Jeongyeon wouldn't call herself the type to fall easily. After all, she set her standards rather high. For one: she must fall for a girl (she had never been a big fan of the male species), for two: they must be taller or the same height as her (she liked the thought of being able to look up to someone), three: they have to be able to speak Korean (for some reason she had this irrational fear of falling for someone foreign and never being able to communicate with them), and most importantly, four: they have to be able to either make or take jokes. Humour (no matter how lame) was an important part of Jeongyeon's life. So, finding a girl with a good sense (or maybe a bad sense, she wasn't quite sure what would work better) of humour would be a perfect match.
Jeongyeon was always quite vocal to her friends about her criteria, finding it funny to say things like:
"See here, Sana, you're terrible at Korean, so I just can't date you."
Of course, Sana was very good at Korean and she was also Momo's fuck buddy, so it wasn't that funny.
Or: "Dahyun you're just too short! There's no way I would date you."
Of course, Jihyo would then run after Jeongyeon with her fists in the air yelling at her. "She's cute not short!"
So, meeting Chaeyoung kinda metaphorically kicked Jeongyeon in the face, left her sprawled on the ground and shut her up.
Chaeyoung was perfect in all aspects of her criteria. She was a girl (a really cute one at that), she could speak Korean (a great relief) and she was HILARIOUS. Jeongyeon erased criteria two from her mind, pretending it never existed. Short was now her type.
She had met her in her photography course after they had been asked to go around the room and take a practice photo for editing and getting a feel of the technology and apps they would be using later on in the year. Jeongyeon hadn't even noticed Chaeyoung at all as she was trying to get a photograph of her pencil standing up on the table. It just wasn't balancing, and she was getting frustrated because this was dumb, and she was probably wasting time.
She was interrupted with a click and a flash from her left side and she blinked, letting her pencil go and turning to come face to face with a tiny girl holding a huge camera up to her face.
She lowered it slowly, revealing her embarrassed grin. Two adorable dimples appeared on her cheeks and Jeongyeon's heart almost melted away.
"Ah." The girl spoke, her voice small and hesitant. "Sorry, it's just... we were asked to take a photo of something beautiful... right?"
Jeongyeon's mouth dropped open. It felt as though she had been hit in the face with a sledgehammer. Was that a... pick up line?
"No, we weren't" Jeongyeon blurted. Which made her cringe inside and out for ruining the girl's move. But instead of getting offended, she just laughed, releasing her camera gently so it dangled on the strap around her neck.
"I know. But I was smooth, no?" She held out her hand. "My name is Son Chaeyoung. Nice to meet you!"
Definitely smooth...
"Yoo Jeongyeon." Was all she was able to say without her voice breaking.
The thing was, Jeongyeon had always imagined herself making the first move to pursue someone. Of course, Son Chaeyoung was only saying those things to be funny, but the fact that she said those things to her. To Jeongyeon. Before Jeongyeon could say something instead... It made her feel some type of way...
And that was that, Jeongyeon was in love, and she hated herself for it because there was no way in hell that Chaeyoung liked her back. Not then, despite the cheesy pickup line, and not now.
"You're zoning out again. There's only a few things left to do. Just get it over with!" Jennie, shook Jeongyeon by both her shoulders, returning her consciousness to reality. "If you're not gonna pull your weight in this assignment, I'm going to kill you." She threatened.
"Ok!" Jeongyeon pulled her off, looking at her other group members sheepishly. Then she looked back down at her laptop, raising her hands to continue her section on the google doc.
"You were thinking about the midget again, huh." Said Yeri, who was sitting in front of Jeongyeon. Seulgi, their final member, snorted at Yeri's comment. Jeongyeon tensed, and ignored her blushing cheeks, putting on her stone face.
"Nah! Why would I be thinking about Chaeyoung?"
"Why would I be thinking about Chaeyoung?" Yeri mocked, tapping her foot against Jeongyeon's leg underneath the table as a signal for her to look up. "Hey. You're always thinking about her."
"You practically have love hearts popping out of your eye sockets." Jennie added. "It's fucking gross."
"No, I don't." Jeongyeon laughed, typing away furiously. She might have been typing nonsense, but at this point she didn't care. She just wanted the thoughts of Chaeyoung to leave her mind and to get back to her work.
"Yeah, when are you guys gonna get together?" Seulgi asked, pressing the back of her pen into her cheek. "It's infuriating to watch you two and not see you kiss."
