When Chaeyoung met Sana, he was immediately enamoured with the foregin boy. But, in true Son fashion, he refused to admit to himself he felt anything beyond curiosity and a bit of gratitude, even if deep down he knew the curiosity and gratitude he felt for Mina and Nayeon, for example, was completely NOT what he was feeling for Sana. That’s how we have Heartbreak Chaeyoung back in the dating game, he was running from his real feelings in the worst way possible, and he knew it, but the other choice would be admitting he had fallen into the ‘love at first sight’ trap he always made fun of, and that was absolutely not the plan.

Contrary to middle school, however, Chaeyoung wasn’t the sought after bachelor he thought himself to be anymore. There were bigger fish in highschool and he became a slightly above average guy, sure his looks were nice, and he was getting out of his baby fat faster than the average boy, nothing that would turn heads, though. Not like Jihyo, Sooyoung or even Nayeon turned heads in silence wherever they went. And he wasn’t that good in people skills like Sana, Jeongyeon or Dahyun who not only had the looks, but the skills to gather a legion of followers.

Son Chaeyoung became that good looking freshman, but that was about it, and he would have to put a lot of effort into getting dates if he was going to get back in the player game. Seungwan had already warned him to not go there, because he would get his kicked by Sana himself if the japanese found out he was playing with the people he went out with. Yerim was also of no help, claiming he was on his own and heeding the same warning as Senungwan.

“What got you that angry?” Tzuyu asked, breaking his friend’s thoughts.

“You know how I was asked out back in middle school?”

“You are frustrated because now you actually have to work for it. But I thought you liked Sana, though?”

“I don’t even know him that well, I can’t like him.”

Tzuyu chuckled and looked forward, the two were heading to school and ran into each other on the way. They lived on the same street and had been nice friends for a while, so Tzuyu knew the Son brothers were prideful and stubborn, and if Chaeyoung was this deep in denial of his own feelings, there was little he could do to convince the boy otherwise. But there was a lot a certain nipponic transferee could do to stop this madness, and Tzuyu knew exactly how to nudge the pair in the right direction.

“I hate when you smirk like that.” Chaeyoung complained after the silent moment. “Whatever you are thinking about doing, don’t do it.”

“I don’t know what you could possibly be talking about. But I’m sure there is nothing you should worry about.”

“Don’t give me that fake innocence, Chou. It might work with Jeong and his sisters, but not with me.”

“Then listen up and listen well.” The taller boy hissed. “You are going to stop this nonsense you are about to get into and face your feelings. If you don’t, be sure I’ll you up so good your only option will be moving abroad and getting a new identity.”

“Understood.” The small boy agrees immediately.

“Good.” Tzuyu smiles like nothing happened and continues forward.

 The thing about Tzuyu that very few knew was that the boy could be ruthless and unstoppable when he swore vengeance on anybody. Chaeyoung had seen it once, a boy was making a bet with his friends about asking one of their friends out back in their first year of middle school, Tzuyu was really fond of the girl in question, she had helped him in the beginning of the year and he was thankful. There were news of an incident involving a hungry racoon, the boy’s locker and an empty and completely shut gym locker door. Nobody really knew exactly what happened, and the principal did his best to keep things under wraps.

Tzuyu was smiling wickedly for the rest of that period, and had offered to be the one to take the ‘get well soon’ card from the class to the boy in the hospital. His innocent face still gives Chaeyoung nightmares to this day, and he swore to never be on Tzuyu’s bad side in his life. The boy transferred even before he was out of the hospital and nobody knows what went down to this day. It took two years for Chaeyoung to realize nobody knew about the racoon, Tzuyu had been the one to say anything about it. That realization was brought on by one of that boy’s friends, in a gossip during gym class, something about nobody knowing a single detail of what had happened.

With this ultimatum, Chaeyoung was forced into facing his feelings, despite it being completely the opposite of what he wanted to do. Facing Tzuyu’s wrath and risking him fulfill his promises, Chou Tzuyu makes promises and issues warnings, he doesn’t make threats. All that’s left now is to face a certain Minatozaki Sana head on and deal with his wounded ego later.

