“Okay, let’s review,” Tzuyu says, phone balanced between her ear and her shoulder.

“Hoshi, Seungcheol, Jihyo, your manager, my manager, inviting everyone, reservations,” Jun rattles off the list.

These are the barriers that separate them from a birthday party. It’s a good thing Jun suggested it as far ahead as he did, because the more they got to talking the more layers to planning that made themselves apparent.

“I can talk to Hoshi,” Jun offers, his tinny voice coming through the phone.

“Leave Seungcheol to me,” Tzuyu replies. She’s in the midst of opening and closing drawers, pulling out items and packing her bag. Twice is headed to a province for a fansign and the car ride will be a long one. Its better to have more to keep her occupied than not enough, though everything usually gets abandoned in lieu of sleep.

“Oh?”

“Yeah. You should talk to Jihyo, though. Bring Dokyeom,” Tzuyu says, wrestling her notebook into her bag behind the rest of her things. Chaeyoung eyes her curiously from her bed where she is packing her own bag, interest piqued from the familiar names but unable to decode the conversation as she speaks only the Chinese phrases that Tzuyu’s taught her.

“Oh?” Jun replies.

“Yeah, let him do the talking,” she replies.

“I thought you and Jihyo were close?”

“It’s not that I think she’ll say no to me. Just… you should bring him. Trust me.”

“If you say so…” Jun replies, lost. Somehow, Tzuyu’s not surprised at his lack of observation skills.

“Then we can get our own managers,” Tzuyu says.

“Yeah. Then there’s inviting everyone and making the reservations.” Jun reminds her.

“Well that should be easy. We can deal with that later.”

After performance team’s choreography session wraps up, Jun gets Hoshi alone on their walk home. Night has fallen on the city, and the streets that are usually humming with life have fallen into brief quiet; streetlamps speck the alleys that they weave through on their sojourn towards a warm shower and a few hours of sleep.

"So, our birthdays are coming up soon," Jun starts when they've fallen steps behind Dino and Minghao, the latter of whom is colluding on the plan.

"You're right," Hoshi replies with a weary smile. Come to think, Jun can't remember the last time he saw Hoshi sleep. He's relentlessly in the studio, until 2, 3, 4am, often until the previous day bleeds into a new one. Even today, leaving the studio at 1am, they’d had to jostle him into getting a precious few hours of sleep. The very thing that their fans love—their constant choreography changes and new routines—is the thing for which Hoshi feels the need to run himself into the ground. He deserves a break more than anyone, save for Woozi; the two of them are the beating heart of Seventeen, hard working to a fault, and sometimes need to be prodded into taking care of themselves first.

"We should have a birthday party," Jun says. Hoshi’s birthday falls on the days between his and Tzuyu’s and it would be too peculiar to exclude him from the guests of honor. They’ve always celebrated their birthdays together, besides, like brothers whose family gathers to celebrate two in one, and it wouldn’t feel right to abandon that tradition.

"Do you mean like a dinner? I don't see why not, since we'll be between promotions," Hoshi says, shrugging his bag up on his shoulder.

"I was thinking with the Twice girls, actually," Jun says, gathers his courage, then goes in for the kill. "Mina would be there, you know," he says conspiratorially, nudging Hoshi with his shoulder with a grin.

"Eyyyyy," Hoshi replies softly with a shy smile, as is his typical way.

"You know I'm kidding," Jun says, stretching an arm around Hoshi’s shoulders and giving him a squeeze. He's not, but it'll soften the blow enough.

"If you can get them to agree to it, sounds good."

Step one, complete.

‘Come by in 10,’ Tzuyu reads from her phone.

Tzuyu’s in the dressing room backstage at Music Core at the moment. The other girls are sprawled out around the room: a makeup artist is painting concealer over the bruises on Momo’s legs as she still spends too much time in the studio practicing dances that belong to others; Dahyun’s having her curls touched up; Nayeon is hovering over the table of accessories, perpetually unable to decide just what exactly she’d like to wear. The room is an organized mess, full of staff and clothing and dozens of cases that are poised to be packed up at the end of the day only to be undone again the next. Tzuyu takes to tidying up the tiny corner that she’s claimed for herself, packing her bag away once more.

