Work Text:
Park Jihyo's Bakery was an honest, extremely dignified job. Also sometimes terribly boring. To be honest, that's why Jeongyeon liked it.
Her parents had raised her right. She was never late, she always kept tabs on the costumers and she cleaned after her shift was over -- she was a hard worker, and the owner, Jihyo (who was around her age, but her mother was currently ill with a nasty sickness that had almost claimed her life once or twice, so she was filling in as manager while trying to manage college and a whole other more) was never afraid of reminding her of that.
And the customers liked her. There was Chaeyoung, who was currently applying for a degree in Liberal Arts and her best friend Dahyun who was always doing questionable things, and they both always bought croissants (Dahyun would tease Chaeyoung about this American girl who loved them and that's why they ate them so much nowadays, and she was almost always silenced with a smack across the head), and Nayeon, who was an aspiring fashion designer who spent her days coming over to buy expensive pastries that Jeongyeon was pretty sure she didn't even like; there was also a cute young Japanese couple, Sana and Momo, who lived to tease each other and only bought things that would make anyone else's teeth hurt. Her clients were like a routine to her (the thing she missed out on with online Law School), with a small business in a little town on the outskirts of Seol.
All except for one.
It started on a February morning.
Jeongyeon was usually the one who opened the bakery -- she didn't like to wake up at five AM, but she appreciated the extra pay and it made her feel a little more useful -- and that day had not been an exception. Spring's sun shone on the goods she had placed on the glass counter, and she retired to the kitchen to start cleaning up when the door's bell rang, signifying someone had come in. Jeongyeon frowned. She didn't have much to offer the client until the bakers arrived, just yesterday's leftovers.
"Hi!" she called from the kitchen. "I'll be right there!"
She got no response. She figured it might be one of her older clients, the ones who never talked much. That was perfectly fine; she was just used to chatterbox housewives and friendly husbands coming home from work. She quickly put the broom away and walked back to the counter, not looking up as she wiped the dirt off her hands on her apron.
"What can I do for you?" She asked, and then she looked up and locked eyes with a girl. Well, the most beautiful girl she had ever seen, who was staring at her with big brown eyes that made her look like an animal in a cage. Jeongyeon's breath hitched, suddenly feeling her cheeks grow intensely red.
The girl stared. Jeongyeon stared back, unsure of what to say.
Then she put a loaf of bread in the counter.
"Bread," she said simply. Jeongyeon blinked. Yes, that was, in fact, bread. Then the girl reached inside her jacket's pocket and pulled out some money, which promptly brought Jeongyeon back to the real world.
"It'll be 2500,00₩. Is that all?" she asked, putting the money in the register. But when she looked up, the girl was already gone out the door. Huh.
Then Jihyo came in, thanked her for opening and her day went back to normal. Except for the fact that during her entire shift her mind kept drifting off to that encounter. She had never seen that girl before, which was weird, because as stated previously, the city of Dubeon was way more like the little town of Dubeon, Seol. As in, we have one cinema little town; as in, the cinema only plays three movies and they are all from last year kind of little town. So yes, it was weird. Still, she reminded herself to just focus on her work and continued like everything was fine, and then stopped thinking about it.
But two days later it happened again.
She was opening the store, cleaning the kitchen when she heard the bell attached over the door ring again. She suppressed the groan that threatened to leave her lips. It was still way too early to properly function, but she forced herself to step into the counter anyway.
"Hello," she said as she entered, and then almost froze when she recognized the girl from the other day. "Oh. Hi."
The girl looked equally as trapped and anxious as the other day, big brown eyes a little widened, and she was clutching... a loaf of bread. The sight almost made her snort, but she bit it back. She was a bit weird, but she didn't want her to think Jeongyeon was making fun of her.
"Bread," The girl said.
"Bread indeed," Jeongyeon mirrored, feeling the room grow incredibly awkward. Even though she found the situation funny, she still hated how uncomfortable their interactions were.
The girl shifted her weight onto her other leg and didn't respond. Instead, a beat passed where she just looked around for a second, and then she shook her head, but Jeongyeon didn't think it was in response to her comment. Maybe just in general.
