

Chapter Text

"LOSER!" Dahyun yells straight into Chaeyoung's ears. On the screen, Dahyun's character successfully dodges the enemy's ambush by jumping back into the vehicle and leaving her comrade, Chaeyoung (who is only equipped with a knife and a bag due to the fact they choose a poorly sourced location to loot) behind. 

"Fuck you, Kim," Chaeyoung growls into the microphone, trying to find cover. She fails miserably, being shot in the back by another duo with proper weapons. She leans back on her chair, sighing in frustration as the screen shows her placing 58th in a battle royale of 100. Then it switches to Dahyun's character, speeding away in what was supposed to be their getaway vehicle. 

Dahyun laughs maniacally in her ears. "I saw them from a mile away," she says. 

"Have you heard of teamwork? It's something you're supposed to have when you're playing as a duo." 

"Yeah but where's the fun in that?" 

Chaeyoung watches Dahyun's character leaving the car to find more weapons in an abandoned warehouse. Up ahead, on the right side of screen, she catches sight of an enemy lurking through the trees. She doesn't mention this to Dahyun. 

"So," she says instead, leaning forward into the screen and taking a deep breath, "Archery practice was fun." She remembers the fact that Captain Tzuyu made her run another three laps earlier that afternoon. 

"Huh? Oh yeah, I'm sorry about Tzuyu." On screen, Dahyun chooses between and an M14 and an AKM. She picks the latter. 

"It's cool." Chaeyoung's eyes are fixed on the small shadow that Dahyun is completely oblivious of. "Not your fault that she has a stick up her ass." 

"She's really nice, though," Dahyun adds and she moves her character towards the second floor. Chaeyoung hums, neither agreeing or disagreeing. "Her mom's just a bit hard on her when it comes to the club. Scholarship money, you know?" 

"Right." 

"Besides, I heard that people have been seriously pissing her off even more than usual." Dahyun finds a Level 3 helmet and equips it. She does this right as she's standing by an open window. Once again, Chaeyoung sees the enemy lurking outside. "Like, Tzuyu's always been really popular but ever since word passed around that you rejected her, well, others thought they could be a rebound." 

"Must be tough," Chaeyoung muses, "Being popular." 

Dahyun snorts, finally having the sense to push her character forward, far from the open window. Chaeyoung clicks her tongue. Just finish her off already, she thinks impatiently. 

"I wouldn't know," Dahyun comments, "I've always been a nobody."

"Aren't you dating one of the hottest cheerleaders in school?" Chaeyoung asks, swiveling around in her gaming chair, "Like, one time, I was in History and I heard people talking about how to ask Minatozaki Sana out. Almost as if she doesn't even have a girlfriend. Doesn't that bother you or something?" 

Dahyun sighs in her ears. "It used to," she admits, "but I'm over it. I seriously spent two years thinking that there was no way Sana could ever like me back. She's way out of my league. I'm just trying to cherish every moment together." 

"How'd you guys even start dating?" 

"Well," Dahyun says dryly, chuckling to herself. Chaeyoung watches as the character on screen jumps out of the second floor and sprints towards the car. "It's a funny story," Dahyun recalls, "and it involves Sana trying out for the club and nearly shooting Professor Park in the head. I'll tell you about it another time." 

"Mina mentioned something like that, yeah." 

Dahyun grunts as she tries to start her vehicle. Chaeyoung drums her fingers on the surface of her table, watching impatiently as Dahyun leaves the area. Where the hell is this guy? She thinks to herself, already wanting the game to be over so that they can restart. Even though they're playing from their respective rooms, Chaeyoung can easily imagine the concentrated expression Dahyun has on her face. 

"Sana loves talking about that story," Dahyun continues, "but please don't bring it up around me. I literally had to beg Professor Park to give me detention instead." 

"Well, arren't you Romeo? No wonder Sana likes you." 

"Shut the fuck up, smartass." 

Chaeyoung snorts, still watching Dahyun drive away. "You're wrong, by the way," she says quietly. 

"About what?" Dahyun's car suddenly dies down in the middle of the road, apparently having lost fuel. She groans, quickly jumping down from the driver's seat instead of staying idle.

"Sana being out of your league." Chaeyoung isn't just saying this, by the way. She's seen how Sana looks at Dahyun—it's so cute it's almost sickening. "In fact, I think you're the one who's out of her league." 

Bang! A shot rings throughout Chaeyoung's earphones. She watches as Dahyun's character immediately falls over on the ground, having been shot with a very powerful sniper. Barely a second passes before another gunshot pierces through the air and Dahyun's character disintegrates on screen, finally dead after receiving the killing blow. 

"Loser!" Chaeyoung yells into her microphone, punching the air with her fist. Fucking payback.

"Yup." For some reason, Dahyun doesn't sound too disappointed. In fact, she sounds like she's even smiling. "Anyway, are you up for another game?" 

Chaeyoung glances at her phone. It's nearing 11 PM. She shrugs, lining up for another round. "One more then." 

…

Chaeyoung finds two dead lizard tucked in her shoe one day after gym class. She frowns, wondering how on earth it got there and if her shoes really stink that badly to warrant such fatality, before she shrugs and chucks them away. Then she hears a bunch of giggling from around the locker room. When she glances over her shoulder, she sees a trio of average-looking girls watching her expectantly. 

Chaeyoung just nods at them, tying her shoelaces twice and then leaving the locker room. She sees Dahyun and Mina waiting for her by the track field. Momo and Sana are doing stretches in front of them while the rest of the cheering squad talk idly a few feet away. Dahyun waves her over. 

"Tzuyu just said the weirdest thing to me the other day," Chaeyoung hears Sana telling their small group as she leans heavily on Momo's shoulder to do some leg stretches. 

"What was it?" Momo asks, her hand wrapped around Sana's middle to keep her from falling. 

Sana giggles as she recalls. "She asked me how I knew about Nayeon being a furry." 

Dahyun and Mina both say, "Nayeon's a furry?" at the same time. Dahyun's face holds a completely and utterly shocked expression while Mina just looks so confused about the whole thing. Chaeyoung frowns, remembering Nayeon's weird treatment of her last Saturday, back in the ice cream shop. 

Momo hums thoughtfully. "Wouldn't be surprised if it's true," she comments, "I don't think Nayeon has actually dated anybody before. Maybe that's why?" 

"But a furry?" Mina asks, looking doubtful and put-off at the same time, "Which animal would she even—?"

"I have a feeling I don't want to listen to this conversation," Chaeyoung mumbles under her breath, coming to stand next to Dahyun.

"Please don't finish that sentence, Minari," Dahyun pleads, bumping Chaeyoung's shoulder with her own as a greeting.

Sana giggles again. The same chipmunk giggle from last Saturday. Chaeyoung makes a face as she watches Sana smirk at Mina, stepping away from Momo's hold and tilting the junior's chin up with her finger. "Don't be jealous, Mitang," she says, practically purring, "I'm positive you still have a chance with your crush on Ms. Im Nayeon. Maybe you should try dressing up? She could be into that." 

