It's cold. There's snow everywhere. Children are having a snowball fight as Mina calmly passes by them, secretly terrified they might hit her by accident. They don't, and Mina continues walking.

It's a nice, white day for the city and Mina finds herself feeling giddy. Her classes for the day are all done and she's heading home to her laptop for some sweet gaming. Her stomach grumbles and she holds the takeouts she bought on the way tighter.

She finally reaches her apartment building.

"Good afternoon, Mr. Snowman." Mina grins at the snowman at the entrance as she playfully tips her beanie. She giggles to herself as she unlocks the door, the poorly made snowman that's been there for about three days somehow making her feel like someone's welcoming her back home.

It's a little ridiculous she thinks as she gets in the elevator– considering she has a housemate that's actually alive and welcomes her back for real.

Mina starts wondering what her roommate is doing as she turns the key and pushes the door to her apartment open. Probably still studying.

"I'm back!" Mina announces, quickly closing the door and running to the kitchen. She's starving.

"I got burgers from your favorite place." She her lips as she takes off her coat, very eager to devour her dinner. "I don't know how but they're still miraculously hot!" She giggles.

Silence.

"Tzuyu?"

Wow. Did Tzuyu really go out? Chou Tzuyu, who's locked herself inside the house the past few days to study for her finals– went out? That nerd?

Nah.

But if not...where is Mina's usual 'welcome back!'– the one sentence that only makes her heart warm if it's Tzuyu saying it with her lovely voice?

Yeah, something's wrong. Tzuyu never skips 'welcome back'. She never ignores Mina either.

She knocks on Tzuyu's door. "Hey, you in there?"

No answer. Although, Mina could swear she heard sniffling.

Opening the door, she's a little surprised to find the room empty. She walks in and with a little observing, sees the closet left ajar. When she hears someone sniffling again – she's pretty sure the noise is coming from inside it.

"Tzuyu?"

"In here." A defeated voice says just as Mina opens the closet.

Barely able to fit in her tall frame, Tzuyu has a textbook on her lap, her phones flashlight to light up the inside of the closet.

Mina can't help but laugh. "What are you doing cooped up in there, silly?"

"Neighbours too loud," She mumbles.

Mina frowns as she listens and notices they are indeed loud, the thin walls doing absolutely nothing to prevent the laughter and music coming from next door.

Tzuyu looks up at her for a moment. Her eyes tired and slightly red. Her hair is all over the place and with further inspection, Mina notices crumpled tissues....also everywhere.

"I feel like asking if everything's okay would be a dumb thing to do right now."

Their eyes meet and the older girl waits for  one of Tzuyu's clever responses. When it doesn't come, her smile slowly fades.

Tzuyu looks down at her textbook and her grip on her pen tightens. She opens to speak– but she doesn't. Speak that is. She starts crying.

"Oh, Tzuyu... What's wrong? What happened?"

Mina pulls Tzuyu out of the closet and her housemate doesn't protest in the slightest as she finds herself in a warm embrace.

"I can't...do it." Tzuyu says, tears flowing down her cheeks. "I don't understand anything!" She sobs loudly, sounding stuffed up. This leads Mina to frown. She immediately brings her hand up to Tzuyu's forehead, wiping away her sweat.

"My god, you're burning up!"

"I'm gonna fail..." Tzuyu cries softly into Mina's hoodie.

"Alright, come on." Mina stands up, pulling Tzuyu up with her. "Let's get you to bed."

Tzuyu can barely walk, even with Mina as her support. They fall on the bed together when they reach it and Mina lifts her face up from the sheets where she faceplanted. "Have you taken any medicine?"

Tzuyu shakes her head slowly, trying to calm herself down. Tears still glisten in her eyes.

"Okay." Mina gets up, fluffs up Tzuyu's pillow and pushes her to lie down properly. "Don't you dare move."

She basically runs to the bathroom and opens up the cabinet where they put all their medicine– (even a few they probably won't ever need. That's what Tzuyu thinks anyway, Mina knows they'll come in handy if there's a zombie apocalypse). She grabs the one her housemate needs along with a towel and makes a quick stop in the kitchen to grab a glass of water before walking back to Tzuyu's room.

She returns to the sight of Chou Tzuyu with the textbook back on her lap. Tzuyu blows her nose into a tissue and scribbles a few things. Stops. Her eyes water again and she grabs another tissue, frowning as she wipes the few tears that managed to escape.

God, she's a mess.

"Hey..." Mina calls, trying to get her attention. "Here."

Tzuyu's face don't relax the slightest as she throws the pill in and gulps down the water. Mina takes the glass from her hands after she's done.

"I don't think it's a good idea to study when you're like this, Tzuyu. You should rest." Mina tucks Tzuyu's hair behind her ear.

"You don't have to look after me. I'll be fine.." Tzuyu stops talking to breathe through since her nose is stuffed. "I know you're tired. And I'm not exactly pleasant to look at right now."

After the older girl tilts her head and gives her a disagreeing look, Tzuyu's bottom lip wobbles again. "Mina. I have a tissue for my nose." Tzuyu holds up a crumpled tissue, "And a tissue for my tears." She holds up another one, making her point. Tears fill her eyes again. "I'm sweaty, my voice sounds like I swallowed Kermit the Frog and–"

"You are always pleasant to look at because I love you,"

Mina panics when Tzuyu's expression changes, like she's trying to understand what that means. Crap.

