9 Years Ago…

Chaeyoung was sitting in her baby chair trying to draw her mother with the new crayons she had just received from her dad as an early birthday gift, but being a small child with a temper tantrum she wanted to use it now.

After a few minutes of trying to calm the girl down, her dad had finally caved in and let her use the crayons. She quickly opened the package and started to scribble her art onto a blank piece of paper.

Her dad walked into the kitchen with his wife, who was cleaning up the mess their 3 year old son made in the kitchen. The young man wrapped his arms around his wife and smiled, “How was everything?”

“Well your son made a huge mess in the kitchen,” the woman said with a small giggle, “and Chaeyoung would talk non-stop about your paintings.”

The man gave a soft smile, while he helped his wife clean up their son’s mess. The woman whispered, “Did you finally sell that painting?”

Her husband had given a small nod in response, “Yeah… it was sold to a rich family for about 10 million won.”

Instead of the woman getting excited for the amount of money, she had given a sigh relief and placed her forehead on her husband’s shoulder, “We can finally pay of the hospital bills.”

The man had hugged the woman tightly and whispered, then a small voice had spoke up behind them and said, “What hospital bills?”

Both of the parents turned around seeing Chaeyoung holding her drawings in her hands with an innocent face trying to understand what was happening. The small girl’s father bent down in front of Chaeyoung and rubbed her thumb against her cheek, “It’s nothing sweetie… just some adult things.”

“Now let me see what you drew,” The man said as he took the piece of paper from his daughter.

Chaeyoung give a big smile, completely forgetting what she had asked and started to explain to her dad what she was drawing. Her mother had given a small smile looking at the father-daughter relationship and thought ‘It’s amazing that Chaeyoung had gotten her father’s personality traits… from his care-free attitude to his artistic mindset.’

Chaeyoung’s mother hoped that her daughter would never find out what had happened to her… and would hopefully never had to talk about EVER.

Present Time…

Chaeyoung had stayed after school wanting to work on some of her paintings in the school art room, so here she was sitting behind one of the art stands trying to figure out  what last details she could put on her painting.

While she was contemplating the art teacher, Mr. Seo, was leaving for the day and said, “I’m going to head out Chaeyoung… make sure to lock up the art room alright?”

Chaeyoung had given a thumbs up to the man as he walked out of the art room and closed the door behind him. Mr Seo had a bit of favoritism for Chaeyoung, considering she was his best student and didn’t get in trouble that much he had trusted the small girl with the spare keys for the art room, which she really appreciated, because there were a lot of art supplies in here that she couldn’t have at home.

She also liked the fact that the art room was the quietest part of the building since not many kids would come down here after school. The peace and quiet really helped her concentrate on her art.

While the girl was dipping her brush into a can of red paint, her chest had started to sting a little bit and was bugging her a lot since it was ruining her focus. She was guiding her brush along the painting until her chest stung with pain again making her clench her teeth in agony.

She slowly placed her brush onto her art stand and slowly stood up clenching her chest with her hands from the pain, she thought to herself ‘What is with this pain… this has never happened to me before…’ She was breathing heavily as she slowly walked out of the art room and made her way into a nearby bathroom and leaned onto a sink looking into the mirror.

She could see there was nothing abnormal with her face, her skin wasn’t pale, her eyes didn’t seem odd, but why did she feel so light-headed and wanted to pass out from fatigue, she splashed some water onto her face trying to git rid of the dizziness.

She leaned back from the sink, then her vision was starting to spin and get hazy. She tried closing her eyes to git rid of the haziness, but nothing was working. As she was walking forward she stumbled and wobbled trying to maintain her balance, then she collapsed onto the ground, blacking out.

Her eyes started to open slowly with lights blinding her vision and seeing two shadows above her, “Chaeyoung are you ok?”

The artist knew that familiar voice, but couldn’t tell who it was and mumbled, “W-Who are you?”

“It’s Sana and Tzuyu,” the Japanese girl said with a worried tone, “What happened?”

Chaeyoung was finally able to see somewhat better and could see Sana knelt down cradling the artist’s head, while Tzuyu was bent down in front of her holding out a water bottle for the small girl. 

The small girl took the water bottle, while Sana was still concerned for the small girl, “Are you ok? Me and Tzuyu were walking by and heard something collapses in here, then we found you passed out on the ground.”