Momo scoffs. "Don't give her any ideas, Sana." 

Mina blushes furiously. "I'm not that desperate," she grumbles, taking a step back from Sana's advances. 

Sana sighs dramatically, fixing Momo with a faux glare. "You never let me have fun." 

Momo sighs and looks apologetically at Chaeyoung. "This is what happens when you've been friends with Sana for your entire life," she explains, "I have to deal with the consequences of her actions." Chaeyoung grimaces.

Sana gasps dramatically, one hand on her chest. "And what did I do now?"

"You made up a rumor of Nayeon being a furry." 

"I didn't," Sana says, sounding miffed, "It was Tzuyu who decided to open it up."

"Did you at least deny it?" Dahyun asks, looking stressed. 

"But where's the fun in that?" Sana looks so utterly perplexed by the idea of shutting down baseless rumors. 

Chaeyoung and Dahyun both groan. Momo and Mina facepalm. Sana has the nerve to bat her eyelashes and look innocent. 

"I swear to God, Sana," Mina begins, frowning, "If that rumor spreads—" 

"It won't," Sana says, waving away their concerns, "unlike some of you in this school, I know how to control the gossip mill. Rest assured that the rumor of Im Nayeon being a furry will quickly die down." 

Momo glares at her best friend. "It better," she says, "We can't have Mina's first girlfriend being known as a furry." 

Mina opens and closes her mouth like a fish out of water. Then, after a few seconds, she finally finds her voice: "Nayeon isn't my girlfriend." 

"And I'm the straightest person in this school," Sana deadpans, scoffing, "We all know about your little crush, Minari. It was obvious last Saturday." 

"Sh—shut up," Mina grumbles, crossing her arms, "You made it obvious." 

“Right.” Sana rolls her eyes playfully. “Says the girl who couldn’t even hold eye contact with Nayeon. I agree. Totally not obvious.” Her words drip with sarcasm.

“How can I—?” Mina doesn’t finish her sentence, running her fingers through her hair in frustration. “I don’t even know what went down. All I know is that one second, we’re all okay and then the next, Chae and Tzuyu look like they’re about to throw fists at each other. And then I had to make sure Nayeon didn’t chew Chaengie out. God knows what would’ve happened if Nayeon got her way. She probably hates me now.” She says all of this in a fast-paced, hushed voice while looking miserable at the same time. 

Chaeyoung finally speaks up, “Yeah, what’s up with Nayeon?” The four of them turn to look at her and she shrugs, suddenly conscious. “She was looking at me weirdly the whole time we were at the ice cream shop.”

“Nayeon is just protective of Tzuyu,” Momo says patiently, “They go a long way back, being neighbors and close friends for the majority of their childhood. When Tzuyu got into high school, it was Nayeon’s group who took her in. It’s why she doesn’t really have that many friends outside of us seniors.” 

“Except for me!” Dahyun says proudly, even though her smile wavers after a few seconds. Chaeyoung raises an eyebrow at her, curious at the sudden change. 

“And me,” Mina points out, throwing up a peace sign, “Archery club, remember?” 

Momo looks back at Chaeyoung, smiling good-naturedly. “Don’t take what Nayeon did to heart,” she suggests, “She’s always on Tzuyu’s side—she has nothing personal against you, or so I hope.” 

Sana starts giggling the same chipmunk giggle again. Chaeyoung gives her a look, wondering to herself if Dahyun's girlfriend snorted a few things before she went for cheerleading practice. She decides not to ask, afraid of the answer. 

"I'm not sure about that," Sana says lightly, winking at Chaeyoung, "You never really know what's on somebody's mind." 

Momo sighs loudly, crossing her arms. "Stop pretending like you know everybody's secrets," she tells Sana tersely, "because you don't, okay?" 

Sana frowns, her demeanor shifting. Chaeyoung sees Mina shoot Momo a quick warning look. Dahyun glances between Sana and Momo, sensing the tension but unsure if she should step in or not. 

"What makes you think I don't?" Sana asks carefully, narrowing her eyes at her best friend. She mirrors Momo's position. 

Dahyun clears her throat. "Hey, guys," she begins but Momo cuts her off,

"You don't even know mine." The words are spoken in a quiet voice and a small, bitter smile, Momo's tone leaving no room for argument and Chaeyoung sees the confused look setting in on Sana's features. The pink-haired girl opens her mouth, possibly to ask, before she gets interrupted: 

"Minatozaki! Hirai!" a voice calls out from a few meters away. Sana and Momo wince, their spines straightening into attention. Chaeyoung glances over Momo's shoulder and sees a tall, blonde girl with bangs glaring at her two newfound friends. She looks intimidating, her hands on her waist and her gaze absolutely lethal. Chaeyoung can feel the daggers her eyes are sending. 

"Don't turn now," Mina comments, putting her blinking headphones on, "Captain Lisa looks like she's going to skin you the more you guys stay here." 

"She's not that bad," Momo grumbles before she picks up her pom-poms from the ground and hurries back to the cheering squad, the tension leaving the air now that she and Sana have some space between them.

Sana leaves as well, but not before she presses a lingering kiss on Dahyun's cheek. "I'll see you later, babe," she says, winking. Then she's off, following after Momo. 

Dahyun groans, her cheeks red, as she covers her face with both hands. "I can't believe I'm dating Minatozaki Sana," she mumbles under her breath. 

Chaeyoung walks over to Mina. "What was that?" she asks, referring to Sana and Momo's minor argument while Dahyun is too busy trying not to have a gay panic attack. 

Mina shrugs. "Not my secret to tell," is what she answers. 

Chaeyoung looks over at Sana and Momo practicing their sets and shrugs as well. Her own high school life is already messy enough to begin with. She shouldn't be meddling with other people's. 

"Anyway," Mina begins, changing the topic not so subtly, "you guys wanna go to the arcade?" 

Chaeyoung looks at Dahyun. “Don’t we have archery practice?” 

“Nah, Tzuyu has student council duties.” Dahyun stops staring at Sana practicing out in the field and wraps an arm around Chaeyoung’s neck, dragging her away. “So, yeah, let’s go to the arcade!” 

…

The arcade is crowded by the time they get there. It’s filled with a few middle schoolers and even some schoolmates Chaeyoung recognizes from her classes. Dahyun immediately heads over to the basketball ring since it’s the only available one. Chaeyoung and Mina follow.

"Wanna bet?" Dahyun asks Chaeyoung smugly, gesturing at the machine, "I think I can shoot more hoops than you."

"You think," Chaeyoung notes dryly as she stands next to her friend, "but you don't know. Therefore, I conclude that I'm going to beat your ass, Kim." 

"How much are you willing to bet then?" 

"Ten bucks." 

