This oneshot is based on two related headcanons I first posted on Twitter:
HC#132: Tzuyu realizes that she likes Adele's "Water Under the Bridge" because while the lyrics sound painful/heartbreaking at first listen, like being unable to keep a relationship that is bound to end, the song actually means the exact opposite.
HC#133: Tzuyu needs to suggest a song for the 2021 Apple Music recommendations. She goes through Adele's entire discography, and it doesn't take long before YouTube suggests this cover by someone she knows very well.
「 First posted on Wattpad: Jan. 25, 2021 | Rated G | 2,426 words 」
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Tzuyu's phone pings. It's a text from her manager, reminding her to submit her song pick for the 2021 Apple Music recommendation on Monday. She internally winces. It's already Friday, and she is nowhere near decided on a song. There are just too many to choose from.
She has already tried asking her boyfriend for advice. He's a bit of a music connoisseur, and he loves to discover songs and artists not a lot of people know about. There's no one better to help her out with this difficult decision, right?
Wrong. He wouldn't suggest anything to her, because he said that music is deeply personal. "I wouldn't dream of telling you what you should like, hon," he said a few days ago, when she asked for help. "You're your own person. Just go with what you want. Go with what feels right."
Tzuyu had resisted the urge to roll her eyes at him then for being so unhelpful, but she knew he was right. (Also, after she'd thought about it, she realized he loved her enough not to dictate her own preferences, and she's grateful for that.)
Still. Couldn't he at least lead her in some direction?
In the end, it's still Taehyung who comes up with a doable plan. "I got it," he tells her now, looking proud of himself. They're spending the night at his place—they try to stick to a Friday date night schedule, and they usually spend this indoors, just kicking back with a nice movie, eating Chinese takeaway for dinner. He is on his bed, one arm behind his head, the other holding his phone. "Why don't you go with 21 for 2021?"
"21? Adele?" Tzuyu asks, looking up from her own phone where she has been scrolling through the Melon app, desperately looking for a song she likes enough to recommend to ONCEs.
"Yeah," Taehyung says. "She's a wonderful singer. Has a lot of great songs. Her older tracks are some of her best."
If Tzuyu's being honest, she's not that familiar with the English artist. Tzuyu was too young when the album was released, so the popularity of "Someone Like You" (which seemed like everyone's anthem at the time) was a little lost on her. And now that she's happily committed to a man she truly loves, she's not really expecting the song to affect her much. She hasn't really experienced the kind of heartbreak Adele sings about.
"OK, oppa," she says, "thank you. I'll give it a listen."
"Great. You do that while I take a shower. Please take care of the delivery guy, if he arrives before I'm done?"
"Sure," Tzuyu says, already tapping on her phone to stream the album.
"Thanks. I'll try to be done by the time the food gets here, though," he declares, getting up and reaching for his towel.
Tzuyu snorts. "We'll see about that," she teases. "Let's just hope the food isn't already cold by then."
Taehyung sticks out his tongue at her before disappearing into the bathroom.
Tzuyu goes back to streaming 21, starting with the first track, "Rolling in the Deep." She is immediately captivated by the beat of this song, although in the middle of the track it starts to sound a little... angry. But she likes it, nonetheless.
Tzuyu does not completely understand all the English in the lyrics, so she reads up on people's interpretations of each song. She also looks for translations in Chinese.
When she gets to the last and most famous track, "Someone Like You," oh, wow, do the lyrics hurt. Finding one's soulmate only to lose him in the end? That's the absolute worst. She thinks about what it would feel like if the time comes and she and Taehyung say goodbye.
She finds that she couldn't bring herself to go there.
But the song is powerfully heartbreaking, that even someone who has never felt that kind of pain can feel it vicariously through Adele. Tzuyu now understands why it was such a hit—Adele's voice is pure power, the lyrics are raw and relatable, and it hurts in the best way possible.
Taehyung is still happily humming in the shower, so Tzuyu decides to check out more videos of Adele's live performances on YouTube.
She goes to his desk and turns on his laptop, keying in his passcode easily (her birthdate). When the site finishes loading, she types the keywords on the search bar.
