Took a four hour nap and so the last two chapters will be up tomorrow.

Bargaining

Sana and Tzuyu’s friendship may have started rocky but soon they became incredibly close.

They didn’t make a huge effort to hang out but usually if they had a lecture together Tzuyu would invite her back to the diner for lunch. They’d usually compare notes and make revision materials, it helped too that Victoria and Elkie liked Sana. Sometimes they talked more personally, Sana told her about her life back in Japan and her best friend Momo who went to college a few hours away. Tzuyu told her about Chaeyoung and why she had needed to unwind re:the pen fiasco.

Sana didn’t get mad and threaten a hypothetical Chaeyoung, nor did she try to give advice in the form of clichés. Instead she just told Tzuyu that if she needed to talk they would and then gave her a hug. That was something Tzuyu took a while to adjust to, Sana was a very touchy person. It threw Tzuyu through a loop a little because she herself had never been like that. The closest person to Sana’s level of clingyness was Nay---nope. That name was forbidden.

Anyway, Sana had quickly become someone that Tzuyu could rely on. Someone she could trust and this time she was conscious that Victoria and Elkie thought Sana was good for her too. They apparently had better people judgement then Tzuyu did. One thing Sana had taught Tzuyu was how naive she once was. The Japanese woman refused to let Tzuyu get taken advantage of again, she acted like a personal body guard at times.

Like when that guy asked Tzuyu to help him study and Sana told him to off. Apparently he had been making his way through every girl in their lecture and Tzuyu had just thought he was too nice.

Sana also valued Tzuyu’s friendship, she had never really had many friends and she appreciated that Tzuyu was trying to adjust to her clinging. She made an effort to meet Tzuyu halfway on things, making sure she knew that she could say when she didn’t like something. It made her sad that anybody would hurt the innocent girl but she supposed somehow that was fates way of moving you forward.

One day they were preparing for a test they had coming up at the diner. They weren’t studying for the same test, Tzuyu was more focused on her Veterinary Studies and Sana was going over her Primary Education notes. She wanted to be a teacher, Sana had ranted to Tzuyu once about how a good teacher makes all the difference. Tzuyu found it honourable and while she tuned out half the rant to study it did give her a new-found respect for Sana.

Anyway, as they were studying, Tzuyu was concentrating on her notes - biting at her pen as she stressed. Sana watched her, a small smile on her face. She couldn’t help but fawn over how cute Tzuyu looked when she focused. Unable to stop herself she pulled her phone out of her pocket and snapped a photo, prompting Tzuyu to look up.

“What’re you doing?”

“Look,” She showed Tzuyu the photo, “You look so cute!”

Tzuyu blushed, “Umm….thanks.”

Sana hummed and took her phone back, “Shame you don’t have GramInsta, this would be a great post.”

“Oh I have GramInsta.”

Sana looked up, “Why haven’t you followed me!?”

“I kinda…” Tzuyu rubbed the back of her neck, “I only use it to stalk Chaeyoung.”

Sana couldn’t stop the eye roll, “Right, I’m sending it to you and you’re gonna post it. Make her see that you are over her.”

Tzuyu didn’t say anything, but decided it couldn’t hurt to try. Was she over Chaeyoung? No. Not at all. But maybe if she did post some pictures Chaeyoung would see her and realise she missed her? That would work, maybe it would bring the girl grovelling back and everything would be okay. It was embarrassing how Chaeyoung could probably click her fingers and Tzuyu would go running back. But Tzuyu had only ever been with Chaeyoung, she’d never really thought about anyone else.

Maybe this is what she needed to do?

So why not go all out?

Tzuyu got out her own phone and told Sana to pose for a selfie. The other girl was excited and did so.

“Wait! Let us in on this!” Victoria announced as she and Elkie skidded into the back,

This ended up being a photo of Sana and Tzuyu laughing as the other two slipped in some sauce on the floor. However as Victoria’s insistence they took another, this one Tzuyu would later frame, the four of them beaming at the camera. Somewhere in her memory, Tzuyu missed her love of photography. But that had been her thing with Chaeyoung and it didn’t feel right to use her camera without her.

It was fun, so much so that Tzuyu was still chuckling later when she looked through the photos. They were good pictures and she found herself looking at Sana. The light was coming through the window at the right angle to make it look like she was glowing. Tzuyu smiled, if her heart didn’t belong to someone else she’d say Sana was beautiful. She hesitated a little before uploading them. What if Chaeyoung didn’t care? What if nobody cared?