Dahyun whistles, giving her an impressed nod. "Confident, I see." 

Mina rolls her eyes and mutters something about getting a toy from one of those claw machines. As she leaves, Chaeyoung keeps her eyes trained on Dahyun, smirking when the other girl doesn't back down from such a steep price. She always like a challenge. So the two of them put their coins in, straighten their stances (like the way Tzuyu taught her to, damn it) and gear up for the game.

A whistle blows. The balls roll towards her. At once, Chaeyoung tries her best to shoot into the hoop. She can hear Dahyun grunting and squealing next to her but she keeps her focus on her own ring. They've got at least a minute to score the most shoots. She thinks back to her basketball tryout with Jeongyeon and how effortlessly the senior breezed through each score. She plays with the captain of the basketball team in mind. Because if there’s anybody in the past few days that she’s looked up to, it’s definitely Yoo Jeongyeon.

The game ends. Chaeyoung manages to get one last ball in before she looks at her score.

48.

Then she looks at Dahyun’s and hollers. The other girl has only scored 36. The girl in question looks put off by this before she pulls out a ten-dollar bill from her pocket and slaps it on Chaeyoung’s waiting hand. “Showoff,” she grumbles.

“Watch your mouth,” Chaeyoung says, smirking broadly, “You’re the one who wanted to challenge me.” 

“I have two years of archery on you,” Dahyun mutters under her breath, “I should have more accuracy.”

“Maybe I'm just better than you?" 

“Last I checked, I managed to score more than you during practice yesterday.” 

Chaeyoung rolls her eyes as she leads the way to the claw machines where Mina said she would be. “That’s because you didn’t have Captain breathing down your neck.”

“Don’t be so hard on Tzuyu,” Dahyun is quick to say. She’s been saying that a lot recently. Chaeyoung doesn’t notice the small frown on her friend’s face as they weave through the crowd of kids and high schoolers. They spot Mina at the end of the rows of claw machines. She’s poised like a tiger waiting on her prey, her attention fixed firmly on the stack of penguin plushies inside the glass. Her hand is on the controller and she's gently easing the claw on the nearest plushie. 

"Don't talk to me," Mina says, barely glancing at them, "I think I got this." 

"You think," Chaeyoung says, snorting. 

"Shut up." 

Dahyun and Chaeyoung watch as Mina presses the button to drop the claw. It drops down, its grip closing around the top of a penguin head. It steadily rises and they all hold their breath because it actually got it! Chaeyoung sees Mina's eyes glittering with anticipation. But then the claw jerks suddenly, dropping the toy and the three of them groan in unison. 

"Rigged," Mina declares, pouting. 

"Sure, Jan," Dahyun replies. 

"I've been trying to win one for weeks," the gamer grumbles, sighing in frustration.

Chaeyoung smirks. "Let me try." 

She lightly pushes Mina out of the way and drops a coin. The machine rears back into life, the lights on its sides blinking. She guides the claw to the stuffed penguin piled at the very drop and presses the button. It misses. She tries again. And again. Dahyun and Mina are starting to grow impatient with her but Chaeyoung has a good feeling about this one. It's the same thing she feels when inspiration hits her straight in the face, like a bucket of ice cold water. On the fourth try, she aims for the one in the middle—the one standing perfectly still—and she sends a quick prayer to the gods above before pressing the button. The claw drops down, closing around the head snugly. Then the three of them watch as it brings the stuffed toy to the chute. 

Silence. 

"Showoff," Dahyun grumbles but she's smiling. 

Mina squeals and bends down to grab the plushie from the machine. She grins triumphantly, as if she was the one who won it in the first place. Chaeyoung rolls her eyes and lets her have this moment. 

"Thank you, Chaeng," Mina says, throwing an arm around her, "Thank you, thank you, thank you!" 

Chaeyoung laughs, squeezing her back. "Beginner's luck," she tries to say. 

Dahyun hits her on the head. "Beginner's luck, really? That took you four tries." 

"Shut up, Kim." 

They spend another hour in the arcade playing through the various games. Mina practically annihilates them with a zombie shooter game since her aim is impeccable, killing the enemy left and right without flinching. It's no wonder she got in the first-string archery team back when she was just a freshman. Chaeyoung also manages to beat them in a racing game with Mina tailing closely in second place from behind. Dahyun is, of course, stuck in last place but she manages to smile good-naturedly the whole time. Then they try their fair share of karaoke, realizing that they all have talent in singing. She and Dahyun take turns swapping the rap parts of the songs while Mina's sweet angelic voice lulls them into a relaxed state. 

By the time the clock strikes six o'clock, they're all laughing in contentment on top of Dahyun's car and eating ice cream they bought from the nearest grocery store. 

"Thanks for today, guys," Dahyun tells them, her lips covered with chocolate, "I had a lot of fun." 

Mina giggles and hands her a tissue. "You've got something there." 

"Where?" 

Chaeyoung sticks out her strawberry-flavored ice cream and smears it over Dahyun's right cheek. “There," she says, laughing. The blonde whines before she tries to do the same thing with her own dessert. Unfortunately, Chaeyoung is too fast for Dahyun, swerving away just in time. Gravity does its trick and the chocolate flops down onto the pavement. 

Dahyun groans. "Look what you made me do!" 

Chaeyoung cackles. "Isn't that a Taylor Swift song?" Nonetheless, she grabs her own tissue and dabs at Dahyun's cheek, effectively wiping away her work and then extending her own ice cream. "Here, you can have mine." 

The sorrow in Dahyun's face disappears altogether. "You sure?" 

"Yeah." 

Happily, Dahyun takes the strawberry ice cream and licks into it. Mina shakes her head, smiling fondly at them. Even though they've only known each other for a few weeks, it feels nice. They all seem to click with one another. Perhaps it has something to do with Mina and Chaeyoung being so close with each other when they were kids. On the other hand, Dahyun's exuberant personality blends well with Chaeyoung's snarkiness. It's nice, Chaeyoung decides. She understands, even though she hasn't experienced this before in her old school, that this is what it's like to have friends for keeps. 

"How's archery?" Mina suddenly asks, biting into her oreo-flavored dessert. 

And just like that—Chaeyoung's entire mood plummets. "Annoying," she answers, thinking back to the way Tzuyu nitpicked at everything she did: from the way she held her bow and down to the space between her feet. What a pain in the ass. She should've expected this. 

"Hey," Dahyun says, a small frown between her eyebrows, "she's just really focused on winning Conference this year. I told you this already, Chaeng."

"Doesn't excuse her shitty—" Chaeyoung stops herself when Mina subtly elbows her. "I mean," she relents, shrugging, "I guess her tips were helpful." 

Dahyun nods seriously. "Good," she says, "It wouldn't be right if she didn't try her best to teach you everything she knows." 

Chaeyoung glances at Mina who narrows her eyes at her. Play nice, her gaze seems to say. 

