There was a new family moving in next door.

Apparently, they were foster kids. That’s what Jihyo’s mom said, when Jihyo asked over breakfast. Tzuyu hadn’t said anything, just nibbled on her toast, but she was definitely curious. Would these kids be anything like her and Mina?

Hiding behind Jihyo and Mina’s legs, she couldn’t see a lot. But from what little she saw every time she peeked out to take a look, these three new girls weren’t much like her at all. 

She couldn’t get a proper look at the faces of the older two girls, hidden behind the boxes they were carrying in. But they looked to be around Jihyo and Mina’s age, probably in middle school. The slightly taller of two, with shoulder length black hair, slyly bumped the other girl with her hip. The shorter of the two, her black hair much longer, let out an indignant shriek that made the other girl burst into laughter. 

“Mom! Jeongyeon is bullying me!”

Tzuyu noticed the foster mother standing in the doorway. She gave a weary sigh, but the look on her face was fond.

“Jeongyeon, no bullying Momo until everything is unpacked.”

Momo let out another scream in protest, but was quickly silenced when the woman took the boxes from her and shoved a doughnut into . Momo seemed to consider this an acceptable form of consolation, because she turned and wiggled her eyebrows smugly at Jeongyeon, who just rolled her eyes. 

It was strange. They seemed so comfortable with each other. More like Dahyun's family than Tzuyu's own foster parents. Maybe Jihyo's mom had been wrong. 

Tzuyu's gaze wandered back to the van with the boxes, where one member of the family still remained. The third girl, the smallest of the bunch, didn’t carry any boxes, just a backpack. She ignored the audience of three watching her every move, instead saying something that made her foster father laugh.

Tzuyu got brave enough to stick her head out properly, observing the youngest girl carefully. She wasn’t quite as small as Tzuyu, but it looked like she was smaller than Dahyun. Either ten or eleven years old, Tzuyu guessed. Her brown hair was short, shoulder length, and she had some pink bubblegum that she kept popping. It was her clothes that fascinated Tzuyu the most, bright white sneakers, a GAP hoodie that looked fresh and clean, and a pair of jeans that were ripped, but looked like they’d come that way when sold.

They looked like Jihyo’s clothes, or Dahyun’s. Nothing like Tzuyu’s old hand-me-downs, where the rips in the jeans were carefully sewn up by Mina. (She tried teaching Jihyo and Tzuyu how to do it, but they weren't very good yet, and Mina was only satisfied letting Tzuyu go outside if she'd been the one to stitch the patches that covered the holes. Something about Jihyo's stitches being too loose and Tzuyu's being too wide.)

Mina wore Jihyo’s hand-me-downs too, only with her it was trickier. She was taller and lankier than Jihyo, so Jihyo couldn’t just buy clothes that barely fit her and give them away when she outgrew them, like she did with Tzuyu. It used to be that for Mina, Jihyo would deliberately buy clothes a few sizes too big for her, then pretend she’d only just realised and give them to Mina. But her parents caught on pretty quickly and started sending the clothes back, so now they had to be more careful. 

Mina’s current clothes still hung off her, as worn and shabby as Tzuyu’s. But she stood side by side with Jihyo, and if she was embarrassed, she didn’t show it. Tzuyu wished she could be that brave.

Instead she hid behind them, and watched as the last of the boxes were brought in. She didn’t know if these girls were nice like Dahyun, or if they’d laugh at her broken shoes like the three mean girls in school liked to do. Mina might not care, but Tzuyu didn’t like being laughed at.

“Are you sure they're foster kids?” Tzuyu asked, once she was certain the youngest girl couldn't hear them. “They called that lady Mom. Not Mrs Min.”

“Some people are comfortable calling their foster parents Mom and Dad.”

Mina didn't sound certain about that. Tzuyu gave one last look at the short girl her age before she disappeared into her new house. 

“They don't look like foster kids.” she said. 

“Foster kids can look like anything. There's no reason to think they're not just because they're different from you and Mina.”