"I'm your friend. And friends take care of each other. Especially at times like this." Mina adds quickly.

Tzuyu sniffles and looks down at the tissues on the bed. She frowns. "Which one was– ugh who cares." She grabs a random one and blows her nose.

Mina winces. "Listen...why don't you just change your clothes and I'll go make you some soup, hmm? Okay?"

Tzuyu nods, her dry lips parting open to breathe in gulps of air.

Just as Mina gets up, she turns back to Tzuyu again. "Do you need help getting changed?"

There's no telling if her housemate is blushing at her question because the fever already has her cheeks redder than the sun during sunset. She looks down and shakes her head.

"Alright," Mina smiles. "And hey, you shouldn't worry so much. There's plenty of time 'til finals. And honestly, even if you fail it's not the end of the world. You can–"

"My parents worked so hard to get me this far." Tears never seem to leave Tzuyu's eyes. "They worked hard so I can have good education abroad. I can't fail a class. I have never failed a class, Mina. I don't want to."

"Okay, well then you won't." She says, sitting back down on the bed. "First you're going to rest and get better. Then I'll study with you until you understand every inch of that textbook. If that doesn't work we'll get help from my friend Chaeyoung, you know, the barista with the cute tattoos? She's really smart."

Mina wipes the tears falling down Tzuyu's cheeks. "You're gonna be fine," she promises, pulling Tzuyu into a hug.

Tzuyu cries into her chest a minute or so, and Mina just knows. She knows this whole thing is not just about her grades. It has to be related to her too. The frustration, the never-ending tears. Mina's all too familiar with it.

She went through the same thing.

Mina presses her lips together, not letting her hold on the younger girl get even a little loose. "Tzuyu...It's okay. I know it hurts right now but it gets easier."

"I miss her so much..." Tzuyu mutters between hiccups, confirming Mina's suspicions.

Mina sighs. She runs her hand through Tzuyu's wavy locks, leaning her cheek against her head. "It's her loss." She pulls her impossibly closer and Tzuyu claws at her back, strangely strong for someone who's sick. "Anyone would be lucky to have someone like you."

Tzuyu cries harder at her words. "Elkie said the same thing when she..." She hides her face in Mina's chest, not wanting to continue. And she doesn't need to because again, Mina knows.

She knows because the night of the day Elkie and Tzuyu broke up, she was the one holding her– making her feel safe and loved. She was the one that was there, patiently listening to whatever she had to say. She was the one wiping her tears and providing the words she needed to hear the most. Tzuyu had a lot of tears for a lot of things, but her tears that day were nothing like the ones Mina saw her shedding for anything else.

Unable to contain her affection, Mina presses a kiss to Tzuyu's hair, "It's alright. I understand." She remembers the huge smile on Tzuyu's face before that day. Before the break up. How excited she was that Elkie and her were going to finally spend some time together. Mina feels her heart ache. "I understand how hard it must be to lose something you cherish so much so unexpectedly."

"I don't want to feel like this anymore." Tzuyu sniffles, pulling away.

"I know." Mina gives her a sympathetic smile, lifting her chin with her fingers. Their eyes meet. "It might take a little more time but you'll get there. This won't last forever, I promise."

When Mina boops her nose, Tzuyu's lips twitch into a small smile. She sniffles again.

Mina always knows how to make her feel better.

Tzuyu's stomach growls and Mina laughs. She pats Tzuyu's tummy. "Oh, I'm so sorry, ma'am," she playfully speaks to it, "Mina will prepare your food, right away."

The smile reaches Tzuyu's eyes this time and she laughs at Mina's soft baby voice. "Thank you," she says, her tears no longer running down her cheeks. Her eyes shine, not with tears but something else.

Mina's heart trembles at the sight.

***

It's maybe an hour later when Mina enters Tzuyu's room again.

She's quite proud of herself for actually managing to follow the soup recipe perfectly even though it is her first time. Taking ten minutes to measure the salt really pays off in the end, no matter the amount of teasing she had to go through on the phone. Yes, she got instructions from Jeongyeon on a video call but they weren't very informative, okay? All Jeongyeon did was read her father's recipe and laugh at her for half on hour.

Sometimes, Mina deeply regrets telling Jeongyeon about her feelings for Tzuyu a year ago.

"I know it took some time but I finally made you some–"

Tzuyu's asleep.

"–soup." Mina finishes with a fond smile. She quietly places the tray on the table and approaches Tzuyu. She's sleeping with wide open since her nose is stuffed and it makes Mina giggle.

She gently wipes her housemate's damp forehead with a towel and watches as Tzuyu's chest rises and falls with each breath.

It's maybe a weird time for it to happen, but the feelings she buried so deep inside her start to resurface and Mina feels the heartache return after so many months battling it down.

She leans in and presses a chaste kiss on the sleeping girl's forehead. She'll take care of her. The thing Tzuyu needs most right now is a friend. And she's willing to be the one, regardless of her feelings.

A/N: This actually happened to me irl lol I was sick and crying inside the closet cuz I couldn't get done in time and I needed a safe place to cry. I heard my roommate come in and I waited for her to go out again but she didn't and I eventually had to get out bc... oxygen

Even though i was so smooth as i got out and pretended I wasnt there all along,,, she laughed straight for about fifteen minutes and then helped me with my work in exchange for a movie night (im convinced she and i have a love-hate friendship)

Oh and,

I love Elkie :(