"Well," the redhead says, "I am learning a thing or two. Apparently, I've been nocking my arrow on the wrong side of the bow this whole time." 

Mina facepalms. "Can't believe Tzuyu let you in," she says, "She must've been really desperate." 

Dahyun snorts. "If you saw the people who turned up to tryouts on the first two days, you'd be desperate too." 

"How'd you get decent at archery anyway?" Mina asks Chaeyoung. 

The redhead shrugs. "I played a bit in middle school," she says, "but I never actually pursued it. My parents kind of forced me to try a little bit of everything. It's supposed to help build good hobbies." She tries not to let her bitterness show but it must've still been so obvious.

Mina looks at her carefully, wiping some cream from the corner of her lip. "Don't you have a younger brother?" she asks.

Chaeyoung stills, remembering Jeonghun. For most of their lives, they've always been close. But ever since her brother got into one of the top prestigious schools in the country, her parents have been pitting them against each other. Not intentionally but enough for Chaeyoung to know that they were prouder.of his achievements than hers. 

"Yeah," she says, forcing a quick smile, "He's in boarding school, though." 

"You're a year older, right?" 

"Yeah, but he's infinitely better at everything than me." Chaeyoung tries her best not to scowl—it doesn't work.

Dahyun tilts her head. "What's with that face?" 

"Sorry, tofu, but you haven't unlocked my tragic backstory yet," Chaeyoung quips, not noticing the flash of hurt in Dahyun's eyes. She picks up their ice cream wrappers and throws them in the nearest trash can. When she turns back, Dahyun and Mina are sharing a look. 

"I have a brother too," Dahyun suddenly says, "He takes all the choco pie I hide behind the fridge and he always farts everytime I enter the room. He also makes fun of me when it comes to Sana." 

Mina grins. "Is it because you're so whipped?" 

Dahyun sighs, like she's finally accepted this fact. "You can say that," she says. 

“I agree about brothers being annoying,” Mina comments.

Chaeyoung knows that they’re both just trying to make her feel better, despite not knowing the whole story. She smiles and shakes her head. "I'd like to hang out with Sana more," she says, "even though she is a cheerleader." She's only hung out with Sana a handful of times but most of them were good encounters, even though she does seem like she's tripping on weed or something.

Dahyun raises her eyebrows. "What's wrong with cheerleaders?" 

"High school hierarchy?" At Dahyun and Mina's blank look, Chaeyoung sighs. "Okay, fine. At my last school, the cheerleaders there were more or less bullies. Forgive me if I've got such a low opinion of them." 

Mina reaches over and squeezes her shoulder. "Don't worry," she says, "Sana isn't like that. Momo, too." 

"Yeah," Dahyun agrees, "When I first met them, I thought they'd be snobby like the rest of the popular girls. But they're not." 

"Huh." Chaeyoung nods. "How'd you guys meet each other any way?" 

Dahyun and Mina share knowing looks. “I met them first,” the latter explains, smiling fondly, “Sana and Momo have been together since birth. Their moms were best friends so naturally, they made their kids hang out all the time. They’ve always been two peas in a pod. I moved here from our old hometown and didn’t know anybody at all. When I was a freshman, I didn’t have anybody to sit with so I usually ate lunch at the track field. A few days into this, they came. I think they were practicing for an upcoming game? I’m not sure. It was just the two of them. They saw me eating alone and decided to join me. They took me in when no one else did.” 

“And then you met me,” Dahyun exclaims, shooting finger guns at Mina who rolls her eyes, “If it wasn’t for me, you wouldn’t have met Nayeon, right?”

“And if it wasn’t for me, you wouldn’t have met Sana.” 

“Please tell me how you got stuck with this dork,” Chaeyoung directs the question to her childhood best friend who groans.

“It’s such a stupid story,” Mina says, laughing good naturedly, “Nayeon always throws a kickstarter party every year. Sana and Momo asked me to join them. That was the first and last time I joined a party.”

Chaeyoung quirks an eyebrow. “Why?”

“I may or may not have nearly killed Dahyun on the spot.” 

“What?” 

Dahyun waves her hands around, gesturing wildly. “Okay, okay, before we head into that territory, we need a little bit of background, okay?” she says, her tone holding excitement, “Tzuyu and I have known each other since middle school. We weren’t really close. Still, I wanted to be her friend. But when high school came around, she immediately tried out for the archery team and got it on her first try. She’s that good. Then she started getting all chummy with Sunmi and Nayeon and Jeongyeon. Look, I’m not saying that she was my only friend out there—” 

“She was, wasn’t she?” Chaeyoung says with a bored expression. 

Dahyun winces. “Okay fine,” she mutters, “Maybe she was. So I decided to join the club too but I was nervous and didn’t want to make a fool out of myself. I just kept watching her practice the first few days. Then I tried to practice at home but it wasn’t working—” 

“Dahyun.” Mina places a gentle hand on the blonde’s arm. “Breathe.” 

“Sorry, you know me when I get excited.” Dahyun throws a disarming smile at Chaeyoung. “Anyway, okay. So we’re at the party. I decided to go because I didn’t have anything else to do—” 

“—Sana, Momo and I were also there. Just hanging out by the couch,” Mina says. 

Dahyun nods. “Yeah, and I was looking for Tzuyu since she was the only person I knew that time and so I was passing by the living room where—” 

“—there was a dartboard on Nayeon’s wall,” Mina continues, finding the rhythm of the story with Dahyun, “and I was trying to hit the bullseye. Then Momo said something that I can’t remember right now and I threw the dart without looking—”

“—which barely missed my cheek and landed straight on the bullseye behind me.” Dahyun laughs at the look of pure shock on Chaeyoung’s face. 

“Holy fuck?” 

Mina shakes her head, wincing. “I know,” she says, “I panicked too. But Dahyun—like the weirdo she is—just blinked and said, ‘wow, do you want to join the archery club with me?’ And because I felt guilty about nearly taking out her eye or something, I agreed.” The gamer sighs, her shoulders dropping. “And that’s how Dahyun and indirectly, Tzuyu roped me into the club, where I spent the majority of the year dodging people and trying to play video games in peace.” 

Dahyun claps her hands, grinning broadly at Chaeyoung. “And that, kids,” she says, “is how I met your childhood best friend, my future girlfriend and my future girlfriend’s best friend.” 

“By nearly getting shot in the face with a dart,” Chaeyoung deadpans. 

“I believe that’s the start of a beautiful friendship, don’t you think?” 

Chaeyoung and Mina both laugh at Dahyun who seems pleased with their reaction. “I’m glad I went to that party,” the blonde says once they finish laughing, sighing contently, “If I hadn’t, I wouldn’t have met Minari. Then I wouldn't have gotten into archery and gotten closer with Tzuyu.”

“And Tzuyu wouldn’t have helped you score a date with Sana,” Mina muses, smiling. 

