“Tzuyu only shows her affection once a year!” Jihyo and her loud voice exclaims. She ends up broadcasting the information to the entire student body by accident.

Tzuyu can’t help but be mortified. Of course Jihyo doesn’t intend for her words to be heard by literally everyone in the cafeteria, but Tzuyu can still feel eyes everywhere on her.

Tzuyu ignores the other students gossiping around her, refocusing her gaze on her friends who are intently listening to another one of Nayeon’s long winded stories before the break ends. She doesn’t care about the people gossiping around her, but Tzuyu can’t help but frown at the thought of Jihyo thinking that she only shows her affection once in a blue moon.

Because that’s definitely not the case.

Especially not to Jihyo, Tzuyu thinks.

Ever since that day, Tzuyu’s made it her mission to become more affectionate. Towards Jihyo, in particular.

Just to prove a point, of course.

(Tzuyu tries to tamper down all the other feelings that rise and flutter in her chest at the thought of Jihyo.)

It’s in the middle of potentially dangerous high speed projectiles that Tzuyu finally remembers her plan to be more affectionate towards Jihyo. The tall girl stands as one of the few juniors left in their supposedly friendly game of dodgeball. Whichever PE teacher thought it was a good idea to pit tiny juniors against the stronger seniors is a mystery to Tzuyu.

On her right is Dahyun, the ever so flexible girl dodging the balls as she performs splits like her bones don’t exist. While Chaeyoung is on her other side, throwing rubber balls at an insanely fast speed. Too bad her attempts at getting back aren’t hitting anyone but the wall.

Tzuyu’s mind drifts over to other thoughts as the rest of her reflexes take over in dodging the (few) projectiles coming at her. For once Tzuyu’s quite thankful that she can be quite intimidating, as even the seniors don’t want to target her as they opt for Dahyun or Chaeyoung instead. Things change quickly however, as Dahyun fails to dodge one of Nayeon’s cheeky throws, and Chaeyoung’s thrown ball is caught by Jihyo, putting both of them out of the game.

The juniors on the bleachers roar in encouragement as Tzuyu’s the last one standing. When the young girl realizes this, she sees Nayeon, Mina, and Jihyo in front of her-- her three most competitive unnies. Tzuyu supposes that she’s had a good life (that could’ve been better, if she’s being honest), she thinks as Mina’s eyes twinkle with a very competitive spark. The Japanese girl quickly launches the ball towards Tzuyu with barely enough time for the tall girl to react.

Luckily, Tzuyu’s reflexes seem to be on her side as she catches the ball, putting Mina out of the game. For the briefest moment, Tzuyu’s eyes meet Jihyo’s. Despite looking exhausted, her unnie still is as bright as the sun and it’s absolutely unfair.

While the junior is distracted, another ball comes hurtling towards her, and Tzuyu’s reflexes act a bit too fast when she immediately dodges, then using all of her strength to throw the ball in her hands to whichever direction the earlier projectile came from. 

Tzuyu realizes rather belatedly that she’s thrown back her own ball at breakneck speed towards a now very panicked Nayeon.

She swears she didn’t target Nayeon on purpose, it just happened! But before Tzuyu can do anything else, Jihyo shoves Nayeon away and the ball hits Jihyo straight in the face with a loud smack.

Jihyo falls to the ground, and Tzuyu is absolutely mortified.

With strength Tzuyu didn’t know she possessed, she ends up carrying an unconscious Jihyo bridal style. Their teachers may have disagreed at first, but one sharp look from Tzuyu was all it took for them to agree, and for all the students to part like the Red Sea as she takes Jihyo to the clinic.

It may not have been the ideal way for Tzuyu’s plan to be more affectionate with her unnie to begin, but it’s a start, at least… sort of. She notices that Jihyo’s small and as light as a feather in her arms, or maybe it’s the adrenaline-- she isn’t so sure. All she knows is that she hates how weak her usually strong unnie looks now, and she absolutely hates that this is all her fault to begin with.

When the junior arrives at the clinic, she finally notices that her unnie isn’t completely unconscious. Jihyo’s eyes are slightly open, gazing blankly at Tzuyu’s face, making the younger girl feel even worse about the whole situation.

“Jihyo unnie, I’m sorry…” Tzuyu says solemnly as she slowly places Jihyo down to rest on the bed.

“Mmh, what for?” Jihyo mumbles, barely awake. The nurse is quick to check on Jihyo and Tzuyu steps back for a bit to let the nurse assess the situation. It doesn’t take long for the nurse to return with an ice pack and instructs Jihyo to put it over her bruised cheek before leaving the room to fill up some papers.