Tzuyu didn't really agree, but Jihyo was usually right about everything so she just shrugged. 

“Come on.” Jihyo picked her up, ignoring Tzuyu’s whines as she slung her into a piggyback. “We’re going to be late.”

They weren’t late. Tzuyu made it into school early enough to say hello to Dahyun. Her best friend smiled and waved when she saw Tzuyu in the corridor, and it was enough to make her forget about the unease from the new girls this morning.

That is until she walked into her classroom, and saw the youngest new girl standing at the top. She didn’t have her bubblegum anymore, but she still looked very unaffected by all the curious eyes on her.

The teacher introduced her as Son Chaeyoung. The girl looked indifferent towards the whole thing, but as she walked over to her seat her eyes found Tzuyu’s. Her cool façade cracked for a second as her eyes widened, and Tzuyu looked away nervously before she could react further.

Chaeyoung’s seat was behind her, and Tzuyu wasn’t the type to be gossiping and whispering during class, so she never turned around to see if the girl was staring at her. That didn’t mean she didn’t think about her though, she could barely pay attention as the teacher droned on and on about multiplication and division. Did Chaeyoung already have an opinion of Tzuyu? Did she think she was a weirdo? 

That’s what the mean girls called her, although Dahyun always told her never to listen to them. Nayeon always said that Dahyun should help Tzuyu beat them up, which made Mina glare at her while Jihyo and Sana laughed. Tzuyu didn’t think she was supposed to take that advice seriously, but knowing Nayeon maybe she did mean it. She’d gotten into a fight with a girl who insulted Sana once, and even though her hair had been pulled, her face scratched, and she’d been grounded for a month, Nayeon always insisted that she’d do it again in a heartbeat.

But there was a difference between calling someone’s adopted sister a charity case, and pointing out the fact that someone’s shoes were falling apart. The first one was worth fighting over. The second one, Tzuyu just tried to ignore them.

When the lunch bell rang, Tzuyu tried to sneak a look behind her. But Chaeyoung was already out the door. She swallowed the strange disappointment she felt, and went to find Dahyun. 

Unfortunately, Dahyun wasn't in the yard yet. And that meant Tzuyu had to walk past the three mean girls alone. They were lurking in their usual corner, laughing and snickering as Tzuyu got closer. She tried to keep her head up and ignore them, but when they called her name she couldn't help slowing down. Instinct made her turn around to look at them, her stomach churning at the fake concern on their faces. 

“Tzuyu, you've got a hole in your jeans.”

She clenched her fists, trying to remember what Jihyo and Mina always told her. They were just insecure, and jealous of how smart Tzuyu was. They picked on her because they were unhappy with their own lives. 

It didn't help. 

“I know.” Tzuyu tried to leave, but she could hear the girls laughing as she walked away. 

“Why don't you buy new ones?” 

“Just get some from a charity shop or something!”

“Maybe there's a nice homeless person who'll lend you his!”

The scorn in their voices made hot tears claw at Tzuyu's throat. It wasn't fair that she couldn't fight back, wasn't fair that they were older and wittier and had rich parents and the time to buy cool clothes, while all Tzuyu had was-

Images flashed through her mind. Mina huddled under the stairs with Tzuyu, carefully sewing the rips in her hoodie under the thin light coming from a flickering bulb. Jihyo, holding Tzuyu as she cried, rocking her gently and soothing her like no one else ever had before. 

She immediately felt guilty. Tzuyu wouldn't trade Jihyo or Mina for anything, not even the richest parents in the world. 

“Hey.”

At the sound of the familiar voice, Tzuyu turned around and threw herself into Dahyun's arms. Dahyun wobbled, a little surprised, but her arms quickly came up to hug Tzuyu back. 

“Everything ok?”

“Fine.” Tzuyu mumbled, her face buried in Dahyun's shoulder. 

“Want me to go over and talk to them?”

Tzuyu shook her head. “It's fine.”

