It’s been a week since Tzuyu’s initiation into the friend group, the tall girl would hang out with all girls every so often, kicking around a soccer ball or chasing Dahyun down every time the pale girl would take her soccer ball from her.

The person who had really enjoyed the tall girl’s presence the most was Sana. The Japanese girl had no clue why… I mean Tzuyu was cool and chic, never really got into trouble with adults on the plus side Tzuyu was very athletic and had a perfect body… don’t ask how Sana had seen the girl shirtless.

Even when she had first encountered the tall girl, the way Tzuyu had played soccer was hypnotizing to the Japanese girl. Seeing her dribble the ball around her feet had always impressed Sana every single time. 

Tzuyu’s family had met the Yoo family last weekend and it was safe to say both of the families were able to click pretty well. Jeongyeon and Tzuyu had sworn to each other that they would never, ever, EVER talk about that night. It had been pretty traumatizing night for the both of them… but hey it had allowed an agreement between both families to have them remove the picket fence that was separating both of their backyards… so more space for both families (that was the logic of the VERY drunk dads).

So Sana had a clear view of Tzuyu playing with her soccer ball and kicked it into the goal net. Dahyun and Chaeyoung were also on the Kim-Chou backyard trying to steal the ball from Tzuyu again, but the tall girl was quick with her feet and was able to move the ball from their grasps.

The Japanese girl was giggling at the two girls’ misfortunes until Jeongyeon had walked out through her back door and handed Sana a cola. The younger girl gladly took it and took a sip out of it, while Jeongyeon sat on the ground and said, “You’ve been staring at her for the past 30 minutes… you good?”

Sana hummed in response still looking at Tzuyu laughing at the two older girls, who were scrambling on the ground for the ball, while Dahyun complained how her uniform was going to get stained.

 Jeongyeon had been familiar with that look, she had seen her parents give that look with each other all the time, the same look Seoyeon had given to Seolhyun on the traumatizing night. Jeongyeon shook her head in disgust remembering that scene, but the softball player knew what Sana was feeling… she still had those feelings for a certain sophomore girl.

“You like her?” Jeongyeon said out of the blue, while tapping her fingernails against her drink.

Sana was in the middle of drinking her cola and almost spit out the contents when she heard what Jeongyeon had said. She quickly turned to her and started getting defensive, “M-ME? Me liking Tzuyu… pft… you have got to be kidding. I don’t like girls… I-I mean yeah girls are pretty and all… but I like boys…yeah I like boy. B-But no hate to gay people… it’s cool that you’re gay and all…I-I really respect that. I-It’s I just like boys. And that’s final.”

Jeongyeon had given an amused look at the Japanese girl who’s cheeks were a bright red color and thought ‘She’s in self-denial… I went through that as well when I found out I liked girls, but I won’t force her to admit until she realizes it herself and then she’ll probably talk about it.’ The older girl shrugged, “Whatever you say Sana.”

At that moment Momo and Jihyo had walked in through the fence gate still wearing their school uniforms. Jeongyeon turned around and completely avoided eye contact with Momo, so she looked at Jihyo with a small smile and asked, “Where were you two?”

Jihyo sighed as she grabbed Jeongyeon’s drink and took a sip out of it and said, “The middle school and high school are having a field day for the start of a new school year… I had to stay behind to help plan.”

Jeongyeon slowly hesitated to looked over at Momo, who was trying to grab the drink from Sana and said in a low tone, “Where were you?”

Momo had noticed the girl’s voice, but chose to ignore it and answered her, “I joined the student council at our school… it seemed a lot of fun, but I’ll probably join the dance club too… I hope their schedules don’t collide.”

Jeongyeon gave a small scoff, “You in the student council? You have the maturity level of a 5 year old.”

The Japanese girl gave a slight offense to that and argued, “Oh yeah? You’re not any better either.”

“YoU’rE nOT AnY bEttER eItHer,” Jeongyeon said in a mocking tone, “At least I’m not stupid enough to hurt one of my friends.”

Sana, Jihyo and Momo had all raised an eyebrow in response. Jeongyeon had noticed the looks and felt stupid for saying that, she was about to say something, but someone spoke up, “Whats up guys?”

