Heart Beating Pills

School has never been Tzuyu’s cup of tea. Going to school meant that you had to sit quietly on your bum for a certain amount of hours, which could be a rather difficult challenge for every child but for some reason the challenge suddenly gets a hundred times as difficult when your name is Chou Tzuyu. The doe-eyed girl had since birth always been slightly more misbehaving and slightly more impatient than her brother – it was not really a thing their parents had taken a notice of before it became an issue for her in school. Tzuyu wasn’t great at listening to someone speak for more than a couple of minutes; it was not that she didn’t want to learn or pay attention but her attention span just did not allow her to focus more than a few minutes at most.

The first few years in school, Tzuyu’s misbehaving was merely considered as her being a foolish thick-headed kid, who did not want to obey or simply follow orders. All this led to scolding, which in reality wasn’t the doe-eyed girl’s fault because she was really trying to do as she was told but could never entirely focus on the tasks. But as Tzuyu reached fourth grade her parents were told that their daughter could not continue to fifth grade if she did not improve her grades and her ability to at least just sit still – on the other hand, her brother had aced all their tests and was offered to skip a grade.

As her parents realized that it was a problem for Tzuyu to focus they brought her to a doctor, who diagnosed her with Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder or shortened ADHD. The diagnose itself wasn’t really what bothered the doe-eyed girl – putting a diagnose to her wandering mind didn’t really affect anything but it was the pills that bothered. Tzuyu did not like to take pills so this eventually led to many discussions with her parents in the mornings. The pills worked, however, she was now able to follow the lectures. The teachers could clearly see that Tzuyu improved to some point but for some reason, she still seemed to struggle. She wasn’t able to read at the same level as her classmates, and she most certainly wasn’t able to spell as an average 12-year-old. Her parents were quickly contacted about it and were recommended to test if Tzuyu had dyslexia – not much to anyone’s surprise she was diagnosed with dyslexia. With both ADHD and dyslexia, middle-school most certainly wasn’t the easiest task for the young girl, she did pass, however. The doe-eyed girl even passed her high school entrance exams, it required a great deal of work and studying, but she made it, barely.

Now that Tzuyu just turned 16, and as a now official first-year high school student, she discovered that ADHD, dyslexia and her fundamental learning disabilities weren’t the worst of her problems –  there was something much more complicated and difficult. Because of her dyslexia, Tzuyu was by the school assigned a third-year tutor, who she was supposed to meet with twice a week. Her tutor and Tzuyu agreed to meet up on Mondays and Thursdays after school, as her tutor had calligraphy, student council or some extra credit stuff all the other days.

Since today was a Thursday, it meant tutoring. Usually, the Taiwanese girl didn’t really look forward to school related stuff, but for some bizarre reason, she always looked forward to her tutoring sessions – which was slightly odd even to herself. It was 4:03 PM and only seven minutes left in the last period of the day. Tzuyu was waiting very impatiently for the last period to end so that she could just go to her tutoring. In boredom, she sighed deeply, which was noticed by the teacher. The history teacher, Mrs. Oh, shot Tzuyu a glare as she should not show her boredom that exclusively – the doe-eyed was, without doubt, no teacher’s pet.

As the bell rang Chou was the first to leave the classroom. She rushed, as fast as the school rules allowed her, down to the third years’ classrooms. She made it down the stairs, turned to her right and saw that class 2-3’s last period had ended as they slowly made their way out of the room. Tzuyu was looking for a certain Japanese tutor among the third years’ and as she spotted her Tzuyu exclaimed quite loudly: “Sana unnie!”, gaining some attention, from not only her tutor but also from the rest of the students. The Japanese girl didn’t take any notice of the attention and just smiled at Tzuyu.

“Hey Tzuyu, are you ready?” Chou nodded with great enthusiasm, which gained her an almost inaudible but noticeable giggle from Sana. Their little tutoring session always takes place at the library, and today’s no exception. They found themselves their usual cozy, quiet little corner and then Tzuyu found her physic book. It’s not only physics where the doe-eyed girl needs extra help – it’s basically every subject, except P.E. – but today it’s physics they’re going to focus on.

“You are going through thermal energy at the moment, right?” Tzuyu knew that it was more of a statement than a question – for some reason Sana always knew what they were going through in class – yet the Taiwanese freshman still nodded in respond.

“Great, shall we begin?” Sana asked not waiting for an answer as she started to explain the physical phenomenon. The first couple of minutes went by pretty fine, Tzuyu was able to focus on the actual task, however after twenty minutes or so, Sana’s lips movements were far more interesting than the words that she was producing. Exactly this has been happening a lot lately. For some reason the last few weeks Chou have found the way her tutor her lips extremely interesting; yet Tzuyu had no idea as to why. A little while passed before Sana noticed that the Taiwanese girl wasn’t as fascinated by thermal energy as she should be.