Dahyun patted her shoulder gently, and Tzuyu finally distangled herself from her friend. Only then did she realise that they had an audience. 

The new girl, Chaeyoung, stood watching them. There was no judgement in her eyes, just curiosity. Still, Tzuyu couldn’t help but tense up. She still didn’t know if this girl was a friend or not.

“This is Chaeyoung!” Dahyun quickly smoothed over the awkwardness. “She’s moving in next door to us! And she likes Bratz over Barbies and Playmoblie over Lego, just like you!”

Tzuyu nodded stiffly. Chaeyoung took a step closer, then surprisingly, she smiled. A big gap toothed grin that caught Tzuyu completely off guard.

“I like your hair.” she said.

Tzuyu blinked, then smiled back, slightly less stiff.

“I like your hair too.”

And just like that, the two ten year olds decided that they were friends. 

By the time the lunch bell rang, Tzuyu had discovered that Chaeyoung was definitely a nice person. She was happy to play whatever games Dahyun suggested, and she never made fun of Tzuyu if she was bad at them. It was also pretty cool how she could do more keepie ups with a ball than Dahyun and Tzuyu combined. In fairness Tzuyu could only do around three before the ball went flying, but still. It was impressive. 

After school, as she and Dahyun made their way to the local park, she wondered about the older two girls. They would most likely be in the same middle school as Jihyo, Mina and Dahyun's sisters. Were they nice people too? 

It seemed they were. Normally Dahyun and Tzuyu would go climb the trees in the park while the older girls gossiped, but today they huddled around the bench where Jihyo Nayeon and Sana sat, Dahyun on the ground on one side, Tzuyu sitting in Mina's lap on the other. They listened as the older girls recounted their day, and what Momo and Jeongyeon were like. 

They were both in Jihyo, Sana and Mina's year, and had gratefully accepted the offer to sit with them at lunch. Jeongyeon was the more outgoing of the two, but Momo had opened up and become more talkative once she found out that Sana and Mina were also Japanese (and had as little memory of their time there as Momo did.)

“Momo's nice.” Nayeon agreed, “But there's something sketchy about that Jeongyeon girl. I don't like her.”

“Are you sure you're not just saying that because she said Kanye had a point when he went on stage to interrupt Taylor?”

Nayeon glared at Sana, who just raised an eyebrow. 

“Maybe I am.” Nayeon admitted grudgingly. “But come on, how am I meant to trust someone that's Team Kanye?”

“I think Jeongyeon is nice.” Jihyo chimed in. “And Momo too. She's really…”

“Hot.” Mina whispered. 

She and Jihyo burst into giggles while Tzuyu rolled her eyes. Gross. She hated their recent obsession with boys and girls and dating and hot people. It was boring. There were so many more interesting things to talk about than if this guy had a nice face or if that girl was looking for a girlfriend. Why couldn't they just be happy playing barbies with Tzuyu like they used to? 

She noticed the smile on Sana's face growing strained, and it made Tzuyu share a knowing look with Dahyun. This was the one secret she had that Jihyo and Mina didn’t know about, because it wasn't really hers to tell. If Mina was to find out that Sana was in love with her, it should be from Sana herself. 

Tzuyu didn't really understand what it meant to be in love. Nayeon had tried to explain it to her and Dahyun once, saying it was like wanting a special kind of best friend. But then she'd brought up kissing and Dahyun had pretended to retch while Tzuyu gagged, and Nayeon had gotten so annoyed she'd kicked them out of her room without finishing her explanation. 

As far as Tzuyu could see, being in love . It meant Sana crying because she was scared Mina wouldn't love her back. It meant hours of sitting around listening to Sana rant because she couldn't work up the courage to actually confess to Mina but she had no trouble interrupting Dahyun and Tzuyu's playdate to tell them all about it. It meant this awkward tension whenever Mina showed interest in other people. 

Crushes, love, it was all so tiring. The older girls used to have so much fun playing dolls and climbing trees with Dahyun and Tzuyu, but now they seemed to think it was more fun to sit around gossiping. Tzuyu was just glad Dahyun hadn't been infected with this weird boring virus. Maybe it only happened once you went to middle school. 

