Tzuyu didn't know how she'd gotten herself into this situation.

Well, that was a little bit of a lie. Maybe she did know, but everything had gone over her head in a blur of hasty video calls between the Japanese (plus her) and the Korean TWICE members, talking about how one of the girls had gone radio silent since the reupload of her and Chaeyoung’s Melody Project three days ago. Suddenly, everyone was bickering over who should be calling Dahyun, and before she knew it, they'd all made a unanimous decision that it just had to be Tzuyu.

The maknae, together with Mina, had barely settled into Sana, Momo, and Nayeon's dorm to spend the remainder of the Lunar New Year holidays bunking with the other two Japanese members, when she heard her phone, together with Sana’s, Mina’s and Momo’s, buzzing with what sounded like an incoming call.

As soon as Tzuyu hit the answer button and made herself and the other three visible in front of the camera, she heard Nayeon screech, “Emergency meeting!”, to which Jihyo couldn't help but snicker at, saying, “This isn't Among Us, Nayeon unnie. But anyway, go on.”

“Yeah, well,” Nayeon's perplexed face appears on the screen. “It's about Dahyun.”

At the mention of the name, Tzuyu quickly scanned the names of the video call participants to find that everyone but Dahyun was in there. A twinge of worry made her chew the inside of her cheek.

“Has she contacted any of you since we left for the holidays?”

Tzuyu heard a chorus of mutterings all answering along the lines of “No, she hasn't”, and that's when it occurred to her that Dahyun hadn't talked to her either.

“I think she might be upset about the Melody Project,” Chaeyoung offered. “You guys have seen the comments on SNS, right?”

Some of the members, specifically Nayeon, Sana, Jihyo, and Momo grimly murmured their confirmation.

“What comments?” Tzuyu wondered aloud, not aware of what was going on since she was the least to lurk around on social media compared to the others. She felt a sense of dread in the pit of her stomach, knowing all too well how vicious people could get with their words online.

After the other members quickly summarized what went on the past few days, Tzuyu, her perpetual soft spot for her same-age bandmate making itself known, was quick to ask, “How about you, Chaeyoung-ah? Are you okay?”

She saw the blonde nod reassuringly from the screen, her dimple showing. “I'm fine. Just a little bummed, but I'm more worried about Dahyun unnie, to be honest.”

“Okay,” Jihyo announces, “Someone needs to check up on her.”

“She hasn't been answering my messages, though,” Momo said, almost whining, from behind Tzuyu.

“She's been even more unreachable than usual. Not even an update from her to ONCEs. It's really making me worry, too,” Mina commented quietly.

“Then let's decide who's going to call her,” Jeongyeon piped up, making everyone else hum in agreement.

“How about you, Sana-yah?” Nayeon asked.

Tzuyu felt Sana shift behind her, hooking an arm around Momo’s shoulders and leaning on her. “I would really love to, unnie. But I already feel like crying and I haven't even called her yet,” she said with a sniff. “I don't know if I'll be any help.”

“We understand, and you do make a good point,” Jihyo agreed. “So who will it be, then?”

A few beats of silence passed as the members looked at each other intently through the screen. And then, as if the seven other members were on the same wavelength, all their gazes, both through the screen and physically, settled on Tzuyu. She suddenly felt an uncomfortably warm sensation start to fill her cheeks.

Even so, she finally decided to bite the bullet and break the thick, silent atmosphere.

“Okay. I'll do it.”

It wasn't that Tzuyu was confident Dahyun would answer her call—It was the total opposite, in fact. Even then, she'd already mulled over calling since the first night her roommate had gone home, only the possibility of not being answered stopped her from doing it.

With a decisive huff, and after some minutes of stalling (She’d even put some light makeup on, despite knowing the person she'd be calling had seen her bare face countless times before.), she tapped the call button next to Dahyun’s name on her phone and waited.

And waited.

And waited.

The stretch of time in which the other line was ringing was beginning to make Tzuyu restless. Her usually hyperactive puppy, Butter, seemed to sense this and walked over, rubbing its nose on to the back of its owner's hand.

“You want to see Dahyun unnie, Butter?” Tzuyu cooed, momentarily taking her eyes off the phone screen to give the puppy a few gentle scratches behind the ears. “I do too.”