Chaeyoung tries to squash down the jealousy in her chest. It’s not that she’s upset about Dahyun and Mina’s budding friendship, it’s just she’s upset that she wasn’t there to witness it. Instead, she was stuck in another school with barely any friends and overbearing parents. Most of her days were spent ignoring everybody around her, vandalizing walls with her art and playing video games. Thank God they moved to another city. Thank God she actually found some friends this time around. 

“Sana and Momo are always busy with cheer practice,” Dahyun goes to say, “so we don’t get to hang out with them that much anymore. We could always plan to hang outside of school, if you want?” 

Chaeyoung thinks back to the ice cream parlor incident and winces at how painfully awkward it had been. She rolls her shoulders. “It’s fine,” she says, “Wouldn’t want a repeat of what happened last time.” 

“You can always not invite Tzuyu?” Mina suggests helpfully.

Chaeyoung shakes her head firmly. “That won’t work.”

Dahyun and Mina both stare at her. Chaeyoung sighs and goes around Dahyun’s car to grab her bag. She pulls out her notebook from within the contents and flips to the page where she’d written a little something a few days ago. Then she walks back to her two friends and shows them what she made.

“What’s this?” Mina asks, raising a perplexed eyebrow.

“It’s a chart.”

“For what?” Dahyun looks it over before bursting into laughter. “Seriously, Chae?” 

It’s practically a physical representation of all the people she met over the past few days, starting with Jihyo, Dahyun, Mina, Tzuyu and then so on. There’s a bunch of arrows all pointing at each other, highlighted in different colors to differentiate the relationships between the people. Chaeyoung puts the notebook onto the hood of Dahyun’s car and nods at the arrows leading to Tzuyu. 

“You see, my dear comrades,” she says, her finger pointing down at Tzuyu's name, “The reason why we just can’t invite Tzuyu is because everybody’s connected with each other. If you invite Sana, then you have to invite Momo. Momo and Tzuyu are close so there’s a huge possibility that she’ll tag her along. If, by chance, that Momo doesn’t invite Tzuyu then we turn to the second situation—Sana inviting Nayeon instead. Those two seem like they enjoy feeding off gossips and rumors. However, we all know Nayeon would invite Tzuyu since according to Momo, they’ve been neighbors for so long. It’s the same with Jeongyeon or Jihyo. No matter who we invite to hang out with, there is Tzuyu. No matter how much I look at it, there’s no way I can ever escape my dearly beloved captain.” 

Chaeyoung shuts her notebook and looks up at her two friends who gape at her. 

“You must’ve thought about this a lot,” Dahyun comments. 

“Mr. Kim’s class is really boring,” Chaeyoung answers, “I didn’t have anything better to do.” 

Mina giggles. “That’s high school for you, Chaengie,” she says, sliding off Dahyun’s car, “Everybody knows everybody.”

“Unfortunately.”

“Think of it positively,” Dahyun tells her, “At least you know everybody.” 

Before Chaeyoung can respond, Dahyun’s phone suddenly pings. The blonde fishes it out of her pocket and glances at the message. Her eyebrows jump in surprise. “Huh,” she says. 

“What’s up?” Mina asks, already heading over to the backseat. 

“There’s a party at Nayeon’s place this Saturday.”

Chaeyoung snorts. “Is this her kickstarter thing?”

“Most likely.” Dahyun glances at Mina. “Tzuyu invited us to come.” 

“Even—?”

Dahyun nods. “Even you, Chaeng. To make Mina comfortable.” 

Chaeyoung frowns, not liking this one bit. Apparently, Dahyun must think something is fishy too because there’s a similar look in her eyes. “Weird,” she mutters, “Tzuyu always invites me to come along but she never extends the invitation to Mina. She knows how much Mina hates parties.” 

Another ping. Dahyun looks down at the screen of her phone. Surprise flickers across her features. “Oh,” she says, “Apparently, Mina has to come.” 

Mina sticks her head out of the window, pouting. “Why do I have to?” she whines, “I despise parties. There’s literally no privacy. Everything is too loud.”

“She didn’t say.” 

“I’m not going.” With those final words, Mina plugs in her headset and returns to the backseat.

Dahyun looks like she’s going to agree with this decision before another ping comes up again. Chaeyoung glances at her phone and sees Tzuyu’s latest message: “the least you can do is come when i ask you to.” It’s clearly a way to guilt trip Dahyun into going. Chaeyoung scoffs because she expects nothing less out of their captain, who always seems to get what she wants. She’s about to say this to Dahyun when she notices the look on the blonde’s face. 

It’s a look of guilt.

“You’re seriously not going, are you?” Chaeyoung asks, frowning. 

Dahyun sighs, putting her phone away. “It’ll be fun,” she tells her, forcing a smile, “Nayeon’s parties always are.”

“Dude, you shouldn’t let Captain boss you around like that—”

“I’m not, Chaeyoung.”

“Really?” Chaeyoung crosses her arms, obviously not believing it. “Because from the second I met you guys, Tzuyu’s been nothing but harsh on you. It’s like—like—like you’re her subordinate instead of a friend. She’s being a bully and it’s about time you see that.”

Dahyun groans, shaking her head. “Chaeyoung, please don’t talk like you know Tzuyu—”

“I don’t have to know her to see that she’s a bitch.” Chaeyoung scoffs. “I can’t believe you’re taking her side about this.” 

Silence. For a split second, Dahyun looks extremely upset. Like she’s torn between scolding Chaeyoung or bursting into tears. The shorter girl braces herself for either of the two situations. To her surprise, it doesn’t come. Instead, she watches as Dahyun takes a deep breath like she’s calming herself and forces another painfully obvious fake smile on her face.

“You don’t have to come, if you don’t want to,” the blonde says, walking over to the car, “Anyway, we should go. It’s my turn to cook dinner back at my house. Let’s hook up your bike to the trunk so that I can drop you and Mina off.”

Chaeyoung watches her go, upset about the turn of events. Still, it’s expected. Dahyun doesn’t look like the type of person to confront somebody head-on. So she sighs and follows after her, resigning herself to a school where everything seems to revolve around Chou Tzuyu. 

…

"Chaeyoung!" Her dad's voice, followed by pounding on her bedroom door. 

Chaeyoung sighs and pulls out her earphones. She'd been in the middle of doing homework, which she rarely does had it not been for Captain Tzuyu pressuring her to maintain some sort of grade average. She kicks back on the wall to propel her gaming chair towards the door, rising halfway through to swing it open. Her father stands on the other side, looking displeased. 

"What is it?" Chaeyoung asks. 

"We've been calling your name for nearly twenty minutes," her father responds disapprovingly, "Dinner's getting cold." 

"I'm not hungry." 

"You need to eat." 

"But I'm not hungry," Chaeyoung repeats. She doesn't really want to get into an argument with her father but with the way her week's been going—she can't help but snap a little. Ever since her mini argument with Dahyun back at the arcade and Tzuyu breathing down her neck for already having bad grades in Biology, things have been tense. 

