Chou Tzuyu, the name that brought awe and weariness to those who heard it. He was known to be an underestimated genius, he had kept his grades on the top three all his life, was masterful with a bow and had proven himself to be skilled on the runway as well (courtesy of a very whiny Chaeyoung without a model), an all around skillful gentleman, who had decided to dedicate his life to his family, loved ones and animals. It was a noble cause, and his parents would support him no matter what, but some people, namely his teachers, found it a waste that the boy preferred to spend his afternoons volunteering on the local animal shelter instead of joining some club to get trophies for the school.

Mr and mrs Chou never failed to be questioned avery single parent-teacher meeting as to why weren’t they making their son take up an extracurricular activity, joining a club or something, to which the couple always answered that he was, it just wasn’t something that would ‘bring pride to the school name’ as they’d disgustedly put it. Their boy knew what he wanted, and he was taking a voluntary internship on the local shelter as an extra boost for his college application and they were all for it. The teachers never understood when a kid was so certain of their own path, and mama and papa Chou had long given up trying to get them to see.

Tzuyu, however, was working hard to make connections, get some hands-on experience whenever he could and still kept his grades, love life and social life all up to date. There was no argument for the “adults” to complain about him, and those who did, would change their minds fairly easily. What very few people knew, however, was that Chou Tzuyu was a known name in various social spheres, his connections ran deep and wide and would never fail him, for one reason or another. He was a social guy, just didn’t like dealing with shallow people, so most of his highschool companions were out of his socialization plans.

“Hey, Tzu!” The receptionist at the shelter greets. “The dr needs you to run errands today, she’s with Sirius and Pollux.”

“Thanks, Mark.” The boy says, before heading to the back.

Sirius and Pollux were two saint-bernards, Tzuyu believes they were also related to a bull because the dogs were enormous, taken in after their owner got into a terrible accident and forced into an induced coma without a date to wake up. The owner went to the same college as Jackson, the shelter’s owner, and he just went to the station right after he heard of the accident and demanded to take responsibility for the dogs. Jackson wasn’t really close with the girl who owned the dogs, they knew each other through some friends of friends, but he couldn’t just leave animals in need alone.

“Yubinnie, I have arrived.” Tzuyu announces to the resident veterinarian.

“I told you to stop calling me that, Chou.” The woman fake mocks.

“I’m sorry, dr Kim.” He continues to tease.

“It’s dr Wang and I never know how I haven’t beat you up yet.” Yubin scolds.

Tzuyu just laughs, raising his bag to signal he was going to change before he starts working. Kim Yubin, she was the veterinarian that opened the shelter with Jackson, they were college sweethearts and once the young man got the property from his grandfather he decided he was going to put his management degree to help those that couldn’t fend for themselves, took the house that was already built there, added a big shed at the back and started taking lost animals in. Yubin promised she would put her degree to work in the shelter as soon as she completed her required residency and the couple had been working hard since the day the shelter opened.

Tzuyu started frequenting the shelter since he and his parents moved to the neighborhood, Jihyo was also a regular, and for much longer than Tzuyu. But while Tzuyu was there every day to work and learn the craft from Yubin, Jihyo wasn’t that frequent, he’d come in during weekends and do as much as he could, but mostly manual labor, he’d also show up ever-so-often with a stray he found. It was nice, the staff was lovely and they worked with practiced ease around each other, Tzuyu loved it, and his parents (both rather successful in their careers) didn’t mind their boy donating his time like that, Jeongyeon got it too, which was part of the reason the taiwanese accepted his dating proposal gladly.

Despite popular belief, it’s really hard for animals to be adopted, most people want cute, bred-to-order, ‘certified origin’ puppies. So, every saturday, Tzuyu would jump out of bed early, one of his parents would drive him to the shelter, sometimes he’d catch a ride with Jihyo, and set to work as soon as he arrived at the shelter. He would wash all the animals, the ones that needed washing, brush the ones he didn’t and get everyone adoption ready, then Tzuyu would proceed to raid the shelter’s kitchen and make some cookies for the visitors, Jihyo taught him how to make a lot with not much and how to save on ingredients. When the shelter did open to take visitors, everything was already set so he could play his persuasion game.

If Chou Tzuyu was anything, he’d be observant, he knew people liked his face and height, and that his innocent doe looking eyes were very persuasive, so the boy would comb his hair neatly, spray a little perfume and get into a pristine shelter uniform then roam around and look at the visitors. Whenever he saw a potential adoption waiting to happen he’d put on his most innocent and harmless face and make his way to the people he was going to convince to take an animal home. The adoption rates for the shelter had skyrocketed after Tzuyu started his strategy and neither Jackson nor Yubin were going to stop the boy, even if the cookies got a little heavy on the budget. It worked and the couple could only watch on fondly as their favorite boy (don’t tell Jihyo) did his magic.

“Hey, Tzu.” Speaking of Jihyo… “Sorry I’m late, I had to get to my morning run before coming.”

“Hyo!” Tzuyu greets back animatedly. “Don’t worry, the regionals are close, aren’t they?”

“Two weeks, and I still have to drop five kilos.” Jihyo looks paler and more tired than usual.

“You know you could just not compete, right? I mean, nobody would blame you and what the coach is doing is just bull-”

“Language!” The older boy chides. “And I know. Thing is, nobody really cares about regionals, I want those who wanted to fight me to know I was put on the category below, I’m dropping out before interstates, word will have gone around by then and I can make the coach understand that what he did was just wrong.”

“Now that is mr Park Jihyo for you.” Yubin had reached the boys and decided to join the conversation. “It’s good that you are willing to stand up against it. Sunmi told me about your coach’s stunt, I’m all for your plan, just so you know.”

“Thanks Binnie.” The wrestler hugs the doctor happily. “I just don’t enjoy being disrespected like this, make sure you come to the first match of interstate, it’s going to be a show.”

“I do hope it is. Save me a seat too.” Tzuyu pipes up. “Now go and look prim and proper, it’s adoption day and we are a deathly combo I’m not willing to waste.”

Jihyo just chuckles but moves to the dressing room to get changed too. He knew he could pull off the helpless middle schooler when he wanted to, he just will never admit that to Tzuyu and hear him mock his height for months again. And that’s how we have our resident greco-roman fighter dressing up with baggy clothes, putting on his glasses instead of contacts and swiping his hair back with some hair gel. Jihyo looked absolutely adorable whenever he dressed like that and Tzuyu, Jackson, Yubin, mama and papa Park, Seungwan, Dahyun and Joohyun would end the day with a few hundred new pictures on their phones.