"Are you from this town --?" She started, but the girl interrupted her by placing the money in the counter and walking away, leaving in the middle of the conversation. Okay, well, that was just plain rude.
This continued for another two weeks before Jeongyeon decided to actually do something. Every two days the girl would come in, be gorgeous, buy bread and then run away before Jeongyeon could ask her any more questions. By that point, her curiosity was eating her alive, and she needed to know what was even going on. And how uncomfortable each meeting became was getting tiring too -- it was like making a wall pay for bread (And that was not an insult to her height! She was like, half an inch taller, so honestly, they could bond about being tall women too!).
But also she understood it was, quite literally, none of her fucking business. But also, she was nosy. So the loudest part of her won.
That time, Jeongyeon waited inside the kitchen for her to come in, peeking through the door until she saw her silhouette through the glass. Before she had even opened the door, Jeongyeon was already out and gifting her the friendliest smile she could pull. You will give me your name and we'll become friends, it read. This will stop being awkward because I'll lose my mind if I have to stare at you while you buy another fucking loaf.
"Hello," she greeted. "You are becoming a regular."
The other girl nodded, picked a loaf of bread (shocker, did not see that coming) and placed it on the counter, already reaching for her pocket.
"I should know your name," she implied, leaning over the counter a bit to seem more approachable. Maybe she felt intimidated (who wouldn't be of a cashier at a local bakery who wore her socks over her jeans sometimes?). "We know all of the locals here."
The other girl blinked. "Bread."
Jeongyeon sighed. She wasn't getting through her today.
"I think you have an addiction problem," she said, already reaching out her hand to grab the money and five loaves of bread away from tearing her hair out. "It is not possibly healthy for a single person to consume this much bread. Have you considered going to a Doctor? I swear they could make a documentary about you." It's the most she'd ever said to her, but honestly, what the hell. Who even ate this much bread?
The girl shook her head, "No. Not Korean."
Oh. OH!
"Oooooooh." Of fucking course, you dumbass, she cursed herself and bit the inside of her cheek to keep herself from cackling with laughter. God, she was so stupid sometimes. "Where are you from?" And then she thought, she can't understand you, idiot. But the girl shook her head again.
"Chinese," she said, then asked a question in another language that she could almost easily identify.
"I took Chinese in High School, but I suck," she shook her head, and when disappointed flashed across the other girl's face she felt her heart tug at the sight. Damn past-Jeongyeon for being too busy crushing on her cool ass Chinese teacher to actually pay attention in class. She did remember one thing, though. She puffed out her chest slightly, knowing her pronunciation wasn't the best. "What is your name?"
The girl's face lit up instantly, and Jeongyeon's lips curled at the sight. "Tzuyu," she nodded, then continued to speak Chinese. "What's yours?"
"Jeongyeon," she responded, nodding, then grimacing when she had to switch back to Korean. "That is pretty much all I know."
Tzuyu's face looked disappointed again, but a little less than before, and Jeongyeon was glad for it. She placed the money on the counter, this time smiling -- the first time she had ever seen her do so. It was tentative, shy, and she stared at the floor the entire time. Jeongyeon felt something inside her flip at the sight.
"Thank you," Tzuyu said as she walked away, still smiling.
Logically, when Jeongyeon got home after her shift, she flipped her apartment upside down trying to find her old school Chinese Textbook (her mom insisted she took her school stuff with her when she moved out, just in case and because she didn't want to throw away old books that had cost her money). She found it under her bed, stacked with her other old school books, and stared at it hard, remembering the long nights of study those stupid Chinese classes had cost her. Why was she doing this again?
Then she remembered how happy that girl looked when she had just said hi and asked for her name.
Oh, that's why. She opened the book.
"Hello!" she called a day later, in the best Chinese she could muster when Tzuyu came through the door. Her usually nervous expression immediately softened, her brown eyes filling with something close to appreciation.
"Hello," she greets, bowing a little -- softly, almost inaudible, actually.
