Chapter Text
"Hey. Hey, I’m sorry to ask, but do you have a pen?”
Tzuyu leaned over the seat, carefully whispering to avoid being caught by the professor, hoping the woman next to her would respond. With a quick glance, the other woman turned, eyebrow quirked as she fished into her purse for a writing utensil, handing it back to Tzuyu with a quizzical look.
First contact.
Two weeks later, in the middle of an exam, Tzuyu found herself scratching at her scalp with the same pen handed back to her, grunting and groaning with each question as she flipped through the pages. For an hour long class, the test felt like an eternity and she watched as the woman in front of her breezed through the booklet, her scantron in hand as she tucked away her things and quietly headed to the front of the classroom, handing in her test to the professor with a calm hand. Biting her lip, Tzuyu took a peek around to her peers, students watching with quiet envy that someone finished before them, finished quickly at all, when the test material was so difficult. Waiting a few minutes, Tzuyu sat and let other students turn in their exams, disgruntled and tired, before calmly collecting her own things and walking out, her test in the hand of the teacher who smirked as she walked away. She hoped no one saw, but knew better than to think she would ever be caught.
------
"I'm sorely disappointed in the scores of last week's exam," the professor began, his head shaking with his jowls as he passed back the tests, front pages down. "There's only one person who seemed to pay any attention to the source material and seemed to pay any mind to the footnotes, and they're the one who wrecked the curve, because other wise, all of you guys failed." He passed the test back to the woman in front of Tzuyu, score up, and she watched as the woman quickly stuffed the exam into her backpack, a bright red blush spreading across her neck and the back of her ears. Cute.
"I will be providing a make-up exam soon, in place of this grade, and I highly suggest you study." He smiled at the woman in front of her, and then winked at Tzuyu who made a quick note to email him later for his flagrant misunderstanding of their relationship. A few students sniffled and as class was dismissed, Tzuyu waited until every student left, glaring at the professor before finding her way out into the sunlight.
Soon.
-----
It took exactly eight class days -the equivalent of 24 hours- and six cups of iced coffee before Tzuyu managed to ask the woman in front of her to get lunch. She had noticed the buzz around her classmate, noticed the silence right before people began to talk politics, noticed the way her cheeks paled whenever the subject of a possible recession came up, noticed how much quieter she became whenever too many eyes wandered her way. She was quick to blush and quick to deflect.
It was time to pounce.
When the professor dismissed the class, Tzuyu packed her bag away quickly, watching for the other woman to leave. She wanted to casually bump into her, not startle her, and it took a bit of finesse to make it look unscripted. A spilled cup of coffee would be realistic, but cliché and a waste of money, so she decided to go the alternative route, leaving her backpack unzipped enough so that it would jostle about and open as she ran past her. She glanced at her watch, looked at the last few students leaving, and took her moment to briskly walk out, keeping her routine by shouting a pleasant “Bye” towards the professor. She had established a routine and was trained to keep it. Running out of the classroom and down the building’s stairs, she huffed her way towards the older woman, her bag bumping right into her shoulder.
“Oh my god!” She felt the books shuffle around, the first one –a thick compendium for her literature class- stumbled out, falling before the woman she was chasing. A second book fell, then her notebook, pens –borrowed from the woman- and her water bottle. With a short stop, she swung around, extra supplies falling from her opened backpack, scattering in a weirdly perfect circle. Her target stopped, tucking her phone in her pocket, hands immediately reaching out to help Tzuyu pick up her things.
“Dude, are you good?” She pouted, concerned, and Tzuyu gave her an awkward smile. “I’m good. Are you good? Nothing hit you, did it?"
“No, I’m good.” She handed Tzuyu her textbooks, laughing as she grabbed the pens from the ground. “Hey, I’ve been looking for these! Are you stealing my pens?” She was teasing. Tzuyu shrugged, giving a light chuckle, “I guess it was a good way to start up a conversation. You wouldn’t peg me for a pen thief. I’m Tzuyu, by the way, thanks for helping, I guess I just got a little caught up and didn’t zip up my bag all the way.” She scooped up the rest of her supplies from the floor around her, sticking out her hand to greet her. The other woman lit up, her tired eyes bright for a moment, “I’m Yoo Jeongyeon. Pleasure.” Jeongyeon took Tzuyu’s hand, shaking it with a coy grin, holding her borrowed pens in her empty hand.