“For that,” Tzuyu gestures at Jihyo’s bruised cheek, “Let me,” She says and moves to take the ice pack from her unnie’s hand. Tzuyu’s brows scrunch up and her frown deepens as she tends to Jihyo’s injury, feeling terrible about what just happened.

“‘Wasn’t your fault,” Jihyo mumbles out, wincing at the chill of the ice touching her bruise, “My reflexes got ahead of me.”

“I was aiming for Nayeon unnie,” Tzuyu ends up saying instead of arguing. Jihyo doesn’t reply back, and Tzuyu pulls out a chair to sit on while tending to Jihyo’s injury.

“Of course you were,” Jihyo finally replies, smiling sleepily at her, the older girl’s hand resting on top of the hand Tzuyu’s using to tend to her cheek.  It’s at this moment that Tzuyu realizes how impossibly tiny Jihyo looks in the large bed. The junior never wants to hurt her again, intentionally or unintentionally.

“She, she probably would’ve deserved...” Jihyo mumbles out but doesn’t finish her sentence, falling asleep.

Tzuyu can’t help the warmth that spreads in her system when Jihyo’s (small) hand rests completely on top of her own.

She internally doubles down on her plan to be more affectionate towards her unnie. Tzuyu’s not exactly sure where the motivation to try harder comes from, but she’ll try to do it anyway.

The next day, Tzuyu is equal parts surprised and determined when she spots Jihyo walking around the halls with a large bandage covering her right cheek. The older girl is dutifully looking around as usual, greeting some of her friends along the way to her locker. The younger girl is quick to make a beeline towards her, standing in front of Jihyo’s locker.

“What are you doing here, unnie?” Tzuyu blurts out without thinking.

“Good morning to you too, Tzuyu-ah," Jihyo smiles brightly, "And well it is a school day… and this is a school?” Jihyo answers, raising a brow at the question.

“But you’re still injured, unnie,” Tzuyu tries to reason, involuntarily pouting, “You should be at home resting.”

“Nothing I can’t handle,” Jihyo smiles a bit too widely as she reaches to pat the top of Tzuyu's head. The younger girl can tell that Jihyo's bluffing.

“I’m sorry,” Tzuyu sighs, gaze still quite focused on Jihyo’s injury when she quickly realizes that she could lean in for a hug. 

A hug can always make someone feel better, the tall girl reasons to herself. She actively ignores the memory of Sana smothering her with hugs while she was sick one time, somehow causing her condition to become even worse the next day.

“We’ve gone over this, Tzuyu-yah. It’s not your fault, okay?” Jihyo shakes her head, looking quite fondly at the younger girl, “But if it makes you feel any better, I really should’ve let Nayeon get hit instead,” She snickers, but doesn’t get much of a response from Tzuyu who’s busy calculating how to perform a perfect hug.

Just as Tzuyu finally finds the perfect opening to take Jihyo into a warm embrace, a loud scream resounds around the hallway and Jihyo’s nearly tackled to the ground at Nayeon’s attempt at glomping her.

“Jihyo-ya!” Nayeon yells and Tzuyu’s eye twitches at the obnoxious sound, “My savior!” She coos while making kissy sounds that makes the junior’s frown deepen.

“Tzuyu-ah, what are you doing?” Nayeon suddenly asks from behind Jihyo, arms still wrapped around Jihyo like vines. Tzuyu can’t help but clench her jaw at the sight.

It’s only at this point that Tzuyu realizes that both of her arms are halfway up, supposedly on their way to Jihyo. That is until Nayeon comes in to ruin her plans. Flushing the slightest bit, Tzuyu’s quick to drop her arms back to her sides as she tries her best to appear casual. Her hands close up into fists involuntarily while her arms remain stiff.

“You almost made Jihyo unnie fall,” Is what Tzuyu says to save herself from the situation.

Nayeon only replies with a hum as she lets go of Jihyo, the eldest’s eyes suddenly trained on someone else entirely as she quickly excuses herself from the scene. Tzuyu can only roll her eyes when she notices that Nayeon is chasing after Jeongyeon who’s also being chased by a horde of fangirls.

Watching Nayeon leave, she doesn’t notice Jihyo moving to stand beside her. She nearly jumps when she feels fingers grazing by the palm of her hand. Looking to her side, she’s met with Jihyo’s gentle gaze.

“Let me walk you to class?” She asks with a smile. The tall girl can only answer with a curt nod as the tips of her ears quickly turn red.

Tzuyu tries to ignore how her heart jumpstarts at the feeling of Jihyo entwining their fingers together.