"I study," she said, because she hadn't actually gotten to the past tense part of the book and it was the best she could say at the moment, but hopefully Tzuyu could understand what she meant anyway. "Not very... eh, good."
"It's better than my Korean," the other girl giggled slightly. She made sure to not speak too fast, and Jeongyeon felt very grateful for that.
Jeongyeon smiled at the joke, feeling proud of understanding at least 95% of that. "I used to study in school when I was young."
"Your pronunciation is good," she nodded, almost in approval. Her voice was still very soft, but Jeongyeon noticed how much more relaxed her shoulders were.
"Thank you," she blushed a bit at the compliment, her gaze dropping to the floor quickly. It's not every day that the prettiest girl in the world compliments your Chinese. "I try to get better but it is hard."
Tzuyu seemed a bit lost in her thoughts after that, so much that she spent a few seconds just standing there, her mind drifting away; completely forgetting that she hadn't bought anything yet. Jeongyeon swallowed, staring at the other girl's face -- she was breathtakingly beautiful, with big coffee-colored eyes. She had long black hair, different from her own short one, and it looked silky and shiny like she took care of it. Oh my God. You're thinking about her hair. Weirdo.
"Why are you in Korea?" She asked aloud, just to stop her own train of thought.
"Oh, work," she nodded, snapping back to attention.
"In Dubeon?" she frowned a little in confusion. "We are in the middle of nowhere."
"Well, it's not exactly work..." she trailed off, and then she seemed to notice she hadn't done what she came here to do, and reached her (long, slender) arm to grab a loaf of bread, and Jeongyeon snorted at the familiarity of the action.
"Bread?" she said, in Korean, and Tzuyu nodded, smiling.
"Bread."
So apparently now her brain decided she was going to spend her weekends locked inside her apartment, studying Chinese on top of her other Law School coursework, because of what? Her good samaritan tendencies? This was ridiculous. She had once offered to take care of her neighbor's snake during the holidays despite being terrified of it and spent an entire week locked inside a closet and crying as she heated up dead mice in a microwave, but this was just overly stupid. Okay, maybe not as stupid as that, but you know. It was still stupid.
She had to worry about her job, her degree, her dog, her cat (who was a little shit who needed a lot of attention! So he practically counted as a child) and now learning Chinese.
And she still didn't have any idea why Tzuyu was even in Korea in the first place even if she didn't speak a word (not that it was any of her business, obviously, but she was still nosy as hell, so she couldn't really help herself), like who did she speak to? How did she spend her days? She just walked around... not understanding a word? Alone?
The thought of Tzuyu spending her days alone made her feel a pang of pain on her chest. She decided to ask the other costumers if they had ever seen her around then, and the first one she saw after the weekend was Nayeon, who walked in like she wanted to be anywhere else. Like she usually did.
"Jeongyeon," she nodded, courtly. "I want a baguette."
"Bread," she responded. "Just call it bread."
"Yes, baguette, that's exactly what I said."
Jeongyeon pursed her lips in annoyance. "What's it with you being especially snobbish today?"
"I'm gonna pay you, aren't I? Behave," Nayeon bickered back; but then she sighed as she laid her head on the counter in frustration. "The collection is killing me. I gotta have it ready before I leave for Gagnam fashion week and I was supposed to get this incredibly famous model to walk it but she decided to resign before I even got to meet her! I'm convinced she saw a picture of me and realized I could be a better model and she gave up."
Jeongyeon rolled her eyes. "It'll be 2500,00₩."
"That's it?" Nayeon huffed. "No comforting words? No 'Nayeon Unnie, fighting'?"
Jeongyeon blinked.
"No."
She pouted. "I'll report you to Jihyo."
"Okay," she nodded.
"JIHYO!"
Jihyo's little head poked through the kitchen door. "WHAT!"
"JEONGYEON WAS MEAN TO ME!"
"GOOD!"
"FUCK YOU AND -- Fuck, Jeongyeon, stop laughing!"
"I'm sorry!" she said in between giggles.
"Yeah, yeah, whatever." Nayeon rolled her eyes, "You'll both regret it when I'm the next Ralph Lauren!" She reached for her pocket and pulled out the money, mumbling about how she was never coming back. She put it in the counter and turned around.