Either way, Jeongyeon and Momo seemed to be nice people. Even though Jihyo and Mina were probably going to spend hours stalking Momo on Facebook (Because apparently MySpace wasn't cool enough anymore? Just another thing Tzuyu didn't understand.) and egging each other to send a friend request, that wasn't Momo's fault. Tzuyu's sisters were just going through a ‘phase’ or something. That's what Dahyun's mom said when Nayeon and Sana started acting all weird. 

Satisfied with the knowledge that all three of their new neighbours were nice people, Tzuyu let Mina pick her up and carry her home. They had to get started on dinner soon, before Jihyo's mom got mad. It was supposed to just be Tzuyu's turn today, but Jihyo and Mina insisted on helping ever since she accidentally burnt herself. 

“You're sleeping over at Dahyun's tonight.” Mina told her, as they reached the front garden. “Jihyo already checked if it was OK with Mrs. Park.”

Tzuyu gave a happy wiggle at that, prompting Mina to put her down. She loved sleepovers at the Kim household. 

Dinner only took them an hour to make. Tzuyu could have probably done it faster without Jihyo and Mina’s constant fussing, but she didn't complain. They were just trying to look after her, and they offered to set the table without her so she could head over early to Dahyun's house. 

She passed Mrs Park on the way out. The woman barely glanced at Tzuyu, too busy watching Jihyo and sighing sadly. It was no secret that Jihyo's mom didn't like how much Jihyo helped Mina and Tzuyu. She never said it, but Tzuyu could tell that she wanted Jihyo to treat them like she and her husband did. But Jihyo was nice, and refused to let Mina and Tzuyu do all the chores no matter how much her parents insisted that it was what they were here for. 

Tzuyu knew that was a lie too. But doing a few chores was a lot better than the previous house she and Mina had been in, so she never complained. After living here for five years, neither she nor Mina wanted to be sent away from Jihyo and their friends. 

Especially not when there was a chance they could end up somewhere worse. 

The walk to Dahyun's house was short. It was odd to see lights on in the house between them, which has been empty for so long. Now, she could see Jeongyeon and Momo moving around upstairs, although she couldn't make out what they were saying. 

There was no sign of Chaeyoung. Tzuyu felt that strange sense of disappointment again. 

She rang the doorbell to Dahyun's house, and Sana answered it, shooting Tzuyu a fond grin. She could hear lots of noise coming from the kitchen; the clatter of plates, bubbling pots, Dahyun and Nayeon arguing about something trivial. 

It felt like coming home. 

“Good Tzuyu you're here!” Mr Kim gave her a warm smile as she entered the kitchen. “What do you want with your chicken? Take it quick before these vultures get their hands on it.”

Tzuyu smiled back, piling her plate high with vegetables while Dahyun and Nayeon continued to argue in the background. Something about who's turn it was to wash the dishes. Dahyun claimed it was Nayeon's turn, Nayeon insisted Dahyun had offered to do them for her in exchange for three squares of a chocolate bar, which did sound like a Dahyun thing to do. 

It was strange. Five years of dinners at the Kim household and Tzuyu still found herself caught off guard sometimes. The way Sana mother for not being able to cook, only for Mrs Im to fire back about Sana's attempt at baking that almost set the kitchen on fire. The way Dahyun stole carrots out of the bowl with her fingers and got away with it by giving her dad a cheeky smile. The way Nayeon rolled her eyes at all of them, but calmly helped when she was asked to. 

There was none of the tension and coldness of the Park dinners. This was what a family was meant to look like. 

(Tzuyu had vague memories of Jihyo laughing like this with her parents, back when Mina and Tzuyu had first moved in. Her smile had dimmed quickly though, the more it became obvious how little her parents cared for her new sisters.) 