The artist had took a sip from the water bottle and nodded her head in response, “Yeah… I’m fine. I just didn’t eat that much for breakfast I guess.”

Sana had given a suspicious eye brow raise to Tzuyu, who gave a small shrug in response. Chaeyoung noticed the interaction between the two and asked, “What are you two doing here?”

“I’m here to practice some soccer stuff,” Tzuyu said as she held her duffle bag in the air.

Chaeyoung then looked at Sana, “Then why are you here?”

“I was just walking around with Tzuyu… that’s all,” Sana said with a small blush on her cheeks, which Chaeyoung had immediately noticed.

The artist gave teasing look between the two girls and said, “Is there something going on between you two?”

“NO!” Both girls said quickly without any hesitation making Chaeyoung laugh to herself and slowly got off the ground with Sana’s help, while Tzuyu asked, “You want to call your parents to give you a ride home or something?”

Chaeyoung shook her head, “Seriously guys… I’m fine, besides I need to lock up the art room before I leave.”

Sana rubbed Chaeyoung’s back softly, “Are you sure?”

“Yes,” Chaeyoung said with a small smile, “You guys are acting like I just fell from the top of a building.”

Sana and Tzuyu gave a small nod as they walked out the bathroom, leaving Chaeyoung to walk back to the art room to grab her bag and lock up the art room, she was kind of disappointed that she wasn’t able to finish her painting, but like that old man in Toy Story once said ‘You can’t rush art.’

Chaeyoung closed the door behind her and made sure she had locked the door as she turned around and started to walk down the hallway. Her chest was still in pain, but she chose to ignore it and walked out the school building clutching her chest and trying to ease it.

‘This pain should go away once I take some Advil.’ Chaeyoung thought mindlessly as she walked through the front gates. She had pulled out her phone to check out any Social Media updates, as she was scrolling through her timeline there was a post being spread around on her dashboard since the afternoon so she opened the photo up and was surprised at what she was seeing.

It was Jeongyeon and Nayeon alone with their bodies leaning on each other… it seemed very intimate, she then saw another photo of Nayeon kissing Jeongyeon’s forehead as well. Chaeyoung had rubbed her eyes a few times trying to make sure she was seeing things correctly, but her eyes weren’t fooling her… that was definitely the older girls.

‘I didn’t know those two liked each other, heck I didn’t even know they were gay’ Chaeyoung mentally though, but while she was walking her chest hurt again making her stumble into a nearby wall and was breathing heavily, her chest was actually killing her and she didn’t know what to do.

She was still a few more blocks away from the neighborhood and she didn’t know if she would make it to her house, she could feel herself getting ready to pass out, then she out again.

-

Momo and Jeongyeon were sitting outside again for lunch and it was as awkward as ever. After Jennie’s party Momo was super quiet and wouldn’t say a word to the softball player, Jeongyeon was trying to ease the tension by starting up small conversations, but Momo wouldn’t budge.

The two sat their quietly just admiring the fall breeze in going through their hair. Jeongyeon then spoke up and said, “I saw you and Jennie sitting together at the party… how was that?”

Momo sighed and said, “It was ok. Nayeon did most of the talking for me so I really owe her one for that.”

Jeongyeon slowly nodded her head not knowing what else to say, so she sat there just staring at the leaves that were blowing by, then there was a buzz from her phone.

Nayeon: Have you seen it?

Jeongyeon: Seen what?

At that exact moment someone in the class group chat sent a picture making Jeongyeon quickly open the notification and almost dropped her phone in shock. The picture was her and Nayeon at Jennie’s party being really, REALLY close with each other, she then saw the other photo of Nayeon kissing her forehead.

Jeongyeon: Never mind… I just saw the photos

Nayeon: Great... I’m sorry Jeongyeon… I didn’t know this would happen.

Jeongyeon looked up from her phone and saw Momo looking at her phone as well, she noticed the Japanese girl had a very displeased look and seemed like she wanted to punch something. Before Jeongyeon could even say anything Momo had stood up abruptly and just stormed off leaving a confused Jeongyeon at the table.

Momo had no clue where she was going, but right now she just wanted to get away from Jeongyeon. The girl was pushing through the crowds of kids who were whispering and murmuring about the photos, she hated it hearing all of this stuff… it filled her with anger and jealousy.

Someone had bumped into Momo making her look up and was about to yell at the person, but she blinked a few times seeing Nayeon standing in front of her with a stressed out face. Momo’s face had softened a little seeing the older girl’s struggle.