"Wait," Jeongyeon stopped her before she could leave. "Have you seen a really tall girl around? Like, taller than me. She has black hair and she doesn't speak Korean."
Nayeon frowned at her in confusion. "What are you talking about?"
"There's a girl who comes here like four times a week, she's really tall, has black hair, can't speak a word of Korean except for the word bread."
"Oh my God," she squealed, jumping a little in excitement. "Do you have a crush?!"
Jeongyeon rolled her eyes. Of course she'd think that. "Have you seen her or not?"
"No," she shook her head. "But I can't believe you have a crush! Jeongyeon! What is she like?!"
"She's really tall, has black hair, can't speak a word of Korean like I told you three seconds ago. Also, I don't have a crush on her," But she knew Nayeon was never ever in her life going to let her live this down.
"Sure, sure you don't!"
The next people to walk through the door then were Dahyun and Chaeyoung, who were both bickering about a video game that Chaeyoung wanted to buy to impress the American girl they always talked about.
"Mina says it's good," she shrugs.
Dahyun huffed. "Good and expensive."
"Hey guys," Jeongyeon greeted them. "What can I do for you?"
"You can settle this debate for us," Dahyun nodded at her. "Should we but the Sims 4 (like Chaeyoung promised we would) or Dark Souls II for her girlfriend?"
"Are those movies?"
Chaeyoung groaned. "You're being impossible, Dahyun."
"I just want you to admit you have a crush on her," she shook her head. "I don't care about the stupid game, just ask her out before I lose my mind."
"... So those are not movies."
"We'll take a strawberry pie," Dahyun changed the subject, still annoyed. She took out her wallet and paid up, while Chaeyoung still looked a little bit conflicted.
"Hey guys, I gotta ask you something," Jeongyeon announced, while she gave Dahyun her change. "Have you seen a really tall Taiwanese girl around? She has black hair."
"Uh," Chaeng frowned, thinking, but then shook her head. "No idea."
Dahyun nodded. "Me neither."
"It was worth a shot, thanks anyway," she shrugged.
"Wait, is she your girlfriend?" Dahyun pried, leaning over the counter as she asked. Chaeng's eyes widen in the back, but she soon broke into a grin.
"Did you finally get a girlfriend, Jeongyeon?!"
"Oh my God," she rolled her eyes in frustration. If Nayeon was nosy, then these two were like Paparazzi. "She's not. I'm just asking 'cause she's new around here."
Chaeyoung squealed. "Jeongyeon Unnie has a girlfriend!"
"And she got one before you!"
Chaeyoung's smile dropped. "Why do you have to ruin everything?"
"I don't have a girlfriend!"
Dahyun rolled her eyes at her best friend, ignoring Jeongyeon's protests as they walked away, excitement gone from her face, now replaced by annoyance. "Just ask Mina out, dingus."
Before Jeongyeon's shift had finally ended, it was Sana and Momo's turn to walk in. They were holding hands, being all over each other like they always were, smiling and giggling to themselves in Japanese and flaunting their Just Married rings. They were both around Jeongyeon's age, but they seemed to have their entire life figured out; just extremely happy to be around each other.
"Hello," Jeongyeon greeted.
Sana smiled at her, "Hi!"
"How's your day been, Jeong?" Momo asked her, leaning over the counter, Sana glued to her like another limb.
"Chaotic as usual," she nodded. "It's always nice to see you guys. What about you?"
"Sana dropped a pot on someone's head, so normal."
Sana pouted at her wife. "It was a plastic one, so it didn't hurt that much according to the poor guy."
"Third one this week," Momo nodded. "This has to be a world record."
Sana hit her across the shoulder, making everyone giggle. "You're so mean! Not like you're perfect anyway. She farts a lot."
"Oh my God."
"Are you three? Look at you going around telling everyone my private bowel movements," Momo pursed her lips at her wife in annoyance, but soon broke into a smile. "You're so stupid."
Jeongyeon felt like she was watching a private moment, and she almost wanted to look away -- with Momo and Sana, every moment was private honestly, they only had eyes for each other even in a room full of people.