“Tzuyu, are you even listening to me?” Minatozaki sighed and gave Tzuyu a slightly disappointed look. Since the doe-eyed was caught in her own little Sana-world, she was taken a bit by surprise as Sana turned to her. “I- uhm… No, sorry,” Tzuyu turned her gaze away and rubbed her neck in embarrassment. The elder of the two sighed once again. Not only had Tzuyu herself noticed that she had been spacing out and had extra trouble staying focused, also Sana had taken a notice of it. So instead of continuing all the academic stuff, she decided to stop for today.

“Fine – well, how about stopping for today and then we’ll go grab some ice cream?” She asked in a very sensible way. The proposal was met with favorable reputation from Tzuyu, obviously ice cream could beat off studying any time. So they decided to pack up their things and then go to the local ice-cream man. The ice-cream shop’s owner, Mr. Kwon, was one of Tzuyu great friends. Mr. Kwon and his wife had always been fond of Tzuyu and since Tzuyu came by almost every day when she was little, they had built up a great relationship to the each other; to the Taiwanese girl, the married couple became almost like family.

The little bell attached to the doorframe rang, notifying new costumers in the ice-cream shop. It was rather packed with people so the two girls quickly got in the queue. Quite a little while passed in a noisy atmosphere, but silence between the two girls – this was actually the first time they did something, not school related together. The silence, however, was broken as it was their turn to order. “Ow! Hi, Tzuyu-ah!” The man behind the counter exclaimed out loud, catching both Tzuyu and Sana’s attention. “Uncle Kwon!” Chou replied the elder gentleman, with just as much excitement in her voice.

“Long time no see, kiddo,” Mr. Kwon reached over the counter to ruffle his all time favorite little Taiwanese girl’s hair. “How come you’ve not visited us? And who might be the young pretty lady here?” The elder man turned to Sana at his last comment, which made her cheeks heat up. “High school been busy lately,” she sighed knowing that it probably wouldn’t get any less busy from here on. “Also this is Sana unnie,” Tzuyu smiled as she introduced her tutor to Mr. Kwon. For some reason Tzuyu felt something that was not unequal to the feeling of being proud, as she presented Sana to an important adult figure in her life – yet she did not know why exactly.

“What a beautiful name,” Mr. Kwon said, making the Japanese girl blush once more. “Thank you, sir,” Sana thanked the old charming Mr. Kwon for his compliments. “Well then, what can I do for you?” The local ice-cream man asked as he noticed the queue behind the two lovely girls. Sana ordered a chocolate-mint and Tzuyu ordered: “the usual”, which no-one but Tzuyu and Mr. Kwon knew what was. The ice cream was on the house since Tzuyu had brought such a beautiful girl with her. At first, Sana wouldn’t accept the offer, she, however, gave in at the end and accepted Mr. Kwon’s generosity.

The two girls thanked and bid a goodbye to Mr. Kwon. They decided to eat their ice cream outside as the weather was absolutely superb – the emission of thermal energy from the rays of the sun was just right, not too much nor too little. Chou and Minatozaki settled themselves on a nice little bench in the near-located park.

“What flavor is that?” Sana asked as she had been wondering for quite a little what Tzuyu had ordered. The doe-eyed sat down next to her tutor and scooped a spoonful of ice-cream into before answering. “Shooting stars,” the Taiwanese girl answered and scooped yet another spoonful of ice cream in . Sana looked questioning at the blue-slightly-purple-yet-not colored ice cream, she had never heard of shooting stars. “And what exactly do shooting stars taste like?”

“Well, it… Here,” Tzuyu held a spoonful ice cream out in front of Sana, hinting for her to taste herself, as the Taiwanese freshman had no idea as of how to explain the exact flavor. Without a word, Sana accepted the spoonful ice cream. As the ice cream reached Sana’s taste buds silence fell upon the two girls, who got lost in two different worlds. On one hand the Japanese girl was trying to figure out what shooting stars tasted like, and whether she liked it or not; on the other hand, Tzuyu’s attention was once again today pointed towards Sana’s lips – the way she the excessed ice cream away from her lips or the way she carefully nibbled her bottom lip while thinking very deeply.

Having reached no conclusion, Sana chose to break the silence first. “It didn’t taste as synthetic as I thought it would – bright side?” Sana turned to Tzuyu just to find her spacing out. “Tzuyu-ah, you’re spacing out again – apropos, you’ve been doing that a lot lately, is there something wrong?” The first thought that reached Minatozaki’s mind was if Tzuyu had forgotten to take her pills, but the thought was quickly disposed as she had experienced Tzuyu without her pills, so this let Sana to think that there must be something bothering the young Taiwanese.

“I- I don’t know?” Chou said cautious, as she was taken slightly aback by Sana’s question also she really didn’t know whether there was something wrong. Yet she did feel weird whenever she was around Sana. It started a few weeks ago, well maybe beforehand as well, but it has only for a few weeks where Tzuyu had taken a notice of it. Not only her lips caught Tzuyu’s attention, but the way Sana’s hair always fell perfectly down her shoulders or the way her eyes would sparkle when Tzuyu got things right, everything basically made Tzuyu feel weird – maybe there was something wrong. Silence fell before the freshman decided to continue to speak.

