Whole Heart by Gryffin & Bipolar Sunshine

It’s a normal day at the TWICE dorm. Nayeon is watching a drama with Jeongyeon, Momo is eating in the kitchen while Jihyo sings as she does the dishes, Sana tries to help her but ends up breaking three cups, Mina is playing a game in Momo’s room and Dahyun is studying on the side dutifully, Momo and Jeongyeon’s shared room deemed as the study for the night for anyone who wanted a little peace and quiet. It’s a normal day at the TWICE dorm-

Until Chaeyoung sees a spider on the wall.

“AAAHHHHHHHHHHH~”

She's the only one in the room- Tzuyu is in the bathroom- and Chaeyoung is up on the safety of her loft in record time. She’s deathly afraid of spiders; they all are, save for Tzuyu and Jeongyeon who are usually the ones to rid the dorm of whatever creepy pests decide to pay them a visit.

A member getting scared of a spider is nothing new, especially if it’s Chaeyoung (or Momo, but she’s afraid of everything). It’s a normal day at the TWICE dorm.

Until Tzuyu comes running out of their bathroom in nothing but rolled jeans and a sports bra.

“What’s wrong?” The tallest of the group asks Chaeyoung, water dripping down her shoulders as she scans the area for danger- clearly coming from an interrupted shower.

Chaeyoung points at the eight-legged devil sitting on the west wall. “SPIDER.” She half-screams, half-pants, because she’s Son Chaeyoung and despite her cool, calm, I-can-take-on-the-world exterior, she’s still eighteen and an absolute wimp at heart.

Tzuyu takes one look and promptly crushes the thing with Dahyun’s calc homework, neatly disposing of it with no hassle (sorry spider). She casts Chaeyoung a bemused look, looking so fine in her light-wash jeans and poor excuse of a top, and Chaeyoung can’t even anymore.

How embarrassing.

“I-I totally could’ve taken care of it.” She stutters through her huff, sliding down into her pillow in mild shame. Tzuyu just looks at her with a skeptical brow, clearly not buying any of it.

She tries again. “It-it’s not like that thing was the size of my hand or anything. I mean, I was just about to dispose of it when you interrupted.”

More silence, and now- to Chaeyoung’s chagrin- amusement as well.

Chaeyoung gulps. A single drop of water has somehow made its way past the material of Tzuyu’s sports bra and is gracing the crevices of her left oblique. It travels down the tall girl’s impossibly long torso at an agonizing pace- Chaeyoung never thought it was possible to envy water.

(I mean who would want to be water anyway, all transparent and liquidy and plain-)

Tzuyu tilts her head at Chaeyoung, who has not-so-discreetly been ogling her for some time now. She’s obviously wondering why Chaeyoung has suddenly fallen silent. Tzuyu had never been one for words- she’s always had a distinct way of communicating without them- and Chaeyoung has inevitably become well-acquainted with this quirk of hers as the two youngest members of TWICE.

“I’m not afraid of spiders.”

Tzuyu looks like she’s holding in a laugh, and Chaeyoung wants to die.

She sinks further down into her bed.

“Aren-Aren’t you cold? It’s kind of cold in here isn’t it?”

It comes out lame- meek and unconfident, and Chaeyoung facepalms- she’s been played and she knows it, judging by the smug look on Tzuyu’s face. Tzuyu is obviously satisfied that she's managed to crack Chaeyoung’s exterior with a grand total of two words, reducing her friend to a blushing mess.

Chaeyoung’s scarlet red at this point. Sure, she’s had the biggest crush on Tzuyu for the longest time now and yeah, pretty much everyone knows that TWICE wholeheartedly embraces the rainbow, but the dilemma here is that she knows that Tzuyu most certainly knows about her not-so-teeny crush on her, and Tzuyu hasn’t said anything about it for the entire time she’s known (which is a long time; Chaeyoung's never been a good liar and Tzuyu is probably one of the smartest ones in the group. Or, at least the most perceptive; she closely follows Jihyo, who claims to have raised her, and notably, Jeongyeon who is much more analytical than she seems, and then Sana who may not seem like she knows much, but they’ve all been fooled before. The least perceptive of them would probably be Momo, followed surprisingly only by Mina who is definitely one of the smartest but, for all her grace and grandeur, denser than a lead brick covered in gold. Chaeyoung herself only trumps Momo by a hair- she’s usually too lost in her own little world to take proper note of her surroundings- while Nayeon, Jihyo, and Dahyun fall somewhere in the happy middle.)

