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Three days. That’s how long it takes before Tzuyu notices them. A bizarre collection of the most random things.
A giant plastic teapot the size of a car made of the same material of those Christmas deer you find on people’s lawns in movies. Except it’s not Christmas-themed—it’s rainbow.
One whole pile of flamingo figurines. A globe, also very large. An owl...clock? Who hangs a wall clock outside? White lawn chairs - two of them. Blow-up palm trees. A kiddie pool. Okay so the last three kinda fit. It is summer after all. Tzuyu would never think of recreating a beach on a roof though.
The entire setup gives the impression of a raid on every decor shop they could find (and maybe the trash of a few too). And it’s all used to decorate the roof of some apartment building about a block’s distance from the train Tzuyu takes every morning and evening. The roof is actually two layers, the one closer to the train holds all the collectibles, and a ladder leads up one story to the second which probably holds the stairwell. The wall in between stands a rusty door painted in chipping red paint that leads inside. And that’s all she has time to notice before the train passes by, leaving Tzuyu with a piqued curiosity and an odd longing to see just who those knickknacks belong to.
---
Tzuyu’s roommate is almost never home.
School isn’t that tough. Tzuyu studies hard enough to keep up and any words she doesn’t understand she has her phone to look up. It’s just...she doesn’t talk to anyone. Alone in class, during breaks, in the library, while she eats, on the way home and once she arrives there.
Tzuyu’s always alone. It’s tough. And maybe that’s one of the reasons she keeps a diary. It’s a good way to practice her Hangul, both expanding her vocabulary and handwriting, though the main purpose is to keep track of all the things she’s seen so she can tell her parents about it when she calls home. Just thinking about it makes her smile.
Today, she can write about the bizarre setup she saw from the train. She was a bit late getting out of class, and decided to grab some groceries before heading home and therefore missed any chance of getting a seat, but perhaps it was a good thing. She got to stand by the train door and see new sights - something she’s yet to do since moving in.
Settling at her desk, she opens her diary to the bookmarked page and reaches for her prized fountain pen in hand - a gift from her father when she got the scholarship - with the Korean-Chinese dictionary app already open on her phone.
Now, what’s the Korean word for teapot...
---
Two weeks later Tzuyu finally gets to meet the culprits. She’d almost forgotten but lights up at the sight of movement when she was close to dozing against the window before. Of course there are two of them, that would explain the pair of lawn chairs.
Long blonde tresses shine like a beacon under the sun but not as much as the girl’s white skin, almost blinding like a flash of light right in Tzuyu’s eyes.
The other girl possesses ginger locks and Tzuyu’s pretty sure she’s not supposed to be, even if she does look just a bit like a foreigner.
It’s only fair, she supposes, that their hair is as eccentric as their belongings.
---
“Hey you’re in a good mood.”
“And you’re actually home for once.”
“Why did you miss me?” Jeongyeon’s tone goes up in a lilt, and Tzuyu rolls her eyes, passes her the carton of eggs to stow in the fridge (she can only cook simple dishes and most of them include eggs).
“If I say yes, will you make dinner?”
Jeongyeon guffaws, makes an exaggerated show of shutting the fridge door and Tzuyu didn’t think was funny yet cracks a smile. The apartment is much more lively with two. “Sure I’ll make dinner~ Tired of eating omelets are ya?”
Tzuyu pouts. She’s happy enough, Jeongyeon might be a stoner but she’s a surprisingly good cook. “You said my omelets were good.”
“They are! I think. I only had it once so maybe next time you should cook dinner for me, or breakfast. You know most people eat omelets for breakfast.”
Tzuyu agrees, decides to let that last one slide, but knows Jeongyeon won’t be home much for her to fulfill that promise.
---
Tzuyu tries, she really does, but the urge to smile coupled with her reluctance to look like a creep on the train ends up contorting her face into a pursed grimace.
The blonde gets hit square in the forehead with another water balloon, even from here Tzuyu can imagine the splat upon impact. The remains of the blue balloon sticks out like a sore thumb in her blonde hair. Her entire front and bangs are doused, sticking to her forehead and it’s obvious she’s whining from the exaggeratedly pained face and gestures she’s making. Too bad Tzuyu can’t hear them. It must be hilarious. Just imagining it, she has to bite her cheek to keep the giggles at bay, and even then laughter threatens to erupt as her shoulders shake.
The blonde then seems to have gotten over it, because suddenly she springs into action, dashing towards the kiddie pool and instead of refilling her ammo, she decides instead to grab a bucket from the water and raise it up. The ginger starts running for her life, and the blonde chases her in circles around the small roof, sloshing water everywhere until there’s barely any left, the former glancing behind every few seconds and throwing her head back laughing.
