The next week is filled with practices and schedules for the both of them; Twice is still promoting, Seventeen has solo concerts fast approaching, and both groups will perform at the year-end concerts. Still, Tzuyu, Jun and Minghao manage to meet up for lunch once. They visit the auntie at the Chinese restaurant and she is as kind and attentive as ever. Tzuyu wouldn’t order dessert for herself, but the boys ask for extra—red bean ice cream, her favorite—and goad her into sharing it with them. The meeting is a welcome reprieve from all of the serious preparations they’ve been doing, but an hour is all they can manage to squeeze in before it’s back to rehearsals and schedules for the both of them.

Later in the week on the car ride between a CF shooting and a dance practice, Tzuyu messages Jun.

Weibo

Tzuyu, 8:20pm: What are you doing for Christmas this year?

Jun, 8:20pm: we have a concert! It’ll be fun but it’s a lot of work

Tzuyu 8:21pm : what!? Christmas should be a relaxing holiday that you spend with family and friends

Jun 8:21pm: not this year :/

Tzuyu, 8:22pm: I think we’ll have to do something about this

Tzuyu 8:22pm: when are you free?

It’s midway through December when Tzuyu first visits Seventeen’s dorm. Her group members Chaeyoung and Jihyo come along with her in solidarity, though possibly with the secondary agenda of spying on her (Tzuyu hasn’t made her mind up on that one yet).

Jun was surprised how pristine the dorm became after he told the other guys that girls were coming over. He and Minghao didn’t find it to be as much of a big deal as the Korean members certainly did. Seungcheol especially was reminding the others to clean their things up. One might even go so far as to call it nagging.

A rap comes at the door, and Minghao opens it to find Tzuyu and two other vaguely familiar girls on their doorstep.

“Hi, I’m Chaeyoung,” a petite girl with short, bouncy hair says. She’s wearing big hoop earrings, a hat and a leather moto jacket, and is chewing on a piece of gum in a lazy manner that her polite introduction belies.

“I’m Jihyo,” a girl with cherry red hair and enormous eyes says cheerfully, arms wiggling with her fists shoved in the pockets of her coat.

Both bow to Minghao and the boys in the living room, which is a flood of greetings as always.

Jun is fixing his hair in the bathroom when he hears the commotion, and quickly tidies up the area and joins the others in the living room. Woozi and Vernon are absorbed in a video game, and Tzuyu and two of her group members are making small talk with Minghao along with Seungcheol and Wonwoo, who are seated on the couch.

“Tzuyu!” Jun calls out, pulling her in for a hug. A palpable silence settles over the group, and he pulls back to find the attention of the room fixed on him. He carries on as though he hadn’t noticed.

“Hello, nice to meet you again. I’m Jun,” he says, reintroducing himself to the other Twice members.

“I’m Chaeyoung”

“Jihyo,”

They both bow politely.

“Make yourselves comfortable,” Minghao gestures out to the common area. “We’re going to get to making food?” He says while looking at Tzuyu, his voice ticking up at the end in query.

Tzuyu nods knowingly, pulling off her backpack.

“Everything’s in here. Let’s get started.”

An hour later, the scent of traditional Christmas food fills the dorm; it’s a Taiwanese-Chinese fusion of sorts. Mainly Tzuyu and Minghao are cooking (he’d whispered to her earlier that Jun was not to be trusted with anything involving an oven or stove). They’re keeping Jun busy with requests for him to chop and wash things, but he’s primarily fulfilling the (questionably necessary) role of taste tester and backseat chef.

By this point Chaeyoung is playing video games with the boys, and Jihyo is conversing animatedly and singing with a dark-haired boy with a giant smile and a lanky boy with kind features (Dokyeom and Joshua, if Tzuyu’s not mistaken), the latter of whom who has his guitar out. She’s happy to see her group members get along so well with the Seventeen members, even ones she herself has barely met yet.

At dinner Jun notices Dokyeom sitting with Jihyo, engrossed in lively conversation instead of clowning around with the group as per usual. Chaeyoung is sitting between Wonwoo and Mingyu and looks hilariously tiny between the two. She’s rolling her eyes at their many puns, and she winds up getting conned into having a rap battle with them later. Tzuyu brought her group members for moral support but is glad to see them interacting with everyone rather than clinging to her side.

“So, how did you all meet?” a boy with long silvery hair—Jeonghan, if Tzuyu’s memory serves her correctly—asks from across the table. Joshua and Seungcheol are sitting on either side of him, and their attention focuses on Tzuyu, Jun and Minghao as well.

Tzuyu freezes. Not that they’ve done anything wrong, per se, but it feels like Jeonghan is fishing for something provocative.

