Student!SaTzu AU

*Squint for 2Yeon

***

Sunlight dispersed through the window, radiating warm waves into the room. The curtains rustled rhythmically by the gentle breeze. Two girls idled inside, avoiding their homework like the responsible students they were expected to be, dictated by the ideals of the adults. That never stopped them from unwinding in a café just a few blocks down the street from Sana’s house.

“I saw the way you looked at Tzuyu back there, you know.”

Sana perked up from hearing her friend’s name, yanking the pillow Nayeon was hugging which made the latter fall flat on her face onto the mattress. “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she muffled into the soft object. Her heart fuelled with quickened pulses.

“Oh, really now?” Nayeon cleared . She rolled off the bed and got on her feet, positioning herself next to the bed.

“What are you—”

Nayeon quickly snapped her fingers, interrupting her unfinished question and held a finger up to , signalling the other girl to keep quiet which the Japanese rolled her eyes at.

“Okay, here we go.” Nayeon rubbed her hands together. She altered her stance, straightened her back and her arms remained stiff at her sides. Almost as if she was imitating—

“Bye, Sana-unnie,” she said with an unmistakable accent that resembled a certain Taiwanese they both knew. She continued with a small smile and nod.

What Sana did not guess for Nayeon to do next was to spin a full 360-degree turn and fell onto her knees. She had her elbows propped on the edge of the bed, her jaws rested in the palm of her hands as she stared at Sana in a dreamlike state. Her head slightly angled to the side and batted her eyelashes. Her eyes twinkled with mischief. Oh, this is not good.

“Goodbye, Tzuyu-ah,” she drawled out the honorific and added in a fake swoon that highly implied the action of being very ‘whipped’.

A blush appeared on Sana’s cheeks and frowned. “I did not sound like that.”

“You did,” Nayeon affirmed. “It was so painful for me to watch, honestly.” She stretched her arms and patted on the comforter. “Anyway, did you hear about Miss Joohyun and Miss Seulgi? I bet all of Jeongyeon’s Legos that they—”

And that was Sana’s cue to zone out.

Sana struggled, really. The gut-wrenching feelings that persisted to dispel itself from her heart. Day by day, it remained to harass her thoughts and judgements. The feelings of secretly loving your best friend. When they said that good friendship was the way to a beautiful intimate relationship, did it occur to no one that there was no instruction manual in enduring the painful side effects of it? More specifically, the pining?

Tzuyu’s unresponsive disposition countered with Sana’s euphoric nature. A strange miracle that they were even on talking terms if you’d ask them. Opposites attract, I suppose.

Having all the cards laid out, Sana tried to pinpoint when exactly did she fall for the eccentric being.

Maybe it was when Tzuyu spammed her phone, full of her selfies with a dog filter, striving to cheer up Sana after she flunked a subject, which worked by the way.

Maybe it was when Sana got held back by the rainstorm after school hours and god knows how much she’s horrified by the sound of thunder. All drenched and shivering in the cold until she saw Tzuyu sprinting her way, fighting through the downpour with an umbrella in hand from all the way back home, just to Sana back to her home.  

Maybe it was when she sprained her ankle during PE. An agitated Sana was convinced that she slipped during a lap while others figured that she tripped on air again. Momo helped her to the nurse’s office but news broke out and Sana found herself stuck with Tzuyu. The latter would refuse to leave her side until she was steady enough to stand on her own two feet. She didn’t care if it meant skipping classes.

Maybe it was when—

“Sana, you’re daydreaming about Tzuyu again.” Nayeon’s voice broke Sana out of her stupor. Her eyes flickered to meet Nayeon’s jaded expression. “Aren’t you?” And a raise of an eyebrow.

Sana felt her face starting to burn at the feeling of being caught and was about to deny her remark before Nayeon gave a dismissive wave of her hand. “Forget it, don’t even try.”

Sana could only puff her cheeks and tightened her hold on the pillow.

A long sigh was heard. “Could you just confess to her already? What do you have to lose?” Sana could practically hear the irritation behind her words.

“It’s not that easy. You wouldn’t know since you’re already dating Jeongyeon.”