Nayeon looked at Momo, “Hey Momo… have you seen Jeongyeon?”

Momo gave a frustrated sigh ‘All she talks about is Jeongyeon this and Jeongyeon that… can she talk about something else.’ The Japanese girl looked at her with an angry look, “She’s sitting at a lunch table outside.”

“Thank you,” Nayeon said with a soft smile as she started walking quickly.

Momo watched as Nayeon quickly disappeared outside making the Japanese girl’s heart twist in pain from jealousy. She quickly made her way trying to find a desolate part of the school and luckily there was a stairwell that no one was in.

She quickly walked up the steps then squatted down leaning onto the wall and tried her best from letting the tears fall from her face, but her heart was telling her to let it out.

The Japanese girl didn’t want to let her emotions take her over, but of course her emotions let the best of her and started to sob quietly in the stairwell.

Jeongyeon was sitting outside with a stressed look and biting her lips, out of the corner of her eyes she could see the other students pointing at her and whispering as they walked by. The softball player loved attention, especially when she made a good play in her sport, but this type of attention was not a good feeling in her stomach.

She was tapping her foot nervously, then someone was standing in front of her. When she looked up she had made eye contact with Nayeon, who was giving an annoyed look, “We need to talk.”

Before Jeongyeon could even say anything Nayeon was dragging the girl to a secluded part of the school making sure no one had seen them or followed them, the older dropped her annoying face and had a worried one, “Are you ok?”

Jeongyeon was impressed with how fast Nayeon had changed her facial expression, “I guess… I’ve just never been but under this type of spotlight before.”

Nayeon had also nodded her head slowly and said, “I wasn’t expecting this.”

“Yeah I figured,” Jeongyeon said with a worried look, “Do you think I’m going to get targeted by all of your fan girls?”

“I’ll make sure they won’t,” Nayeon said with a confident look, “Hopefully… I can’t really control them, especially with something like this.”

The softball player gave a small sigh and hoped that her high school experience wasn’t about to turn into a train wreck, just because of these few pictures

-

Chaeyoung opened her eyes slowly seeing a white blinding light above her, she looked over and saw her mother and father sitting in the seats next to her and whispered, “Mom… Dad…?”

Both of her parents quickly looked over at their daughter, her mom quickly went over, while her dad called for a doctor or nurse to come in. Chaeyoung looked at her parents, “Where am I?”

“You’re in the hospital right now,” Her mother said as she caressed her daughter’s cheek, “One of the Yoo daughters was walking by and saw you pass out… so she drove you here to the hospital.”

Chaeyoung had nodded slowly as she turned her head to look at the ceiling and said, “Mom… is there something wrong with me?”

Her mother had bit her own lip she didn’t want to tell her daughter all of this, but luckily a doctor had come in to check on the small girl making her mother move out of the way so the professional could his thing.

He checked her pulse and her eyes to make sure everything was working perfectly fine, he looked at the parents and said, “We just got the diagnosis back and it’s nothing too bad.”

Chaeyoung wanted to listen, but her mother had stopped the doctor and said, “Can we talk about it outside?”

“No,” Chaeyoung said sternly, “I’m not a baby anymore… I can handle bad news.”

Her parents had looked at each other, but they could see the seriousness in their daughter’s eyes so they let the doctor explain what was wrong with Chaeyoung.

“With the diagnosis and the x-rays we’ve gotten back,” The doctor said looking at his clipboard, “She has a valvular heart disease, according to her records she had gotten surgery a few months after her birth for valvular heart disease.”

Chaeyoung never knew about this, has her parents been keeping this a secret to her… but why? The doctor had continued, “The surgery supposedly should’ve gone well since she didn’t seem to have any problems for 14 years, but I guess it wasn’t fully taken out.”

“Luckily… it’s not too fatal as of right now, I can prescribe medication for her, but she won’t be able to do any physical activities,” The doctor said with a straight face,” “But I would recommend getting her surgery within this year.”

The parents had nodded their heads as the doctor had walked out of the room leaving the Son family in an awkward silence. Chaeyoung was the first one to speak up and said, “So I had this disease as a baby? W-Why didn’t you tell me?”

“Because we didn’t want you to think you were any different from the other kids,” her mother said as she sat down onto Chaeyoung’s hospital bed, “Besides we figured you didn’t need to know since you were healthy at the time.”