“Well, it was our last week of promoting Mansae and I heard her speaking Mandarin in the hallway backstage at… MCountdown, I think? I knew how grateful I was to have friends I could speak to in Korea when I came so I introduced myself, and then later Minghao as well. The rest is history,” Jun explains.

“Do you all meet up?” Joshua asks. Minghao, Jun and Tzuyu nod in unison.

“I never knew about that,” Seungcheol remarks in awe.

“You never asked,” Jun replies with a shrug.

“Yah, is that any way to talk to your leader hyung?” Jeonghan admonishes, swatting at Jun.

“I didn’t know you all met up, either,” Jihyo remarks, leaning in to the conversation. Tzuyu hadn’t realized she’d been listening in too.

“Maybe us leaders had ought to have a conversation about these secret meetings,” Seungcheol says to Jihyo, who is sitting beside him.

“Aniya, it’s not like that,” Minghao pipes up. Jun gets the sense that Minghao is covering for him in saying so, especially considering that they’d only met up all three of them for lunch once. That, and the fact that what he’s saying now is in direct opposition to the remarks he’d made towards Jun in the last few weeks. “We can have friends who are girls, can’t we?”

“So long as we’re discreet about it, yeah,” Seungcheol concedes. “You are discreet about it, right? I don’t want any scandals coming from any of you.”

“We were practicing by keeping it a secret from you,” Tzuyu remarks offhandedly, and Joshua chokes on his drink for laughing. Seungcheol hesitates a moment in surprise at her cheeky comment, then laughs too.

“Aish, Tzuyu, don’t be rude,” Jihyo chides her.

“It’s ok, I didn’t take it that way,” Seungcheol says, turning to Jihyo, “I was just a bit shocked since I’m just used to girls being more… how do I say this?... reserved?”

“Hmm, I wouldn’t say Tzuyu is reserved,” Jihyo mutters, taking a sip of her water.

“Hey now, what is this used to that you were saying?” Jeonghan says, prodding Seungcheol with his elbow. “Are you meeting up with girls too, Seungcheol-ah?”

They all continue to banter at the table over their abandoned empty plates. It’s refreshing to Tzuyu to talk and feel like she can be herself, since the boys seem welcoming, and it’s comforting to have Jun and Minghao by her side to help her when she can’t find a word in Korean or gets lost trying to follow the conversation. She finds herself laughing at all of their bickering and even manages to squeeze a few embarrassing stories about Jun and Minghao out of them.

After dinner, the boys insist that the girls rest as they are guests, and then they all quickly divide up cleaning tasks and get to them. Chaeyoung, Jihyo and Tzuyu take seats in the living room, away from the organized chaos. Chaeyoung sits on the couch and Jihyo and Tzuyu sit on the floor below her, all three of them huddling together to talk privately.

“Getting along well with everyone, I see?” Tzuyu teases them in a low voice.

“What are you saying?” Chaeyoung pushes Tzuyu with her foot. “Besides, if anyone is getting along too well, it’s you,” she deflects the topic.

“Yeah, what is this about secretly meeting up with boys?” Jihyo asks.

“Say what now?” Chaeyoung chimes in in disbelief. She must not have heard about it from down the table.

“Now you two are ganging up on me,” Tzuyu pouts, slumping back against the couch.

“You started it!” Jihyo says defensively, poking at her stomach. Tzuyu swats Jihyo’s hand away, ignoring her comment.

“Besides, it’s not a big deal. We just got meals a couple of times,” Tzuyu explains. She’s not lying per se, but not exactly disclosing that it was mostly just her and Jun who got together. It’s not a big deal and it doesn’t mean anything, but she knows that Chaeyoung and Jihyo would have an absolute fit if she were to disclose that.

“Whatever you say,” Chaeyoung singsongs flippantly, clearly unconvinced.

“Time for a game?” Mingyu says, practically flinging himself down on the couch opposite from Chaeyoung. That boy is tall as a tree and all limbs, taking up nearly half of the available space.

“Or maybe it’s time for our rap battle?” Wonwoo says, sitting between them. He’s tall too but a fair bit lankier than Mingyu (and apparently he’s less prone to gestures of grandiosity, it would seem). Chaeyoung rolls her eyes at the pair of them. Needless to say, they’ve become fast friends.

“Only if you promise not to make any puns,” Chaeyoung cautions.

“But Chaeyoung, that may be… im-puns-ible,” Mingyu says, and breaks into a toothy self-satisfied grin when everyone groans. Chaeyoung covers her face with her hands in duress.

