A/N - My friend Kiss_of_Pink is having a rough time atm so this one is for her, I hope you’re feeling better <3

Tzuyu and Elkie

*3 years ago*

Tzuyu lay on the couch as Victoria looked over the wounds Jimin had given her yesterday during his assault. Jackson had left them to it, he had stayed over the night before on Tzuyu’s request because she was scared the attacker would come back whilst they were asleep. He was true to his word and had stayed all night, Victoria checking on her injuries regularly to make sure she was healing okay. She’d finally stopped flinching when the older girl touched her, which was a good sign,she wasn’t too traumatised by the ordeal.

“There, all fresh!” Victoria smiled, having changed Tzuyu’s bandages successfully,

“Thank you…”

The door slammed open giving Tzuyu a heart attack. A girl stomped in, ranting about something, only stopping when she realised Victoria wasn’t alone. Tzuyu was staring at the blonde girl with a look of shock on her face, the blonde girl matched this look and cocked her head. Tzuyu couldn’t remember why but Victoria asked the girl, Elkie as Tzuyu soon discovered, to look after her whilst she ran an errand. Awkward silence filled the room for the first few minutes, but eventually Elkie struck up a conversation - never one for awkward silences.

“So what’s your name?”

Tzuyu felt shy, looking everywhere but the other girl, “Tzuyu.”

“Nice to meet you!” The other girl smiled, “I’m Elkie, you don’t sound Chinese….your Chinese is very good though!”

“I am from Taiwan.”

From this simple conversation stemmed hours and hours of talk. They discussed whatever crossed their minds simply to make sure things didn’t get awkward again. Even after Victoria came back the duo kept talking, it was just this instant connection. Not romantically like the movies but they were just instantly friends, they clicked. As days past Elkie and Tzuyu got closer, becoming better and better friends. Elkie helped Jackson teach Tzuyu to defend herself and Tzuyu helped Elkie with anything the elder girl requested. One night they were both sat in Tzuyu’s room watching the old TV.

“Where’d you get the bruises?” Elkie asked suddenly,

“Some guy attacked me.”

Elkie paused a moment, “Did he…”

“He tried but Jackson appeared.” Tzuyu replied shuddering, “I’m glad he was there.”

“Would that have been your first time?”

Tzuyu nodded sadly, “First time before my first kiss…”

Elkie studied her a second, “You’ve never kissed anyone?”

Tzuyu shook her head, Elkie shrugged and leaned over - pecking her quickly on the lips. Tzuyu blushed, somewhat thankful her first kiss taken by someone a lot better than Jimin (though Momo would hate equally in the future after Tzuyu told them during a game of truth or dare that Elkie had been her first). It wasn’t romantic, it didn’t make Tzuyu feel all fluttery, she just felt relieved that it wouldn’t be stolen from her by someone she didn’t want to give it to.

“There, one less thing to worry about.” Elkie chirped, turning back to the TV,

They went back to watching television.

*A few months later*

Tzuyu was laying on her bed, pillow on her face, in the middle of an existential crisis. Elkie was sat on her sofa, laughing at the distress of her friend. Earlier that day Tzuyu had been pulled into a closet by Momo, captain of the cheerleading squad, only to be told point blank that the cheerleader wanted a between herself, Tzuyu and the student body president (Of ALL people!). Now, Tzuyu was no longer the shy, innocent girl she was back in Taiwan but she still blanked at this request. It was like her brain had short circuited. Momo was a very attractive girl and so was Jihyo, the idea of them wanting to sleep with her…Tzuyu’s mind couldn’t handle that. So she just nodded.

“I thought you liked Momo?” Elkie asked, teasingly, “You said her abs were fit as hell and Jihyo’s s were massive. There are worse people to have a with!”

“Not the point!” Tzuyu’s muffled voice rang out, she sat up and hugged the pillow to herself, “I’ve never had with ANYONE before, two at once? I’ll have a heart attack.”

“Or a nose bleed…”

“Stop watching those animes.”

Elkie chuckled, “ is easy, you’ll be fine.”

“That’s easy for you to say,” Tzuyu snapped rolling her eyes, “You had your head under more girls than hot showers.”

“…” Elkie went to sit on the bed, “Right lay back.”