Chaeyoung sighed softly and said, “Still… you could’ve told me when I got older… then maybe I would’ve not have passed out on the streets.”

Chaeyoung’s mother had given a small smile as she held her daughter’s hand, then the small girl asked, “How did you guys pay for the hospital bills… I-I know it would’ve been expensive.”

“That’s something your father should answer,” her mother said as she looked at her husband.

The retired painter who was sitting on the couch said, “I sold a painting to a rich family so we could pay for your surgery.”

Chaeyoung then asked, “Was it that painting with a baby and roses?”

The man perked his head up and slowly nodded his head and asked, “How did you know?”

“When I found out that you were a retired painter… I kind of did my research on you and found out that your most famous painting was the painting with the baby and roses,” Chaeyoung said as she fidgeted with her fingers.

Chaeyoung’s father gave a warm smile as he got off the couch and sat on the hospital bed with his wife, “The painting was about you… the baby was you. Roses were seen as a lovely and beautiful flower, but even with it’s beauties it could be dangerous, because of the thorns. The roses were surrounding the baby try to show off the beauty, but in reality the thorns were hurting her.”

The small girl nodded along listening to her father’s explanation, then asked, “Why did you sell that painting… it seems like it meant a lot to you.”

“Because it got a lot of exposure… and there were many rich families bidding for it,” the man explained, “I realized if I sold it I could pay for your surgery bills.”

Chaeyoung had given a small smile as she stretched her arms for her parents to hug her, which her parents quickly went in for the hug, but the moment was cut short when the door of her hospital room bursted open.

Dahyun was standing there with a betrayed look and was about to say something, but Jihyo was behind her and pulled her back, “Stop being an idiot… you’ve already made a fool of yourself in the hospital.”

Jeongyeon and Nayeon were also there with Mina who was holding flowers which Chaeyoung blushed seeing and asked, “What are you guys doing here?”

“Seungyeon told me that she found you passed out on the street and brought you to the hospital,” Jeongyeon explained, “So I brought all the girls that were available to see you.”

“Thank You,” Chaeyoung said with a small smile as Mina had handed her the bouquet of flowers, “Uh… where’s Momo? I know Tzuyu and Sana stayed after school for a bit.”

Jeongyeon and Nayeon looked at each other with worried expressions. The softball player answered, "We haven't seen Momo since lunch... I tried waiting for her after school, but she just disappeared."

Chaeyoung had given a small nod in response, then her parents had left the room the girls their own privacy and time to talk with each other. While the girls were talking Mina had walked over to Chaeyoung's hospital bed and gave a soft smile, "Did you ever learn about what that painting meant in Jennie's house."

The small artist had given a small nod in response, "Yep... and it's meankng was completely different from what I thought it was."

-

Sana and Tzuyu were making their way off the field after Tzuyu had done some reps and kicking the ball into the soccer net, the Taiwanese girl had gotten access to the field thanks to Saerom.

The captain of the soccer team told her that she had full access to the field if she cleaned up the field and made sure to put all the stuff she used back into the storage house.

The two girls were walking out of the field as Tzuyu locked the gate behind them. The Japanese girl said, “You think Chaeyoung is really ok?”

The tall girl shrugged, “I don’t know… I’m not a doctor, but fainting in the bathroom doesn’t seem ok.”

Sana shook her head as she pushed the younger girl lightly and said, “That’s not funny.”

“I wasn’t trying to be funny,” Tzuyu said rubbing her arm, “I’m genuinely worried about her.” 

The Japanese girl had gave an embrassed look as the girls were walking out of the front gates of the school. The two were talking about the upcoming events that the school was preparing.

While the two girls were walking on the streets Sana had pulled her phone out of her pocket and saw a text message from Jeongyeon saying that Chaeyoung was in the hospital making the Japanese girl show Tzuyu the text message, “I knew it… something was wrong with Chaeyoung.”

“We should get her some flowers,” the Japanese girl said quickly.

Tzuyu was about to protest, but the older girl had already started dragging her to a nearby bouquet shop at the corner of the street. When the two girls had walked into the shop there was an old woman and a familiar face wearing an apron putting some flowers on display.

“Momo?” Sana said with a surprised look, trying to make sure that her eyes weren’t fooling her, “What are you doing here?”