She doesn't even get past the first five when results when YouTube ends up suggesting this video:
Tzuyu chuckles to herself. She should have known. She may have come across this video back then, when she was still a trainee, but she didn't really pay much attention to it. In truth, she was not really that big of a fan of BTS then, and she certainly never thought she would one day be dating the man who used to be this boy.
This was the Taehyung she didn't really get to know, the crazy, hyperactive young boy who seemed to be just a chaotic ball of fun, and that will always be Tzuyu's loss. She knows, however, that the wonderful man she now has with her is the greater gift.
How would it feel to listen to this now, when she actually, intimately knows him? Should be interesting, Tzuyu thinks. She presses play.
She watches the first few seconds, and giggles at baby Taetae's expression. She always finds it funny when he's acting out an emotion rather than actually feeling it, and she's been with him long enough to know the difference. He was only 19 here, and if he had gone through a heartbreak as intense as what he's singing about, she is yet to hear about it.
His voice, though. It's really something else. There's a beautiful tone to how he sings ballads, and that's one of the many, many reasons she fell in love with him. She looks around for his earbuds and puts them on, then closes her eyes so she can better concentrate on his voice.
And what a treat it is. Young Taehyung's husky voice isn't that much different from how he sounds now that he's almost ten years older, and Tzuyu still thinks it's one of life's greatest pleasures to have him croon directly into her ear.
That pleasure is cut short when she listens to that emotion in his voice, and tries to understand what the foreign words feel.
Never mind, I'll find someone like you
I wish nothing but the best for you too
"Don't forget me," I begged
"I'll remember," you said
Sometimes it lasts in love
But sometimes it hurts instead
Tzuyu is not at all prepared to have emotions hit her like a truck. Apparently it is different when the person who sings such a personal song is your real lover. Imagine him telling you he will always love you, and that no one else will do, but he will have to let you go, and he can only hope that he can find another person to love as much as he loved you.
She goes on to imagine that he really is singing this song directly to her, and her heart is filled with so much pain that she cannot help the tears that fall. By the end of the short cover, Tzuyu is full-on sobbing.
She does not even hear Taehyung step out of the shower. "Hon, what's the matter?!" he asks, completely alarmed. He has a towel around his shoulders, hair still dripping wet, and he quickly makes his way over to her. He kneels before her so they are eye-to-eye, and wraps his arms around her. "Why are you crying?"
Tzuyu goes willingly in his arms and continues to sob in his embrace.
"Ssssh, it's okay. I'm here now. Everything's going to be okay," Taehyung coos to her, rubbing slow, comforting circles on her back. He gives her a few minutes until she quiets down.
"Better now?" Taehyung asks, and Tzuyu nods. "What happened?"
Tzuyu points to the laptop screen. Taehyung turns around, and has to squint (since he doesn't have his glasses on) to read the video title at the top. He groans when he realizes it's his own cover. "Why were you even watching this old video?! Look at me. I look like a frog."
"A very handsome frog," Tzuyu says, without missing a beat. She wipes at her eyes with her fingers.
"Hey, she's cracking jokes. She's okay," Taehyung says, smiling slightly. "Tell me what's wrong, baby."
"I'm being stupid. I'm sorry," Tzuyu says, sniffling.
Taehyung adamantly shakes his head. "Nothing's stupid when you're crying like that." He's still kneeling in front of her, and goes to entwine his fingers with hers. She clutches his hands so tightly in response.
Then he waits.
"Oppa," Tzuyu finally says in a really soft voice, "what if we break up someday?"
"What the hell, hon," he answers, seriously taken aback. "What would make you think that?"
"I was just... I don't know, I guess I was—I was feeling the lyrics," she admits. "You know... What if—what if we find other people, that sort of thing? It felt different, hearing you sing the lines, like you were singing them for me." She gives him a mock-glare. "You sang the song a little too well."
"Are you saying you can't live without me?" Taehyung asks, a little too cheekily. She swats his arm. "Ouch. I'm kidding."
"I think I can live without you," she answers seriously, "but I don't think I'd want to."
She can see how Taehyung wants so badly to bite his lips to hide the grin that's threatening to break out, and Tzuyu rolls her eyes. "Ugh. You're impossible, sometimes."