All heads turned seeing Nayeon walking in her school uniform and had noticed the tense atmosphere. Jeongyeon’s chest would twist in a painful way every time she had seen Nayeon, especially in school. The image of Momo and Nayeon kissing was ingrained into the girl’s head. The softball player gave a small groan as she got up from the ground and said, “I’m gonna head inside for a bit.”

The girl slowly made her way to her backdoor and closed it behind her leaving the rest of the girls with a confused look and Nayeon asking, “What’s up with her?”

The other girls shrugged and went back to whatever they were originally doing. Nayeon made her way to Momo and said to Sana, “Can I borrow her real quick.”

“Be my guest,” Sana said with a small chuckle as she started talking to Jihyo about school.

Nayeon had dragged the Japanese girl into a storage shed that the Yoo Family had bought, but wasn’t really used that much. Once the two were secluded in there Nayeon said, “We need to talk.”

Momo had raised an eyebrow, “About?”

Nayeon thought it was plainly obvious what she was talking about and whispered, “The kiss Momo.”

The younger girl had given a small nervous chuckle, “I-I thought we agreed that we wouldn’t talk about that.”

“I know,” Nayeon said with a sigh, “But it’s been clouding my mind for the past week… like… do we even like each other?”

Momo looked at Nayeon up and down, then gave a disgusted look and shook her head, “No.”

Nayeon gave another sigh as she leaned onto the wall and covered her face, “Do you know how bad this is… that was my first kiss… I wanted to save that.”

Momo had given a small nod and said, “That was also my first kiss,” then she asked carefully, “D-Did you not like it?”

Nayeon looked up and said with an exasperated look and stared right into Momo’s eyes, “That’s the problem… I did like it.”

-

Chaeyoung, Dahyun and Tzuyu were making their way into the Yoo backyard after seeing the girls starting to piling in. Dahyun quickly collapsed onto the ground and was breathing heavily, “That’s the most exercise I’ve ever had in my entire life.”

Chaeyoung had also taken seat next to the pale girl, while Tzuyu was completely fine and was just drenched with sweat, “Then you clearly don’t get out that much.”

Dahyun glared, “I’m sorry Mrs. Soccer Legend… I play piano… I don’t do exercise.”

That had perked Sana’s ears… she had heard from Seolhyun a week ago that Tzuyu was amazing at soccer, but didn’t go in depth about it, but the Japanese girl was kind of curious and asked, “Soccer Legend?”

The Taiwanese girl gave a small shrug as she kicked the ball into the air and landing into her hands, “It’s nothing really… I was just a really good player back home in Taiwan.”

“A really good player?” Dahyun said in an flabbergasted tone, “You literally played with Chinese high school players when you were in sixth grade.”

Tzuyu glared at the girl telling her to shut up, but Dahyun just kept flapping which had peaked Sana’s interest even more, then Jihyo gave a small gasp, “You were on national television that year… that’s why you seem so familiar.”

The tall girl sighed in annoyance and realized she couldn’t hide it so she explained, “I was being scouted by a Chinese High School and got invited to one of their games to play,” she then started to flip the ball in her hands, “I just didn’t know it would be the finals against Korea I would be playing in.”

“I remember it,” Jihyo had explained further, “It was 1-1 and there were a few minutes left on the clock… the coach had put in Tzuyu as a last resort since the other team didn’t know much about her. Obviously the people were not happy about it, but the she was able top pull it off and score the final point for China.”

Sana had widened her eyes, while Dahyun explained even further, “The reason I knew about this was because my brother was telling me about it before how some random middle schooler had scored. It was the most talked event. It all over the media… so I did my research and found Tzuyu as the first picture on the article titled ‘Middle Schooler Wins High School Asian Cup’.”

“Like I said,” Tzuyu said like this wasn’t the biggest life-changing thing to girl, “It was nothing really… I didn’t even play that much anyways.”

“It was nothing?” Sana said in a slightly confused voice, “You won the game for China? How is that nothing.”

“Because,” Tzuyu said in a stern voice, which had shocked the other girls, “There was a huge argument in the sports world whether Korea should’ve won that game by default, I was technically a middle schooler playing… not a high schooler, but it was ruled off as a fair game cause there was no official rule that a middle schooler couldn’t play, I just had to be an official player on the roster… which I was.”

The soccer player then gripped onto the ball tightly, “There was still backlash for it though… the High School that I played for got a bad rep for it and it had completely ruined their image… being called cheaters.”

