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Tzuyu rolled her eyes as she looked at her phone screen, continuing to walk on the sidewalk from her school. Her best friend Yein had just texted her a picture of Tzuyu’s face edited onto the body of Yoda from Star Wars with the caption, “I finally found you in the movie! Kekeke xD”. Sometimes Tzuyu hated being teased for resembling the character, but she couldn’t help but smile. The picture was funny, she would admit.

Plus, she missed Yein. Her best friend who never failed to make her smile for no reason or feel better when she was down had gone off to university months before, leaving Tzuyu with no other half to do everything with. They tried their best to video chat every night, though a lot of the time either one of the two would be swamped with schoolwork or some thing would decide to get in their way. Like the world didn’t want them to be together anymore.

It wasn’t fair, Tzuyu thought. Not at all.

Hopefully, though, with the semester just about finished they would be able to have some more semblance of interaction. Although meeting up seemed like a far possibility due to the fact that Yein’s college just had to be out of the country.

Yup, not fair.

Tzuyu sighed and walked up to the front door of her house, noticing a package on the ground. She picked it up and went inside, having absolutely no idea what the package was or whom it was from—the only thing written on it said that it was addressed to her, nothing more.

“Mother, I’m home!” she called out. Her mom appeared from around the corner and smiled.

“Welcome home,” she greeted.

“Hey mother, do you know what this package is? I found it out on the doorstep.”

Tzuyu’s mom paused. “Hm, I don’t know what’s inside, no. You should open it and find out,” she spoke, heading back towards the direction she came from.

“Wait!” Tzuyu exclaimed, catching up to her mother. “What if it’s dangerous? You should open it then.” She held the box out towards her mother, who smirked.

“Tzuyu, don’t worry. Just open it.”

She disappeared from Tzuyu’s view, leaving the perplexed girl to carefully open the package by herself. Past the shredded paper was a white teddy bear with a crimson, satin bow around its neck and matching cap atop its head. Tzuyu also found a red card with the bear and opened it.

Hello! Hehe I hope you think I’m cute~ I’m here to congratulate you on (hopefully) passing your final exams and making it to the end of high school :)

Please pick up the present in the refrigerator~

Okay, Tzuyu didn’t exactly know how well she did on her finals, though she hoped that the bear was right in its assumption.

But a present in the refrigerator? Hm, then it must be food. Tzuyu migrated to the kitchen and opened the appliance, finding a clear plastic container with a decorated cupcake inside. There was another red card taped to the top of the container; raising an eyebrow, Tzuyu took the cupcake out of the fridge and looked inside the card.

Enjoy this treat well :)

Why don’t you turn the computer in the study on?

All right, what was this? Some sort of game? Well, Tzuyu could play along. She liked games, and after all, she got a stuffed bear and a cupcake out of it so it should be fun.

She off some of the cupcake's frosting, nibbling from it on the way to the room mentioned in the card, still carrying the bear from the package. A video came on the screen after she turned the family computer on.

Various clips of her childhood began to play, from the time that she took her first steps to her parents dropping her off on the first day of grade school. Tzuyu laughed, cringed, and smiled in nostalgia at the random memories, though she was wondering what the point of the video was.

At the end of the video came the text:

You really should see how adorable you were as a child kekeke. Because I didn’t really get to ><

But how about going over to Mr. Park’s place? Maybe he has something for you…

Mr. Park the neighbor was involved with this too? Whoever organized all this had really put in a lot of effort, Tzuyu thought, as she got up from the desk chair and headed for the front door. She finished the cupcake and called out to let her mom know she was stepping out for a bit.

The guy lived right next door so it didn’t take long for Tzuyu to arrive and ring the bell at the entrance. An older man swiftly opened the door with an eager expression.

“Ah, Tzuyu! Yes, yes, I was expecting you!” he announced keenly, briefly reaching to the side to grab a slim, rectangular object wrapped in patterned paper. “I was told to give this to you.”

Tzuyu took the item into her own hands to examine it. “I want to know what it is, too,” Mr. Park commented. So Tzuyu unwrapped the object at the doorstep, the man curiously watching her.

“Star Wars Episode I! A good movie,” the man said.

“I’ve never seen it,” Tzuyu spoke. She let out a breath through her nose. “Whoever wanted me to have this probably just wanted to make a joke about my Yoda ears.”

“Hey, Yoda’s a good character. He’s very wise, and skilled in numerous ways. Take that comparison as a compliment.”

“But he’s not very pretty…” Tzuyu sighed, and opened yet another red card that was attached to the cover of the DVD box.

You’ve never seen Star Wars, have you? Hehe, well, it’s never too late to start!

Do you want to come home and watch it now?

“So, what’s the card say?” Mr. Park asked.

“I guess I have to go home to see what else this person wants. You don’t happen to know…who this person is, do you?” Tzuyu tried to put on her best pleading expression so that her neighbor would tell her who led her on this hunt.

Mr. Park only smiled knowingly. “Of course I do. But what would be the fun if I said it? And obviously she told me not to tell you anyway.”

Tzuyu attempted to get the gears in her head going. She. So it was a female. “Wait…is it Jia unnie?” 

Tzuyu loved Jia—the woman was like an older sister to her since she had tutored Tzuyu in school subjects for a while. Although, Jia had said that she had a lot of business to attend to back in China, and recently left the country. Come to think of it, it had actually been a couple of months since they had last had any contact with each other.

“Maybe, maybe not.” The man smirked.

