Tzuyu, for one, is almost the perfect student. Almost. If it weren’t for her resting face and reputation as one of the school’s ‘mean’ girls, she would have been the perfect role model for every freshman. Why wouldn’t she? Above average grades, student-leader, good looks, and of course, one of the best players of the volleyball team. As an incoming senior, she can say that she had the best college life.

 

Aside from that, she’s also dating one of the hottest girls in school. Yulli is one of the most known girls around the campus. Majoring in cinematic arts, a cooking goddess, pretty face, everything a guy (or girl) could ask for. And Tzuyu is lucky enough that Yulli confessed to her first.

 

But the thing is... Tzuyu is getting tired of Yulli. The girl became too clingy and she doesn’t like it. Not with everything that she’s barely successfully juggling. Although Tzuyu may not show it, being a leader is taking its toll on her. Meetings here and there, strategic plannings, event analyses, everything. Another is her internship at a hospital which is tiring and draining her from head to toe, and at the end of the day, she needs to travel back to the university for training. The season will start when classes resume and she can’t afford to slip up. Her position as the main middle blocker is crucial and she must improve herself. And not to mention her research paper which happens to be the worst part of it all. Sleepless nights fueled by coffee and then endless revisions? It was Tzuyu’s version of hell.

 

Although outside she looks chill. And that’s not the only thing that stresses her out. It’s the fact that their coach just left them due to personal reasons. Now they need to adjust to the new coach. And as one of the seniors, Tzuyu needs to step up and keep the team together.

 

With all the things she’s juggling, balancing, and trying to keep up with, Yulli’s demanding antics are not really helping. Which is why even though it kind of hurts her, she has decided to call it off. Break it up. And she’ll do it today after her work and before training starts.

 

Tzuyu meets her best friend outside the gymnasium, her humongous gym bag hanging on her shoulder while she’s wearing her corporate clothes. Dahyun greets her with a smile, “Took you a while.”

 

“You know how the traffic gets,” she answers. Dahyun is the utility spiker of the team but she’s on the second six due to height issues. Nevertheless, they’re all chill about it. They’ve been friends since freshmen years and to say that they’re best friends is practically an insult. They’re sisters. Tzuyu can barge in Dahyun’s house and the latter’s family will welcome her with smiles on their faces.

 

“Should’ve told me. I would have picked you up,” Dahyun says as they went up the gym. The athlete’s locker room is at the third floor while heir court is at the fifth. “We’ll have our new coach today,” she continues as Tzuyu changes to her training clothes. Her spandex and muscle shirt matching her shoes. She took her hair tie and comb and started fixing her hair.

 

“That’s good then,” Tzuyu responds, not really knowing where the conversation is going.

 

“Tzuyu, I talked to Yulli,” Dahyun ends the silence.

 

Ah, there it is.

 

She faces her best friend and sighs, “You know I don’t love her anymore, Unnie.”

 

“I know. She’s downstairs. Talk to her properly instead of ignoring her. You’ve done that for three weeks already,” Dahyun tells her. She nods and wears her slippers.

 

Tzuyu meets with Yulli at the ground floor. The girl hugs her and says, “Hi, baby.” But Tzuyu gently removes her arms and sets some distance.

 

“We need to talk,” she tells Yulli. They go to the secluded place just beside the gym and that’s when Tzuyu tells her, “Let’s break up.”

 

“What?” Yulli starts crying. “Why? Did I do something wrong?”

 

“No. It’s just that,” she trails off.

 

“What?!”

 

“I don’t love you anymore,” she says straight on. She saw how Yulli’s face turned from a frown to a sad smile. “I’m sorry, Yulli. You know I did love you but I feel like we’re not really growing as a person anymore. You need to learn how to love yourself before you can love someone else.”

 

Yulli covers her face with her hands and cries, “Is there anything I can do to change your mind?”

 

Tzuyu shakes her head, “I’m afraid my decision is final. I’m sorry.” She pats Yulli’s head and walks away. She knows that if she stays, she’ll just end up making things harder for the both of them.

 

Tzuyu’s relationship with Yulli is by far the longest. Seven months of continuous relationship? Not even breaking up once? That’s a record for her. She does not consider her first boyfriend as part of the counting. But if she will, then that’s probably the longest. Two years ain’t no joke and for Tzuyu who likes to think far off the future? Pierre did a good job handling her. But that’s a different story. What matters now is that Tzuyu prefers girls. And that’s about it.