Sana was found in the grass, under a big tree and surrounded by the cheerleading squad, which was more intimidating than it should have been. Still, with his other options cut short, Chaeyoung presses forward with his lunchbox, intent on trying to, at least, be friends with the older boy. The cheerleaders looked at him with murder in their eyes, but he just gulped dryly and stood his ground.

“Chaeyoung, right?” Sana greets brightly.

“Ye-yes.” The cub clears his throat. “I would like to thank you for the other day, and maybe eat lunch together?”

“It would be nice to talk without your guts pouring out, yes.” Sana jokes and the girls giggle around him. “Have a seat, Chae. You know the girls?”

“Of course I know them.” The younger boy perks up. “How could I not know the cheering squad?”

“You flatter us too much.” Elkie dismisses. “Many can’t tell us apart from the student body when we are out of our uniforms.”

“About that, I’ve been curious.” Chaeyoung can’t hold himself back. “Why don’t you girls wear your cheering uniforms all the time? Isn’t that like a thing for cheerleaders?”

The girls giggle, Elkie and Shuhua full on laugh, and Sana was doing his best to hold his laughter and look sympathetic. It didn’t work and the japanese just surrendered to giggling with the other girls. Chaeyoung was left baffled, not only he didn’t understand what was happening, apparently his knowledge of cheerleaders was comedic for these people. Once they were properly winded, Seunghee took upon herself to have pity on the lost boy and explain things better.

“I’m sorry, Chaeyoung. It’s just, we get this question a lot, but you were so innocent and excited when you asked that we all just found it adorable.”

The cub puffs his cheeks in annoyance but doesn’t say anything, Sana and the girls coo a little before the captain starts explaining.

“Usually, cheerleaders do wear their uniforms everywhere. But in this school, we do everything with our student IDs, from opening the bathroom door to buying lunch, so we don’t really need our uniforms to be identified.”

“That’s true.” Chaeyoung ponders.

“It’s actually a tradition in our school specifically, no athlete wears anything different on a daily basis. Only for competitions and rallies. What the former captain told me was because it avoids confrontations with other schools.”

“Now you have my full attention, miss Yeh.”

“It’s your first year, so you’ll find out soon. But competing against other schools isn’t just fun and games, more times than not, our rivals won’t go down and stay down.” Shuhua sighs, seems like she's had to face it too many times. “Some of said sportits will show up at our front gate with their jerseys and their lackeys demanding whatever team who just beat them to present themselves for a fight.”

“While said team just saunters out right beside them.” Elkie contributes. “And yes, it happens to the cheer competitions too, before you ask.”

“That’s actually a very smart policy. I was very curious as to why our teams usually wore just the normal uniform.”

“Well, Chaengie, the more you know.” Sana pats the boy’s head with a soft smile.

“Mind telling me why you all laughed, now?”

“That would be because we had a group of avengers by our gate like five minutes before you arrived.” Sorn pipes up with the gossip. “Sana is in the music club and their pre-competition showcases were yesterday. Seems like one of the other teams didn’t take it too well.”

“Oh, what do you play?” That was something the shorter boy didn’t expect.

“I play the flute, and it was really just a showcase, it’s customary we just play a piece and have some tea and cookies after.”

“What Sana here isn’t telling you, is that he killed the competition with Taffanel and the other teams didn’t take it too kindly.” Sorn has always been fine tuned to gossip and knew absolutely everything that happened within the school property. “So today we have a few angry musicians camping out front to beat him up.”

“What they also don’t know.” Eunbin, Sorn’s apprentice, jumps in. “Is that Sana could end them without breaking a sweat if push comes to shove.”

“Can we, plase, not talk about me fighting some bullies?” Sana pleads, trying to keep his skills from his new friend.

“Absolutely not.” Eunbin pushes. “You see, ChaeChae, Sana here is a black belt, and trust that he can end you with his thumb and make it look like you died of natural causes.”

“That’s an exaggeration and I’m not fighting anyone.” Sana whines, but the gossip ends right there. The girls knew when he was really getting annoyed. “Anyways, the reason behind not standing out is so that we can avoid these situations, and you girls are smuggling me out after clases.”