Tzuyu looks at her knowingly and Chaeyoung is absolutely mortified- she wishes she could crawl in a hole and just die. She slumps fully onto her mattress now, out of Tzuyu’s line of vision, and covers her face with her hands. It’s so embarrassing though, because Tzuyu well knows that Chaeyoung has a huuuge crush on her and she just doesn’t say anything about it, never addresses it, and just continues to live and room with Chaeyoung and let her guess what Tzuyu really feels (which is near impossible, because when does Tzuyu ever have readable expressions? The answer: never.)

Life is hard for a certain Son Chaeyoung.

Life gets harder when the mattress sinks near her feet and she almost has a heart attack at the sight of Chou Tzuyu, who still hasn’t put a shirt on, sitting at the foot of her bed with the smuggest expression Chaeyoung’s ever seen the girl wear.

“Can I borrow a shirt, Chaeng?”

Chaeyoung gapes at her, face flushed and fully mortified. “I don’t have any.”

“Aw, come on. It’s cold and you interrupted my shower. All mine are in the wash.”

“Then what were you planning to wear after your shower?!”

Tzuyu ignores her and shuffles forward. Chaeyoung makes an unattractive squeaking noise at the sight and promptly flips around onto her stomach to bury her face in her pillow. She’s burning; even her ears are red, which never happens, and she squeezes her eyes shut to try to erase all images of Tzuyu’s tanned abs flexing as she tried to come closer.

Her entire body tenses when she suddenly feels a warm weight cloak over her back.

A chin lands on her shoulder and long arms drape next to her like heated curtains. Chaeyoung squeaks again. “What are you doing?!"

“You said it was cold.”

“And?!”

“And I’m here to warm you up. Be grateful I’m so thoughtful of you Chaeyoung-ah, you wouldn’t even give me a shirt.”

Chaeyoung would be lying if she said she didn’t enjoy the additional heat draped across her body. It’s no secret that she’s always cold, and Tzuyu is like a ing furnace when it comes to body heat (despite her cold hands).

The same hands that are traveling up under Chaeyoung’s navy blue sweater.

“Wh- Hey! Cut it out!” Chaeyoung shrieks, jerking under the taller girl’s weight to spin onto her back, and Tzuyu laughs at her heartily; Chaeyoung is tempted to throw her off the bunk bed and let her fall but she doesn’t, because it’s not every day that there’s a pretty girl lying on top of you with her hands under your shirt to cope a feel.

Tzuyu grins at her so widely, so freely, that Chaeyoung’s breath catches in because god damn Tzuyu is gorgeous, and Chaeyoung knows she’d give anything to see this more often- devoid of all pretenses and manners and facades to please the public eye, just Tzuyu and Chaeng with nothing else and everything in between.

Tzuyu’s suddenly looking at her lips and Chaeyoung feels mouth run dry. It’s an undeniably attractive sight; Chou Tzuyu hovering over her with towel-dried hair and nothing but a sports bra and rolled jeans. It might be a little fast- Chaeyoung’s the type who likes to have everything out there in the open with words and confirmation, and Tzuyu’s given her none of that- but all that doesn’t seem to matter anymore because it’s evident in the other girl’s eyes that there’s chemistry and maybe, just maybe, they’ve been holding out for far too long.

When the taller girl leans down and kisses her, she doesn’t resist- she lets Tzuyu control the pace, lets her hands go where they want, and it’s just a little magical because she feels all the words Tzuyu’s left unspoken, feels all the tender emotions from the warmth of the tall girl’s body gently resting on hers. And everything is good, everything is fine, and Chaeyoung is over the moon-

Until the door flings open and Nayeon marches in.

"Chaeng baby, have you seen my- AAAHHHHHH!"

Tzuyu jumps up in surprise and Chaeyoung jerks at the intrusion. To her horror, Nayeon is standing in the doorway with the most shocked expression- her scandalized-parent face would put Chaeyoung’s own mother to shame.

"MY CHILD! MY CHILD IS TAINTED!! PARK JIHYO, GET YOUR KID OFF MY PRECIOUS BABY!!!"

Tzuyu rolls her eyes and giggles, clearly unfazed, and Chaeyoung is gaping beet red. Jihyo passed by and eyes them suspiciously. 

"What's going on here?" The almighty leader asks curiously, halting to peer in from behind Nayeon's shoulder. Tzuyu shrugs innocently and Chaeyoung is still pinned beneath her.

