episode 1: tzuyu in the middle

"Someone remind me why I'm here again?" Tzuyu mutters under her breath, blinking twice to take in the scene before her. It's the Chinese Student Association, at one of the general meetings of the semester. These meetings do little of anything that is remotely productive, but at least it makes for good entertainment.  

They're crowded in a small classroom in one of the campus buildings, and she sort of wishes that Minghao isn't breathing down her neck because of how little space there is. Not that she doesn't like Minghao because he is definitely a sweetheart and all, and plus, he helps her with math homework. So there's that. 

"I'm not even from mainland China. I'm Taiwanese." Tzuyu has to stop herself from visibly rolling her eyes when Yibo accidentally-on-purpose whacks Wenhan with his yo-yo that he always carries around.  

"Just admit it, you wouldn't know what you would do without us anyway," Wenhan slides in the seat next to her after fleeing from Yibo's attacks. She catches a whiff of his cologne as he smiles cheekily at her. For a second, she sort of understands why he has hordes of girls lined up to cheer for him during his swim meets. But then she remembers that one time she accidentally walked in on him watching kid cartoons while lounging around in his underwear that day she went to his apartment that he shares with Yixuan and Junhui. She had originally visited to buy Junhui's old textbooks, but instead she got Wenhan singing along to cartoon opening songs. She supposes it could be classified as endearing but it's just sort of different from the suave front he gives everyone else. 

"Whatever," Tzuyu simply replies, hiding her smile. "You should go talk to Yixuan over there. Why does he always look so lonely?" She jokes. 

"That's because he's always in his single room with his nose buried in a book," Wenhan deadpans, about to get up when Junhui decides to make himself comfortable on Wenhan's lap. No one seems fazed by this situation because it is in fact a natural occurrence; they are roommates after all.  

"At this rate, Minghao is going to be like Yixuan later on," Junhui comments matter-of-factly. "Except less grandpa-like and more sweet and more social." He's always had a soft spot for the college freshman - aspiring medical doctor who b-boys in his spare time. 

"Excuse you." Yixuan finally catches the drift that they're talking about him. "I am social. I am the president of this club, for your information." When everyone simply raises their eyebrows, he adds, "I just happen to have a particular fascination with Chinese history. Can't forget your roots." 

Everyone's eyebrows are still raised, but they've heard it all before. One of the things on his agenda as president is to host different seminars reviewing Chinese history, in case everyone's too busy adjusting to life in America as an international student to remember their great motherland. Honestly most of them are too busy with other things to attend said seminars, even though they would like a brush-up on their Chinese history and culture knowledge - really. Except maybe Yibo. One time Yixuan tried to gift him a book on Chinese history, but Yibo just used it as a very thick mouse pad.  

In short, they waste a whole 30 minutes (half the meeting time) before the meeting actually starts. Junhui announces something about a Chinese New Year potluck coming up in a week or so (she imagines he might be living in the kitchen for the next few days, the equivalent to his heaven), and Wenhan does a shameless plug for his next swim meet - not that he won't have an exploding fan section in the stands anyway. Can't let him get too cocky, she reasons. Another kid invites everyone to come out to the club's lion dance team's performance on the main plaza in a few days, and Wenhan jokes that Yixuan try out for the lion dance team next time so that he can get out more (I do go outside, thank you very much, Yixuan shoots back).  

Soon the meeting is over, and Yibo yells obnoxiously whether anyone wants to go on a boba run with him. Honestly, being in this college town where there are boba places everywhere is not a good thing for their wallets, but everyone yelps in agreement anyway. Even though Tzuyu can't take caffeine well and it's already 9pm. She's going to have a hard time sleeping tonight, but whatever. She's probably going to end up staying up late over at Minghao and Yibo's dorm room anyway in an attempt to study for her chemistry midterm in a few days. Studying with Minghao does wonders - with Yibo, well, not so much, since he gets off track so easily. Sometimes she doesn't know what goes on inside his brain. 

As she walks alongside Junhui (who, by the way, is carrying a "drunk" Yixuan on his back - drunk from what? Chinese history reading? Sometimes their little sitcom attempts don't make sense to her) and listens in on Wenhan and Yibo's conversation about correct burping mechanisms, Tzuyu realizes that she doesn't know what goes on in any of their brains.  

"Remind me why I'm here again?" she whispers to herself again (this is an ongoing trend, it seems - in which Tzuyu questions why she is stuck with this dysfunctional group of Chinese boys). But she soon she lets go of the question when Yibo offers to pay for her drink. Despite many examples that say otherwise, she thinks, Yibo does have his head screwed on correctly at times. 

Needless to say, it's a long night of caffeine overdose and poring over practice tests with Minghao and ignoring Yibo who is playing computer games again. If this is what her next four years of college will be like, she can't say that she's really complaining (yet). Like she said before, at least it makes for great entertainment.

Author's Note: this is a bit shorter than the following chapters will be. This serves to introduce the characters and sort of get a sense of the character dynamics. Next update will be in a week or so!