“Do you know if there exist pills for an irregular increase of heart beating pace?” Tzuyu asked with further explanation and looked very seriously at Sana – which worried Sana quite a lot. “When does that occur Tzuyu-ah? Often? – I think you should go to the doctor if it’s painful,” the Japanese senior suggested quite seriously, as she now was extremely worried for Tzuyu’s health. “It- It is not painful, just has this weird but not bad feeling to it and it’s only when I’m around you that it beats faster,” the freshman explained her situation further. “Huh?” Sana looked questioning but yet while smiling at Chou – she wasn’t entirely sure where Tzuyu was going with this, however, Sana did have a pretty good hint.

“It’s when you for instance when you flip your hair or when you are too close? Well, basically it everything but – argh!! It’s difficult to explain,” Chou ruffled her hair in frustration. “It’s not dangerous, right? – I don’t want to go to the hospital,” Tzuyu said and pouted, which made Sana laugh. Even if Sana was called a 4-D kind of person by her friends, she must admit that Tzuyu at some points could beat her to it.

“No, don't’ worry, you’re not going to the hospital because of that,” the Japanese girl ruffled Tzuyu’s hair and pinched her cheek. “Then what – no pills, no nothing!?” The Taiwanese girl asked and grabbed Sana’s hand to removed it from her cheek. It was not like Chou wanted there to exist pills to stop whatever she felt whenever she was around Sana, however she wasn’t able to focus at all when she was around her tutor. So as Tzuyu had learn that pills could be quite effective in situations, when for instance your brain or body did not want to obey, she thought that there might have be something to help here as well.  

“Nope,” Sana said without further comments whatsoever. Minatozaki did consider telling the Taiwanese first-year what exactly she was experiencing, yet Sana chose not to, as she had no idea as of how to respond to a direct confession from Chou. “Ow, well,” Tzuyu turned her gaze to the ground but it was quickly diverted upwards again, as she noticed that Sana walked away from the bench to the trash bin a small distance away.

“It’s almost 6 o’clock and I’ve promised to babysit,” the tutor said looking at her watch while walking back towards Tzuyu. “So, I’ve got to go,” she said much to Chou’s disappointment. The doe-eyed obviously did not want Sana to go, but she still handed Sana her jacket, which earlier was put on the bench. The Japanese girl mouthed a ‘thank you’ and hugged Tzuyu goodbye as they usually did. However, this time Sana did something that caught both of them equally off guard; her lips landed at the corner of Tzuyu’s, touching almost but not quite. The act made the blood of the two of them rush to their cheeks, making them bright red.

A little while went, with them just looking alarmed at each other, before Sana broke out of the trance. She removed her gaze to the ground and coughed, trying to make the blush go away – it did not quite work. “I- uhm… I better go – see you, Monday,” Sana said shyly, nodded a goodbye and started to head out of the park. Tzuyu quickly noticed that Sana was walking away from her and then slight hasty and aggressive grabbed Sana’s wrist. “Wait!” The Taiwanese just realized that she neither had gotten her homework solved nor her heart-beating-focus problem solved. “Sorry,” was quickly added and then she let go of Sana’s wrist, as she noticed that Sana flinched a tiny bit, probably indicating that Tzuyu’s grip was not pleasant.

“It’s alright – I’ve got to go, I’m running late,” Minatozaki smiled to reassure that the slightly aggressive act was indeed forgiven. She once again nodded a goodbye and rushed out of the park to the subway, leaving Tzuyu to stand there alone. The doe-eyed sighed, not really knowing what to think or do. Her bizarre Sana-heart-beating problem didn’t seem to go away by itself or with the help of pills, which did not make anything any less troublesome or complicated.

Tzuyu sighed once more – she’ll figure it out another time, just not now as she was getting hungry, despite just having eaten some ice cream. As for now, she just had to get home and get some dinner. 

A/N: 

Hello!

Thank you very much for reading my fanfic, I hope you enjoyed it, despite it being a slightly ty story. I honestly myself liked the beginning of it, however, it turned out slightly odd at the end, as if it didn’t really connect to the original plot of the story – I don’t know. Anyways, since the ending, in my opinion, was fairly close to terrible, I might make a sequel. I won’t promise anything, though I’ll do my best to write a proper sequel if possible.

Please tell me what you thought of it, it’s highly appreciated. Also if you spot any spelling, grammar or general mistakes, please don’t hold back to point it out, so that I can correct it and also improve.

Lastly, thank you very much xolovestephi_SONE0, AdorkableKid and jinri23 for upvoting before I had even posted the fanfiction – of course also a massive thank you to you, who subscribed before I had even posted the fanfiction.

P.s. This story was originally a Yoonhyun fanfiction - but since Yoona and Tzuyu both have beautiful doe eyes, I made it a Satzu/Tzuna fanfiction instead.