Nayeon turns and begins to shake Jihyo violently by the shoulders. Jihyo's wide eyes fly open wider than any of them thought possible, Chaeyoung lays under Tzuyu in complete mortification, and Tzuyu just sits on top of her looking quite amused. They all know Nayeon is kidding; the eldest loves Tzuyu just as much as she loves the rest of them, (especially since she's the real maknae), but it's quite the sight to see her shaking the almighty Jihyo like a rag doll with the latter having absolutely no clue what's going on. It's not every day that Jihyo is clueless, and they share a glance because only Nayeon can be like this and get away with it. 

(Jeongyeon would beg to differ, but Nayeon would obliterate her if she did.) 

The door is opened wider and Nayeon is ungracefully pushed inside, taking Jihyo with her. Momo is standing in their stead, looking very excited with Mina right behind her. “Chaeng! Guess what unnie found?!” She pauses and looks over at Nayeon, who has resumed shaking poor Jihyo, and immediately becomes confused. “Did something happen?"

Momo clearly hasn’t caught on yet, and for once Chaeyoung is grateful for Momo’s processing buffer. To her surprise though, Mina is actually the one who seems to realize what’s happening, judging by the glint in her eyes and the excited glimmer in her suppressed smile.

Amidst the chaos, Tzuyu catches Chaeyoung’s eye and winks so smoothly that the smaller almost has a coronary. Tzuyu slides off Chaeyoung’s body with a grace Chaeyoung could only hope to possess, and she slips into a loose white v-neck that Mina discreetly hands her while Nayeon is still busy shaking Jihyo.

Tzuyu sighs and leaves, not before grinning smugly at Chaeyoung from over her shoulder, with Mina close behind- those two are the quietest ones in TWICE, but they probably talk to each other more due to sheer understanding, and Chaeyoung has no doubts that Mina’s anticipated this whole thing all along.

There’s a crash from the kitchen and a squeal that sounds suspiciously like Sana, and Chaeyoung watches Jihyo’s surprised expression morph into one of horror. “Oh my god! I left Sana alone in the kitchen- with dishes!”

She throws Nayeon off of her and sprints out of the room to the kitchen like her socks are on fire, and Nayeon can only follow her shouting “Hey, I’m not done yet- wait, what were we talking about?”

Chaeyoung is left alone in her room with Momo, who finally seems to realize what’s happening, and the older girl grins widely before scrambling up the ladder and crushing Chaeyoung under her weight. She squeals, frets, and pinches Chaeyoung’s cheeks in a flurry of noise and movement and Chaeyoung just lays there because really, what else can she do?

Momo gives up after a while and just sits there, Chaeyoung’s head resting on her lap because she is to Chaeyoung what Mina is to Tzuyu, and Chaeyoung knows that Momo loves her as dearly as she would her own little sister. Chaeyoung tells her everything that she already knew and everything she didn’t. Tzuyu comes back in the room after a bit and Momo grins broadly as she scrambles out, but not before casting Chaeyoung another cheeky look.

Tzuyu climbs back up and sits where Momo was, silently pulling Chaeyoung’s head onto her lap. Chaeyoung blushes but doesn’t complain, opting instead to keep her eyes anywhere but Tzuyu’s face, who is intently staring down at her; Chaeyoung would be lying if she said she wasn’t a little intimidated.

“Chaeng.”

Chaeyoung’s gaze flies back up to Tzuyu’s in startled recognition. “Yes?”

Tzuyu holds up her phone. “We never finished watching the drama.” She says, referring to the drama she and Chaeyoung had been watching together via Nayeon’s recommendation and excessive gushing. They were close to finishing, but in the midst of schedules and rehearsals and other activities, they had missed out on the last two episodes.

Chaeyoung sits up. “You’re right. Let’s finish it now.” She moves to grab a pillow, and Tzuyu moves to grab her. Soon they’re huddled on Chaeyoung’s bed with Chaeyoung in between Tzuyu’s legs, staring at the screen intently as the drama plays out.

Chaeyoung doesn’t say anything and nor does Tzuyu, but it’s okay now because Tzuyu’s arms around her are completely more than possessive and she’s communicating again in that weird way she does without words.

She can only hope the door’s locked; if Nayeon and Jihyo were to barge in again, it’d be nonstop for Chaeyoung and Tzuyu and a field day for the rest of TWICE.