After dinner, she and Dahyun went upstairs to Dahyun's bedroom. They were supposed to get ready to sleep, but Nayeon wouldn't stop blasting her music in the next room and Dahyun grew more and more annoyed with it. 

“She has an iPod and an Mp3 player, she's just doing this to mess with me.” Dahyun whined. “She and Sana love playing music really loud and then telling me I'm not allowed to listen because it has bad words in it.”

Tzuyu hummed sympathetically. 

“It's so stupid.” Dahyun flopped down onto her bed, and Tzuyu followed suit. “I know what the word means, but they act like I'll explode if I hear someone sing it.”

“Jihyo says I'm not allowed to say that word.” Tzuyu sighed. “One time Mina said it when she was playing the Xbox and Jihyo got really mad at her for saying it in front of me.”

“They act like we're babies! It's so dumb.”

Tzuyu snuggled deeper into Dahyun's bed. It was so soft and fluffy, and big enough for both of them to sleep comfortably. Dahyun also had this really cool nightlight that made everything look purple. If Tzuyu ever got a bedroom, she wanted it to look like this. 

“Hey Tzuyu? What do you think of Chaeyoung?”

Tzuyu turned over, so she was face to face with Dahyun. Her eyes shimmered in the glow of the nightlight. 

“She's nice.” Tzuyu whispered. “I like how she didn't laugh at me when I missed the ball twice.”

“Yeah, I like her too.” Dahyun agreed. “And since she lives next door that means we can play with her every day. Maybe she'll become our best friend.”

Tzuyu frowned. “I thought I was your best friend?”

“Yeah, you are. But wouldn't it be cool if we had two best friends?”

Tzuyu didn't like that. 

“I like just having you. It makes it special.”

Dahyun pouted, then shrugged. 

“I guess I just don't want her to feel left out.”

“Maybe she won’t be.” Tzuyu rolled back away from Dahyun, before her sad puppy dog eyes could make her feel bad. “Maybe she has her own best friend. It’s only been a day. We don’t really know that much about her yet.”

“You don’t trust her, do you?”

Dahyun’s voice was soft, no judgement, only understanding.

“...She’s nice.” Tzuyu said, and left it at that.

Dahyun didn’t push further. She understood that trust was a rare thing for Tzuyu. For the longest time, she’d only trusted Mina. Then Jihyo, then Dahyun and then Nayeon and Sana. No one else, especially not the adults. Even the nice ones like Dahyun’s parents couldn’t be trusted. If they found out about what happened in the Park house, they’d contact social services and have Mina and Tzuyu taken away.

Chaeyoung didn’t seem like the type of person that would rat her out. But again, Tzuyu had only known her for a day. She didn’t trust her yet, and she definitely didn’t want another best friend just dumped on her like that. Chaeyoung could be a friend, but a best friend was something special. Dahyun may think that two was better, but Tzuyu was just fine with only having one.

The best part of going to school after a sleepover was that not only did Tzuyu not have to make breakfast for everyone, but Mrs Im gave her a brown paper bag with a sandwich in it for lunch. Tzuyu only felt slightly guilty thinking about Mina, frying up Mr Park’s bacon by herself, with Jihyo doing her best to help without getting caught by her mother. 

But Mina always said she worked better without Tzuyu there anyway, and even though Tzuyu knew that was a lie to make her feel better it still managed to ease her gloomy thoughts. 

She chatted happily with Dahyun on their way to school. Part of Tzuyu expected Chaeyoung to join them, but when Dahyun saw her staring curiously at the house in the middle she explained that Chaeyoung's parents drove her to school. 

“How do you know so much? You only spent like two minutes with her before you came out to recess.”

“I ask good questions.” Dahyun grinned. “I think she liked that I was interested in her, because she told me a lot of things.”

“Like what?”

“Her last name is Son. She's been living with these foster parents since she was two. Her oldest sister Jeongyeon was there before her, and her other sister Momo came a year later. None of them are related but they consider each other family, and Chaeyoung hopes she's never sent to a new home. She's already sad about moving house because she had to leave her friend Somi behind. And her favourite colors are black and purple.”

