Soooo this wasn’t the story I meant to be putting up but I happened to listen to a cover of ‘Congratulations’ from Hamilton by Annapantsu and suddenly I wanted to write this. It was a toss up between Elkie and Chaeyoung as to who was going to be the “Alexander” (If it had been Elkie Chaeyoung would have been the one yelling at her). I may post the other version too if people want.

Congratulations

“Chaeyoung-ah!”

Chaeyoung groaned, awoken by the sound of the front door slamming. She tried to open her eyes but the mixture of the blur of the television that had been on all night and the stinging from her hysterical crying the night before caused her to snap them shut again. It had been a long night, since the disbandment she had grown used to sleeping at least eight hours per night. Twice had broken up around three years before, all going their separate ways but remaining in contact as best they could. Most of them stayed in Korea but Mina and Momo had returned to Japan permanently, both visited Korea regularly though so it was like nothing had changed really. Though over times things do in fact change. For example, Jihyo had opened her own entertainment company - it was still on the small side but the year before she had debuted her first girl group and solo artist with help from her mentor JYP. She had taken Chaeyoung on as a producer and so she was able to work closely with the rookies and impart some knowledge here and there as well as take their views on what sort of music they would like to do so she could accommodate as best she can.

Things had appeared to be coming up roses for Chaeyoung, no longer trapped in the cookie cutter mold of a girl group member she was able to share what she wished and was not required to care about a backlash. Like announcing that she and Tzuyu had been dating since the Fancy era mere days after they disbanded. It had been a rash decision on their final VLive, one that had prompted a small argument afterwards. Chaeyoung was nothing if not compulsive and their families knew already so there was no issue with them. So why not get it out there? There was a polarised reaction, most didn’t care or at least didn’t respond negatively but there had been a lot of hatred that took a while to die down. Over time it faded, the world seeing how in love Tzuyu and Chaeyoung were, how normal their relationship was and now…now Chaeyoung had destroyed that image. This image ruining was the reason she had been up all night crying, it was why she had been unable to sleep in their empty shared bed, the probable reason as to why Nayeon was stood arms crossed in her living room. The elder girl had been visiting Momo in Japan, she was in the middle of a messy divorce and needed a break from the city, when the news broke, almost immediately she had hopped on the next plane to Seoul knowing there would need to be damage control.

“I saw the news.” Nayeon said to the lump under the blanket that was Son Chaeyoung,

Chaeyoung just grumbled, hiding her face in the couch and pulling her blanket up round her ears. She didn’t want to hear it, not now - why did they tell their friends about the spare key?

Nayeon rolled her eyes and pulled open the curtains before whipping the blanket away from the defeated woman. Chaeyoung whined at the invasion of blinding light and Nayeon grabbed the pillow (Tzuyu’s pillow) off the armchair (Tzuyu’s chair) and began hitting her with it until Chaeyoung sat up, trying to wave off the attack.

“Okay! Okay! I’m up!”

“Well congratulations, Son Chaeyoung,” Nayeon snapped throwing the pillow back on to the chair, “You are officially the stupidest person in Korea, maybe even the world. In fact I would say you have invented a new kind of stupid, your own brand: Chaeyoung’s done something reckless again, stupid!”

Chaeyoung finished blinking away the spots engraved on her eyes from the sudden light pollution and looked at Nayeon. She looked mad, which was something that hit Chaeyoung deep. Nayeon wasn’t the type to scold, that had always been Jeongyeon and occasionally Jihyo when it was work related, usually she was the one the girls went to for advice or comfort. Often called the ‘Fake Maknae’ Nayeon was usually the one teasing or acting cutesy, playing around or acting like, well, a stereotypical maknae. To see her looking genuinely angry was a very rare sight, but what caused the lump in Chaeyoung’s throat to tighten was the disappointment shining in the elder girls eyes.

Everyone had always joked that Tzuyu was Jihyo’s child, it was well known that early on the maknae looked to Jihyo for guidance and help in Korean as well as every day social cues. However, Nayeon was joked to be Chaeyoung’s. They were close, always had been, and so she had seen her unnie this type of upset a handful of times. Usually it was aimed at Jeongyeon for taking a joke too far or a news article attacking one of the girls unfairly that they could do nothing about. But not directed at her, never at her, she was her precious dongsaeng - Nayeon loved her.