No. She had to try.

There was still a part of her that was mad at Chaeyoung, but she had long since accepted that she hadn’t been perfect either. Tzuyu worked to much and pushed Chaeyoung into things the artist was dead set against. Like when she made her clean the whole apartment every week and do the grocery shopping even though it broke Chaeyoung’s artistic flow. Though Tzuyu was barely home and she was very sure that was what had driven Chaeyoung into Nayeon’s arms.

“Would you drop out of college if Chaeyoung wanted you back?” Sana had once asked,

Tzuyu thought a moment, “It depends. I’d ask if she wanted to come out here, but if she didn’t want too I suppose I’d have to move back.”

Sana had looked sad after she said that and Tzuyu had never really figured out why. Sure she loved college, she’d be devastated to leave and would have gotten herself into debt for nothing. But love was love. She had to follow her heart. If Chaeyoung did call her back, Tzuyu promised to be better. To put Chaeyoung first, to keep providing for them. To make her happy.

But first Tzuyu needed to upload the pictures.

Che\/\/y: Fun day studying with this nerd @sminatozaki…@TingYangBsh and @VicChou were also there.

Hitting send she breathed out a breath she didn’t know she was holding. Almost immediately her phone buzzed with a number of notifications, mostly old school friends liking and commenting that it had been a while. Sana was the first to like it and soon some of their classmates added her and also liked the post. It made her feel good, all the praise and compliments. But there was still an ache in her chest, longing for one person in particular to notice.

Chaengcasso has liked your post!

Tzuyu squealed into her pillow.

She had seen it! She had consciously liked it!

Tzuyu immediately decided to start posting more on GramInsta. Maybe this was the start of Chaeyoung missing her, of her winning back her girl.

_____

Momo was Sana’s best friend and Tzuyu had been so nervous about meeting her.

She was afraid that if Momo and her didn’t get along then she would lose Sana too and that put a lot of pressure on the shy girl. Before they met Tzuyu had been online stalking the girl and discovered she was like this amazing dancer. That alone was extremely intimidating. Choreographers had scared Tzuyu since she was a five year old trying ballet lessons for the first time.

But once she met her Tzuyu realised how wrong she was. They were sat in their usual diner booth and Tzuyu decided Momo was the most precious thing in the whole entire world. Momo was this adorable ball of fluff who was just happy to be included and Tzuyu got along with her extremely well. Whilst Sana didn’t enjoy the duo ganging up on her she too was delighted that they were getting along. Momo had always been a somewhat airheaded cheerleader type whilst Tzuyu was a quiet little nerd.

Tzuyu had been bullied by cheerleaders before and Momo had always been called stupid by nerds despite being the sweetest girl. Tzuyu wouldn’t lie, this had scared her too. The idea of reverting back to the high school hierarchy terrified her. Especially because Chaeyoung was no longer there to stick up for them.

But then she met Momo and realised, they weren’t in high school any more. They were adults, the things that mattered back then seemed stupid now. By the end of lunch Momo had added Tzuyu on nearly everything and taken her under her wing. Tzuyu had become infatuated with Momo, mainly her who-cares attitude. It was something Tzuyu aspired to have.

Momo was dating a nice girl from Tzuyu’s old town, but when this came up Sana immediately changed the subject just in case it was someone Tzuyu knew. Momo was okay with that, she didn’t really want to bring her girlfriend up until things got serious. Still Sana was happy for her friend and even Tzuyu congratulated her, Momo seemed very happy and that was the main thing.

After a while Tzuyu excused herself to go to the bathroom leaving the two Japanese girls alone. Sana noticed Momo staring at her.

“What?”

“You like her.”

Sana went red a scoffed, “I don’t…”

“There’s nothing wrong with it,” Momo told her, sipping her coffee, “She’s sweet and you two look good together.”

Sometimes Momo knew her too well.

“She’s still reeling from her ex,” Sana sighed, conceding, “Tzuyu just needs a friend right now so my feelings aren’t important.”

Momo frowned, “That .”

“Yeah, she got pretty messed up by it.” Sana explained, “This girl cheated on her with a really close friend.”

“.” Momo muttered, “Either way, I think you two would be good for each other. Maybe don’t slam the door closed completely.”

Sana thought it over.

But ultimately decided that for now Tzuyu needed her to be a friend.

And that was fine.