Tzuyu paused, about to press further, but figured it wouldn’t do her much good to keep asking Mr. Park about the identity of the mystery game person. She’d find out soon enough anyway, if this person decided not to leave a trail of 50+ clues that would leave Tzuyu following the red cards past nightfall.

“Well, thank you, Mr. Park,” Tzuyu finally said, giving a bow towards her neighbor, who waved his hand.

“No, no, don’t mention it. Now go have fun!” He grinned as Tzuyu left the entrance and he shut the door.

Tzuyu walked back to her own house, bringing the bear up to her face to stare at it. “Who brought you here, Mr. Gom? Was it Jia unnie or not?” she asked, the bear of course only able to offer a blank look in return. Tzuyu sighed.

How long would this go on? When Tzuyu reached her front door, there was a red card present again for Tzuyu to read, with even some sort of fabric tacked to it.

Put this around your eyes and come inside~ No peeking!

This person expected Tzuyu to blindfold herself…? Strange. But she did as the card instructed, making sure she wasn’t able to see down her nose. She opened the door and slowly stepped in.

“Okay, can someone help me out here? I can't see anything, you know,” she declared. She felt a pair of hands grab hold of her arm, then a voice spoke.

“Just come this way a little, Tzuyu.”

That definitely sounded like her mom. “Mother?” Tzuyu smiled. “You’ve been behind this all along?”

“Hm, possibly,” her mom chuckled.

After a few steps, Tzuyu’s mother removed the girl’s blindfold. Tzuyu laid her eyes upon a decorated scene in front of her—there were a few balloons here and there, and a colorful banner with “Graduation!” printed on it. There was a small pop and confetti suddenly rained on Tzuyu.

The startled girl proceeded to turn around. “Yah, mother, you didn’t have to…” Tzuyu’s voice faltered, “do this…”

Because it wasn’t her mother standing directly behind her. No, she was off to the side, a giant grin on her face.

In fact it was Yein, holding the empty confetti canister, whom Tzuyu had turned around to face. Whom Tzuyu couldn’t help shedding a tear for when she realized Yein was actually there.

“Hi, Tzuyu!”

Whom Tzuyu couldn’t help but shed a few more tears for.

“…U-Unnie…” she breathed, and stepped forward to wrap her arms tightly around Yein’s neck.

“Yah, why are you crying?” Yein asked, a couple tears running down her own cheeks as she returned the girl’s embrace.

“Unnie, how are you here?” Tzuyu questioned, pulling away from the hug to look at her friend. Yein took the bear still in Tzuyu’s hands and used the animal’s paws to gently dab at the taller girl’s tears.

“Well, I definitely couldn’t miss your graduation!” Yein expressed, changing her voice to emulate the stuffed animal.

Tzuyu’s mom spoke up then. “Yein visited her parents for a couple days and now she’s going to be staying here with us until after your graduation ceremony.”

“You’re going to be staying here for a whole week?” Tzuyu gasped, fixing her gaze on Yein, who nodded excitedly. Tzuyu let out a small squeal of enthusiasm, which the other girl mirrored, and wrapped her in another tight hug.

“Yes~ We can do a whole bunch of stuff together!”

Tzuyu’s grin stretched across her entire face upon the prospect of spending an entire week with her lifelong friend. But suddenly, came into a slight frown. “So…you were in town for days and you didn’t tell me?” Tzuyu pouted.

Yein wiped the remaining moisture from Tzuyu’s face before replying. “Hey, I had to be with my parents for a while, after so long. Even though they came to me during the holidays…” She paused when she noticed Tzuyu still looking somewhat forlorn. “Come on, don’t be jealous~ I wanted to give you a surprise as well, right?” The corner of Tzuyu’s mouth then lifted, and she nodded in acknowledgement.

“Why don’t you guys watch that movie?” Tzuyu’s mother suggested, gesturing towards the DVD that Tzuyu was holding. “I’ll just finish preparing snacks.” She then went into the kitchen.

“Oh yeah,” Tzuyu huffed, lightly hitting Yein on the shoulder. “What’s with this? Making fun of me again?” Yein giggled, and Tzuyu continued with a gasp of realization.

“Hold on, was the picture you sent me earlier supposed to be another hint?”

The other girl thought for a moment and shook her head. “Hm, not really. I just felt like sending that to you,” she answered, smiling. She took Tzuyu’s hand and led her to the couch in front of the television.

“So then, was it you or my mother who set all this up?” Tzuyu asked while sitting down.

“Well, it was my idea to leave the notes for you to find. Your mom helped me to put up the decorations and such.”

“Did you make that video of me too…?”

Yein nodded. “Yup! I asked your parents to give me the cutest clips of your childhood before I met you and I edited them all together.”

The taller girl just sighed contentedly and scooted sideways to rest her head on Yein’s shoulder. Tzuyu’s body completely relaxed against the other’s, and Yein gently laid an arm around Tzuyu, pulling her closer.

“Thank you,” Tzuyu said softly. Yein’s lips curved upwards and she began lightly stoking Tzuyu’s hair.

“You’re welcome Tzuyu-ah. I’m glad to finally be here with you again.”

They were settled like that when Tzuyu’s mom brought out a small tray of food. The three got caught up in talking to each other for a while—about how well Yein was living the college experience, about how Tzuyu’s last year of high school went and what she would do post-graduation, about miscellaneous recollections from the girls’ youth together.

Before they realized it, the snack tray was mostly empty; chuckling, Tzuyu’s mother got up to replenish it while her daughter put the Star Wars dvd into the player.

Yein, of course, laughed when Yoda first showed up in the film. 

Thanks for reading!

Questions, comments, concerns? Let me know~