Tzuyu's jaw dropped, while Dahyun just smirked smugly. 

“There's no way you learnt all that in two minutes. Are you a mind reader?”

“She was just really open and friendly.” Dahyun shrugged. “I think she could tell you were kind of shy, which is why she didn't talk too much about herself to you.”

Tzuyu didn't know what to think about that. She let it go for now, and focused on trying to remember the rules of long division. The teacher said they'd have a quiz today. 

She wondered how Chaeyoung would do. 

Waiting in the main hall for the classrooms to be open, Tzuyu couldn't focus properly. She kept looking around, hoping to see Chaeyoung. Dahyun saw her eyes wandering and laughed. 

“Stay here. I'll go look for her, OK?”

Tzuyu nodded sheepishly, squeezing Dahyun's hand once before letting the older girl wander off into the crowd. Alone, Tzuyu tried her best to avoid making eye contact with the other kids, staring at the ground and trying to remember how to multiply and divide big numbers. 

“Is she wearing the same outfit as yesterday?”

“That must stink so bad! What is wrong with her?“

Tzuyu gritted her teeth. Of course these three would find her now that Dahyun wasn't there. She didn't have to even turn around to picture the sneers on their faces. 

“I heard she got sent over here because Taiwan couldn't handle her.”

Tzuyu’s breath caught in .

“Really? I always wondered why she came here. I mean it's not like her parents chose to move.”

“Jieun that's so mean.” The other two girls laughed. 

Tzuyu hated being reminded of her time in the residential care centre. She couldn't remember much, being two years old when she was sent there all the way from Taiwan because they were “better equipped” to handle her needs. She still didn't understand what that meant, but she knew her social worker had been lying to her when he said that. The only good thing about her time in that care centre was that she'd met Mina. 

“But that's so embarrassing!” Jieun wouldn't stop giggling. “Imagine being such a weirdo your own country doesn't want you.”

Oh. She was crying now. Tzuyu quickly brushed the tears away, determined not to let the mean girls see. She couldn't do much against them, but she wasn't going to give them the satisfaction of seeing how much their cruel words hurt. 

“What the hell is wrong with you!”

A new, yet familiar voice made Tzuyu whirl around. She watched with wide eyes as Chaeyoung marched up to the three girls, glaring at them angrily despite being smaller and outnumbered. 

“Why would you say something so nasty? Apologize to Tzuyu!”

Chaeyoung's surprisingly loud voice drew attention from all across the hall, and now the three girls looked very uncomfortable. Jieun stepped forward, and for a second Tzuyu feared that she was going to hit Chaeyoung, but then Dahyun was there, shaking her head and making the girl hesitate. Three against one was fine, three against two a little more risky. 

“You don't know how lucky you are!” Chaeyoung was still yelling, shaking slightly from how angry she was. “What's so funny about not having parents? Come on, tell me! I want to know the joke.”

Tzuyu felt herself growing redder as a circle formed around them. Dahyun seemed to sense her anxiety, because she stepped forward and put a hand on Chaeyoung's shoulder, looking right into Jieun’s eyes. 

“Apologize.” She said, calmly but firmly. “Apologize to Tzuyu and then leave her alone.”

Jieun glared at her, and for a moment Tzuyu feared that she was just going to say something even meaner. But then she muttered a half hearted “sorry.” and the other two girls followed suit.  Chaeyoung still looked furious, but Dahyun pulled her back, letting the three mean girls slink off to class as the first bell rang. 

As everyone began to hustle to their various classrooms, Tzuyu didn't have time to talk to Chaeyoung. But she did make eye contact with the other girl. The anger seemed to melt off Chaeyoung when she saw Tzuyu looking at her, and she gave Tzuyu a short nod. 

Tzuyu nodded back, and decided to leave it at that. 

“Hey Dahyun?”

“Yeah?”

“I think… If Chaeyoung wants to be our best friend, I might be ok with that.”