Back In Japan

Chaeyoung bounced her leg restlessly on the floor while she was sitting at the side, Tzuyu was standing by, waiting for their bags to appear on the conveyor belt.

Tzuyu was able to sleep throughout the flight without any problems but Chaeyoung was too excited to see her girlfriend again, so she didn’t bother taking a nap despite the travel being almost two hours.

“There’s our bags.” Tzuyu motioned to her as she swiftly grabbed the suitcase and placed it on the cart. Once she managed to get a hold of Chaeyoung's suitcase, she grunted at the weight and struggled to position it properly on the cart. She whipped her head at Chaeyoung. “Damn, dude, what the fuck did you pack?”

Chaeyoung helped position the bag and sighed. “It's cause of my mom. She keeps asking me to bring shit back for Mina.”

“Cute,” she said with a smile, and she started pushing the cart towards the exit. “Is Mina here?”

Chaeyoung glanced at her phone to check her messages again. “Yeah, her last message said she was at the arrival area.”

When they exited the airport, it didn’t take long for Chaeyoung to see Mina happily waving at them. Tzuyu patted her on the shoulder and nodded her head, with that, she ran into Mina’s arms and hugged her tight.

“God, I missed you,” Chaeyoung breathed out, burying her head into Mina’s neck.

“A week can do so much huh?” Mina said after a soft giggle, cupping her face to finally kiss her on the lips. She laid a few more before pulling away to greet Tzuyu. She didn’t hesitate to give the tall friend a big hug and Tzuyu was happy to accept it.

The three hopped in the cab and they sped off to go back home. Tzuyu sat in the front while Mina and Chaeyoung leaned on each other, holding their hands tightly as they were telling Mina about the things they did in Seoul before taking the flight to Osaka.

After more than half an hour, they reached Kobe. Chaeyoung paid the cab, and they got on a bus to travel back to Mina’s neighborhood. Chaeyoung was excited to show Yukiko all the stuff she brought back to her, and Mina couldn’t stop smiling at how happy she was talking about her niece.

They reached the house and Yukiko was waiting by the door, she perked up when she heard Chaeyoung call her and the teen ran across the path to jump on Chaeyoung, bringing her into a big bear hug. They pulled back from the hug to lug all the suitcases inside but Yukiko suddenly got shy when she laid eyes on Tzuyu, she was way smaller compared to the Taiwanese.

“Yuki, this is Tzuyu,” Mina said as they settled in the living room. “She’s Chaeyoung’s good friend and she’s the one who’s gonna stay with us for a while.”

She bowed shyly. “Hello,” she tried her best to greet Tzuyu in Korean.

Tzuyu couldn’t help but smile at how shy she was and bowed as well. “Hi Yukiko. I hope you don’t mind me staying here,” she spoke back in Japanese, fluently.

The three of them looked at each other and Yukiko’s face turned even redder and mumbled something before she bolted upstairs to her room.

“Did I say something wrong?” Tzuyu’s brows knitted.

Mina giggled and waved it off. “She’s just shy around new people. She was like that when Chaeyoung first arrived here.”

Chaeyoung still had a look of confusion. “How the fuck do you know how to speak Japanese?”

Mina slapped her arm. “Baby, language.”

“Sorry.”

Tzuyu laughed at that. “I took a linguistics class in college. I had extra units, so I decided to take it. Japanese was easy.”

Chaeyoung huffed. “I’ve been here for almost half a year, and I still suck at it.”

Mina kissed her cheeks and patted her back. “And you’re doing great.” She looked back at the suitcases and pointed to the stairs. “Let me show you to your room, Tzuyu.”

“Thank you.”

Tzuyu and Chaeyoung lugged the suitcases up the stairs and the couple toured Tzuyu around the floor, pointing where the bathroom was and where Chaeyoung used to stay before she moved into Mina’s room. Once they got Tzuyu settled in, they left her to unwind and the two beelined to Mina’s bedroom.

Once the door closed, they immediately shared another kiss and held each other close. Wanting to make up for lost time already.

“I don’t know if I can handle a long-distance relationship,” Mina mumbled in between their kisses.

“Me neither,” Chaeyoung answered back, her lips went down further to her neck and her hands were already creeping down to her butt.

Mina pulled back quickly from their kiss and stopped her. “Baby, there’s people inside the house.” She pulled up Chaeyoung's hands and kissed both of them. “We can save it when we’re alone.”

Chaeyoung whined at that. “Can’t we silently do it at night when everyone’s asleep?”

“You know we’re not that subtle, right?”

She sighed in defeat. “Right.” She pulled her back in for a hug and swayed them a bit. “But I’m glad to be with you again. My mom made me bring a lot of stuff for you. We might need to keep some in the freezer.”

Mina was surprised. “Really? That’s sweet of her. I’ll have to send her a care package then. Maybe something for your brother as well.”

Chaeyoung smiled widely, she loved how her mom already adored Mina and that Mina was starting to feel the same.

They spent the rest of the morning unpacking and showing off the stuff Chaeyoung bought for them, happy to see Yukiko enjoy the many gifts she received and then they spent the rest of the day lounging around and keeping Tzuyu company as she acquainted herself with the house.

Once nighttime hit, the four of them had dinner together and the house was livelier than before. Chaeyoung was happy to be with her girls again and now she got to be with her good friend for the rest of the month as well. She wished this moment could last for a long time.

Chaeyoung stepped in the house after coming home from her first day back at work. She toed off her shoes by the entrance and was a bit surprised to see Tzuyu reading the newspaper in the living room.

“Welcome home, working man,” Tzuyu greeted her teasingly as she pried her eyes away from the paper. “How was work?”

Chaeyoung trudged to the couch to drop herself next to Tzuyu and removed the laptop bag from her shoulders. “Tiring. But the trip back home was worse. I keep forgetting how bad rush hour is here. People kept elbowing me on the train.”

Tzuyu laughed and patted her on the shoulder. “Well I’m sure it’s not that bad when you get used to it again.”

“What about you, what did you do today?”

Tzuyu leaned her head back on the couch. “Jogged. Then helped Mina with the garden and cleaned the house.” Then she raised the paper in her hand. “Read the news. Pretty much it.”

“You okay if I ask how you’re really doing?”

Tzuyu took a moment before responding. Then she nodded her head. “Yeah,” she breathed out. “I got a couple of messages from her again. Saying she was sorry, and she wants to try to get back together.”

Chaeyoung raised a brow. “Did you reply?”

“I did.” She rubbed her forehead roughly. “I know I shouldn’t talk to her. But it’s just hard because everything is still fresh.”

Chaeyoung wasn’t really pleased at the response but she didn’t want to make Tzuyu uncomfortable. “What did you say?”

“I said that I didn’t want to get back together. She broke my heart, broke my trust and I don’t think I can ever recover from that.” Tzuyu breathed out and looked up at the ceiling. “I want to move on from her. I feel like I need to forget about Se-Ri. I don’t want to be burdened by this for too long.”

Chaeyoung placed a hand on her shoulder and gave her a smile. “Moving on isn’t easy and it’s okay to take the time to feel the things you need to feel. I think you deserve to let yourself go and then just pick yourself up when you’re absolutely ready.”