"I don't care if you're hungry or not," her father snaps back, "Your mother made you a perfectly good meal, okay? Now quit your drawing and get downstairs." He says the word with barely concealed annoyance and it slaps Chaeyoung across the face. 

"I was doing homework," Chaeyoung grumbles. 

"Good, then you weren't wasting your time." 

Chaeyoung watches as her father shakes his head at her and walks back downstairs. Her chest feels tight like he's personally reached down her throat and twisted her heart. She wants to slam the door shut but doesn't want to give him the satisfaction. Instead, she grabs her phone from the table and sends a quick text before hurrying downstairs to eat her dinner. 

To: Mitang 🐧  

can we go to nayeons party? 
wanna blow off some steam 

Delivered at 7:42 PM

From: Mitang 🐧

Is everything okay?

Read at 7:43 PM

From: Mitang 🐧

Ok, I'll see you there.

Read at 7:50 PM

…

"I can't believe you dragged me into this," Mina comments as soon as Chaeyoung pulls up on Nayeon's front yard with her bike. 

"How'd you get here so fast?" Chaeyoung asks, sliding off her helmet and jumping from the seat, "I texted you twenty minutes ago and I don't recall you having a car."

"Kai dropped me off," Mina explains and Chaeyoung faintly remembers Myoui Kai, Mina's older brother. The one who used to pick fun at her boy cut when they were kids. She makes a face. 

"Is he still the same?" 

"Not really," Mina answers, coming to stand next to her, "He dropped out of college and is doing some freelance work. Guess people do mature." 

"Lovely." 

The two friends stop talking and stare up at Nayeon's house. It's nothing short of what Chaeyoung expects from one of the most popular girls in school. Smaller than a mansion but larger than a regular modern house, the sheer size of Im Nayeon's home is enough to warrant a few whistles and soft "damns." Chaeyoung counts three floors and several rooms in between. Remembering that Nayeon is an only child, Chaeyoung wonders what the other rooms are for. There are people bustling in and out of the front door, most of them holding red paper cups full of alcohol in their hands. Loud, obnoxious music is playing inside. If she strains her ears, Chaeyoung is pretty sure she can hear Park Jihyo's voice reprimanding a few of her school mates. 

Chaeyoung glances at Mina, who looks stressed already, despite not having stepped foot inside yet. She suddenly feels bad. "You know you don't have to," she tells her. 

Mina shakes her head, playing with her mint green headphones. "It's fine," she says, "It's been three years since I've been to a party." 

"At least it's from the Im Nayeon, right?" Chaeyoung says cheekily. 

"Shut up." Mina looks at her. "Are you going to tell me why you needed to let off some steam?" 

"Ah." Chaeyoung runs her fingers through her hair, not really wanting to talk about it but knowing that she has to sooner than later. "My dad pissed me off tonight so I just snuck out." 

"Teenage rebellion phase, huh?" 

"You can say that." 

Mina sighs, rolls her shoulders and gestures to the house. "After you," she says.

…

Almost at once, Mina abandons Chaeyoung at the first sign of danger. And, in this case, danger comes in the form of Im Nayeon cornering Dahyun by the front door. They're surrounded by other kids talking to each other while holding red cups full of cheap booze in their hands but Chaeyoung can easily recognize Dahyun's nervous laughter anywhere. 

"Mitang, look, Dubu's there—" she turns to find Mina literally diving into a bush and not so discreetly crawling away on all fours. Mina might be smart when it comes to academics but all that brain apparently leaves the building when faced with her crush. "Okay, then," Chaeyoung mutters, awkwardly waving off the few students who just witnessed that.

"No, no, I just don't know of this Mina you speak of," Chaeyoung hears Dahyun say, clearly trying to avoid being reprimanded for failing to drag her two friends to the party. Chaeyoung frowns—why did Tzuyu want them here in the first place?

Then Dahyun's eyes light up when she catches sight of Chaeyoung working her way through the crowd. She grabs Chaeyoung by her shirt and pulls her close. “I only know my good friend Chaeyoung!”

Nayeon eyes Chaeyoung. “Is Mina with you?” she asks. 

“Uh." Chaeyoung thinks Mina deserves a little payback for suddenly ditching her at the sight of her crush so she cracks a grin and says, "Yeah, she went around the back. She's easy to spot since she was crawling on all fours." 

Nayeon looks slightly alarmed and she mutters a quick thanks before heading off to find her. Chaeyoung looks at Dahyun, raising her eyebrows. "What was that about?" she asks.

"Something to do with homework? You know what’s it like with the popular girls. If you don’t give them what they want, they’ll claw your eyes out." Then Dahyun directs her eye-smile at Chaeyoung. "I'm glad you guys decided to show up—this party would be no fun without you!" 

"You're just saying that." Chaeyoung looks around, not surprised at the complete atrocity usually found in high school parties. Kids are dancing way too close to each other in the living room, a few of the band geeks are huddled in a corner passing a joint and couples have taken residence on the couch to make out with each other. Gross. 

Dahyun surprises her by wrapping her up in a hug. “Come on,” she says over the music, “Let’s get this party started!”

Half an hour later, they find themselves in the front yard cheering Jeongyeon on as she does a kegstand. Hwang Yeji, a member of the second-string archery team, and Jennie Kim, the leader of the theatre club, are the ones holding her up. Dahyun has her arm around Chaeyoung, keeping her close, as she waves her red plastic cup around, spilling her drink all over the grass.

“Yoo Jeongyeon! Yoo Jeongyeon! Yoo Jeongyeon!” the crowd chants, cheering her on. Jeongyeon’s eyes are squeezed shut as she drinks the beer in. Chaeyoung doesn’t understand how somebody can drink so much in that little time. She’d probably get sick all at once. 

Chaeyoung takes a sip of the cheap beer and winces at the taste. Still, she likes the burning sensation at the back of her throat. “Jeong is really popular here, huh?” she asks, looking around the place. Nearly everybody has their eyes fixed on the captain of the basketball team, arms pumping as they continue to cheer.

“Well, yeah,” Dahyun answers, “Jeongyeon, Nayeon and Jihyo dominated the school the second they showed up. The three of them are a package deal. You can’t have one without the other two following behind. Let’s see—you’ve got the captain of the basketball team, the star of the theatre club and the student council president! Dude, they’re more than popular—they’re legends.”

“You make it sound like they’re the Big Three,” Chaeyoung points out.

“They are!” 

Chaeyoung hums, thinking. “Funny how two of them aren’t dating,” she says, “Back in my old school, the popular kids tend to gravitate towards each other.”

Dahyun chuckles. “There’s actually a rumor going on that Nayeon and Jeongyeon are girlfriends,” she says, “and that they’re just keeping it a secret to maintain their reputation.”

“Does everybody really care who’s dating who?” 

