After the most painfully awkward moments of staring at someone in Tzuyu’s life, she managed to squeak out an awestruck “H-hi?”

“Hi!” The beautiful girl giggled, and Tzuyu couldn’t help but notice the feminine lilt of her voice. “It’s a bit late to be showing up at the party, isn’t it?”

That’s right, it was sort of late...what was the Taiwanese freshman doing out of her beloved bed and away from the glorious kitchen (blame Momo for passing on her obsession with food) if she wasn’t working on her unfinished essay? It definitely wasn’t supposed to be meeting the cutest person to ever exist, although Tzuyu wasn’t complaining. Giving up a few minutes of Running Man writing was surely okay...

She could stare at her adorable neighbor all day and all night, but she needed to finish that paper. The scary image of her mother’s “what grade did you get?!” face that materialized in her head served as sufficient motivation to open and speak.

“H-hi, my name is Tzuyu? And, um, I-I’m your neighbor in this apartment complex. And, uh, I knocked on the door because…uh...because...”

Beautiful Girl was still smiling, and it was distracting! How was poor Tzuyu supposed to get a sentence out when she was literally about to die from overexposure to such brilliance?

“Uhhhh…what was I here for again? Ah, stress…”

Tzuyu lowered her head and rubbed it in embarrassment, sure that her cheeks were absolutely flaming red. Beautiful Girl giggled again, and butterflies fluttered in the Yoda’s stomach.

“Aigoo, you adorable little thing, are you stressed?” the blonde flashed an eyesmile and extended an arm for a handshake. “You’re cute. I’m Minatozaki Sana, and I just moved into the neighborhood a few weeks ago. Want to come in? My brother’s holding some sort of a party.”

Tzuyu accepted the handshake with reverence, looking very much like she had just touched a Girls’ Generation member (her bias was Taeyeon!).

“H-hi. I’m Chou Tzuyu, your next door neighbor? Neighbor. Right." She remembered all of a sudden that she had already introduced herself. Um, I unfortunately can’t come inside at this moment because I ha-have an essay to finish. So yes. Ummm...I wanted to ask if you could please lower the volume, v-volume of the music I mean,  a bit so I can concentrate?”

Clearly, acting cold and mean was out the window already. But the sight of Sana, whose perfect figure was illuminated by the colorful, flashing lights in the background, was more than enough to make Tzuyu forget about that nonsense. The girl couldn’t even hurt a fly if it bit Taeyeon on the nose.

“Oh, I guess it is late. Sorry about that. Sure, I’ll let my brother know.”

“Thanks...unnie?”

Another smile. “I’m in tenth grade at the local high school.”

“Oh...I’m a freshman. Unnie, then.”

“Really? No way. But you’re already so tall and pretty!” This girl seriously needed to stop before a lesbian in the vicinity exploded.

“Um. Th-thanks! You are, too. Tall, I mean. Um. Uh. And pretty, of course. You’re very pretty.”

Sana seemed flattered, though she was probably the kind of person who got compliments from literally everyone she met. “Awwwww, thank you!”

An awkward silence comprised of Sana still smiling brightly and Tzuyu looking as if she was about to faint ensued. Pretty girls were not good for her mental health.

“My cute new dongsaeng, Tzuyu! Good night and good luck on your essay, then?”

“Ah, right, unnie. Um. See you tomorrow?”

“Yep, tomorrow! Say hi to me if you see me at school.”

Sana gave a final wave and slowly shut the door, grinning all the while. Tzuyu was left standing outside her pretty new neighbor’s door for another fifteen minutes, unable to pick up her jaw from the porch.

It turned out that Tzuyu did not have good luck with her essay. The constant images of a certain blonde haired girl popping into her fatigued head every other second were very distracting, and she was barely able to churn out a passing paper (“passing” meaning an A, according to Tzuyu’s parents).

However, she did manage to find out more about her neighbor while talking to Nayeon and Momo the next day during lunch.

“Your cute new neighbor is WHOOOO??!!” Momo nearly choked on her jokbal when Tzuyu asked if she knew anyone by the name of “Minatozaki Sana”. Several people from nearby tables turned to stare at the girl, and Nayeon pounded on the dancer’s back with an unnecessary amount of force.

“Keep it down!” Tzuyu hissed, unsure if Sana ate in the same cafeteria during the same period. Surely not. Tzuyu would have noticed someone that pretty walked by, right? “Why? You know her?”

“Yeah, she’s only like the prettiest girl in the whole school,” Momo scoffed. “Second prettiest girl in the whole school,” she quickly amended upon seeing Nayeon’s glare. “Sana got really popular with the boys quickly for her looks and her aegyo. I heard she’s good at dancing as well! I’ve been trying to convince her to join the performance team ever since she transferred here from some Japanese high school, but she hasn’t agreed yet.”

“She’s actually in our social studies and science classes, isn’t she?” Nayeon, the ever observant student council vice president who took it upon herself to know everyone in the school, chipped in. “She speaks Korean really well for a foreigner. I’m surprised you haven’t noticed a girl that pretty in the same room as you for all these weeks. Why’re you suddenly asking about her? Is she your style?” Cackling and wiggling of eyebrows commenced after the last statement.

“Ha, ha, unnie, you’re hilarious.” Tzuyu rolled her eyes, clearly red-faced.

“Oooh, but it’s true!” Nayeon giggled. Tzuyu noted that while Sana’s giggles were angelic, Nayeon’s currently made her want to punch her in the face. Momo was sniggering and stealing her spring rolls in the background, which didn’t help.

