The Holidays

“Dude, do I really need to do this?” Chaeyoung whined through the phone. “Can’t you just give her a dick pic as a gift?”

Tzuyu rolled her eyes and clicked her teeth. “You said you’d be willing to help me! It’s the only thing I can give her that’s nice at the last minute.”

“I did! I just didn’t know it would be this far away from home!”

“Mina unnie already agreed to help out! Come on, you big baby.” Tzuyu tried her best not to raise her voice. She was in the middle of administering medicine to one of the cats that was recently rescued earlier that day. But Chaeyoung called her in the middle of it because she asked her friend for a favor.

“I think sending her flowers is sweet.” She could hear Mina’s soft voice from the end of Chaeyoung’s line. “We just need to order it from the shop here and then they’ll be able to send it to Sana’s house. It’s fine, baby.”

Chaeyoung groaned over the phone. “You’re so lucky I love you.” Then her voice was louder. “And you’re lucky I’m happy for you and that Mina loves Sana so much. God, you owe me for this!”

The cat was starting to purr with how Tzuyu was consistently stroking under its neck, and she smiled. “I promise I’ll make it up to you guys, okay?”

“You better!” Then Tzuyu heard a smack. “Ow! Okay fine! Mina says I have to be kinder to you or whatever. Just keep updating me whenever something happens, okay? Like I said to Dubs before, get laid please. Do it for me.”

“You’re fucking gross.” Tzuyu chuckled and then sighed. “Lemme know when you guys send it, I’ve already sent the money to your account.”

Chaeyoung scoffed. “I should charge you more actually.”

“Hey—“ Tzuyu’s voice changed. She knew Chaeyoung hadn’t been feeling the same ever since Mina’s brother came home. The message she got from Chaeyoung in their chat earlier that morning was stuck in her head. “If you need to talk to someone, you’re free to call me.”

There was a pause and Chaeyoung let out another sad sigh. “I know,” she said quietly, like she was hoping Mina wouldn’t hear it. “I’ll probably tell you guys soon. But I don’t know, I feel like I need to go home or something or just.. escape. I really don’t know.”

That made Tzuyu’s heart drop. She knew that Chaeyoung wouldn’t give up so easily, especially if it was for Mina. But this could be serious.

“Okay, I gotta go,” Chaeyoung breathed out. “I’ll update you on the flowers okay?”

Tzuyu nodded, holding the phone with her hand now. “Yeah dude, I’ll be here.”

Chaeyoung immediately ended the call, and the sound of the beeping was resonating through her ears. It had been too long since Chaeyoung sounded that sad. Ever since Sana mentioned Mina’s brother visiting, she couldn’t help but leave small messages to Chaeyoung.

But her friend hadn't said anything up until that morning and Tzuyu couldn’t help but feel even more concerned about her situation. She wishes she was still there so at least Chaeyoung had someone on her side.

The best thing she could do for now was to be there when her friend needed a friend to listen if anything bad happened. She just hoped that Chaeyoung would be open enough to let them know in case it did.

Christmas evening was nice and peaceful for Tzuyu. She spent dinner at the Kim’s house, along with Jeongyeon and Jihyo. They spent the whole evening talking about wedding plans and then eventually the topic jumped from marriage advice to starting a family.

Dahyun and Nayeon had thought of it, but they said they wanted to wait a little longer before they did. They knew that having a baby will be a big shift in their lives and they wanted to enjoy their childless marriage until they were really ready.

Though, it was inevitable for the topic to shift to her and Sana. Everyone was excited that Tzuyu had finally made that big step in her moving on stage and that she found someone nice enough to understand her. Even if it still seemed like it was so soon for her to jump into a relationship but having Sana around felt right.

She honestly couldn't remember how lovely the feeling was, meeting someone, getting to know them and eventually realizing that she had feelings for the person. It felt like heaven when she found out that Sana felt the same for her. Despite her knowing how fucked up and difficult it was for Tzuyu to go through the break up.

Sana was perfect. She just hoped that her gift arrived soon.

“Oh, Tzuyu,” Nayeon called her before Tzuyu could get up to go home. The older friend rushed towards their bedroom and came out with two wrapped gifts. “These are for you.”

Tzuyu furrowed her brows, and gingerly took the gifts from her. She scanned the boxes and looked back at Nayeon. “Who are these from?”

Nayeon giggled. “You know who it’s from.” Dahyun chimed in when she walked past them. Then Nayeon took out her phone and pointed it at Tzuyu.

“Come on, open it.”

Tzuyu raised her brow. “Are you filming me?”

Nayeon shrugged and then waved her hand. “Stop asking questions and just open it!”

She sighed. She placed the other box on the table and sat down to start opening the gift. Tzuyu carefully removed the wrapper off of the box and then tore away the tape and opened it. “Oh.” She started taking out various pet supplies from it and collars that had tags with Kaya and Butter’s names on it. “This is really nice. I was planning to get these for them—“

Then it hit her. These were from Sana.

Tzuyu placed a hand on her forehead, as if trying to cover her blush which obviously, wasn’t working. She could hear her friends giggle and laugh at the side, but she ignored them.

She placed the items back in the box and took the other gift.

Nayeon was still holding up her phone and smiled widely at her. “You’ll definitely love this one,” she said excitedly.

Tzuyu took another breath and opened the gift. She saw a couple of sweaters inside, ones in her favorite color and a letter.

“Oh! Read that later!” Nayeon said quickly, taking the letter and placing it on the side. “Open up this one.” She pointed at the sweater that was tucked underneath the rest.

Tzuyu took it from its plastic wrapping and held it up for her to see.

“Before I break down and rye, I want you to know that…” After reading it slowly, she saw the last part of the pun and was blushing harder now. “…I loaf you.”

“Does she like it?” The voice coming from Nayeon’s phone made her eyes go wide and she placed the sweater down. She couldn’t stop blushing when she could see Sana’s face on the screen, smiling like an idiot in front of her.

“W-what are you doing?” Tzuyu couldn’t help but smile sheepishly at her.

Sana giggled back. “Well, it’s only fair since you asked Mina and Chaeng to send your gift to me.”

Tzuyu immediately placed the gifts on the table and rushed to the phone. “Can we talk about this when I get home?”

“Why not now!” Nayeon whined playfully. “Is it that intimate for you to share with your friends who helped Sana buy these gifts for you?”

Tzuyu scoffed at her and looked at Jeongyeon, Jihyo and Dahyun who were smiling widely at her.

“Okay, okay.” Sana smiled and then waved at everyone. "Thanks again, guys!”

“Bye Sana! You know I love you more than Tzuyu!” Nayeon blurted out and Dahyun immediately flinched at that.

Tzuyu’s eyes went wide with what she said, making all the little fuzzy feelings inside her heart go wild inside her chest. But she didn’t want to say anything. It wasn't like she didn’t like the idea of eventually falling in love with Sana. But it was too soon.

Okay, she was silently freaking out. She didn’t even realize that Sana had already ended the call with Nayeon, and everyone was getting ready to go home.

She should too.

Tzuyu bid them goodbye and a merry Christmas again before she jumped into her car and sank into the seat.