She dutifully waits her 10 minutes and then heads over to Seventeen’s waiting room. The hallway outside of their room is swarming with other groups and PD’s, abuzz with the noise of laughter and shouts—the general chaos that accompanies the backstage of a music show.

She knocks softly on the door, and it cracks open to reveal Joshua.

"Oh hey, Tzuyu," he replies in his accented Korean. It's always strange to hear the flattening of words in an American accent, unlike the bouncy native Korean or clipped Japanese tinge to the language she's so accustomed to. "What brings you here?"

"Uhh..."

That's a good question.

"We invited her," Minghao cuts in, saving her from further scrutiny.

Tzuyu greets everyone and then joins Jun who has lured Seungcheol onto the couch with an offering of Choco pies. She slots herself between Seungcheol and Jun even though there's not really enough room for her. Seungcheol tries to scoot over so that their knees won't touch but it's an exercise in futility, and he resigns himself to the closeness when he sees that Tzuyu’s not fussed by it.

"Hi Seungcheol-oppa," Tzuyu giving him a winning smile and tipping her head onto his shoulder. Seungcheol observes her in cautious amusement.

"Why are you doing aegyo at me?" Seungcheol asks outright.

"I just missed you! Can't I do aegyo at my oppa?" she asks, framing her face with her hands.

Seungcheol snorts, choking on his Choco pie. He coughs for a moment until he can finally get his hands on some water, and takes a sip to quell his coughing.

"Okay, who are you and where is Tzuyu?" He says.

"Well I..." Tzuyu rests her hand on Jun's forearm, "we have something to ask you."

Seungcheol’s expression reads as somewhere between amused and terrified.

"Go on," Seungcheol says cautiously, suspicion and curiosity lacing his voice.

"Jun, Hoshi and I were thinking, since our birthdays are all so close we should have a dinner together. To celebrate with both of our teams."

Seungcheol is visibly relieved.

"And we were hoping that that was okay with you," Jun adds on.

"Yeah, that's fine. I mean so long as you guys can figure out the logistics, like transportation and reservations and so on."

"Perfect," Jun replies, high fiving both Hoshi and Tzuyu. The bait and switch plan had gone off without a hitch.

The door clicks open and a familiar head pokes in the door.

"Hey guys," Jieqiong says, showing her brilliant white smile. She extends the door to step in and Nayoung follows behind.

"Hey!" Jun pops up and heads over to greet them. There's a feeling akin to a knife twisting into Tzuyu's side, but she smiles to mask it.

Seungcheol asks her a question but she's so busy being totally normal, totally fine that she doesn't actually hear it.

"Tzuyu?" He asks to catch her attention.

"Oh, I'm sorry, I zoned out for a moment. What's up?"

Seungcheol’s followed her line of vision from a moment ago and quirks his eyebrow in amusement but stays mum. She appreciates the mercy.

"I asked where you were thinking of having the birthday party?"

“We hadn’t really gotten that far yet,” Tzuyu replies, trying to focus on Seungcheol but failing as her gaze flicks to Jun and Jieqiong and then back again.

“True. You still have… what? A little under 3 weeks? I’m sure you’ll be able to find somewhere.,” Seungcheol says.

It’s then that Jieqiong slots in next to Tzuyu on the couch, oblique and brazen in her friendliness.

“Congratulations again on your wins!” Zieqiong gushes. “It's amazing! Twice is really the best.”

As terse as Tzuyu wants to be, she knows it's unwarranted and far from appropriate, and she can't help but to soften at Jieqiong’s unbridled enthusiasm towards her.

“Thank you, that’s very nice of you to say,” Tzuyu says with a little nod of acknowledgement. Jieqiong beams. Does this girl ever stop smiling? Tzuyu wonders. She doesn’t care to admit it, but she can feel herself thawing just the slightest bit.

Weibo

Tzuyu: status on Jihyo?

Jun: it was so weird

Jun: they went all googly eyed and then Jihyo said yes right away

Tzuyu: yay!!

Jun: how did you know I should bring Dokyeom?

Tzuyu: how did you not know…?

Jun: LOL

Jun: so I was thinking, we should invite the IOI girls from our companies

Jun: Somi, Jieqiong, Nayoung

Tzuyu: oh

Tzuyu: okay

Jun: is that not okay?

Tzuyu: why wouldn’t it be?