"I'm craving cheesecake," Sana said all of a sudden, and soon enough they were paying up and taking their cheesecake with them.
"I've been meaning to ask," Jeongyeon interrupted them before they could say their goodbyes. "Do you guys happen to know a Taiwanese girl that lives around here? She's new, I think, and she's --"
"Really tall?"
"Yeah, actually," she frowned. "Do you know her?"
"Yes, that's Tzuyu," Momo nodded. "She just moved to the apartment above ours."
"Yes, she's very sweet," Sana confirmed. "I'm giving her Korean lessons. She's so pretty and polite, can't speak a word yet though."
"Oh, she's taking Korean classes?" Jeongyeon asked, a little surprised. "I'm taking Chinese."
"Oh," Sana said, and a glint of something flashes across her eyes. "I think she said something about you."
"Oh."
"Yeah, actually," Momo affirmed. "She said something about a nice baker. So it's you. I thought it might have been."
For some reason, Jeongyeon couldn't stop her cheeks from turning bright red, so she just cleared her throat to calm her rapidly beating heart as Momo and Sana both shared a knowing look.
"That's -- that's great," she said, coughing a little as she choked on literal air, feeling completely thrown off balance. "Great. She's nice, eh, too."
Sana hummed, breaking into a grin. "Sure she is."
The next time she saw Tzuyu, she looked happy and rested, and even a little bit confident. Before Jeongyeon even had the time to say hi, Tzuyu was smiling sweetly at her.
"Hi," she greeted, in Korean.
"You're talking Korean!" Not like she didn't know before that she had been taking classes. But Tzuyu looked so happy trying to surprise her that she bit her tongue and didn't say anything.
"I am learning, yes," she nodded, content. "My neighbor is teaching me."
"Sana, right?"
"Yes, Sana, Japanese," Tzuyu responded, frowning slightly in confusion. "You know her...?"
"Yes," she replied. "She's a customer."
Then Tzuyu blushed, her eyes widening a little. Jeongyeon thought back to her conversation with Momo and Sana, and remembered what Sana had admitted -- that Tzuyu had talked about her. It brought her a little comfort, to know that she wasn't the only one that had been thinking a little too much about their encounters. Still, as endearing as it was to see Tzuyu get flustered because of her, she didn't want to mortify her, so she pretended that nothing had gone down.
"She and her wife come here all the time," she continued. "They buy more than just bread, unlike you."
Tzuyu grins. "Bread."
"Your Korean is better than my Chinese now," Jeongyeon joked, switching languages.
"Ah, that's not true at all," Tzuyu shook her head, endeared at the compliment. "My Korean is poor still. But I plan on being better than you."
Jeongyeon raised an eyebrow at her, a little stunned at the competitive twist. "I didn't know this was a competition."
"Yes, it is," Tzuyu nodded, amused. "And I'll win."
"Oh, let's see about that."
So yes, Jeongyeon spent the next half of her month perfecting her Chinese. She passed her exams with flying colors too. Talk about multi-tasking, huh.
"I think you eat too much bread," she told her one morning. "I don't think it's healthy."
"Are you a doctor?" Tzuyu pursed her lips, teasing her back. It became a thing -- Jeongyeon talked in Chinese to Tzuyu, she replied back in Korean. It was terribly unnecessary, and a pain in the ass, but they did it anyways just to spite the other.
"How does that much bread fit into your body?!" she asked, baffled. "I don't understand."
"I give it to ducks," she shrugged. "They love me in the pond."
Jeongyeon bit her lip, shaking her head, "You're so weird. You could just give them old bread instead of spending so much buying more every day."
"When I was young," Tzuyu said, growing a bit more serious. "My grandparents lived near a River. They had ducks there. It reminds me of Taiwan, a little bit."
"Why did you leave?" She asked. Finally, the dreaded question. It'd been at least three months since she'd first met Tzuyu, and she still didn't know. She didn't want to intrude either, but she wanted to know -- not so much for herself, but because she wanted to understand her a bit more. "You don't have to answer --"
"I said work, that one time, remember?" Jeongyeon nodded. Tzuyu continued. "I lied. I was supposed to meet someone here for work, but then I got here and I just... stayed. I couldn't go back to where I was. I wasn't happy then."