"But you love me, yes?" Taehyung insists. He shifts his weight to the other leg so he can lift himself up a little to draw his face closer to Tzuyu's. "Love me enough to cry over me?"
Tzuyu sighs in resignation. "Yes, of course I love you. I love you more than I thought I ever could."
Taehyung's face softens into one of pure seriousness and love, and puts an end to his antics. "I'm really happy to hear that," he says huskily, "because I really, really, really love you too. More than I've ever loved anyone." He pulls her in for a long kiss, and she responds with as much fervor as she can.
When they pull apart, Taehyung wipes off what's left of Tzuyu's tears with his index finger. "Don't make yourself cry, baby," he says sincerely, smiling softly. "I'm not going anywhere."
Tzuyu starts tearing up again. "What if, though," she insists. "I've seen my unnies break up with their boyfriends whom they loved very much. They didn't think they'd split up, either, but they eventually did." She looks down at their joined hands. "It can happen. But I don't want to go through that."
"Listen to me," Taehyung says earnestly, lifting her chin with his finger. "I want you to look into my eyes so you know I'm telling the truth." He wipes her tears away with his long, slender fingers, and Tzuyu covers her hand over his that cups her cheek. "I am madly in love with you, Chou Tzuyu, and I will never, ever, leave you."
She sniffles. "Do you promise?"
"Yes, I promise." He brings her hand up to his lips and kisses her knuckles. "The only way we would not be together is if you'd break up with me."
"That won't happen," she says, sniffling.
"Then you have nothing to worry about," Taehyung says. "In fact, even if you break up with me, I'd just go and win you back. I'd stop only if you tell me to."
She raises puppy-dog eyes up to him. "Promise?"
"Promise," he says. He kisses her full on the mouth, and she responds in kind. "I love you very, very much."
"I love you too, oppa," Tzuyu says. "More than you know."
"Nope, that's not possible," Taehyung says, smiling. "I love you more. That's your rule, remember?"
Tzuyu embraces him tighter. "Maybe it's time to change that rule," Tzuyu says, her voice muffled on his shoulder. "I love you just as much, if not more."
"No, I love you more."
"No, me," she insists, playing along.
"No, me."
"No—"
"Okay this can go on forever," Taehyung says, laughing, "but we both get the point." He nuzzles her nose. "I love you with everything I am, baby. You make everything in my life better. I would be an idiot to let you go."
Tzuyu kisses him again. "I hope you know how much you mean to me, oppa."
He winks at her. "I think I have an idea."
* * *
She decides to continue with Adele's discography two days later, and moves on to 25. It's the happier album, supposedly. It's where Adele has moved on from the ex-boyfriend that caused her so much pain, and was in a better, more stable relationship with the man who would become her husband.
Tzuyu listens to the rest of the tracks and once more searches for Chinese translations online to help her understand the lyrics better. When she gets to the sixth track, the title of which reminds her of an old English idiom she used to learn in school, she is intrigued, and thinks she knows what the song is going to be about. The idiom roughly means that a past incident is of no importance now, and it certainly not worth talking about anymore, and Tzuyu thinks this may be yet another break-up song.
She cannot be more wrong, she finds out later, when she watches a clip of Adele's concert and listens to the singer's own explanation as to what this song means for her:
She thinks about her own relationship with Taehyung, and knows how true this is. Not everything between them was smooth-sailing from the start. Their extremely busy schedules alone make it nearly impossible to spend any time together, but somehow they made (are making) things work.
Tzuyu does not even bother listening to the rest of the album. This is it. It's a 2016 song that people should listen to in 2021, because not enough people fight hard enough for a relationship they want to be in for the rest of their lives.
She whips out her phone and sends a quick text to her manager. I'm going with Adele's "Water Under the Bridge."
Good choice, comes the reply. I'll send this in.
FIN
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I'm continuing with the (non-)breakup theme because that's how I roll. And this is even longer than the last chapter, but I doubt I'd be able to write anything longer than this lol. (I know 2K+ words isn't long for some people, but hey, I used to write only 500-word drabbles. Give me some credit. ;))
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