 

She returns to the fifth floor after picking up her shoes and knee pads at the locker room. She sees an unfamiliar body standing before the team.

 

Must be the new coach.

 

Tzuyu runs to the team and bows, “Sorry for coming late.” She looks up and sees a girl with round eyes, resembling a certain train from the cartoons she watched when she was younger.

 

“It’s okay. We’re just a little early. I’m Jihyo by the way and I’ll be your new coach,” the team bowed and introduced themselves one by one.

 

~

 

It’s been three since Jihyo started coaching them and it’s been a week since Tzuyu got sick. The fatigue from the constant all nighters, skipped meals, heavy workload and then strenuous exercise finally caught up to her and she’s been absent for five days already. Dahyun already informed their coach but that doesn’t mean she’s not guilty for skipping training? For the past four years, she’s been one of the most present players and here she is now, absent because she’s sick.

 

Her phone suddenly rings, startling her. With much effort, Tzuyu reaches for her phone and answers it, “Low?”

 

“, get well already. You sound dead,” it was Dahyun and Chaeyoung. Chaeyoung is also her best friend but they met a year after, when the latter tried out for the team and got accepted.

 

“I’m getting better. I sounded worse yesterday,” she answers.

 

“We have a new coach. Like, an assistant coach and her is to die for!” Dahyun says. Tzuyu couldn’t help but laugh.

 

“Really? I must return to training on Monday then,” she jokes. “Where are you now?”

 

“We’re on the way home. Dahyun’s driving and I’m on your throne,” it was Chaeyoung who answered her question. Tzuyu reminds herself to claim back her spot at the shotgun seat of Dahyun’s car when she gets back. “Seriously though, Tzuyu-ah. Get well this weekend and go back to training. Or I’ll replace you as the middle.”

 

“Even if I die, you won’t be a middle blocker. , you can’t even reach the tip of the net with full effort to jump,” even when she’s sick, is still as tactless as ever.

 

“ you,” Chaeyoung says. She hears Dahyun’s laugh from the background, “Fine. Just get well. We want you to meet the new coach soon.”

 

“I will, I will. Now let me sleep,” she ends the call and tosses her phone on the side. She reaches for the intercom and calls their maid, “Can I have some pancakes please? And my medicine.”

 

~

 

Monday and Tzuyu is on the way to the gym. Dahyun texted that she’s already at the locker room so Tzuyu just went up by herself. She drops her bag on the floor and removes her blouse. She quickly changes to her training clothes and fixes her hair, the same routine she has had for the past weeks of training.

 

“You ready?” Dahyun asks her, Chaeyoung just came in with a frown. “She’s really nice,” she adds.

 

“Why are you so worked up with me meeting the new coach?” she puts in the last hair clip and faces Dahyun who was sitting on the sink.

 

“Because Dahyun has a little crush on that coach and she wants you to check her out,” Chaeyoung answers from the lockers. Tzuyu smirks at Dahyun who just rolls her eyes.

 

“And you said you were straight,” she tells her friend.

 

“I am!” Dahyun insists.

 

“Sure. I’ll tell Sana that too. Maybe she’ll go flirt with someone else instead,” Chaeyoung says. Dahyun slaps her arm and stands, grabbing her water bottle and leading the way to the court. The two chuckles and follows.

 

Tzuyu sees another unfamiliar built standing by the bleachers. The first thing she notices is the wonderful the woman has. Not too big, not too small. Just enough to be squeezed. And everyone knows that Tzuyu is a person. She loves butts. 

 

“Damn, that’s one fine ,” she whistles. Chaeyoung hits her arm, “Oww! What?!”

 

“That’s the assistant coach, !” Tzuyu reverts her gaze back to the owner of the . The second thing she notices is the long black hair that is freely falling on the girl’s back. Her hair shined and it looked beautiful.

 

Their coach, Jihyo, blows the whistle and they all huddle up around the coaches. The third things Tzuyu notices is the drop dead beautiful face their assistant coach has. Her round eyes, pointed nose, full lips and not to mention adorable bunny teeth.

 

“It’s nice to see you back, Tzuyu-ah,” Jihyo says. She bows and smiles.

 

“I’m sorry for leaving for a while,” their coach shakes her head.

 

“It’s fine. You got sick. But you need to catch up with the drills, okay?” she nods. “By the way, this is your assistant coach, Nayeon.”

 

Nayeon.

 

Their assistant coach smiles and bows slightly, “I’m Im Nayeon. Nice to meet you all again.”