“Oh my god, you didn’t just… Ugh. Mingyu, you’ve been vetoed,” Chaeyoung says in an aggrieved voice. Wonwoo wears a tiny pleased smirk and does a silent happy dance with his hands, which are covered by his long sleeves.

“Fine then. But I’ll officiate,” Mingyu immediately volunteers himself.

“Doesn’t sound too objective,” Jihyo tutts.

“You’re right.” Tzuyu says, nodding. “Seunghceol-oppa!” Tzuyu calls out and waves, catching his attention. Jun looks too, and his expression sours for a moment, hearing her call him that, until he reminds himself to stop being so dramatic. Seungcheol is, by definition, her oppa.

“We need you to officiate our rap battle,” Tzuyu grins. “You’re on the rap team, right?”

“Tzuyu’s gonna rap?” Minghao says in disbelief, taking a seat on the floor between Wonwoo and Mingyu’s legs.

“Ani, Chaeyoung is,” Tzuyu says, waving off his ludicrous suggestion. She could hardly rap in Mandarin, much less Korean.

“Let’s simmer down, guys. I think maybe we need to know one another better before we do a diss battle,” Chaeyoung says.

“Is our Chaeng scared?” Jihyo says, tickling Chaeyoung, who wiggles away from Jihyo and toward the boys.

“Ani, I’m just worried what will happen to our group relations once I obliterate Wonwoo,” Chaeyoung deadpans.

“Careful Chaeyoung, those are fighting words,” Seungcheol cautions, pulling up a chair beside the couch.

“Ani, Ani, my ego is fine,” Wonwoo says, still comfortably slumped back on the couch. “I wouldn’t want to force the lady to get in a fight she knows she’ll lose.” He playfully side-eyes Chaeyoung, who side-eyes him right back.

“Before you guys bite each others heads off, let’s play a game!” Jihyo interjects, diverting the topic.

“Good idea. What do you all want to play?” Seungcheol asks, ever the gracious host. The girls hem and haw for a moment, exchanging uncertain looks.

“Let’s play mafia,” Dokyeom suggests, sitting down on the floor beside Seungcheol. The group makes noises of agreement.

“Anybody who wants to play mafia, finish up and get over here!” Seungcheol calls out towards the kitchen.

Jihyo gets her hands on some paper and makes up the slips for the game while Dokyeom reviews the rules for everyone. The rest of the boys trickle into the living room and make themselves comfortable over the next few minutes, and Jun wedges himself in the spot between Minghao and Seungcheol.

“Who’s going to officiate?” Jihyo says while cutting up the slips.

“Sounds like a job for MC Boo!” Vernon exclaims, prompting an uproarious positive response of cheers and claps from the boys. Seungkwan bows in exaggerated graciousness, fanning his eyes to stop his fake tears and acting as though he’s won an award at everyone’s unanimous vote for him to be the game’s officiant.

“Neh. Oh, my microphone,” Seungkwan says, feigning that he’s flustered as he reaches around, grabbing the TV remote.

“Ah ah ah,” he says into the remote as though it’s a mic, eliciting laughter from the group. “It’s time to start mafia. Remember to have your guard up, for in this game, your friends become your enemies.”

Tzuyu can see now why they call him MC Boo.

“I’m not sure about the rest but I think either Woozi or Dokyeom is definitely mafia,” Jihyo says to the group.

“Me??” they both exclaim defensively; arguing and further accusations amongst the group ensues.

The game has been going on for nearly half an hour now. Minghao and Tzuyu were both eliminated and are huddled up next to one another, speculating over whom it might be.

“Mingyu has been acting shifty,” Minghao whispers.

“So has Jihyo, though. And every person she’s voted to eliminate has turned out to be a citizen.”

“Yah, you two,” Jihyo gives Tzuyu’s arm a smack. “You may be speaking another language but I can still tell when you’re talking about me.”

“You know what they say about people who protest too much,” Tzuyu whispers to Minghao when Jihyo’s attention is diverted back to the group conversation.

But in the end, it turns out that she and Minghao know their group members all too well.

10pm comes sooner than Tzuyu expected. Everyone makes the rounds of goodbyes and she approaches Minghao and Jun last. Behind the two she sees Wonwoo take Chaeyoung’s phone and put his number in it. Tzuyu purses her lips in amusement and files the interaction away in case she needs to mention it later.

“I think everyone got along,” she beams to Jun and Minghao.

“Definitely. You all should come over again,” Minghao says.

“Yeah, and bring more of your group members. I think the guys were disappointed in the girl to guy ratio,” Jun says in Mandarin. Tzuyu gasps and pushes at his shoulder.

“Cheeky!” she scolds him, and he presses his lips together to hold back his smirk as Minghao blatantly laughs at the pair of them. “Yah! Minghao! A little help here!”