Sana had asked carefully, “Is that why you moved to Korea? To get away from the controversy”

“What… No?” Tzuyu said with a weird expression, “I moved because my mom had meet Seolhyun’s dad at that game… and now I’m here.”

Jihyo then asked, “Do you want to play soccer in high school?”

Tzuyu shrugged, “It’s never really crossed my mind, but I know that I want to play soccer this year and next year.”

Sana could see that Tzuyu was feeling a lot of pressure and being afraid of another controversy since that game… that’s probably why she practices a lot so she could live up to the people’s expectations when she gets into high school. The Japanese girl was kind of jealous for the younger girl… she wishes she could be a lacrosse star, but lacrosse was just starting to get popular in Korea.

The tall girl was kicking the soccer ball around until she felt a buzz in her back pocket, when she answered the call she turned around and started speaking in Chinese, leaving the rest of the girls out of the loop.

After ending the call she turned back around and said, “I’ll be back in a few hours,” then pointed to Chaeyoung and Dahyun, “make sure those two don’t hide my soccer balls.”

Tzuyu had jogged into her house and was met with Seolhyun and her dad talking about universities that her step-sister could attend, while Tzuyu’s mother was cooking some dinner. The woman had looked at Tzuyu, “Where are you going?”

“Uh…” Tzuyu said as she was about to upstairs, “I’m changing out of my uniform and heading to um… China Town.”

“Tzu…” Her mother said with a disappointed look.

“Come on Mom… it’s been a week since I’ve been there, just let me go once please,” the tall girl said with a pouty look.

Tzuyu’s mother gave a small sigh and said with a stern finger, “Alright… but be back by dinner ok?”

Tzuyu gave a beaming look as she quickly went up the stairs and went into her room. The soccer player’s room wasn’t that flashy but it had a few soccer player posters plastered all over the wall and a desk that was pretty empty except for a few bottles of water. She raided her closet trying to find some comfortable clothes. 

She looked in the mirror seeing her oversized sweater and jogger pants, she gave a small nod as she grabbed her beanie and skateboard on the way out. She kissed her mom goodbye and noogied Seolhyun on her way out. 

The girl cracked her neck as she placed her earbuds and played her music. She gave running start as she landed on her skateboard and started cruising down the street, while a few girls were looking over the fence. Dahyun whistled, “You know for a seventh grader… she could pull of being a high schooler too.”

Chaeyoung and Jihyo also nodded her head in agreement, while Sana had kept staring at the girl riding down the street, her heart beating at an irregular pace.

-

Tzuyu loved her new neighborhood… it was better than the one she had back home in Taiwan, but she slightly missed the Chinese atmosphere and markets, so the girl had done a little bit of research when she moved and found this place called the Chinese Organization, but most would just call it China Town. It was a little community that had a Chinese culture everywhere, even some kids around her age.

The tall girl knew she had finally came into the right community when she started noticing that the signs were becoming Chinese instead of Korea. Most of the locals there knew the Taiwanese girl since she would come by often. She had gotten off her skateboard and put it under arms and started walking around the market place. While she was walking someone had wrapped an arm around her and started ruffling her hair, “Where’ve you been… it’s been a week!?”

Tzuyu gave a small chuckle as she got out of the person’s grasp and adjusted her beanie, “My bad Elkie… my mom wouldn’t let me leave, plus I’ve got school now.”

“Man… bummer that you can’t come to our school,” Elkie said with a small pout, but quickly brightened and started dragging Tzuyu, “Come on… the others are probably waiting.”

Elkie was one of the first few kids Tzuyu had met in China Town. Elkie was a sweet girl, but was fierce as well considering that she was able to stop the boys from trying to hit on Tzuyu when she introduced her to everyone. Tzuyu really liked the older girl… not in a crush way, but as a friend. 

Tzuyu never really had friends back in Taiwan, since she was super quiet and mostly focused on soccer, but Elkie had changed that for her and was starting to open up to new people… so Tzuyu had given her thanks to the older girl.

The two girls were dodging around stalls and maneuvering their way around the area while adults were yelling at them and kids following them. The two had made it to a large metal fence and hopped over it leaving the kids behind. Elkie gave a sigh of relief, “Thank god they can’t hop that… kind of annoying when the kids follow.”