“So let’s talk about it,” Nayeon clicked her tongue, stood in front of Chaeyoung with her arms folded, “Your answer to ridiculous, unfounded rumours that maybe a handful of people had read on that unknown blog was to confess to sleeping with Mina when nobody had even mentioned that.”

Chaeyoung looked down, she really was stupid.

In the last few years of their time as Twice, Chaeyoung developed a small rivalry with Soyeon from G(Idle). It started, as it often did, with unjust comparisons through various online medias and then escalated to small jabs when they would speak and once, at a party, a full on argument. Ever since their shouting match the pressure had been mounting, escalating to the point that even now if a song of Chaeyoung’s placed lower than G(Idle) in the charts she’d have a breakdown and work double as hard on the next song. It was petty but Chaeyoung couldn’t let her win. The rumour was that Chaeyoung had said horrific things about Soyeon backstage of a music concert, someone from G(Idle)’s team had overheard and confronted her and apparently Chaeyoung had punched them in the face. When Jihyo told Chaeyoung about the article she had told her not to do anything rash but reckless was Chaeyoung’s middle name. The fear of her image being ruined, as well as the image of the artists she worked for in Jihyo’s company, she had instead gone immediately to VLive and told the world that she hadn’t done what they had accused, she hadn’t even met the staff that had been pictured with the so-called black eye, in face she hadn’t even been at that event.

Because she had been in Mina’s hotel room.

Tzuyu had been away in Taiwan at the time, a trip everyone had told Chaeyoung to go on too. A vacation with her girlfriend, they’d all tried to talk her into it but Chaeyoung wanted to stay behind and work. So Tzuyu went away and Mina came to visit. One night Chaeyoung was feeling really lonely, Tzuyu was uploading photos to her SNS of her surrounded by her friends - some of whom were extremely attractive tall males whom made Chaeyoung feel slightly inferior. She was invited to Mina’s hotel so she wouldn’t be alone in the house and the duo got very drunk. It wasn’t an excuse, but Chaeyoung had been wasted and the following morning both she and Mina had been disgusted by what had happened. There had always been an attraction there but neither girl had ever acted on it before, Mina was focusing on building a new life in Japan while Chaeyoung was deeply in love with Tzuyu. They were horrified and agreed never to speak of it. But the stress of the rumour added to the guilt she felt had led to Chaeyoung confessing it all.

“I told you to go to Taiwan,” Nayeon sighed, “To take a break, we begged you Chaeyoung but you said you had work to do. You were fine, you said.”

“I had to confess, I couldn’t let anything get back to Jihyo’s company she worked so hard--”

“She’s a CEO she has to learn to deal with it sometime and you wouldn’t let her!” Nayeon snapped, “You were so scared of what everyone else was going to say, how they were going to ruin Jihyo but the only person ruined here was you.”

Chaeyoung had a habit of being her own worst enemy.

“You know why Soyeon can get away with anything she likes? Because she doesn’t bite back at petty rumours. So well done Chaeyoung! You ed up your relationship for nothing.”

Chaeyoung began feeling defensive, “I was trying to protect Jihyo! I had to sacrifice my happiness for her---”

“You want to talk about sacrifice? Tzuyu sacrificed her life with her family to stay here with you. Sacrifice! How dare you?! Chaeyoung, how much did I sacrifice to make my marriage work? I tried everything I could and I fell short, all I had keeping my head up were you and Tzuyu so grossly in love plastered on every tabloid. I looked back at the two little girls I knew, the ones who dreamed of stardom and you know what? I was so proud every time I saw you both. It marked all the hard work we did, how far we had come. So well done, you’ve completely changed your image to make yourself look like an .”

“Your marriage wasn’t my fault.” Chaeyoung muttered,

“No it wasn’t, we all have to make peace with our sacrifices it wont change anything to cry over them. But this wasn’t a sacrifice you had to make.”