“I can’t help you here, Tzuyu,” he replies cryptically, and he and Jun clap hands and bump shoulders conspiratorially.

“Oh my god, the both of you are terrible,” she complains. They both just laugh at her offense. “Really! I mean it!”

“What was that you said earlier about people who protest too much?” Minghao asks, mimicking what she’d said about Jihyo. Tzuyu just rolls her eyes, not dignifying him with an answer.

“I’ll see you at the Gayo Daejeon, then,” she says dismissively and tries to brush past them, but they both trap her in a hug.

“Let me goooo,” she whines, wiggling and trying to shake them off.

“You know, your life would be a whole lot easier if you could just accept our love, okay?” Jun says. Tzuyu is taken aback at this and she feels her ears grow hot, but they must take her pause as acceptance since they let her go.

“Tzuyu, you ready?” Chaeyoung calls across the room. She and Jihyo are by the door and in the midst of putting their shoes on.

“Yeah, let’s go,” Tzuyu says to her. She turns back to Jun and Minghao. “Don’t think I’ll forget about this,” she says threateningly, raising a warning finger at them and narrowing her eyes as she backs away. They both just snicker.

The boys disperse once the girls leave, settling themselves back into their bedrooms or scattering across the living room.

“So, looks like you were talking to Jihyo a lot,” Hoshi says, clapping a hand over Dokyeom’s shoulder.

“Ani, ani,” Dokyeom says hastily, but his expression betrays his words, his signature sunshine smile plastered across his face.

“They were pretty cool,” Mingyu remarks from the kitchen, picking at the leftovers. Typical Mingyu, still eating.

“Definitely sassy though,” Jeonghan notes from his spot on the couch.

“Is that a bad thing?” Jun asks.

“Nah, it’s good. It means they can keep up,” Seungcheol replies. “Speaking of, what were you two saying to Tzuyu that she got so worked up?”

Minghao and Jun exchange looks and struggle not to smile.

“Nothing much,” Jun replies evasively. Seungcheol gives him a questioning look but doesn’t press the issue further. He’s probably better off not knowing.

The day of the Gayo Daejun Tzuyu feels jittery. It’s her first big award show performance, and something about it seems so monumental. She’d performed on many stages before but nothing to this scale, nothing in such a big venue and nothing that the whole nation would be watching like this. She feels like she did the day of their debut, the day she first performed on Sixteen, and the day of her first ever dance recital back when she was a little kid. She wonders if she’ll ever stop feeling nervous like this, if she’ll always retain that humility behind it or if there’s an upper limit to it. She’s not sure which thought is more daunting.

While the rest of her members performed on the red carpet earlier in the day, Tzuyu had been occupied with a solo interview. She’d felt a weird discomfort when she’d received her individual schedule and her members had practiced their routine without her, but she’d swallowed it down and fulfilled her individual activities nonetheless. It’s divisive and makes more work for them all, but she reminds herself that should always be grateful for the opportunity to do activities alone; she’s both establishing herself and promoting her group more.

Backstage she changes into her costume and has her makeup and hair touched up alone. She makes an attempt at conversation with the few staff members who are with her, all of whom are friendly enough and manage to keep Tzuyu’s nerves from fraying further with their chatter.

After she’s all changed and coiffed and is waiting in her dressing room for her group members to arrive, she hears an array of familiar voices in the hallway and heads to the door to confirm her suspicion. Her heart leaps at the sight of Jun and Minghao along with the other Seventeen boys.

“Oppas!” she waves with a grin.

“Tzuyu!” they call in various intonations, crowding her. Somehow she always seems to forget just how many members there are in this massive group.

“Have you eaten?”

“Good luck on your stage tonight!”

“Omo your costume is so shiny.” (That’s Seungkwan, of course.)

“One at a time guys, one at a time,” she says with a laugh at their eagerness.

“You’re here alone?” Seungcheol asks, peering over her shoulder into the empty dressing room.

“Yeah I had an individual schedule,” she says, catching her bottom lip between her teeth. She hopes she sounds confident but her voice wavers slightly; after 2 months of promoting and a few individual schedules she should be used to it all by now.

“Wow, daebak! Congratulations,” Jun says, giving her thumbs up.

“Thanks. I think I did well.” She says, trying to convince herself of the same by saying it.

“I’m sure you did!” Seungcheol says, glancing down the hallway to see some of the other Seventeen members trailing along. “Well, we can’t stay but good luck! Say hi to Jihyo and Chaeyoung for us.”