“Yoo? That name sounds familiar.” Tzuyu held onto Jeongyeon’s hand for just a second too long, holding it just a little too tightly, staring at the woman who averted her gaze. For a beat, she held on, releasing with a contented sigh, feigning confusion. “I guess ‘cause it sounds so much like something else. I must have just misheard.” Leaning her head down as she slipped on the straps to her backpack, she observed Jeongyeon’s face, the quiet sadness etched into her eyebrows as she looked down at the sidewalk, the downcast eyes that carried exhaustion in their color. They stood for a moment, cloaked in uncomfortable, unfamiliar quiet, before Jeongyeon nodded, headed on her way to her next class.
“Hey,” Tzuyu stopped her, grabbing her hand as she began to walk away, “As a thank you for putting up with me in class, how about I buy you lunch? We could talk about the next paper, maybe give each other tips? I could be your beta.” Tzuyu waited a beat, letting the joke register to the woman, who snorted.
“You don’t seem like the type to write fan fiction.” Jeongyeon still looked down, but Tzuyu had gotten her to smile, which was enough. “You don’t know me well at all, Yoo,” she said with a laugh.
“Fair. Yeah, sure, lunch sounds good. Thanks.” Slowly, Jeongyeon brought her head up, her eyes now red and her cheeks flushed. “I’d like that a lot, actually. It’s been kind of a day. Well, week.” The younger woman nodded empathetically, wrapping her arms around the older woman’s shoulders.
“Well, lunch can’t fix a week, but it can at least fix right now. Let’s get something in you, okay, Yoo Jeongyeon?”
-----
She doesn’t know if it’s the food or the possibility of a friend, but Jeongyeon slowly warmed up to the conversation, tucked away in a small booth of a restaurant. The seats were comfortable, the lights were low, the mood was casual, and Tzuyu, in her height and strong poker face, was soft, understanding, seemingly unknowing.
“Seriously, you don’t know anything about anime? That seems too farfetched.” Jeongyeon laughed and took a sip from her drink, snorting as Tzuyu made an attempt to explain her anime-less life.
“Seriously. I wasn’t really into it growing up, and I didn’t really get it. Like, they have big eyes and cute outfits, what’s the point?”
“Oh, man, if my friend Dahyun could hear you right now, she’d have a fit.” Jeongyeon twirled her drink with the straw, laughing down into her cup. “She’s super into magical girl stuff and her girlfriend is obsessed with Sailor Moon, so every year we have a marathon at her house and make mixed drinks inspired by the sailor scouts. It’s a whole ordeal.” She paused and smiled sadly. “Well, we had a marathon every year. I haven’t been able to go the past couple of years.”
Tzuyu took that thread and followed it up with a very gentle and noninvasive, “Why? Did something happen?”
Jeongyeon stopped, taking a moment to look Tzuyu over with a newly skeptical eye. “Are you sure you don’t recognize my name?”
Tzuyu shook her head, her palms a little slick. “No, I’m from Taiwan. Are you like, famous, or something? Am I supposed to know your name?” She playfully gasped and recoiled from Jeongyeon, who laughed. “Are you some kind of idol? Oh my god, am I eating lunch with an idol?”
“Shhhh, stop, omg, no. I’m not an idol!” Jeongyeon slapped gently at the younger woman and looked around nervously. “I guess I just have a pretty well-known last name, you know? I’ve got some sort of note-worthy family members. It’s a whole thing. I try not to focus on it much.” She took a sip of her drink, and Tzuyu observed how Jeongyeon’s hands shook just slightly as she wrapped her fingers tighter around her glass, and she refused to meet Tzuyu’s eyes as the conversation turned to family. Tzuyu smiled inwardly, her mental calculations running quickly as she tried to keep from cracking.