“Your alright, Tzuyu?” Chaeyoung asks. Tzuyu tears her eyes from her phone and looks over to Chaeyoung’s bunk. They’re home for the night, each of them showered and ready for bed; Dahyun’s listening to music on her bunk above them. Chaeyoung had been cross-legged, hunched over a drawing, but now she’s placed her pencils flat, giving Tzuyu her attention. “You’re expression is a bit… sour.”

“I’m fine. Just talking to Jun about our birthday thing,” Tzuyu replies to diffuse Chaeyoung’s concerns. Chaeyoung nods in understanding.

“Oh yeah, how’s the planning for that going?” Chaeyoung asks, returning her attention to her drawing, shading in one of the characters.

“Everyone has said yes, so we just need to notify our managers and make reservations,” Tzuyu explains.

“And…?”

“And what?”

Chaeyoung’s eyes flick up from her drawing.

“You were just scowling at your phone. There’s an and.”

Tzuyu pauses a moment, ruminating on how exactly to properly explain her situation.

“Well, Jun thinks we should invite the IOI girls from our companies,” she settles on. It’s vague enough.

“Somi, Nayoung and Jieqing, right?” Chaeyoung affirms, switching out pencils for another color.

“Yeah,” Tzuyu replies, trying to keep her voice free of the deflated way that she feels.

“Do you hate Jieqiong or something?” Chaeyoung asks without ceremony, continuing to work on her drawing as though she’d asked Tzuyu something simple like what she was thinking of having for breakfast.

“Why would you ask that?” Tzuyu replies sharply. Chaeyoung side-eyes her skeptically.

“Well according to Mingyu, Minghao said you seem kinda hostile.” Chaeyoung says.

Tzuyu makes a mental note to show Minghao hostile.

“You're talking to Mingyu about me?” Tzuyu sulks, slumping back against her pillows.

“He asked! And I'm curious,” Chaeyoung replies.

Tzuyu likes Jieqiong. She does. Still, she rues the day Jieqiong was added to the group chat. Tzuyu didn’t realize how much she liked being doted upon as the only girl between her two friends until she wasn’t special anymore. Tzuyu is loath to realize how used to being the center of attention she's gotten, in every respect. She's so used to fending off attention that it feels like there's this void now, which has never before existed. She knows it’s irrational but it feels like she’s been dethroned, doubly so because Jieqiong has been friends with Jun and Minghao for years, and without her even knowing it. If anything, Tzuyu’s the foreigner. She thought she’d found one safe place where that wasn’t the case, but it’s not so.

One of the biggest reasons she dislikes Jieqiong’s presence, as irrational as it may be, is because the realizations that refract off of her all highlight her less-than-commendable tendencies, and threaten Tzuyu’s own self-perception as an upright, well-meaning person.

And the Jun aspect. Tzuyu’s torn on whether she wants him to set his sights on someone else or not—that is to assume that he ever set his sights on her in the first place—but Jieqiong places her in that uncomfortable limbo of contemplation with an uncertain but inevitable expiration date, and the lack of certainty about what she even wants from or for him gnaws on her nerves. She’s forced to contemplate the thought that she’s been selfish, again, for enjoying the attention that he gives her without wanting to make anything of it.

Rationally, she knows it’s not Jieqiong’s fault that all of these painful realizations are rising to the surface. And even if Jieqiong and Jun are interested in one another, she can’t be mad at that either. She made her own bed, and now she has to lie in it. He’s neither her property nor her keeper.

Throughout the month of May, Twice has their first win and it seems to snowball from there. It’s astounding to watch the table in the corner of their living room become cluttered with trophies; it’s so surreal that it’s almost numbing.

The lack of sleep somehow makes the days whiz by at a quicker pace than usual. It’s delirium that Jun floats through day in and day out, as they wake up, get primped, dress up, perform, meet fans, record, rehearse, sleep an hour or two, and then repeat, for weeks on end.

The birthday party gives them something to look forward to other than work. As much as being an idol was his dream and is gratifying, it’s still his job. Like Ryeowook said, he has to keep parts of his life separate from that. This distraction is too fitting.