At this point, Butter's mom, Kaya shyly approached the girl for attention, too, which she was all too happy to give; and by the time Tzuyu remembered what she'd been doing beforehand, a few minutes had already passed.

A light chuckle on the phone she was still clutching, just out of her dogs’ reach, surprised her, and she looked up to find a grinning Kim Dahyun, her eyes disappearing into two crescent moons.

“Dahyunnie!” Tzuyu said in a rush, cheeks starting to flush red. “I'm so sorry, I didn't realize you were already there.”

“It's okay, Tzuyu-ah,” Dahyun replied easily. “I know it's a bit late now, but Happy Lunar New Year!”

“Happy Lunar New Year, unnie,” Tzuyu greeted back, the fluster still not quite disappearing from her features. “I—I hope you're having a good time with your family.”

She didn't miss the way Dahyun's smile slipped a little. With all the years they'd spent together as trainees and then as bandmates, how could she?

“Thanks, Tzuyu. I am. What about you? Did you have fun with Shuhua? I listened to your V live!”

The way Dahyun all but diverted the conversation away from herself did not get past Tzuyu, either. Even then, she filed these observations for her to think about at a later time, proceeding to fill Dahyun in with anecdotes about her holiday. The other girl listened, her eyes twinkling with genuine interest.

She'd always liked that about Dahyun—the way her attentiveness was always on the same level even when Tzuyu’s narratives started getting lengthy, much like what was going on right then. Then again, if she was being honest, there was really nothing not to like about Dahyun.

“So you're staying with Momo, Sana and Mina unnie for now, right?” the other girl asked with a concerned frown. “I'm really sorry you all couldn't go home for the holidays. It must be lonely, right?”

A pang of homesickness hit Tzuyu at the chest at her words. “I really miss home. I'm sure the unnies—” a series of loud shouts, footfalls, and cackling broke through from the living room, courtesy of Sana and Momo, who sounded like they were having some trouble with the latter’s dogs Boo and Dobby. The youngest girl was glad she'd thought of moving herself to Nayeon's bedroom before calling Dahyun.

“Yeah,” she said sheepishly, once the noises died down, “The unnies miss home too, for sure.”

Dahyun's melodious laughter rang through the phone, her eyes disappearing behind her lids once more, and Tzuyu’s lips couldn't help but curl up into a serene smile.

They both found themselves staring at each other for longer than they knew they should have, but neither of them seemed to mind.

Until Tzuyu, who'd been filled to the brim with relief that Dahyun was seemingly back to being herself, let slip something she didn't intend to. “It feels a bit lonely without you, too.”

The verbal slip surprised Dahyun, and her pale skin proved of no help in hiding the blush that was creeping up her face. “O-Oh.” She coughed slightly. “Is that why you called?” Trying to play it off as a joke, she said teasingly, “Because you missed me?”

Dahyun knew Tzuyu might as well be the epitome of bluntness, but even after all this time, the other girl's answer, coupled with the straight face she always wore whenever she told the truth, caught her off-guard, just the same.

“That's right,” Tzuyu answered, even through her embarrassment. “I called because I miss you, unnie.”

“Me—Me too, Tzuyu-ah,” Dahyun mumbles, suddenly shy, her eyes looking away from the camera. “Thank you for checking up on me. I know the others must've put you up to it because I haven't been replying to their messages.”

This girl was seriously too perceptive for her own good, Tzuyu thought. Even then, she felt the need to explain herself. “I didn't do it because they told me to. I—I really did want to call you. To see if you're doing okay.”

And just like that, Tzuyu saw the faux cheerfulness in Dahyun's expression fade into a more somber, troubled one. “I… I'm not, not really, to be honest.”

Tzuyu's heart ached for the other girl. Right then, she wanted nothing more than to reach for Dahyun through the screen and wrap her arms around her.

Instead, she settled with a gentle, “Do you want to talk about it? With me?”

Dahyun met Tzuyu’s eyes (though technically, she was just looking at the camera lens, but the younger girl found that irrelevant right then), shimmering with barely-held-back tears, and she gave her a sad but grateful smile.

“I think I do.”