“Why?”

“Because if you’re going to be a you better learn how to treat one.”

“Wait…I don’t think we should--”

Elkie leaned forward and kissed her, once again there was no love there but there was a lot of lust. That was a ed lesson Tzuyu wouldn’t forget any time soon (and in the same truth or dare game neither would Jihyo or Momo). There was no emotion they felt for each other besides friendship, at the time Elkie was just a good person for Tzuyu to experience these things with because she did care about her. She wasn’t going to hurt her so they’d both rather do it together for Tzuyu’s first time rather than have her go in completely blind.

*The Day Tzuyu Left Hospital*

“Momo and Jihyo told your sisters everything.” Elkie told her when she walked in,

Truth was she had made Tzuyu jump, the room was so quiet without the other inhabitants, “They told me, I scolded. That’s that.”

“You tell them about--”

“No. Not yet.” Tzuyu sighed,

Tzuyu then studied her friend, Elkie looked nervous - a rare sight. The girl usually held all the confidence of the world, for her to look scared…that meant something bad. Noticing Tzuyu was looking at her, Elkie let out a long sigh.

“Jimin’s out.” Elkie told her, “Daddy paid everyone off.”

Tzuyu felt like someone had slapped her.

But she said nothing.

“Tzu…?”

“I thought this was over,” Tzuyu’s voice was grave, “I let him shoot me so that it would be over.”

“What are you saying?”

“It doesn’t matter, I’m still here.” Tzuyu looked at her, “It wont end will it?”

Elkie shook her head, “Not with him around.”

“Right then…”

Tzuyu threw off her covers and stood up.

“What are you doing?”

“Call the nurse to get this,” She gestured to her IV, “Out.”

“You’re injured!” Elkie snapped trying to stop her,

“So ing what!?” Tzuyu growled, “This ends tonight. I have been bullied, stabbed, deformed, , broken, kidnapped and I am so ING done!”

“Calm down.”

Tzuyu didn’t, “I heard Jeongyeon say this was my fault and she’s right, I should have kept my mouth shut. I should’ve stayed away but no, I dragged everyone into this so it’s up to me to drag them out.”

“Tzuyu…”

“Shut up!” Tzuyu shouted, eyes blazing, “Get the nurse and get me home, call Jackson on the way.”

For the first time ever Elkie was very, VERY, scared of Tzuyu.

“What should I tell him?”

“Tell him it’s time to finish this.”

*Present*

With a grunt Tzuyu fell through the door into Elkie, everything was hurting and she knew she should be resting but she just couldn’t. Elkie let her fall onto the bed and took a seat on the couch, they’d been downstairs for the last few ours. Jackson had called a meeting in their living room and announced what was going to happen, Tzuyu had offered to do it herself but Jackson said no. However, at one point he asked to speak with Tzuyu alone. He told her that once Jimin was gone there would be a power struggle, not only for his gang but for the small territory they owned. Not only would it bring about a bigger gang war, it would bring in bigger gangs. Jackson needed someone to take Jimin’s place, someone who would be able to take it before other gangs heard of the vacancy.

He would take it himself but he couldn’t.

Not when Victoria was pregnant.

This time he had asked Tzuyu to take it over, he hadn’t told her to he had asked. Jackson told her he didn’t want a response until after he got back, he wanted her to choose. The final choice for Tzuyu to decide who she wanted to be. Mark and Pinky also walked in, followed by Victoria and Nan who wanted to make sure Tzuyu was okay. The younger girl tried to shake off their fussing only for Nan to clip her ear and tell her to sit still. She let them get on, choosing instead to work out how to explain her sudden departure to Jihyo and Momo who were meant to be picking her up in half an hour. She had so much to explain but she was so tired…tired of being injured, of being weak.

“Are you going to do it?” Mark asked eventually,

“I don’t know.” Tzuyu grunted,

“If you do Jihyo and Momo will be heartbroken.” Victoria advised, “If you don’t a lot more people will be hurt.”

Tzuyu just hummed.

“Silly girl!” Nan barked, “You should have stayed in the hospital! You children always bring trouble!”

“Sorry Nan…”

Nan sighed, “Out all of you, except you Elkie - you stay.”