"What did you do?"
Tzuyu made a face. "Modeling."
"Ah, of course," she nodded, "you're beautiful, I should've known."
Then Jeongyeon realized what she actually said, and turned bright red at the same time Tzuyu did. Why did she have to be so forward all the time? She really needed to start thinking before she spoke.
"I didn't like it," she shook her head, blush still evident on her cheeks. "I didn't feel like a person. It felt like everyone was just... looking at the outside, that no one cared what I had to say."
Jeongyeon reached across the counter to touch her hand, softly, to let her know she was there. "I do."
Tzuyu and her shared a look -- one that Jeongyeon couldn't quite classify, but her heart felt like it was jumping rope with how fast it beat every time Tzuyu even so much as glanced at her sometimes. It was addicting, that sensation. With Tzuyu, everything felt a hundred times better.
"Are you happy now?"
"Now I walk dogs," she giggled, still not pulling away. "Of course I'm happy."
"That's a very honorable job, yes, but not as much as working at a bakery."
When nine rolled around, Tzuyu bid her goodbye -- she usually came in at six, when Jeongyeon was opening, and then she stayed until nine when the other employees started rolling in. They would spend hours and hours talking, just spending time together as hours passed without a second to spare from either of them.
Tzuyu and Jeongyeon were hanging out, Tzuyu sitting in the counter as Jeongyeon brought the bakery to life, fixing up things and sweeping the floor. Then an idea came to her.
"Do you like chocolate?"
Tzuyu nodded, a bit confused. "Yes, who doesn't?"
Jeongyeon dropped her broom on the floor. "Do you want to steal a chocolate cake with me."
Tzuyu blinked.
"What?"
"There was a birthday like three days ago, but the guy never came to pick it up so now there's a giant chocolate cake on the fridge just waiting to be eaten. The poor thing."
"You're insane."
"C'mon!" Jeongyeon whined, walking up to Tzuyu and placing both hands between her legs -- not even noticing how the action looked (and not understanding why Tzuyu blushed all of a sudden), "help me commit a crime."
Tzuyu bit her lip. "What if you get fired?"
"Good riddance," she joked, but at Tzuyu's glare, she just rolled her eyes. "Jihyo won't fire me. I saw her do the same like three months ago. C'mon, let's go!"
"Ugh," she groaned. "Okay, but if we go to trial I will blame it all on you."
"I wouldn't expect you to do otherwise."
"Are there cameras?" She asked as soon as they step into the kitchen, and Jeongyeon burst into laughter, not being able to contain her amusement. She was so cute.
"Do you think this is The Louvre?" she chuckled. "We barely have a lock in the front door. C'mon, don't be a coward now."
Tzuyu just glared back at her. In fact, she glared at her until they were both staring at the enormous fucking cake Jihyo had made (seriously, how, it looked like something out of a horror movie and/or a dream, depending on who you were), mouths watering. Jeongyeon turned to grin mischievously at the girl next to her, and she smiled back in the exact same way. Tzuyu and Jeongyeon, partners in crime.
"Let's do this."
And then they spent the next hour or so sitting down at the bakery floor, stuffing their faces full of chocolate cake like little kids who find their birthday cake the day before the party and are too excited to wait to eat it. They ate until they are both whining about how much their stomachs ached, and then they were both laying on the floor, giggling like they were drunk.
"I wanted to be a veterinarian," Tzuyu said, too tired to speak in Korean. "But my mom said I had the looks for modeling, so she took me to every agency in Taiwan until they signed me into one."
"When I was younger I wanted to be a singer, then a princess, then a president," Jeongyeon nodded at her friend lying beside her. "Now I'm about to graduate Law School."
"A girl with dreams," Tzuyu mumbled. "Maybe I'll go to vet school."
"Maybe you should," Jeongyeon agreed, reaching over to put a strand of hair behind Tzuyu's ear, for no other reason than she wanted to. "You'd do well. You're very smart. And hard-working. I still can't believe you learned Korean in like a month."