The train jerks awake then rattles along, and Tzuyu’s head turns slowly to keep the two in sight as their figures travel through each window, at last disappearing once Tzuyu’s car takes the bend.
Too bad indeed.
---
Midterms went well. Tzuyu’s confident she got near perfect scores on most of her exams--she did study her butt off for them. So on her call home she giddily relates the news to her mother, who praises her but she says to save it for when she actually gets the grades back. There’s always the possibility she didn’t do well, but the marks on her paper say otherwise, and Tzuyu can’t help but feel proud. She’s settling into life in Seoul, talking more with her classmates (apparently they were a bit intimidated to speak to her, why she doesn’t know, just noted in her diary), and under Jeongyeon’s occasional guidance she’s even getting better at cooking. Tzuyu feels like she deserves some kind of reward, something to commemorate her little success, and it’s on the train ride home that she’s hit with the perfect idea.
---
Tzuyu steps out of the salon, hair freshly washed, blow-dried, and most importantly, dyed. She’d decided to go with light brown with highlights, because deep down she’d always wanted to try a different color but never quite found the courage. It’s not a huge change, but she feels a little lighter somehow.
---
Bye X Train!!!
We’ll miss you!! TT
Dubu + Chaeng <3
It’s so sudden, is Tzuyu’s first thought. Numbness, is her first emotion, but then it turns into a tight grip inside her chest as she closes her eyes. Averting her gaze won’t make the message spray painted on the wall disappear, but Tzuyu doesn’t have anything else she wants to look at anyways.
---
One of the girls is sitting with her back stick straight and the other is slouched lazily in her seat.
But that’s beside the point. It’s not their posture that catches Tzuyu’s attention. It’s their hair color.
Gradient purple and platinum blonde.
Tzuyu hasn’t been paying all that much attention to life lately, it’s been more of going through the motions and she spends more time studying than ever (don’t worry she’s properly retaining the info) but other than that she’s been distracted. Until she sees the obnoxiously bright hair. It sparks a strange hope.
She catches them just after class ends, before they up and leave so it’s a bit hasty (and also because Tzuyu is nervous as heck and had been working up the courage to say anything all class.)
“Umm by chance, did either of you used to live by the X train?”
They exchange glances and the blonde one replies. Her hair is short now, cut in a bob. “Yeah, we did.”
“Are you…‘Dubu’ and ‘Chaeng’?” Tzuyu feels awkward pronouncing it, her Korean is still slow and deliberate, though mostly because she’s sure it’s their nicknames and she’s not sure if she’s allowed to call them that. She doesn’t know their real names, it’ll have to do.
The purple-haired one gasps suddenly, dramatically, almost startling Tzuyu, “Did you see our message?!”
She’s grin—smirking and Tzuyu can’t help but nod, which only makes the grin grow wider.
Tzuyu learns, that Chaeyoung’s the platinum blonde one, used to be ginger, and Dahyun now has long gradient purple hair. Tzuyu honestly fears for their scalps and still reminds them to take care of their hair follicles even years into their friendship, but they never really listen. (Tzuyu ends up growing her black hair out over time, because having two-thirds of their group be crackheads is good enough of a ratio, Tzuyu believes.)
The three of them end up having relatively the same classes for the rest of the semester, at least one of them accompanies Tzuyu in each of hers. If it’s not Dahyun making her laugh, then it’s Chaeyoung showing her some puppy videos she saved the night before just to show Tzuyu. Everyday she smiles more than she used to, and she’s not alone anymore – that makes her smile the most.
Eventually they all move into a bigger apartment together in a more convenient part of Seoul, half due to convenience and cost, and the other half due to Jeongyeon finding a girlfriend with big kind eyes and a warm smile who Tzuyu immediately takes a liking to, and even more so after she’s convinced Jeongyeon to quit smoking.
(“I’ve quit!” Jeongyeon exclaims proudly, then adds when Tzuyu sends her a skeptical glare, one hand ready to flip the omelet. “At least until 420.”)
Things seem to be serious between them, and eventually Jihyo asks if she can move in with Tzuyu’s permission of course (she asked Tzuyu even before asking Jeongyeon). The apartment can hold all of them, but Tzuyu doesn’t want to intrude and it’s an opportunity. By the end of the month she decides to move out and where would Tzuyu go if not with Dubu and Chaeng?
She has to help Dahyun and Chaeyoung move all their ‘decorations’ up to the roof because they belong there more than anywhere else. Tzuyu does make them throw away some of the more dilapidated junk, but leaves the teapot—it’s grown on her.
---
It took her three days to notice the bizarre setup on the roof, two weeks to finally find who’s behind it all, and only an hour after meeting to realize that their personalities are just as weird—if not more—than their hair colors. It’s bizarre. They’re crazy. Eccentric.
Tzuyu loves it. She loves them.