The older Japanese girl was also shocked seeing her younger two friends standing in a flower shop, but the old woman had spoke up, “Ah… are these the two girls you’ve been talking about?”

Momo quickly turned to the woman and said, “N-No this isn’t them… they’re just friends.”

“Are you sure?” The old woman said as she walked out from the behind counter, “They look like they’re dating... I can see it in their eyes.”

Sana and Tzuyu both had blushes on their check and tried not looking at each other, while Momo laughed, “They’re not dating Mrs. Kang.”

As the old woman gave a nod, she went into the back of the shop, while Momo explained, “That’s Mrs. Kang she’s the owner of this shop.”

“And I’m working here, because I just want some pocket money,” the older girl said with a smile, “And it’s nice smelling all the flowers in here.”

Momo had finished putting the up the flowers for displays and said, “So what are you guys doing here?”

Tzuyu was looking around the shop for a specific flower, while Sana had explained, “Chaeyoung’s in the hospital, me and Tzuyu are stopping by to grab some flowers for her.”

Momo widened her eyes in response after hearing the news, “Chaeyoung’s in hospital!? What happened?”

“I don’t know,” Sana said with a worried look, “But Tzuyu and I found her passed out in the school bathroom so something was up with her.”

Momo then asked, “So what flowers are you thinking about getting?”

Sana shrugged, “Something that means get well soon… anything that shows that we care for her.”

The older Japanese girl was looking for a specific set of flowers and smiled once she spotted them. She had picked out a beautiful plant with white petals adorning it, “Daisies usually mean get-well-soon, so these would be your best bet.”

Tzuyu had come back with a purple flower, “Can we also put this in the bouquet?”

Sana shrugged, “I guess, but why did you pick this out.”

“This flower is called an Iris,” the soccer player explained, “It symbolizes hope… which I feel like Chaeyoung might need as of right now.”

The two Japanese girls were shocked that Tzuyu was being so nice, usually they would see her with a bored expression and looked like she was about to kill someone, when the tall girl noticed the expressions she explained, “Chaeyoung’s in my class and she helps me a lot with school since I kinda struggle with Korean literature, so I owe her.”

Tzuyu had handed the flowers to Momo, who took the the daises as well and started wrapping the flowers into a bundle and put some wrapping paper on it, then Momo calculated the price and said, “That’ll be 24,000 Won.”

Sana widened her eyes realizing that she didn’t have money on her, then looked at Tzuyu with embarrassment, “Do you have money with you?”

“No,” Tzuyu said a raised eyebrow, “I thought you would’ve since you brought us here.”

Sana gave a nervous chuckle, while Momo had laughed and said, “I can pay for it.”

“Momo you don’t have to,” The younger Japanese girl said with a guilty look.

Momo shook her head as she handed the bouquet of flowers to Sana, “It’s fine, besides I need to send flowers as well, so these flowers are also from me,” then she glared at the two, “You better mention me when you visit her.”

Tzuyu was already walking out, while Sana said, “We will… see you later Momo.”

The older Japanese girl gave a final wave before seeing Sana and Tzuyu disappear from the streets making her give a small sigh.

“Are you sure those two aren’t dating?”

The old woman had come out of the back room carrying some tea for Momo, which the Japanese girl gladly took and shrugged, “I really don’t know, but it would very surprising. I haven’t know Tzuyu that long, but she has such a contrasting personality from Sana.”

“There is an old saying that opposites attract,” the woman said as she drank out of her cup of tea, “And it seems like those two attract.”

Momo internally thought to herself ‘Opposites attract huh? Jeongyeon is cool and is pretty popular with our grade, while Nayeon is popular and always had people around her… they’re both the same while I’m just a nobody that’s seen as Jeongyeon’s sidekick. It should be me that Nayeon likes… not Jeongyeon.’ 

The Japanese girl shook her head in disbelief after thinking that nasty thought ‘How could I think that… Jeongyeon and Nayeon are my best friends... I have to respect their decisions.’ Her her mind was telling her to respect the older girls’ feelings, but her heart was telling her the opposite.

She had no clue what to listen to and it was infuriating for the Japanese girl, which the flower owner noticed and said, “If you want you can leave early… something is on your mind?”

“No,” Momo said with a fake smile, “Everything is fine… just thinking about some stuff.”

Before the old woman could stop her Momo had already left the counter to go an clean some of the shelves and water the plants.