The smile on Dahyun’s lips is bitter. “You’d be surprised.”

Jeongyeon taps Yeji’s arm and the two girls put her down. Everybody hollers when Jeongyeon raises her fist in the air, smiling broadly. Somebody yells the time she spent drinking—more than three minute—and the crowd erupts in cheers again. Chaeyoung winces at the noise and turns around, telling Dahyun that she’ll be inside. Dahyun nods. “I’ll catch up with you in a minute.”

Chaeyoung navigates her way through the crowd of sweaty high school kids, making sure to keep her red plastic cup high above her head so that it won’t spill on her shirt. She tries to keep an eye out for anybody she recognizes. Momo is currently in one corner of the living room, whining as Jihyo tries to explain to her that no—the brownies are off limits because they’ve been laced with weed and Momo apparently gets all weird when she’s high.

“But I want brownies, Jihyo!” Momo whines, using her best pout and Chaeyoung applauds Jihyo for her strong will. If Momo did that to Chaeyoung, the junior would cave in almost immediately.

“No,” the president says, shaking her head, “The last time you had weed, you ended up on the rooftop, thinking that you could reach the stars if you sang that one song in High School Musical—”

“You mean Breaking Free?”

Jihyo groans, shaking her head. “I literally had to call the fire department on you, Momo.”

“That was one time!” 

“That was last month!” 

Momo stomps her foot and Jihyo looks like she’s going to pop a vein. Chaeyoung wisely moves away, not wanting to be a casualty in their argument. She hears a few shouts and cheering from another room, which she gradually gravitates towards. Something juicy seems to be happening. She peeks through the heads of the other kids and stills when she catches sight of her captain facing off two frat boys in a game of beer pong. Sana is standing next to her, giggling uncontrollably. When the cheerleader throws her shot, she completely misses but doesn’t seem so affected by it.

Chaeyoung hears one of the guys say “If we win this game, will you ladies go on a double-date with us?” Everybody whistles, impressed by the blatantly bold move.

“Fuck,” Chaeyoung grumbles, whipping out her phone and texting Dahyun: get in here now. somebody thinks ur gf is some consolation prize. She’s about to go grab Jihyo so that she can put a stop to this mess when she hears Tzuyu say, “I’ll take your bet, but only if I’m the one shooting from now on.”

Chaeyoung halts and decides to see where this goes.

Tzuyu looks slightly wobbly on her feet, even though her back is still straight. Like usual. When Chaeyoung sees it during archery practices, she always feels the need to copy it. It helps her gain a few inches. Stupid Chou Tzuyu and her stupid height. Even now, with Chaeyoung in the middle of the crowd, she has to stand on her tiptoes to get a clear view of what’s happening. 

Sighing in frustration, Chaeyoung hands her red plastic cup to a passing student and walks back to where she came from. She finds a convenient spot where she can watch Tzuyu play beer pong without stupid tall kids blocking the view. With her arms crossed, she leans back on the wall and watches as the ace of the archery team completely annihilates the competition. 

She doesn’t even look like she’s trying. Even though she’s clearly had a few drinks (judging by the way her cheeks are red and the fact that she has to hold the edge of the table for support), she doesn’t miss a single shot. Everybody cheers everytime a ball lands on a cup. Chaeyoung even hears a couple of kids whispering just how cool Chou Tzuyu is. She has to bite back a snide comment. She might be cool but she’s also a bitch. Still, it’s clear that Tzuyu deserves her ace title. 

Tzuyu’s on her last cup. At the last second, she looks up and sees Chaeyoung in the back of the room. Chaeyoung jolts when their gazes meet and quickly tries to school her expression into a neutral one. It doesn’t work. She’s always had difficulty with controlling her face. Tzuyu scowls at her before turning back to the game. Chaeyoung watches the way Tzuyu leans forward slightly, eyes on the prize, and the way her lips part when she breathes in and out. 

Then she shoots her shot. 

Chaeyoung walks away after the crowd breaks out in screams and yells. She needs some air. On her way out, she spots what looks to be Mina and some unknown girl heading upstairs to the second floor. She can recognize Mina’s mint green headset anywhere. The other girl turns around and wait—are Chaeyoung’s eyes deceiving her? Is that the Im Nayeon? Before she can confirm, the two girls disappear into a room. Huh. Weird. She decides to shrug this off.

“Hi, Chaeyoung,” a voice to her left says. 

It’s Jeongyeon, offering a plate of brownies at her. Chaeyoung eyes it carefully, knowing what they’re laced with, and the captain of the basketball team rolls her eyes. “Come on now,” she says, “don’t tell me you haven’t tried this stuff before.” 

“I have.” She isn’t a wuss; she likes to try things at least once.

“Then take one.” 

Chaeyoung never backs down from a challenge so she grabs a brownie and bites into it with Jeongyeon smirking at her. It tastes like a regular brownie, of course, but if she focuses on the taste hard enough, she can tell that something’s different. 

“Good, right?” Jeongyeon asks. 

“Whatever.” 

“I didn’t think you’d show up.” 

Everybody seems to be thinking that. Chaeyoung shrugs and finishes the rest of her brownie. “I wanted to see what the big deal was,” she mutters, “For some reason, Dahyun and Tzuyu wanted me and Mina to go.” 

Jeongyeon passes the plate to a random kid, drapes an arm around Chaeyoung and leads her outside. It’s noticeably cooler and less packed. A few people are lying on the grass, talking with their friends or flirting with each other. They take a seat on the front steps of the house. “Nayeon and Jihyo wanted you guys to come too,” the senior tells her, shrugging, “Don’t ask me why.”

“Weird.” 

“You and Mina dating?” 

“Nah.” Chaeyoung looks down at her fingers. “We’re just really close.” A pause. Then she glances at Jeongyeon. “What about you?” 

“Me?”

“Are you and Nayeon dating? There’s a rumor going around that you are.” 

Jeongyeon smiles. It doesn’t reach her eyes. “Rumors are rumors,” she says, waving the question away, “You can’t trust them.” 

“So the rumor of Nayeon being a furry is also not true?” 

Jeongyeon bursts out laughing, clutching her stomach and sounding like a dying hyena. Chaeyoung can’t help but be impressed. She just saw the senior drink half her weight in cheap beer and yet, here she is, able to hold a conversation together. Her tolerance must really be high.

“Thank God for Sana and Tzuyu,” Jeongyeon mumbles, wiping away tears, "They seriously made my week with the whole furry thing." 

"Glad to see that." 

"I don't know where that rumor came from, though," Jeongyeon tells her, "but if there's anything going on with Nayeon, I'd be the first to know. I'm her best friend, after all." 

Chaeyoung thinks back to what she saw earlier—Nayeon sneaking away with Mina upstairs—and decides not to ask. It's none of her business, anyway. "I'll take note of that." 

A moment of silence. 