Tzuyu gave a small smile as Elkie had lead them to a back door attached to another building. When Elkie had opened it they were met with a lot of women doing laundry and speaking in Chinese at each other. A woman had noticed the two and spoke in Chinese, “Ah… Tzuyu it’s been a while how are you?”

Tzuyu had given a small bow and said, “Hi Mrs. Chong… school’s been slightly hectic.”

Mrs. Chong had given a small nod and said, “Remember you’re welcome here any time.”

Tzuyu gave a happy nod as Elkie had lead the two up the stairs in the building and arriving where Elkie and her family lived above the laundry building. The older girl quickly grabbed something from her room and showed it to her.

“A slingshot?” Tzuyu said with a raised eyebrow.

Elkie nodded, “Pinky wants to test out her aim for something… I don’t know.”

The two were making their way down the stairs, before leaving the building Tzuyu gave a quick thanks to Elkie’s mother before trailing after her. The two were starting to make their way to a more desolate area. There was an abandoned small warehouse that Elkie’s friends like to hangout in. 

Elkie had punched in the code for the door and opened it revealing that a few people were inside already messing around. The inside of the warehouse was a great hangout spot. There was a basketball court in the middle of the building, a kitchen area with two fridges (one for beer that had a lock on it and one for the minors… which were beer free) but no one really cooked that often, a flat screen TV surrounded by a bunch of couches, there was even a small gym area and pool table on the second floor.

It was safe to say that you could basically live in this building if you wanted to… which some did such as Mark Tuan (who was able to get his hands on the building) and Jackson Wang (Who was mostly passed out in the weirdest spots).

Tzuyu went straight to the fridge seeing if she could lay her hands on something, but someone had given her a hug and said, “Where have you been I missed you.”

“P-Pinky… y-you’re crushing me,” Tzuyu said trying to gasp for air and slapping the girl’s arm.

Another girl had shown up and punched her in the arm, “You know how boring it was without you.”

“Ow… that hurt Cheng,” Tzuyu rubbed her arm and said, “School just started up for me… so I’ve been kind of busy.”

Cheng had grabbed a cola from the fridge and tossed it to Tzuyu as she sat on the table, “School Shmool… just ditch it like me.”

Elkie rolled her eyes and slapped the back of her head, “Which you shouldn’t do dumb .”

Cheng gave a mocking tone, until someone was walking down the stairs and yelled, “That voice sounds very familiar.”

Jackson and Mark were walking down the stairs… hopefully sober. Jackson had leaned on the table and looked at Tzuyu, “I thought you left.”

Tzuyu gave an amused look, “And why would I leave?”

Mark had grabbed a beer can from the other fridge in the kitchen and said, “Because you would show up everyday over the summer… and then you mysteriously disappear.”

Tzuyu gave a small laugh and smirked, “Hows Xuan Yi?”

“Uh…,” Mark said with a sheepish rub on his neck, “We um… we kinda-“

“Broke up,” another voice said that was entering the warehouse and was wearing a school uniform, “Me and Mark decided to end it.”

Tzuyu gave a sad look, “Oh… um sorry for bringing it up then you two.”

The girl shook her head as she wrapped her arms around Tzuyu and smiled, “How you doing? It’s been a while.”

Tzuyu shrugged as another group of people had started to pile in through the door. Kun and Vivi were walking in laughing at each other, while WinWin and Minghao were arguing who should get the last pocky in the pack. 

The Taiwanese girl gave a small laugh seeing the chaos in the warehouse, “Almost everyone’s here… where’s Lucas and Yuqi?”

“Idiots got themselves detention this week for throwing a paint bomb at their teacher,” Elkie said with a small smirk, then she pulled the slingshot out of her back pocket and handed it to Pinky.

Pinky had widened her eyes seeing the slingshot and immediately loaded it with a small piece of rock that was laying around and shot it at Jackson’s head. The oldest boy growled as he held his head, “OW? What the hell was that for?”

The girl gave a small laugh as she skipped off into the lounge area. Everyone else had started to go to their own places and doing their own thing. Tzuyu had sat down on one of the couches and pulled her phone out and seeing a text from an Unknown number.

Unknown: Hey Tzuyu :)

Tzuyu had risen an eyebrow at this random text and carefully replied back.