She waves after them down the hall as they depart, and takes a seat back in her dressing room. It’s not long before the other Twice members join her to get ready, and they ask about her interview too. She hopes they’re not envious of her popularity but doesn’t know how to broach the subject without sounding arrogant, so for now she lets it lie. She’ll simply have to work harder to show them, not tell them, that she has their best interests at heart.

Weibo—group chat

Minghao: dinner soon, anyone?

Jun: yesss

Minghao: not you ㅋㅋㅋ

Tzuyu: sorry I can’t T__T practice and filming for sugarman and cf stuff

Tzuyu: I’ll probably be eating everything in the car for the next few days ;_;

Jun: *_*

Minghao: yikes. Sorry Tzu

Jun: good luck on sugarman though~

Tzuyu: thanks! =^_^=

New years eve hits. It’s Jun’s last performance of the year out of god knows how many. It feels like his group hit the ground running since their debut in May and they haven’t slowed down since. Even when they’re promoting they’re already preparing for what’s next. Nevertheless, the atmosphere is charged with an excited, buzzing energy. The turn of the New Year always seems like such a hopeful time.

"We've got to stop meeting like this," Tzuyu says wryly, approaching Jun in the hallway outside of his waiting room. He’s just returning from the bathroom; it’s serendipity that she’s passing by at this very moment.

"Oh then, should I...?" Jun opens the door to his waiting room and makes to ditch her in the hall.

"Not what I meant!" Tzuyu replies to him after she bows and waves to the Seventeen members in the waiting room. "I do have to go though. You all should stop by our waiting room later!” She says, half to him and half to the whole room. She switches to Mandarin for her next sentence, turning her attention to Jun. "I remember you saying something about a better girl to guy ratio?" she says to .

"Noted," he replies, grinning wolfishly and resisting the bait.

"Oh my god, you are so sleazy," Tzuyu chastises him, rolling her eyes.

"Admit it, you love it," he sasses her.

"Whatever you say," she says flippantly as she backs away, before turning to continue down the hall. It still leaves him smiling like an idiot in her wake.

“Look what I found,” Chaeyoung announces as she enters Twice’s waiting room. Tzuyu looks up from her Korean language workbook to find the Seventeen members wavering at the entryway, not sure if they’re supposed to come in.

“Hello sunbae-nims,” the other girls chorus as they stand and bow, and Tzuyu waves over at everyone, flipping her workbook shut. The boys file into the room and she greets Seungcheol and Jeonghan first; Seungcheol looks a touch nervous but Jeonghan looks comfortable as always.

“It’s so many people all together!” she remarks to them. Fitting twenty-two people in one room is no joke.

“We get that a lot,” Jeonghan replies.

“Same. We definitely know the feeling,” Tzuyu says with a nod.

“You said we should stop by?” Seungcheol asks.

“Oh, yeah! I thought you all should meet everyone,” she replies. She takes a look over her shoulder and sees that the rest of her members behind her look shy and a little overwhelmed, aside from Jihyo and Chaeyoung. “Just a second, actually” she says, excusing herself to encourage the girls to come over and interact with them more. Tzuyu notices Jihyo doing the same; she’s towing Jungyeon and Nayeon over by the wrists already.

With some encouragement everyone gets to talking. Momo, Mina and Sana end up speaking Japanese with Hoshi, who is adorably flustered and overwhelmed speaking to all three at once. Nayeon winds up sticking to the other ’95 liners, Seungcheol, Jeonghan and Joshua.

“Is this what you had in mind?” she says in Mandarin, approaching Jun and Minghao.

“Well yeah, actually,” Jun replies sheepishly. From there on she lets Jun’s comment go; she’s not one to hold grudges and was just trying to poke fun at him earlier.

“Happy new year, by the way! Any resolutions for 2016?” Tzuyu says to change the subject.

“Uh, sleep more?” Minghao says; Tzuyu and Jun just laugh. If only they all could.

All too quickly the boys are being called away by their manager. Everyone bows and says their 'goodbye's and 'nice-to-meet-you's, wishing the girls a Happy New Year as they funnel out the door, the noise of their group fading as they make their way down the hallway. Tzuyu notices with amusement that Nayeon looks a little dazzled.

“Aw, Nayeon-unnie, got a crush?” Jihyo teases her, sitting on the couch across from her. Nayeon scrunches her face up in a frown and crosses her arms.

“You know we can’t date, Jihyo-yah,” Nayeon snipes back.

“I know, but we can still dream,” Jihyo props her chin up in her hand and looks off into the distance wistfully.

Somehow, Tzuyu isn’t surprised by who asks her for one of their numbers later.

Author's note: Long and fluffy chapter because the next one is gonna get heavy. Let me know what you think ^_^