The bells rings as the girls start teasing Sana and Chaeyoung just laughs goodnaturedly, he had learned a lot more than he bargained for, and managed to get acquainted with the boy who captivated him effortlessly and manges to nudge him over the edge a little more with every action. The girls ask Chaeyoung if he’d like to go with them after classes, and the boy agrees, happy to spend more time with Sana. The trick, now, was dismissing Tzuyu and his brother without having to explain to them where he was going and much less with whom.

“So, you are telling me someone else decided it was a good idea to put up with you?” Tzuyu asks dryly by the end of classes.

“I’m a delightful person, excuse you.” Chaeyoung tries to hit his friend.

“Sure you are.” The taller boy pats the cub’s head. “Just remember the cheerleaders will end your life and make sure nobody even remembers you ever existed if you screw up.”

“How did- Wha- You know what, I’m not even gonna ask.”

“Good choice. And you have to be on the girls’ good side before you even think about anything with Sana.”

“I’m not gonna lie, those girls are crazy scary.”

“They probably already have your entire background dug up. And from everyone who has ever interacted with you. Which means I’ll have to explain to Elkie about the ferret incident last summer and she’ll never let me live it down.”

“And you know Elkie how? I thought you didn’t like other humans.”

“Correction, I don’t like most humans. And Elkie is my cousin, our mothers are sisters. And thanks to you and your , I have some bribing to do so she’ll let a few incidents die.”

“I’m sorry?”

“I’ll decide if you are forgiven after I talk to Elks. Now, go and get more whipped. Try not to die.”

Tzuyu leaves with that, his small friend unable to answer fast enough. Chaeyoung is thoroughly pissed with his friend, the tall boy always knew which buttons to press to get the reactions he wanted out of him. It was awful, but Chae loved his big pile of sap of a fiend who went by the name of Chou Tzuyu. A buzzing interrupts his musings and he just laughs at the text, before heading to the football field to tell his brother not to wait for him.

Big Baby TzuTzu:

Stop thinking I’m cute! I’m a cruel, killing machine and you will think of me as one!

It was very unexpected to not find Seungwan by the field and waiting for Joohyun to finish training, then again, competitions were about to start, and the sewing club must be chaotic already. Joohyun is good enough, so Chaeyoung moves to the edge of the field and signals to the other boy, who just nods at him, and sits on the bench to wait. A scramble later and Sooyoung calls for a water break.

“What did you do this time?” Are the first words out of the older boy’s mouth.

“I agreed to hang out after school. So I came to tell Wannie not to wait for me, but he’s likely at the sewing club and I’m not showing up there yet.”

“I’m taking you haven’t come up with anything yet.”

“Not a single sketch. And Jennie will castrate me if I show up there empty handed.”

“I’ll tell Wanda, don’t worry. You should really be working on your project, though.”

“I’ve been pulling all nighters for weeks already, nothing comes up.”

“Well, a break is good, then. Just make sure the cheerleaders don’t kill you.”

“How does everyone know that?” Chaeyoung lets out an indignant huff. 

“I have my sources. Now you better go, Shuhua is already looking over here and I don’t need her talking to me anytime soon.”

“Thanks, Joonie.”

Chaeyoung leaves after hugging his brother-in-law, true to Joohyun’s word, Shuhua was looking at the field with an expression that betrayed nothing and said a lot all at the same time. He just gulps and prays nothing bad will come of it, before making his way to another corner of the field where cheering practice was going on full steam. Sana, surprisingly, was there practicing his flute on the small bleachers (placed there to accommodate whichever club was using that patch of grass to practice). As they still had some time to kill before the outing, Chaeyoung just waves to the girls and takes a seat beside Sana, pulling out his sketchbook, if he was idle, might as well try and come up with something for his first design.

Each year, the sewing club would send in all students who wanted to enrol on whatever competition the school was taking part, this was the first of the season, almost the entire club had decided to enter, and a unique design should be submitted with their entrance, the theme for this first design was ‘the unexpected’ and Chaeyoung has been lost in his ideas since he had received the theme. But Sana was there, and he was playing beautifully, and Chaeyoung was thoroughly pleased with his life at that moment.

Once Shuhua called the boys, saying practice was over and the girls were just going to take a quick shower, Chaeyoung had a completed design on his sketchbook, with notes on fabrics, colors, everything.