Tzuyu: Hello… who is this?

Unknown: Oh it’s Sana… I should’ve probably introduced myself.

The Taiwanese girl had widened her eyes in response wondering how the girl had managed to get her number.

Sana: Your mom had given it to me… I don’t know why, but I guess I have it now lol

Tzuyu gave a small sigh and thought ‘Of course my mom had given it to her.’ She heard another ding from her phone.

Sana: Is it ok if I add you into our neighborhood group chat?

Tzuyu: ok

Tzuyu had thrown her phone down onto her couch, while Pinky and Elkie sat down next to her. Pinky asked, “So how’s everything in your new school… make any new friends?”

“Uh…” Tzuyu was about to answer, but then a spam of ding noises were coming from her phone, so she quickly grabbed it to see what was happening and was not surprised one bit.

Sana added Tzuyu to Neighborhood.

Sanake: Hey guys I added Tzuyu

Dubbie: Like cold and blunt Tzuyu?

ChaengieWaengie: Yes Dahyun… the only Tzuyu we know

Mrs. Clean: How did you even get her number Sana?

Raccoonlookalike: What can she not have her number Jeong?

Mrs. Clean: Oh shut up Momo

Thomas: Can you two shut up ??? ohmygod

Grandma: Jihyo I can’t take you seriously with your stupid chat name lol

Dubbie: At least she doesn’t have “Grandma” as her chat name… like that’s probably the most accurate one here

Grandma: Say that one more time and I’ll pummel you into actual tofu

GamerPenguin: Hey Tzuyu :)

Tzuyu had given a small chuckle at the chaos in her group chat which had caught the attention of Pinky and Elkie. The two girls have never seen the tall girl chuckle at something that wasn’t a joke from them so they were curious as to what had made her smile.

Elkie tried looking at her phone, “So who are you texting?”

Tzuyu looked up from her phone and shrugged, “Just some kids that live in my neighborhood.”

“Are they your friends as well?” Elkie didn’t try to sound jealous… but she kind of sounded jealous which made Pinky give a small laugh.

Tzuyu put her phone in her pocket and thought about if for a minute. She was pretty comfortable with them like her friends here in China Town and she could make fun of them as much as she wanted… so I guess she could define them as friends, but she shrugged, “I guess… but we’re more acquainted I guess.”

Elkie sighed in relief… it wasn’t the answer she was hoping for, but she would take it. While they were talking Jackson and Mark started yelling like crazy in the basketball court. Everyone turned their heads and saw that they had tied Kun upside down to the hoop, who looked like he was about to throw up. 

Xuan Yi had given a small sigh leaving the kitchen area, while Vivi followed her to help take Kun down, “Yep those two are definitely drunk.”

Tzuyu had given a small laugh as she Elkie and Pinky got up from the couch to help Vivi take down Kun from the basketball hoop. The tall girl looked at her phone to see Dahyun and Chaeyoung sending memes to each other, while Jihyo was telling them to shut up.

Tzuyu: your guys’ memes are dry… no wonder you guys can’t make me laugh

ChaengieWaengie: and she speaks o_o

Thomas: Hey Tzuyu… where are you right now? We’re all getting ready to go to dinner… wanna come with?

The Taiwanese girl looked up at her phone to see the chaos that she was witnessing. Jackson was throwing basketballs at WinWin, who was trying to get Mark to stop throwing Minghao like it was the WWE tournament. 

She gave a small chuckle and noticed the group chat booming again and said ‘I wish they were as chaotic as them’ then the girl started thinking about Dahyun and Chaeyoung at school and how Sana, Mina and Momo were on the weekends… heck she had even seen Nayeon, Jihyo and Jeongyeon being in chaos at some points. She gave a small smile ‘Well they’re chaotic in their own way.’

Tzuyu: Um not today… if you’re free this weekend I’m down

“TZUYU!?” 

Said girl looked up, while Xuan Yi and Vivi were struggling to take the rope off around Kun, who was about to throw up any minute now. Xuan Yi yelled, “Can you grab a knife from the kitchen?”

Tzuyu was making her way to the kitchen until she heard Kun throw up the contents in his stomach all over the floor leaving Xuan Yi with a disgusted look, “A-And maybe get the mop and bucket too while you’re at it.”