From time to time Seventeen and Twice are able to spend little pockets of time with one another. Seungcheol all but forces Tzuyu and Chaeyoung to talk to Dino because ‘You’re the same-age, how have you barely spoken to one another?’. Dino is nice enough (if a little excessively confident) but Tzuyu finds that Vernon is more welcoming, and quite gracious about their awkward encounter a few weeks back. It’s strange though, she finds that Chaeyoung is exceptionally quiet around him. She makes a mental note to ask her about it later but it gets lost in her exhaustion-addled brain.

“And then you grab here, and your hips like this."

"Can we… do this…? Onstage?" Joshua asks, concerned about the choreography, while the rest of the guys crack up at his reticence. The irony that the American of the group would be the most conservative.

It's the first few days of June, and the choreographer and Hoshi are in the midst of teaching the other Seventeen guys the choreography for their next promotional song, Very Nice. The guys are all dressed in slouchy workout clothes and in a mirror-lined room, the floor in front scattered with papers full of choreography notes and littered with water bottles; the room is heady and hot from thirteen boys worth of exertion.

They run through the same section of choreography, the chorus, a number of times, trying for now just to cement the choreography in their brains. It’s the evening after one of their music show performances, and with their tight comeback schedule—only a month between their goodbye stages and new promotions—so the time is nigh to be working on their routine, already. The song is finished and all that’s left is for Woozi to fine-tune the recording, and they’re at the final stretch of learning and perfecting the routine.

"Alright guys, one more run through and then we'll break," the choreographer says, hand poised on the mouse ready to play the music again.

The choreography this time is hard-hitting and dynamic—verging on exhausting—and they’re all sure it’ll be a hit. The room had been filled with whoops of approval the first time that Hoshi and their choreographer had shown the guys the full choreography. Still, it the life out of them all much faster than any other routine has so far.

After their run through Jun flings himself into the floor, grasping for his water bottle once his breathing calms.

"Wonwoo, you alright?" Hoshi asks. Wonwoo's standing in the center still, doubled over with elbows on knees

"I'm fine," Wonwoo says in a thin voice before straightening up, his face screwed up. He takes a step forward.

Then he hits the floor.

The guys all wait nervously and try to focus on practicing the dance (with limited success) until the choreographer returns and dismisses them for the day. Seungcheol and Mingyu left with Wonwoo to the hospital so they’re three people short, and regardless of Wonwoo’s exact condition their choreographer instructs them to head home and get some much-needed rest lest any of the rest of them fall prey to it.

Minghao slings an arm over Jun's shoulder on the walk home.

"I'm sure he'll be fine," Minghao says in response to Jun's worried expression. Jun wants to believe it, but he can’t quite fit the idea in with his sense of logic enough to do so.

The mood in the dorm is tense, too tense. There’s no strained conversations but it’s just that: there’s no conversations. The guys are all resilient and put on brave faces for the camera but sometimes the only thing there is to do is stop sprinting and accept how worn down they are.

After a shower Jun throws on a pair of slouchy pajamas and makes his way back to common area and finds Joshua finger-picking his guitar in the darkened living room, the light of the kitchen spilling in. He’s softly singing a song in English that sounds suspiciously like a hymn, but it’s soothing. They could all use a prayer in this moment.

Outside rain breaks. The tipping point of June also marks the start of the rainy season, a summer in which torrents will scourge the city and the reprieve will come later in the form of further sweltering days of summer.

A few of the guys are already in the living room but the rest seem to migrate there one by one, fitting their bodies beside one another on the blanket-covered floor like a pile of dozing puppies. There is this unspoken thing between them all, this worry for Wonwoo and their team, and an appreciation for the good times and state of reflection that it forces upon all of them.

Seungcheol and Mingyu tumble gracelessly in the front door, disrupting the meditative, trance-like quietude of the soft guitar and steady thrum of rain.

“Wonwoo’s sick, but he’ll be okay,” Seungcheol says, tossing his bag onto a chair and mussing his face and hair in relief of close-cut stress.

Jeonghan extends an arm to him, and Seungcheol sidles up to him, Mingyu to Minghao, and the night presses on, fading into a tomorrow with more hope for them all. But now, sleep.

Tzuyu’s on the way to a CF shoot when her phone buzzes adamantly. Jihyo’s name adorned with several emojis lights up her screen.

“Hello?” Tzuyu answers, gaze shifting to the passing scenery outside of the car. Concrete and specks of green whiz by as they make their way along the highway, flanked by other cars. Tzuyu’s in the van alone today, headed to a solo CF shoot.

