To Be Human

On Taking Care of a Tzuyu
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There were not many things that could wake up a sleeping TWICE girl. Working in this industry, they were forced to catch quick 40-winks between tasks in their incredibly tight schedule; that said, they could sleep through almost anything, from booming music to ear-piercing construction sounds. Also, seeing as they were nine girls sharing a house, sleeping through sudden midnight shrieking and/or stuff breaking was expected.

Still, there existed two things that could pull these girls out of their slumber no matter how deep in slumber they were.

One was, until dethroned by Tzuyu the other day, was Momo’s otherworldly shrill scream.

The other, surprising as it might be, was Nayeon’s ranting.

For the most part, the eldest member of TWICE was a pleasant person to be with- she was friendly, kind, and easily amused. Admittedly the younger ones came to Jihyo when they encountered hardships in their professional and private lives, but when Jihyo was met with problems herself- she came to Nayeon. That alone spoke volumes about how understanding and supportive the older girl could be when she tried.

Keyword being when.

When she did not try, however, Nayeon was highly aggressive. She was hard to rile up, sure, but should someone managed to, she would not mind arguing-or ranting- about it at length. And her voice, highly irritable at that point, went on and on and on, reverberating off and through the walls, either keeping others awake or waking them up. It was the “Nayeon suffrage”- People suffered when Nayeon raged.

_____

“I know you don’t understand me Tzuyu-ah, but I need my morning milk. I know I’m just ranting for no reason, but I can only be myself if I have my milk in the morning! Now I can’t eat this dry cereal, because you drank all the milk Tzuyu-ah! Actually no, you wasted most of it on the floor! I wondered why they even let you practice with milk. Is this because you don’t want to drink plain water? Aren’t you a high-maintenance catgirl? Aish, jinjja…”

It was not that Nayeon was loud, nor did her voice held any noticeable venom. It was just that she kept talking and repeating her opinions to the point that everything she said became painfully annoying.

 A few steps from the pacing girl sat poor Tzuyu. She was forced to stay and hold the empty milk carton in , as a ridiculous means of punishment brought about by Nayeon. Still she did without any resistance, her eyes wide with curiosity.

But after what seemed like an eternity, Tzuyu visibly drooped. An obedient girl she was, the milk carton remained firmly in its place; nevertheless, she withdrawn her limbs into a knee-hugging position, and lowered her head until her eyes were no longer visible to Nayeon.

“Nayeon-unnie, that’s enough. You’re killing her.” Said an unusually grumpy Mina, who just entered the room still wearing her nightgown. It was unheard of for the resident penguin to ever raise her voice against anyone; not because she was docile, mind you, but boy, that girl could scare with but one sentence. Mina’s sulking, passive-aggressive attitude was extremely hard to deal with, so other members knew to shut up when she told them the first time.

Taking heed of Mina’s words (or rather, taking heed of the fact that it was Mina who said those words), and seeing the pathetic state which the catgirl just put herself into, Nayeon had no choice but to suppress her own irritation. She proceeded to walk out of the room without another word.

Mina took a moment to calm herself down, before trying to comfort Tzuyu with her gentle .

“Tzuyu-ah.” Seeing no response at all, Mina repeated, determined to make the girl realize that was her name, and she was being called. “Tzuyu. Tzuyu.”

Finally, said girl looked up at Mina. Her eyes were downcast and dull, and her aura just screamed depression.

“Wow… I know you feel bad about Nayeon, but I don’t know you feel this bad.” Mina then wrapped her arms around Tzuyu in a tentative hug, to which Tzuyu did not object. “There there, cheer up baby, cheer up baby, jom deo himeul hae~” She hummed to one of their songs, hoping it would somehow cheer Tzuyu up- like how the lyrics went.

Little did she know, Tzuyu was too unfamiliar with the ways of the world to feel down because of what happened with Nayeon. She was depressed of an entirely different reason.

In the shadows, Jihyo stifled a sigh.

______

“Jihyo! Jihyo, wake up!” The girl in question woke up to someone’s quiet, yet frantic, hiss.

 “Hnnng...? Nayeon-unnie?” Jihyo groggily replied.  “Why do I feel I’ve been through this before…?” As soon as she came to her senses, she was hit by déjà vu.

“There is some strange sound in the common room.” Answered Nayeon in a whisper.

Jihyo closed her eyes, focusing on her auditory senses. Indeed, there was a faint sound. Trying harder, she could pinpoint it as a female voice, but the walls were too much of an obstacle for her to make out anything intelligible.

“Nayeon-unnie, Tzuyu can’t speak you know.”

“I know that, but still, who can it be at this time of night? No one among us stays up late.”

“… Good point. Want to come with me?”

“Of course. How can I let you go alone?” Replied Nayeon.

Jihyo nodded appreciatively. The duo proceeded to sneak out of their shared bedroom, taking extra caution not to wake Sana or Mina up. The closer they got, the clearer the voice; Jihyo instinctively knew it was Tzuyu, despite having only heard her meows. However, she was not making any sense; rather, she was merely making random sounds.

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Comments

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mantsguw #1
Chapter 9: Im here in 2022 bawling my eyed out😭
ScyllaRam #2
Chapter 9: :(
_Jkjkjk #3
Chapter 9: Update!
_Jkjkjk #4
Chapter 9: Update!
X-ZERB_areia
#5
I miss this oh ghad with the updates bruh
saiduck #6
Chapter 9: my heart
NinnaErikaDelfinado #7
Chapter 9: Oml, I’m actually hooked.
Joannattx #8
Chapter 9: Please update authorNim
hoe4rose
#9
clearly one of the fanfics that got me hooked right way. I hope you're doing well, author-nim. I'm looking forward for the next update.

- k ^^
runrosierun
#10
Chapter 9: Literally cried. It's been a long time since a story made me cry, but with it. It only takes few words to my tears flow. I'll be waiting for the update.