“Hey.” The older woman broke the silence after a moment, folding her hands in front of her. Her tone turned serious and she waited a moment before speaking again. Tzuyu waited a beat before mirroring her. “Yes?”
“Are you really from Taiwan?”
“You made it sound so serious, I thought you were going to ask me some, like, life or death question. Yeah, I really am, why would I lie about where I’m from?”
Jeongyeon shrugged, her body still tense. “Why did you decide to talk to me? You’ve seen how the other people in class act around me. Didn’t that make you suspicious?”
“I honestly hadn't noticed." Tzuyu sipped casually from her glass, eyeing Jeongyeon. "Are you sure you’re not an idol?” Tzuyu smirked and raised an eyebrow, but the older woman kept a stone face.
“You really don’t know who I am?”
“Why? Should I?” There it was again, that answer. Tzuyu kept repeating it, a safety net to guide Jeongyeon into divulging more information.
Jeongyeon scrutinized her with a wary eye, searching every bit of Tzuyu’s face for a possible crack, a break in her story, but Tzuyu spent her adult life studying how to remain calm under pressure, how to stay calm when faced with clear mistrust. She waited a beat before taking a sip of her drink again, eyes never leaving Jeongyeon’s gaze.
“I guess not. I’m just...I don’t know, thanks for bringing me out today. I’ll pay you back.”
“No need, it’s my treat. You seemed so upset today, it’s the least I can do.” With a small smile, Tzuyu placed a comforting hand on Jeongyeon’s, squeezing in solidarity. “If you want, we can make this lunch a weekly thing. It’s been nice getting to know you. And since I still haven’t found my footing in Korea, it would be a huge help to get someone who knows more about the city and the country in general to sort of...show me the ropes?”
Jeongyeon found the place where their hands met, a grin reaching up to her eyes. “I can do that.”
-----
Reporting back to her commanding officer on a full stomach was a difficult ask, but Tzuyu knew better than to take even so much as a break. Throwing up after a workout was an achievement. Her body was exhausted, sweaty, and her eyes were tired, but when the big boss calls you, she knew she had to respond. She felt every muscle throb as she made her way to the ice bath in the locker room, her clothes dropping from her body as she stripped to her underwear and slowly climbed into the giant metal tub. With a sigh, Tzuyu lowered herself on to the shifting frozen surface, gritting her teeth as she leaned her head back.
“Have you made any progress on your slow burn?” Tzuyu peeked through one eye as a tiny body climbed into the tub alongside her, crunching down on the ice with her slowly sinking frame. Chaeyoung hissed, the cold sending pinpricks up her arms, and she exhaled for a solid minute as she adjusted herself to the temperature. Naturally, the two shifted and limbs tangled limbs as the water soothed their angry muscles. For a moment, there was silence, and then Chaeyoung nudged the other woman with her elbow. “Ow! DUDE. What!"
“As I said, have you made any progress on your slow burn?”
“You cannot keep calling my mission ‘Operation Slow Burn.’ It sounds ridiculous.” Tzuyu threw her arms around the lip of the basin, the metal chilling her skin even more.
“That’s what it is though. It took you almost a month to work up to a question. It took you two months to even have a conversation. And god, it took almost the whole semester for you to take her to lunch. LUNCH.” Chaeyoung settled into the crook of Tzuyu’s arm, shaking at the touch of exposed air. “So, Operation Slow Burn.”
“I can’t stand you.” Tzuyu splashed the freezing water on her friend, positioning herself away from the older woman who stuck out her tounge and splashed back. “Yet you’re in a tub with me. Pick a stance, Chou.”
“Fuck you.” Tzuyu rolled her eyes and Chaeyoung grinned. “Gladly.”
Tzuyu splashed her with ice, earning a squeal from her friend before quickly scrambling out of the metal tub, hurrying out of the locker room with a towel wrapped around her body to block her from splashback. Chaeyoung was right, it had been a long time coming, but now that things had started, she was prepared for them to continue.
That's what she had trained for, after all.