“Tzuyu-yah, I have some bad news,” Jihyo’s somber voice comes through the phone.

“What?” Tzuyu asks, straightening up. Dozens of half-formed terrible ideas pass through her mind but she doesn’t have time to settle on one before Jihyo continues.

“It’s Jungyeon-unnie. She got hurt while filming ‘Law of the Jungle’…” Jihyo trails off, regaling her with the details of Jungyeon’s predicament. Jungyeon’s flying back from Central America to Seoul for treatment over the next few days; she’s hurt her leg, it seems. They’ll have to conduct extra practices tonight to alter their formations and Jungyeon will be out for who knows how long. Tzuyu can only hope that the injury isn’t severe, and that she’ll heal quickly.

It all seems like bad omens, first Wonwoo falling ill and then Jungyeon getting injured. After the phone call she whips opens Weibo; they’re approaching their destination soon and she’s not sure when her next chance to use her phone will be if not now.

Weibo

Tzuyu: I just got word that Jungyeon’s injured

Tzuyu: do you think maybe in light of all of this chaos we should cancel the party?

Jun: oh no :o

Jun: I don’t think we should

Jun: it gives everyone something to look forward to

Tzuyu: if you say so

"Dear coordis, please come help me pick out an outfit," Nayeon says wistfully to no one in particular as she throws yet another shirt onto the mountain of rejected clothes on her bed. Tzuyu and Sana are perched nearby on Jihyo's bed, taking selcas as they wait for the rest of the girls to get ready.
"Nayeon, you'll look the same in anything," Tzuyu says, eliciting a glare from Nayeon.

"Jjang," Jihyo says once she's shuffled into her shoes, showing off her finished outfit.

"So pretty," Sana gives her a look of approval and Tzuyu shows thumbs up.

"Okay, okay, I got it," Nayeon says with determination, pulling a dress off of a hanger and slipping it on.

“Nayeon, who are you trying to impress?” Jihyo teases, zipping Nayeon’s dress for her as she holds her hair aside.

“I should ask you the same question,” Nayeon fires back facetiously, turning around and smoothing her dress down. Jihyo gives her a critical look but doesn’t protest. “What do you all think?”

“You look so good!” Sana chimes in, hopping up from the bed.

“Now let’s get going,” Tzuyu says, hand wavering above the doorknob. Nayeon merely fixes her with a reproachful look.

“I need accessories though.”

The guys arrive first to the birthday party. There’s a long table stretched across the common area of the restaurant, which is empty save for Auntie Mei bustling around. All of the blinds to the storefront are drawn and the lighting is dim; along with all of the wood and decorations the inside of the store is cozy and inviting.

“Hello, my dears,” Auntie Mei says, clapping her hands together in delight as she approaches them. The rest of the group members all bow, greeting her politely and she bestows them with a kind, toothy smile and introduces herself and makes conversation in broken but functional Korean.

The IOI girls arrive next, and greet everyone, and though Somi knows everyone the least, she spares no time sidling up to the younger members.

It’s 10pm already when the Twice girls arrive at the restaurant; it’s nearly half an hour after the boys got there, enough time to order drinks and make themselves comfortable. The all exchange greetings and sit back down, and the food comes out steadily afterward. Tzuyu sits near Jun and Minghao, but clings to them less than usual. Jieqiong’s beside her and the two take their time catching up and chat with Somi and Chaeyoung across from them. Jieqiong doesn’t bite, and Tzuyu has resolved to be friendlier towards her.

Everyone laughs and converses over dinner, the room abuzz and full to the brim with 23 people, and Tzuyu notices with some chagrin that many of the members of either group are drinking, though she can’t. If she were at home in Taiwan she would be, and she’s not angered so much as she’s irritated by the mere principle of it.

After dinner everyone disperses to various spots in the restaurant to dance, talk, sing at the karaoke machine that auntie rented that’s placed in the back area. Tzuyu and Minghao make their way out to the back patio for some fresh air.

The back area is small but quaint, a wooden deck up a flight of stairs from the restaurant below it. There’s a small fountain in the center and potted plants dot the area, with white fairy lights strung up around the perimeter of the patio.

“I didn’t even know that this existed,” Tzuyu murmurs to herself behind Minghao.