Tzuyu turned to look at her then, and Jeongyeon realized they were so close their noses were almost touching. She was speechless for a couple of seconds, but then she broke into a soft smile. "I'm not that good."
"You're amazing," Jeongyeon muttered in Chinese.
Tzuyu pulled back immediately, her face contorting into offended. "Did you just call me a bitch in Chinese?"
Jeongyeon's eyes widened. "No, I --!" And then she noticed how Tzuyu was turning red from holding back her laughter. "You're joking."
Then she broke into giggles. "I'm joking."
Jeongyeon's soul slowly returned to her. "You're the worst, I hope you know."
"I'm sorry, Unnie," she apologized, as soon as her laughter (finally) died down. Her eyes were dancing with fondness, affection, amusement, and Jeongyeon felt like she was dreaming. Her smile was the best thing she'd ever seen. There was chocolate remains on the corner of her lips, and she didn't think twice before wetting her finger and reaching out to wipe it off. Except when she was done Tzuyu was looking at her in a way she just couldn't understand, they were so close she could practically kiss her --
And then Jihyo walked in and screamed bloody murder at her to clean up or she'll use her intestines to hang her alive and Tzuyu understandably left after that -- still, all she did as she cleaned and got lectured by Jihyo was think about Tzuyu.
Sana and Momo came in later that same day, as they usually did on Wednesdays, clinging to each other like they always did and giggling to themselves. They stopped once they noticed how lost in her own thoughts Jeongyeon was.
"Jeong," Momo frowned. "Earth to Jeong."
That brought her back. "Oh, hi! Sorry, I was just thinking."
"Is this about a certain Taiwanese girl?" Sana wiggled her eyebrows at her, making her blush. The memory of that same morning was still fresh inside her mind -- she couldn't scare it away no matter how hard she actually tried.
"Eh --" she didn't even have time to respond because Sana was already speaking.
"Because I think she can't stop thinking about you either."
"Huh?"
"Yes! Our Korean classes are always like, 'Jeongyeon Unnie this, Jeongyeon Unnie that'," she shook her head, a fond smile on her lips. "'Jeongyeon Unnie is so pretty, so cool.' She can't stop rambling about you."
Jeongyeon didn't know how to stop the way her heart couldn't stop beating like crazy at that. It was like her body responded before she could.
"When we had just met, I was the same with Momo," she continued. "I could only talk and think about the next time we could spend together."
"Yes, you've always been clingy," Momo teased, but she was blushing from head to toe. "We've always spent all of our time together anyway."
"The point is," Sana ignored her wife. Honestly, they had been married for a little over a year, yet they acted like an old married couple already. Maybe it was 'cause they knew each other better and more than anyone ever had. "I think you should go for it."
And Jeongyeon understood what she meany perfectly. She'd felt like this since she met her and she looked so out of place, eating bread almost every single day. It had always been there, it had just grown as their bond did, until it became this thing that was constantly sitting on Jeongyeon's chest, not letting her rest or breathe properly. (Maybe calling her feelings for Tzuyu suffocating wasn't the most romantic thing, but when she was with her she made her feel disarmed, raw; it was honest, and she didn't think there was a better way to describe her love for Tzuyu as anything other than honest).
"What if she doesn't --?"
Sana rolled her eyes. "Oh, get out of here, she's crazy about you!"
"But --"
Momo pursed her lips. "Are you kidding me? Do you seriously think she comes here to buy a loaf of bread every single day? She comes to see you, you dumbass."
"Exactly, so no buts!" Sana shook her head. "Go get her! Don't wait anymore. Go! I'll tell Jihyo you had an emergency, just go!"
Jeongyeon bit her lip. And then she ran away.
(And then she came back to ask Sana and Momo for directions because she didn't actually know where she lived).
When Tzuyu opened the door, Jeongyeon was panting for air, feeling like a fucking lunatic. She could see glimpses of dog toys, plants, a mess of things that screamed of Tzuyu inside of the apartment. She was wearing a short summer red dress, and she looked confused but not unhappy.