The others shuffled out awkwardly.

“Tzuyu,” Nan sent her a stern look, “Sometimes you need to remember you are only sixteen. Do you really want to throw your life away? You have something good finally going for you, stop trying to ruin it!”

Tzuyu just nodded.

“Good. Now! I get coco!” Nan bustled out to fetch the drinks leaving Elkie and Tzuyu in awkward silence,

This time Tzuyu broke it…

“What should I do?”

Elkie looked at her, the same shy and frightened girl who had her life turned upside down by Jimin. Nan was right, they were only kids - they shouldn’t be doing these things but the truth is they had no other choices. They didn’t have families or a support network, this was the closest thing to a family they had. Elkie wanted to help Tzuyu, show her what to do, help her learn which path to take but she couldn’t. This time she had no answers.

Tzuyu looked at her, “El, you’ve been with me through everything. I trust you more than anyone, what should I do?”

“Talk to Jihyo and Momo,” Elkie finally said, “Nan’s right - you shouldn’t throw away what you have.”

As if on cue the door burst open and in stormed Park Jihyo in a fit of rage.

“CHOU TZUYU!”

“I’ll just--”

Another figure stopped Elkie in her tracks.

“Oh no you don’t we need witnesses.” Momo told her,

“What the hell were you thinking? You’ve been shot, you should not have left the hospital to come back here. Nayeon has made provisions for you to be looked after.”

“I don’t need to be looked after…”

“Yes you do! Seeing as every time we leave you alone you get shot or stabbed or worse!” Jihyo snapped,

“Jihyo…” Elkie tried to intervene,

“You don’t speak!!”

“Don’t talk to her like that…” Tzuyu told her,

“TZUYU YOU COULD HAVE BEEN KILLED I’M ENTITLED TO BE WORRIED BECAUSE I LOVE YOU, YOU IDIOT!”

“Jimin got out.” Elkie blurted,

Jihyo and Momo looked at her before looking back to Tzuyu, “We have a lot to talk about.”

“I’ll leave you.” Elkie said making her escape,

So the couple sat on Tzuyu’s bed and she told them everything, only leaving out how Jackson planned to deal with Jimin. They still hadn’t spoken about her sisters but this was a more important matter to discuss. When she told them about the choice Jackson had given her Momo let out a whine and burrowed into Tzuyu’s side. Ignoring the pained look on her face.

“Nooo…!”

“Tzuyu don’t tell me you’re really considering becoming a gang leader…you said you were done…”

Tzuyu placed a hand on Jihyo’s, “I am, believe me I want this all over. I’m so tired…I…”

Jihyo placed her hand on top of Tzuyu’s and looked at her, “Why did you let Jimin shoot you?”

“I’m a soldier,” Tzuyu confessed, “If I was going to go I was going my way.”

“Tzuyu--”

“Never ever do that again.” Momo growled, “You are our property and if you do anything to hurt yourself you’re hurting us.”

“We’re not going to give you up that easily.” Jihyo added, shocked by Momo’s hostility and taking the role of the ‘good cop’ for once, “We love you Tzuyu, we just want you to be safe.”

“Then you two are my priority, I need to keep you safe.” Tzuyu sighed, “So I’m asking you. If I take over the gang I can put Elkie and Mark in charge and work from the background, yet I’ll still be involved. If I say no, then there’ll be a huge power struggle and a lot of people will be hurt. Plus if someone like Kai gets control things will be really bad…”

“Kai?”

“Kim Jong-in, he’s another gang leader only he operates on the opposite side of town.” Tzuyu sighed, “He’s ruthless, he didn’t care about Jimin’s gang before because it’s tiny but if you give him an inch he’ll run a mile.”

Jihyo and Momo exchanged a look.

“Whatever you two want me to do, I’ll do it.”

“I don’t want you to get hurt,” Jihyo sighed, “But if it’s the greater good…should we really stop it?”

Momo looked at Tzuyu, “You promise you’ll let Elkie and Mark lead it?”

“I’ll stay in the background, I wont get involved unless I have to.”

Momo and Jihyo sighed…what choice did they really have?

They talked all night, discussing every option. Meanwhile a text sat unopened on Tzuyu's phone.

It's done.