“Auntie likes to keep it as an open secret,” Minghao says, an affectionate half smile tugging at the corner of his mouth as he hops up on the wooden railing that borders the deck.

“I’m 18 now,” she says to Minghao, leaning back on her elbows on the railing. “17, really,” she says in Mandarin. She’s barely even conscious of the switch. “It’s annoying that everyone can drink without me though,” she remarks. It’s not entirely true. She, Chaeyoung, Somi, Dino, Vernon and Seungkwan are all left in the dust. Still, it’s less than a third of the group.

Minghao glances over to the stairs before he speaks.

“But can they?” Minghao says, pulling a flask out from his jacket. Tzuyu gapes at him, open-mouthed. He waves it more adamantly it towards her.

“Happy birthday,” he says sincerely. She hesitates. “Well, if you’re not gonna drink from it,” he says, and makes a move to stash it back away. She catches his hand, prying the flask out of it.

“No,” she says, unscrewing it, eyes fixed on the stairs in case anyone comes up. “I am.”

She takes a swig of it and it burns but it goes down easy.

“Look at you, Tzuyu, a pro already,” Minghao tutts approvingly.

“You shouldn’t have expected any less,” Tzuyu says with another gulp, not caring if she seems unladylike. It’s Minghao, after all.

There’s the click of shoes on the stairs, and before Tzuyu can see who it is she hastily screws the flask shut and shoves it inside the back pocket of her shorts as she turns around.

“Seungcheol-oppa!” She greets him with a wide smile. Either the details around everything are softer now, or she’s imagining things.

Minghao gets his flask back an hour later.

“Sorry, I had a bit more,” Tzuyu murmurs, passing it to him.

“Silly Zhou, it was all for you.” He says, pushing it back into her hand.

“No, I think half was enough,” she says, tucking it back inside his pocket, “I feel nice.” She’s all smiles, a warmth extending from her middle through her fingertips. “Thank you though, Minghao. For thinking of me,” she says, rubbing his back affectionately.

“Always, Zhou.”

Jun sees Tzuyu smiling and laughing with Minghao across the restaurant and he knows, he knows that neither of them mean anything by it, but it doesn’t stop some volatile emotion from flaring up inside of him. He’s sitting with Hoshi and Mina at the moment—he initiated a conversation between them but both seem to be talking well enough without him—and he finds a moment to extract himself from the conversation. He excuses himself and the pair waves him away, continuing to talk.

Tzuyu begins to make he way through the crowd, accepting birthday greetings as she goes, until she is confronted with Jun standing before her.

“Come with me,” he murmurs into her ear, his fingers grazing the back of her arm as he does. Delight and fear intermingle within her but she follows, allowing him to lead her by the arm. Instead of the door to the deck they pass through a door marked ‘employees only’, up the back stair past the entrance to Auntie Mei’s apartment and up another two flights.

“Where are we going?” she asks, trying to conceal her labored breathing. As much as she dances, she seems to be forever bested by stairs.

“You’ll see,” Jun replies evasively, opening a door. A wall of summer air greets her, and she has little time to process it as she follows him outside. There’s a ladder affixed to the side of the building; he lets go of her and begins to climb. Jun turns to look at Tzuyu gape at him when he’s about halfway up. “Well?”

She steels herself, not one to back down from a challenge, and begins to climb too. It might be the little bit of alcohol that’s giving her courage right now, but she makes it to the top, though she does let Jun help her from the ladder to the roof.

“How did you know about this?” she asks, crawling across the roof behind him.

“I’m better friends with Auntie than you’d think,” he replies cryptically.

They both settle beside one another, knees drawn up to accommodate the slant of the roof. From where they’re seated they can both clearly see the deck a few stories below, and figures that they can make out to be Nayeon and Seungcheol. They know they shouldn’t be too loud lest they draw attention to themselves.

The moon is silver in the sky, nearly full, and the air is thick and soupy with humidity. Tzuyu pulls off her long-sleeved shirt to reveal her tank top beneath, her dark blue-black hair pouring out and fanning out over her shoulders as she does so. Jun curtails his gaping just moments before she glances over at him; perfect timing.

“So, we’re really alone up here?” Tzuyu remarks, sitting back and resting her weight against her palms.

“We are. What a novel thought,” Jun laughs shortly, quietly to himself.

“So you’re going on tour soon?” Tzuyu asks.