 

“Since it’s only been one training session that Nayeon has seen, please introduce yourselves again,” Jihyo tells them. One by one, they said their names and nicknames.

 

But when Tzuyu’s turn came, she says, “I’m gorgeous.”

 

And with that, Nayeon looks at her with surprised yet very amused eyes.

 

“Really? Which part?” Nayeon counters.

 

Tzuyu smirks, “Coach, your eyesight’s getting poor. My face is enough to describe the word gorgeous.”

 

Everyone laughed but for Tzuyu, Nayeon’s laugh was all she could hear.

 

During the training, everyone was serious. Nayeon was hitting the ball from the open area while the defenders were at back right portion of the court. Tzuyu already finished the drill and she’s assigned to feed the ball to their assistant coach. Much to her delight because Nayeon smelled divine. It was as if the girl does not sweat or if she does, she sweats perfume.

 

Another ball slipped from Tzuyu’s hand when Nayeon tried to grab it. The older looked at her and said, “Press the ball to my so that I’ll know where it is.”

 

It was a non malicious request but the thing is, Tzuyu’s been staring at Nayeon’s since training began. And to be able to feel it, it was something she had never imagined. It thrilled her. And so with much excitement, Tzuyu feeds the balls to their coach with a smile on her face.

 

That’s when it all began. Before Tzuyu knew it, she was already crushing on Nayeon. Mainly because of Nayeon’s . But bottomline, she’s crushing on their assistant coach which is also Dahyun’s crush so she’s in a middle of a problem.

 

“Unnie,” she calls Dahyun who was driving beside her. Chaeyoung’s asleep at the backseat so they’re practically alone. It’s not like it mattered whether Chaeyoung hears or not. What one knows, the other two do too.

 

“Hmm?”

 

“I think I have a crush in Coach Nayeon,” Tzuyu admits.

 

“I know,” she looks at Dahyun. “What? Tzuyu, I’ve known you for years now. I know when you like someone.”

 

“I’m sorry. She’s your crush and I feel like I’m taking her away,” she confesses. Dahyun laughs at her and shakes her head.

 

“Stupid. I have Sana, remember? We’re trying to work things out so chill. Besides, I only liked Coach Nayeon because of her . But you...” Dahyun stops because of the red light, “You have a crush crush on her.”

 

“It’s not like that. I just think her is amazing and she’s a good coach,” she defends herself but blushes.

 

“I’ll be out for an immersion next week. Make sure you’re single when I come back!”

 

~

 

“Look at how Chi makes a fool out of herself,” Nayeon whispers to Tzuyu. They both laugh at Chi, a teammate, who is struggling to get the ball.

 

“Coach, you’re mean,” Tzuyu laughs again. Nayeon simply pinches her arm, a gesture that did not go unnoticed by Chaeyoung.

 

So when they got inside the locker room, Chaeyoung corners her, “What was that?”

 

“What was what?” she asks, confused of what is happening.

 

“Coach pinched you!” Tzuyu covers Chaeyoung’s mouth and pulls her further inside.

 

“Shut up! They’ll get the wrong idea!” she hushes the other girl. “I don’t know why but we were laughing at Chi when she suddenly pinched me.”

 

That night marked Tzuyu’s confusion and Nayeon’s continuous advancements.

 

The second time they ‘touched’ happened during a practice game. Tzuyu did a remarkable job defending the net and not allowing their opponent to score freely. And now, she’s laughing with her teammates on the floor, stretching slash cooling down. She turns her head on the table by the net and sees Nayeon walking towards her direction. What she did not expect is when she felt Nayeon’s cold fingers on her ear.

 

Tzuyu yelps in surprise, “Coach!” she whines. Nayeon simply smiles at her before getting her water bottle and walking out of the court, leaving Tzuyu with a confused expression.

 

Dahyun wasn’t present because she’s still in an immersion so Tzuyu is left with Chaeyoung who just teases the out of her. Much to her dismay.

 

The next training, Tzuyu was busy with practicing her setting when Nayeon suddenly stood behind her. She jolts and turns to the girl, “Yes, Coach?”

 

Nayeon smiles and reaches for her hand, “Make them stronger. Your fingers are far too weak to withstand any activity.”

 

“Eh?” Tzuyu stares at her fingers. Once again, confused.

 

During the whole training, Nayeon did nothing but walk up to Tzuyu, tell her about the things she needs to do and then go back to the rest of the team. It was during water break that Tzuyu was at the fountain and Nayeon poked her sides, making her jump.