"Jeong?"
"Can I --" she started, then interrupted herself to catch her breath. God, she really needed to start going to the Gym, what the fuck. "Can I come in? I have, eh, something important to tell you."
Tzuyu moved aside so she could enter. She saw Tzuyu had framed dog pictures in her wall, not even one of her days as a model. She even.. she had one they took once at the bakery, a couple of weeks before. She had one with Sana and Momo. It made her feel giddy, her heart swelled.
"This house is so you," she giggled, and Tzuyu giggled back.
"The satanic shrine is in the bedroom," she joked, and Jeongyeon laughs. Maybe it wasn't that funny, but it was Tzuyu and she made it that funny.
"Jeong," she asked, serious. "Is everything okay?"
So Jeongyeon supposed it was time to spill her guts out.
"I have literally nothing planned. I don't know what's come over me," she started, "I just. I was a bit lonely before I met you, I think. I was really fucking lonely, actually. And then you came and you didn't even know Korean, and I stood up late for days to study Chinese just to talk to you. I don't even know where I'm going with this. I'm sorry there was a time in your life when you felt like no one saw you, I wish -- I wish I could've always been there to remind you how amazing you are."
"I'm sorry you were lonely too," Tzuyu reached out to her, took her hand. Made Jeongyeon feel like she wasn't alone.
"You changed my life, Tzu, that's what I'm trying to say," she continued. "When you entered through that damned bakery and said Bread like the linguistic genius you are, you changed my life. Also you're addicted to bread, seriously, you are," Tzuyu giggled at the comment, the sound sending a bolt of electricity through Jeongyeon's body, feeling braver as she reached to be closer to her. "I don't think I've ever met anyone quite like you. The point is that I just can't stop thinking about you."
"Jeongyeon..."
"Or the way your eyes shine, or how you look at me, or your dorky laugh, or your Yoda ears, or your Chinese, everything about you feels like it's engraved inside my head, like you're in everything I do," she admitted. Tzuyu looked down at the floor. "I think you're the most beautiful girl I've ever seen," she said, for the selfish reason that she just felt like it. "And the smartest. And most talented."
Tzuyu's cheeks turned red as the dress she was wearing. It was true, she was gorgeous, breathtakingly so, and she was intelligent, and capable, and resilient, and hard-working and incredible and kind and friendly and funny -- and she had made a home in her heart unannounced, claimed it as her own without a warning.
"You're also a little shit, but yeah," she filled in the silence, and she heard as Tzuyu threw her head back and laughed until she was laughing with her too.
"You're pretty too," she admitted. "And stupid."
"And you're stubborn," Jeongyeon fought back, with absolutely no bite or edge to it. Tzuyu grinned back at her, mischief in her eyes.
"And you're nosy," she stuck out her tongue.
"You're insufferable."
"You're braindead."
"You smell."
"Your breath stinks," she breathed. And then they both realized they had somehow inched closer in the middle of their mild bickering, and their faces were just millimeters away. "I can't stop thinking about you either, no matter how hard I try. I think about you every day, every minute, every second."
Jeongyeon felt her heart flip at that, Tzuyu could throw her off balance so fast. She couldn't stop herself from inching even closer, and Tzuyu smiled at that. "Really?"
Tzuyu nodded. "Sana taught me some Japanese."
Jeongyeon's stare dropped to Tzuyu's lips. "What did she teach you?"
"Daisuki," she said, like it was the only thing that made sense in the entire world.
"What the hell does that mean?"
"Learn Japanese and you'll know," Tzuyu grinned. "Now kiss me. Please."
Jeongyeon did as she was told. Tzuyu was still smiling as they kissed, her cherry lipstick staining Jeongyeon's own, and the thought drove her a little crazy. When they broke apart, they were both blushing like school girls and Jeongyeon was still seeing stars; and when Tzuyu looked at her, nothing but fondness in her eyes, she couldn't do anything but dive into another kiss that had them both gasping for air.
Learning Chinese was worth it -- asking Sana for some Japanese classes couldn't hurt anyway.