“Yeah. We have a comeback first though,” Jun says.

“Christ, do you all ever take a break?”

“Well, we can’t all be Twice-level popular.”

“Don’t say that,” Tzuyu replies modestly. Their popularity is a good thing, but when it’s just the two of them it feels like allowing the rest of the world into this moment that ought to be theirs alone.

“It’s true,” he replies, his voice free of any misgivings.

“Well, we’re not the one having concerts across Asia. I’m interested to see what you’ll being me back from your travels,” Tzuyu remarks.

“Who says I’m bring you souvenirs?” Jun asks in incredulity.

“You will,” she replies in calm assurance, tipping her head to the side. Her smirk is infectious, and he tilts his head forward to prevent her from seeing the one that sprawls across his face.

They slip into a tranquil silence, she fussing over him just long enough to tuck in the tag that’s poking out the back of his shirt. Her fingers skate over his skin as she does, likely with little thought to significance on her part, but a flower of delight blooms in him. He is hopeless against her, already dragged under and drowning in her sights.

“What a year it’s been,” Jun remarks to break their reverie.

“The most eventful of my life, I’d say,” Tzuyu replies. The events of both their years scroll in snapshots through their mind: debut, performances, fansigns, award shows, comebacks, first wins, scandals.

“Do you ever wonder what your life would be like if not for this?” Jun asks.

“I don’t want to. As demanding and draining as it can be, I wouldn’t want anything else,” Tzuyu replies.

“I feel the same. But I do wonder. It feels like my life has been set on this trajectory before I was ever old enough to even have a thought of what I wanted for myself. What would I have been otherwise?” Jun asks rhetorically. It’s true; he was scouted at the age of 2 and has been in the entertainment industry ever since. With every year gone by, doing anything else felt more and more like an impassable wall.

“Well, you wouldn’t have won any music shows, that’s for sure,” Tzuyu quips back lightly.

“True. Oh, that reminds me…” he says, completing his sentence instead with action, plucking her phone from her hand.

“Hey, what are you doing?” Tzuyu asks, clambering over him to get it back.

“You’ve been avoiding this for too long. I need that embarrassing picture,” Jun says, holding Tzuyu back with one hand with her phone extended in the other.

“You’re playing dirty!” she replies, trying to retrieve it but failing from her vantage point. So, she does the only thing she can to debilitate him: she tickles him.

“I’m playing dirty?” Jun says scathingly through his laughter. She puts on a determined face and wrestles him for the phone. “So you want to go there?”

He slips her phone in his pocket and retaliates mercilessly. His strength is greater than hers and he easily overpowers her, catching her wrist in his hand and then both, holding them down above her head with one hand and torturing her with the other.

“Mercy—mercy!” she chokes out between laughs, and Jun grants her, letting go and ceasing the torture so that they can both catch their breath.

After a long moment they both seem to realize their predicament, him above her, legs interwoven, inches between them as he props himself up with arms on either side of her. Her tongue flicks between her lips, which are suddenly all too dry, his eyes flitting down to them and then back up to hers. He looks at her with something soft and sublime and worried in his eyes. It feels like the moment is suspended in time; they are standing on the edge of a chasm, wavering uncertainly in what could be and what shouldn’t.

And then… and then.

They are in free fall. He’s kissing her, and his lips are a salve, an absolution, a revelation. They’re softer than she’d thought they’d be.

Her heart is violet, wanton and daydreaming. Her hands lace through his hair of their own volition, and one of his holds her delicately by the waist. Both hold fast for fear that the other will vanish in smoke.

She kisses him like she means it, like someone who has done this before. There’s little space in his brain to wonder who it might’ve been. There are only stars swimming in the blackness of his closed eyes, the vague taste of something cherry, and rising water within him.

There has been too much waiting and not enough of this.

Author's note: Will write for comments. Sorry this took so long. Writing was a bit of a nightmare. Plagued by indecision. The party scene was one of the first ones I ever wrote for this story back before I ever even posted it and, long story short, I ended up having to almost completely re-write that.

Did anybody else see Jihyo and DK’s duet on King of Masked Singer? They covered Dream by Suzy & Baekhyun and it was perf. Maybe I’ll have to get around to actually writing that one day…

I now have a tumblr where I take requests and update stuff if you care about updates or requests.