 

“Coach! Stop it!” she tells the older girl who just chuckles at her.

 

And then when training ended, she was called to lead the prayer. Tzuyu stood between Jihyo and Nayeon in front. She closed her eyes and lead the prayer but after that, Nayeon playfully pulled her hair which surprised her yet again.

 

What the hell?

 

Two weeks passed and Tzuyu and Nayeon continued to give subtle flirty comments with each other. One time, Tzuyu was the one chosen to be the ‘sacrifice’ for the team. Meaning she will have to endure all the drills given by Nayeon herself. As much as she has a crush on the coach, the drills were made from hell. And did she mention that Nayeon is a professional volleyball player? Well she is. And she’s pretty darn good at it.

 

Dahyun had returned from her immersion and to say that she was surprised by Chaeyoung’s reporr was an understatement. She was clearly blown away by the fact that Nayeon and Tzuyu were flirting! Of course, Tzuyu denies the idea, saying that Nayeon is just amused by her reactions. Which is what she believes in. On the other hand, Momo, their other teammate, happens to be dating Jeongyeon, who is Nayeon’s teammate in the professional league. That surprised them but they didn’t care much. All that matters is that Momo was happy.

 

Their training ended and Tzuyu was beyond tired but Nayeon stood in front of her with an amused grin, “Tired, Tzuyu?”

 

Tzuyu smirks, “Nah. It was a piece of cake. Was that all you’ve got?”

 

Nayeon laughs, shaking her head as she retreats to the table where her things were placed. She grabs a timer and blows her whistle, “Planking position everyone,” there was an evil smirk on Nayeon’s face and Tzuyu wanted nothing more than to wipe it out of her.

 

During plankings, Tzuyu positions herself at the end of the line. The furthest possible because if she’s too close to her friends, they’ll end up laughing and not completing the exercise. With her eyes closed, she raises her right arm for the side plank and when she opens her eyes, Nayeon was standing in front of her with a smile while holding a stick from who knows where.

 

“Oh? You okay, Tzuyu?” she asks in a teasing tone.

 

“I can even drink tea while doing this,” Tzuyu replies. Again, Nayeon looks at her with such amusement and then walks off the check the other players but not without playfully hitting her exposed stomach with the stick. Tzuyu swallows a curse.

 

After the training, they all went home and during the ride, Dahyun mentions something that really flicked Tzuyu’s interest.

 

“Have you noticed that when Coach Nayeon is correcting us, she tells us to come close to her but when she’s correcting Tzuyu, she goes to her instead?” Dahyun says.

 

“Oh! Yes! I’ve noticed that too,” Chaeyoung answers.

 

“You two are overthinking things,” Tzuyu snorts.

 

“No. Seriously, we’ve been watching you two. I must say, it’s not that hard to notice that Nayeon has a special liking of you,” Dahyun tells her.

 

“I wouldn’t be so sure. She just likes pissing me off,” which wad true because they often see who will lose it first and snap. Most of the time it’s Tzuyu because Nayeon is their coach and she can’t really do anything about it.

 

She shrugs off the idea of having the flirationship with Nayeon. Even though it makes her heart race just by thinking about it.

 

The next training, Tzuyu became really observant. She wants to see if Dahyun’s theory is true. So, she intentionally makes mistakes when Nayeon is looking. True enough, Nayeon walks up to her and teaches her the proper way. And another true statement that Dahyun said is when Momo made a mistake and Nayeon said ‘Momo, come here.’ 

 

To say that Tzuyu wasn’t scared would be a lie. She was scared because she might believe the false hopes Dahyun and Chaeyoung are feeding her. Nayeon is their coach for pete’s sake and she doesn’t want to ruin that.

 

“Guys, Jeongyeonnie’s team will be playing on Saturday. You guys wanna watch?” Momo asks after the training.

 

“Sure!” Tzuyu answers. She had nothing better to do anyway and watching volleyball games really makes her happy.

 

“Great! Meet you at the arena!”

 

~

 

Game day for Nayeon’s team and Tzuyu was expecting a great game. Momo had managed to fish out two complimentary tickets from Jeongyeon, saving them all lots of money. This will be the first time that Tzuyu will see Nayeon outside their gym. And vice versa. So she prettied herself. Wearing a white polo dress and some shirts underneath and putting her hair up in a high ponytail.

 

The players enter the court twenty minutes before the official time for warm up begins. Bein