“Unnie, this isn’t a big deal…”

“Okay, okay. I was just pointing out that she totally is your style.”

“Oh, who’s Tzuyu’s style?” A new, cutesy voice suddenly interrupted. Well, darn, she did eat in the same cafeteria at the same time.

“Sana!”  mumbled Momo through a mouthful of spring rolls.  She stood up from the table and grabbed the blonde’s hand. “Good to see you! We were just talking about y-MMMMFFF!!!!” Tzuyu shoved another spring roll into and smiled shyly at Sana. “H-hi, unnie.”

“Hey, Tzuyu! It’s great to see you again!” Dear lord, this girl never seemed to run out of rainbows and unicorns. But not in the gay way...right? She was probably straight.

“So, Sana!” Momo gave her an overly hopeful look. “I’m really glad you bumped into us right now! Have you thought about joining the performance team?”

“Momo, I still don’t know…I’m not really that great at dancing. Or singing.”

“But we really need more members!” The brunette was clutching at Sana’s hand, giving her the most pitiful pair of puppy eyes she could muster. “Nayeon and our leader Jihyo can help you with your singing! And Tzuyu’s a good dancer, she could help you learn our choreography! Right, Tzuyu?” The latter looked up from trying to hide her red cheeks in her lunch and nodded.

“You’re on the performance team, too, Tzuyu?” Sana Squirrel reconsidered. “Wow, you must be good at dancing!”

“Oh, not really, unnie, Momo unnie is much better than I am.”

Sana seated herself between Tzuyu and Nayeon. “Really, I don’t really think you need any more people on the team. It seems pretty solid already!”

“But-but-but-but!” Momo spluttered. “We only have eight members right now! Our choreography looks so much better with nine!”

“I’m sure you could find someone else who’s better at dancing than me…”

Meanwhile, Tzuyu had been unusually silent. Honestly, she sort of wanted Sana to join, as well, but she wasn’t sure having the girl around every day after school would be good for her sanity. Unfortunately(?), Nayeon joined the persuasion party with a sly smile lingering on her lips. “I think you’ll be fine, Sana. You have more than enough charm to join the team. And you know, our little Tzuyu here has always been a bit shy around new people…”

“Unnie, where are you going with this…this is not relevant.”

“She could always use a little more practice with making new friends.”

“Unnie, nooooooo, what are you saying…”

“Do you think you could do us a favor” -here Nayeon ruffled the distressed Yoda’s hair- ”and get to know her a little better? Momo’s sometimes busy preparing for her dance competitions, and I often have business as the school’s vice president, so we can’t always hang out with her. She gets a little lonely, since she’s so good at being shy. Please take care of her well, even if you don’t join the team. She’s a really nice person, perfect girlfriend material-”

The oldest received a smack on the shoulder.

“But she should talk to more people. Can you help us, her dear unnies, with that? It would be greatly appreciated.”

All the while, Tzuyu was whining insistently about how no, it wasn’t necessary, and yes, she was very not socially adept, so Sana didn’t have to worry. To her credit, the blonde didn’t even bat an eyelash at this mess of a conversation. (How random was this?!) She was still impossibly cheerful.

“Why, Tzuyu? You don’t want to be friends with me?” the squirrel pouted.

“Nononononono, it’s not that,” Tzuyu hurriedly assured her, looking slightly panicked. “It’s just…um…”

“Great, it’s settled, then!” Nayeon interjected. “You’ll hang out with Tzuyu when we’re busy?”

“Sure I could! We can be best buddies!” The blonde gave Tzuyu a light hug, which resulted in the latter’s face exploding in all sorts of amusing colors.

Momo still would not let the matter go. “But pleeeeeease, Sana? I promise that joining the performance team will be a lot of fun! I convinced Mina to join yesterday!”

“Wait, what? But Mina never does anything…” The blonde knew that her best friend and fellow transferee hated participating in any activity except gaming.

“And you get to spend some quality time with Tzuyu and stuff!” Momo had caught onto Nayeon’s drift by then.

“It looks good on college applications, you know,” Nayeon eomma added sagely, because eommas know best.

Sana seemed uncertain, but she agreed anyway. “Okay, I’ll give the club a try.”

“Great!” beamed Momo. “Our next meeting is tomorrow after school! See you there!”

“Sure, see everyone there!” Sana said bye to the trio, bowed, and skipped off across the lunchroom back to her table, leaving behind a triumphant unnie line high-fiving and a very mortified Tzuyu. She wondered how she would survive the meet tomorrow. Oh, and her next class was social studies.    

A/N: Hi guys! I’ve finally updated for the first time in forever, right? I’m really sorry about that; I turned out to be busier than I expected. The first chapter has been updated, but nothing much has changed aside from Tzuyu’s age. She’s now a ninth grader (freshman), but she takes advanced classes and that’s why she shares classes with Momo, Nayeon, Sana, and the rest of Twice’s unnie line ( who are all the same age here. I hope I can include them all at some point, by the way). Hopefully that’s cleared up!

Also, I feel like the story (especially the dialogue) has gotten sort of jumbled up and unclear. Please tell me if you think so, too, and I’ll definitely take that into consideration when I re-edit this (I probably will LOL). Thanks for reading, and have a great day/night!

P.S: SOMEONE PLEASE HELP ME WITH THE CHAPTER TITLES TT_TT