“You don’t know that! You haven’t been here!”

“Yeah well I’m back to stay now.” Nayeon’s expression went from hard to sad, pity, “But I’m not  here for you.”

Chaeyoung looked back down, she didn’t like people looking on her in pity. It was then the tension changed and Nayeon’s gaze was hard again, scorching the back of her head. Chaeyoung knew she deserved a telling off, hell she deserved a lot more. But nothing on earth would hurt her the way Tzuyu’s text had. Chaeyoung had received it the moment the VLive ended and in the moment her heart had shattered: How could you?. When she tried to respond her number had been blocked, she’d called all the girls praying one of them was with her but she was just yelled at down the phone. But she deserved it. All of it and more.

“Tzuyu is the most trusting and kind person any of us have ever met,” Nayeon growled, “She is sweet and beautiful and loyal and I know her better than I know my own mind. She’s naive, she’ll forgive you because that’s the type of person she is. The moment she sees you’re hurting she’ll forget her own hurt to help you. So someone needs to tell you that you’re an idiot.”

Chaeyoung kept her gaze on the rug, tears threatening to spill from her eyes. But she could release them, she didn’t have the right to cry.

“It seems like a million years ago when she turned to me and Jihyo and said 'this one's mine', puppy-dog eyes on you. We were shocked but rather than dissuade her from pursuing you to ensure the bands image remained intact we stood by and helped her confess to you. Because at the time you both deserved that happiness.”

Chaeyoung remembered a similar conversation she had around that time with Jeongyeon. A gay foetus Chaeyoung was ranting about how much she adored Tzuyu. She was sat down and warned that if she were to go after her in terms of a relationship that it could ruin the group if it got out, she had to be positive she was ready for what could happen. But Chaeyoung is Chaeyoung, she didn’t care about the potential consequences and ran full speed ahead. The group had supported them and cooed over them whenever they saw the duo showing the limited affection they allowed in front of witnesses. Most of that stopped after a traumatised Dubu and giggling Sana walked in on them…hugging passionately during the group’s final year.

“Do you know why we agreed to help you both?” Nayeon spat, “Why Jihyo and I decided that Tzuyu should go for it? Because we love her more than anything in this life and her happiness came first, no matter what the rest of the world would think. We decided that we could protect you both.”

And they really did, they covered for the couple with managers when they snuck off for dates.Jihyo met with JYP to put things in place to protect them should the get caught. Dahyun would third wheel to make dates less obvious and all of J-Line had dressed the girls at some point. They were family, they would put each others happiness before anything and it was a security blanket Chaeyoung wasn’t ready to have ripped out from under her.

“Tzuyu is the best thing in your life, never forget that. She loves you, literally she worships the ground you walk on. This has destroyed her!”

Chaeyoung’s head snapped up, “You’ve seen her? Is she okay?”

Nayeon sent her a look, “She’s heartbroken, she’s been crying all night. Her girlfriend cheated on her with her close friend, Tzuyu may be forgiving but she’s not jumping for joy.”

Chaeyoung blinked and one tear rolled down, betraying her as she did Tzuyu.

“Tzuyu will probably forgive you once you’ve used your pretty words, that’s what your good at. But you need to remember the fact that you have been blessed with the best girlfriend, never lose sight of that.”

She wouldn’t. Never again.

“And when she does forgive you will give her the best life possible, every sacrifice will be for her do you understand? From now on everything you do will be to look after her. For the rest of your life you will make it up to her.”

“I swear.”

“Good,” Nayeon her heel and walked out, “Congratulations, you finally saw sense.”

With Nayeon leaving Chaeyoung looked around at the mess she’d left the night before, the used tissues, beer bottles and half a take away pizza. She’d have to clean up before Tzuyu got home, if she came home. Spotting the pillow (Tzuyu’s pillow) on the armchair (Tzuyu’s chair) Chaeyoung pick it up and cuddled it. It still smelled like her. She picked up the blanket from the floor and snuggled on the couch again. Finally freeing her tears she had been bottling up.

Congratulations, Chaeyoung - you’re an idiot.