“How’s archery practice?” Jeongyeon asks and then winces once the question is out. Chaeyoung snorts—this is what the senior the last time they hung out together. When it gets too quiet, ask about archery practice.

“Is Chou Tzuyu always a pain in the ass or is she only like that to me?” she asks.

“Tzuyu’s an angel,” Jeongyeon answers. 

Chaeyoung stares, waiting for the punchline.

“You’re serious?” 

“Of course!” Jeongyeon gives her a withering look. “You just don’t know her that well.” 

“What if I don’t want to know her that well?” Chaeyoung grumbles, picking at the skin around her nails. She thinks about how Tzuyu made her run those laps, how she berated her posture and how she basically judged her for her grades dropping. That doesn’t seem like an angel to her. Chaeyoung wouldn’t put it past Jeongyeon to be stupid or something. Maybe she got hit in the head by too many basketballs.

Before Jeongyeon can open her mouth to respond, the door behind them bursts open. Dahyun and Sana stumble out, the former looking extremely distressed and the latter still giggling, cheeks red from all the alcohol she consumed. Jeongyeon and Chaeyoung rise to their feet. 

"Need help with your girl there, Romeo?" Chaeyoung asks, snorting when she sees Sana trying to kiss Dahyun. 

"Shut up," the blonde mumbles, letting Jeongyeon take Sana into her arms, "I'm not in the mood. I have to watch The Notebook for the fourth time this week." 

"Ryan Gosling!" Sana squeals, laughing, "Have I—hiccup—told you guys—hiccup—that I love Ryan Gosling?" 

"Yes, babe," Dahyun answers as she leads them to her car, "You've told me that a million times."

"Good!" Another fit of giggles. Jeongyeon looks sorry for Dahyun. 

Chaeyoung helps get Sana in the passenger seat of Dahyun's car. It’s a struggle, especially when all she wants to do is just kiss Dahyun whose face is seriously starting to resemble a tomato now. After the cheerleader’s all buckled up nice and tight and Jeongyeon's checked Dahyun to see if she can drive, Chaeyoung realizes that the weed is starting to kick in. The weirdest but calmest sensation starts at the very tip of her fingers an   d her toes before it slowly moves to the rest of her body, like she just stepped into the ocean and is letting the water take her.

"Sorry I have to leave early, Chaeng," Dahyun says, leaning on the hood of her car.

Chaeyoung smiles, relaxed. "No problem, bro." She throws up a peace sign. 

Jeongyeon laughs. "Oh dang, girl." 

Dahyun frowns, head tilted to the side. "What's going on?" 

"Oh, you know," Jeongyeon says, snickering, "Nayeon's infamous brownies." 

"Damn." Dahyun walks over and quickly wraps Chaeyoung in a hug. "Don't do anything stupid." 

"You're stupid." 

"Nice comeback." 

A few minutes later, Chaeyoung and Jeongyeon are watching Dahyun's car leave the Im property and drive away into the night. Chaeyoung sees them stop at a redlight and Dahyun's silhouette lean over to kiss Sana. It's cute. They're cute. Hopefully, she didn’t say that out loud. She has a cool reputation to maintain, after all. She settles with smiling as Dahyun's car disappears into the distance, feeling giddy and… floaty. Yeah. That’s weed. 

“Ah, shit,” she hears Jeongyeon mutter next to her, her phone in hand, “I gotta skat. Nayeon just texted me.”

“Toodles!” Chaeyoung tells her, wiggling her fingers. Oh wow. They feel weird. Like they’re moving in slow motion and her brain is moving twice as fast. Jeongyeon gives her a strange look before hurrying back inside the house.

Chaeyoung doesn’t know what she does for the next ten minutes. Time seems to move in slow motion, just like the rest of her body. She could’ve stayed by the side of the road with her head in the ass for all she cared. But then she blinks and then she suddenly finds herself riding her bike, moving away from the party and somewhere else… Oh, wait! It’s the school. Cool. What is she doing here again? She recalls moving through Nayeon’s backyard, walking through the dark and tripping a few times. 

When she reaches a blank wall by the parking lot, it occurs to her that she has her backpack on. Wait, when did that happen? Huh. Weird. Oh well. She slips it from her shoulders and grabs the canisters of spray paint she packed before she left the house. Every time her parents piss her off, she always wants to paint big murals on city walls. It helps calm her down. And even though she feels awfully calm right now, she also wants to leave a mark.

An hour later, she ends up sitting under the wall with three strawberries painted. Did she fall asleep? Wait, where is she again? Right, the school. Three canisters of paint lie next to her feet. Oh, right. She was painting? She’s not really sure. She remembers watching herself paint. Like her soul left her body for the past sixty minutes. God—that brownie definitely had some strong stuff in it. She only ate one, after all.

“Chaeyoung?”

Chaeyoung blinks and finds Mina crouching in front of her, waving her hand. “Whoa,” she says, shaking her head, “are you real? How’d you get here so fast? Am I… like—?” She doesn’t finish her sentence, completely forgetting what she said.

“I—uhm.” Mina glances over her shoulder. “Best friend senses, I guess? I couldn’t find you at the party.”

Chaeyoung squints at her. Something clicks in her brain. “What were you doing with Nayeon?” 

Mina freezes and her entire face reddens. “I wasn’t with Nayeon,” she grumbles.

Their friendship might’ve been put on hold due to the years and distance they spent apart but Chaeyoung knows Mina’s lying face anywhere. You can call it instinct or best friend senses. But when Mina can’t look you directly in the eye and her eyes start doing weird shifty little dances, it usually means she’s hiding something. Chaeyoung might be high as fuck right now but she’s not stupid. 

“You’re stupid,” she says.

Now it’s Mina’s turn to squint at her. “What?” 

“You should be.” Chaeyoung sighs, smiling dreamily at the stars above Mina’s head. “I like strawberries.”

“Did you eat Nayeon’s brownies?”

Chaeyoung giggles at that. “I know you are, but what am I?” 

“You’re literally making no sense right now.”

Chaeyoung sighs, feeling like the weight of a thousand years has just been passed onto her shoulders. “Art isn’t supposed to make sense,” she mumbles, “but I still like strawberries, though.”

“Chaeng, you’re lucky the school doesn’t have any working cameras.” Mina sits down in front of her, leans back on her arms and stares at the strawberries Chaeyoung painted. A proud smile plays on her lips. “You’ve gotten better, by the way.”

“Are we waiting for something? You’re not supposed to sit on the ground—your butt could get dirty.”

“We’re waiting for Kai to pick us up.” 

“Ah.” Chaeyoung suddenly feels very sleepy. She lurches forward until her temple hits Mina’s knee. Mina chuckles, shifting around so that the shorter girl can rest her head on her lap, and then runs her fingers through Chaeyoung’s locks. It’s quiet and peaceful. Chaeyoung closes her eyes, inhales deeply and reminds herself to hit Jeongyeon up in case she needs one of those brownies again.