A/N - A prompt from Rachael_yue

Ashes (NoJamBros)

This is no normal chapter.

This chapter marks the beginning of the end for two out of our four couples, one break up will happen at the end of this episode with the second appearing two chapters from now. What needs to be remembered is that these people we’re talking about, these stories, they’re about teenagers. Mina and Nayeon had dated before and broken up, this was the normality for most young romances. There is no stability to a young romance, there’s no guarantee of a future and unfortunately most of these loves don’t stand the test of time.

Both stories start with a sigh.

Chaeyoung let out a sigh, spring was round the corner and things were starting to warm up. She had been working hard all afternoon, spray painting the cars was tiring and she’d worked up a sweat causing her to pause so that she could remove her jacket. Her cast was finally off so she had full access to her own artistic ability, Jeongyeon had expected her to go back to sketching but she didn’t - she liked the freedom of expression she got. Turning a once ugly plot of land into a beautiful art piece made Chaeyoung feel like her art had meaning, plus every week there were more cars added so the work was never finished, Tzuyu had made sure the art wasn’t disrupted so that Chaeyoung could expand where she wanted.

It was one giant installation piece to her and Chaeyoung loved it. That particular afternoon the garage had been locked up when she arrived, Tzuyu had given her a key to the back gate so that she didn’t have to wait for their meeting to be done. Whenever the gang were meeting they would lock everything up so that nobody could interrupt. Usually Chaeyoung wouldn’t see anyone on days like this, the lot would be empty and sometimes Chaeyoung would leave not knowing whether Tzuyu had been there that day or not. So when Chaeyoung tried to open the garage side door and found it locked she just walked round to the broken down cars.

After an hour or so Chaeyoung was getting ready to finish up, only before she could the back door to the office burst open and Tzuyu stormed outside. She sat on a stack of tyres and her hands rubbed her face for a moment before she sighed and took out a cigarette, placing it between her lips and pulling her silver lighter out of her pocket. She took a long drag and breathed out to toxic fumes, her stress leaving her body as she did so.

Chaeyoung put down her spray paint and walked over to her friend, “You okay?”

Tzuyu let out a sarcastic laugh, “Never run a gang, to much effort.”

“Well if there’s anything I can do…?”

The offer hung there for a moment and Tzuyu studied her, “Don’t make that offer to a gangster, my version of help is a bit more than borrowing twenty bucks.”

Chaeyoung watched for a second, watched as the girl took smoke back into her lungs before breathing it back out. She had always been fascinated with gang culture, Tzuyu world was one that she had longed to be apart of but the younger girl always kept her at an arms length. Sure, Chaeyoung was small and to some could appear innocent but she wasn’t, she could play with the big dogs. All she needed was an in.

“Can I have one?”

“You don’t smoke.”

“I…I used to,” Chaeyoung lied, “Jeongyeon made me quit but I’ve been craving one all week.”

Tzuyu looked her over but went into the pocket of her leather jacket to produce another of her death sticks. She held it out for Chaeyoung to take, the older girl did and then took the silver lighter also. It was one of those ones with the little wheels to make the flame, Chaeyoung had no clue how to do it. She tried a few times to get the flame to catch but just embarrassed herself, suddenly the flame caught and burnt her finger causing her to yelp and dropped it. Thumb in to ease the burning, she met Tzuyu’s amused gaze. She bent down and picked up the lighter, lighting it quickly and holding it out to Chaeyoung who lit the cigarette on it.

“Always…er…used the clicky ones.”

“Okay.” Tzuyu didn’t believe her,

Chaeyoung took a drag and immediately began spluttering, “Oh….G-God it’s been a w-while.”

Tzuyu just sent her a knowing look and took a drag of her own, Chaeyoung was in awe of how easy the younger made it look. After a few more attempts, all less embarrassing than the first, it eventually got easier for Chaeyoung to breath in the smoke and she was finding it rather…relaxing.

“Look at you smoking like a pro.”

“Just needed to…remind myself how,” Chaeyoung decided to ignore the last embarrassing few minutes and continued with what she wanted, “I was serious, if you need anything you can ask me.”

For a moment she looked between Chaeyoung and the cigarette, conflicted, “There is something you could do.”

“Yeah!?” There was too much enthusiasm and Chaeyoung needed to dial it back a little,

“Mark’s got some cars coming in and I need them painted over,” Tzuyu told her, “Completely different colours.”

“Are they….stole-”

“The less you ask the less you’re involved.” Tzuyu told her firmly, “And believe me you don’t want to know any more.”

So it was agreed, every day after school Mark would drop a car round the back and change the plates. He’d then cover it with a tarp and leave a note underneath with a colour on it for Chaeyoung to paint when she arrived. Chaeyoung agreed that they would start tomorrow, she didn’t ask what happened to Tao - a man they had hired to paint cars about a month ago. She hadn’t seen him in a while, she had asked Mark where he went but Mark just shrugged. However, who was she to look at a gift horse in the mouth? That night she had plans with Jeongyeon and Tzuyu offered to drop her off.

It’s safe to say that Jeongyeon was unhappy at the sight of Chaeyoung being dropped off by the same gang leader that had kicked her a couple months prior. Once they were in Jeongyeon’s basement room the argument began, Jeongyeon was just trying to protect her and Chaeyoung could see that but the problem was that she was going overboard.

“For God sake Jeongyeon,” Chaeyoung finally snapped, “Tzuyu is harmless!”

“No, she’s not!” Jeongyeon shouted back, “Chae, listen to me. You don’t know what that girl is capable of and sure, maybe she wont hurt you - what if the wrong person sees how close you are with her? What if they target you to get to her?”

“That wont happen,” Chaeyoung told her, “We only ever talk on the lot.”

“And at school and at the dog cafe and whenever we all hang out as a group.” Jeongyeon listed,

“Why can’t you trust that I know what I’m doing?!” Chaeyoung cried,

“Like you know what you’re doing…”

“I do actually, I’m having fun Jeongyeon.”

“That doesn’t matter!”

“Doesn’t it?”

“No! It doesn’t, someone needs to tell you what’s best for you.”

“How would you know what’s best for me!?”

“BECAUSE YOU’RE DIFFERENT!”

That was the final explosion before silence settled in the tense room.

“You’re out late, you smell of cigarette smoke,” Jeongyeon explained quietly, “You never visit until late and then after we have you just leave. Ever since you started at that lot…I don’t know you any more.”

Chaeyoung was shocked, so shocked she couldn’t say a word.

Jeongyeon looked at her, “I love you, Chaeyoung. I love you so much that all rationality leaves my body. But you have to chose, me or them.”

Silence is the loneliest sound there is, it’s very rare for one to be in complete silence. Usually there’s the low hum of a computer or the quiet talking of the lowered volume from the television. But in that moment, Jeongyeon could swear she had never been somewhere as silent.

Then footsteps as Chaeyoung left the basement, her answer unspoken yet clear.

Them.