“Yeah,” Nayeon had a lopsided smile, her features immediately lightened up at the mention of her girlfriend. “And she was my best friend too!”

“Tzuyu’s… different.”

Nayeon pulled a funny face at the girl. “In case you hadn’t noticed, Jeongyeon and I are kind of different too, but we worked it out. Power of love, .” She declared with a fist pump.

“It’s just that”—Sana let out a shaky breath—“it’s scary knowing that there’s a chance I could get rejected.” Her lips pressed in a tight smile as she continued, “And it’s going to hurt way more than usual cause we’re close.”

“Tzuyu? Chou Tzuyu? The Chou Tzuyu who could and would hire a full assassination team just to take out anyone who accidentally bumped into you and walked away without an apology?”

“Are we talking about the same Tzuyu or is there another Taiwanese student that I don’t know about?”

Nayeon made her way back onto the bed, settling to sit directly in front of Sana. “Sana, be honest with me right now.”

“Okay?” Sana said rather questionably and set aside the pillow. She brought her knees up to her chin.

“Do you like like Tzuyu?”

“Nayeon—”

“Answer.”

Sana’s words died in and nodded sheepishly. A darker shade of red threatening to break free on her cheeks at any moment.

“How much?”

“I don’t know. A lot?”

“No, no.” Nayeon wiggled a finger in Sana’s face. “You got to be more specific than that. Come on.”

Sana worked her jaw for a few seconds before giving up in responding, wrapping her arms around her legs. “I can’t. I’ve never thought about it, I always tried to push these feelings down.”

“Then think about it now. Do not hoard your feelings. Let it all out, please.”

Sana’s eyes wandered off and glanced at anything in the room to find inspiration. From her pink school backpack that occupied the space by her door to her wooden bookshelf affixed against the wall to her bundle of girl group posters pasted next to it and finally landed on her mathematics textbook on her desk.

Her eyes squinched, trying to make out what was on the cover. A bunch of symbols and one, in particular, stuck out to her the most out of the rest.

“I love her until the end of time,” Sana breathed out and half-smiled. “I love her endlessly.”

Nayeon shifted her arms behind her and leaned back on it for support, her head lolling from side to side, completely unfazed by Sana’s confession. “Not bad. Tzuyu said something about wifing you so bad that she would never want to see you not smile even for a millisecond.”

“What?”

“What?”

“Wifing me?”

“…Oops?” Nayeon grinned.

———

The seats and windows shook with every small bump in the ragged pavement, jostling the passengers back and forth. Inside was a curious mixture of cosy and bored, people itching for the destination that will come eventually. The vibrating sensation set out by the glass frame wasn’t enough to bring back Sana into physical existence. Her mind still caught up in replaying yesterday’s conversation like a broken record.

“Spill it, Nayeon.” Usually, the hyper girl carried a blinding smile or even a flirtatious smirk. Rarely, a sharp look that was used when she’s normally in distress.

“I think you should ask Tzuyu—”

Sana glowered over her and Nayeon’s senses were already pricking under her skin, pleading for the girl to flee before her impending doom.

A lump started to form in as she took in a dry gulp. “Okay, so remember that day when you flopped your test?”

“You better have a good reason bringing that up.”

She brought her hands up in defence. “I swear I do, just hear me out. When you were too busy sulking and avoiding everyone, we were worried.”

A glimpse of remorse flashed underneath Sana’s intense glare.

“Tzuyu was more worried than us,” Nayeon continued. “Let’s just say, she wasn’t used to being the one ignored.”

“Oh.” Sana averted her eyes and played with her own fingers.

“But it gave me a chance to get on a one-on-one with her.” Nayeon stopped Sana’s stubborn hands and held them reassuringly. “It also gave her the chance to rant to her heart’s content and one of them was her feelings about you.”

She then shook their hands and grasped them firmly together. “She really likes, no,” she scoffed and smirked, “that girl has been practically head over heels for you for a while now. She’s probably out there pining just as much as you are.”

The Japanese yawned and lazily covered with the back of her hand. Many hours lost to thrashing around in bed when the sky was asleep truly did not do her any good. Nayeon’s words tormented her thoughts until dawn’s prime time that later painted the horizon.

Nevertheless, Sana could not disregard the tingli