Jeongyeon slammed her hands into the table, causing everyone to jump slightly in their seats.
"IT'S NOT LIKE THAT AND IT WILL NEVER BE LIKE THAT." That was the truth, and Jeongyeon hated it with her guts, but there was no way she would ever, EVER admit that she liked Chaeyoung to her face. What if something about their friendship changed? What if Chaeyoung didn't like her back? What if she lost feelings for her later on and had to break her heart? What if Chaeyoung suddenly lost the ability to speak Korean (yes this is a real fear)?
There were way too many 'what ifs' and unknowns and too many consequences to her actions that may not all be good. Jeongyeon over thought everything when it came to Chaeyoung.
Yet, the urge to confess... it was always there.
***
Chaeyoung had never been this confused in her entire life. Not even as confused as she was around Jeongyeon (and that surely was confusing). Today was the third time in a whole week that Tzuyu had come running to her in tears.
The confusing part wasn't that she was crying, because Tzuyu cried a lot, it was the reason why she was crying that Chaeyoung didn't get. The most that she had been able to get out of her was something along the lines of:
"Professor... trouble... can't..."
Nothing of Tzuyu's speech made sense when she cried. So, Chaeyoung could only hold her in her arms and wait for her to stop. And just like Tzuyu to be the ever-secretive child she was, she never ever told the truth about why she was crying.
"Oh, just my Professor... she yelled at me after class."
"My Professor graded me poorly on a test."
"Nothing."
"I'm just tired is all."
Stupid excuses. Chaeyoung could see right through her petty lies... to a certain point of course. Her only guesses of what was really happening was: The professor was bullying her, or a classmate was bullying her. But it could really be anything. Chaeyoung was always clueless. And at this point, after three breakdowns with Tzuyu, she was almost ready to move to her last resort...
Talking to Sana. Chaeyoung shivered at the thought.
It's not that she was afraid of Sana... she was just highly intimidated by her when considering how she acted in Dahyun's netball games and her attitude toward Tzuyu during classes. She didn't want to get on the bad side of a girl who liked to spread rumours and break lots of rules. There was (wasn't) a high risk that she would be either named a slut, or murdered at Sana's hands, and Chaeyoung wanted neither. But, keeping her best friends happy and healthy was much more important than risking of her reputation or her own life, so it was becoming a serious, serious consideration.
After a few more minutes of breathless crying from Tzuyu's end, she detached herself from Chaeyoung's arms and sat up straight on the bench they were seated on. She rubbed the tears from her eyes quickly before turning to face her.
Her expression was so strained and forlorn that Chaeyoung almost broke down in tears herself.
"Thanks Chaeng. I'm all good now."
"Seriously," Chaeyoung tried once again. "What happened? This crying stuff is happening every second day and it's making me worried!"
"It's nothing... just the workload... it's hard to keep up in class."
More and more lies. Tzuyu had never had trouble with workload. Never. If anyone would complain about workload, it would be Jeongyeon. Chaeyoung's heart grew big, just at the thought of the older girl. Jeongyeon sucked at time management and always fell behind and started to stress.
"Okay..." Chaeyoung replied as Tzuyu stood to leave. There was no point in pressuring her.
She gulped.
This meant... Sana.
"Hey, short-stack!" The voice of the girl that she loved so much floated by her ears. When Chaeyoung looked to the left, Jeongyeon was approaching her with a box filled with stacks of paper. It looked heavy and it made her arm muscles stand out. Chaeyoung really wanted to wolf-whistle, but she held back.
"Hey." Chaeyoung smiled, trying to keep her expression neutral even though she was about to drool at the sight of her. "What's the box for?"
"Flyers." She said, placing the box down with a smack on the floor. She flopped onto the chair next to Chaeyoung, her arms and legs spread out like a starfish. Damn. It must have been really heavy. "They're for this year's final netball matches."
Chaeyoung pulled a flyer from the huge pile. It was printed on pink paper (this had to be Momo's design input), with large, balloon lettering reading out: 'Kawaii Girls x Lions FINAL MATCH!' Other smaller teams' matches were listed below as well as the date of the matches and a cute cartoon netball drawn in the corner of the page with eyes and a smile.
"Literally nobody wants to watch the Kawaii Girls and the Lions." Chaeyoung spoke, choking back a giggle as she replaced the paper.
"You'd be surprised." Jeongyeon said. "It's the guys who like to watch the netball, and I don't think they mind if Sana runs off with Momo halfway through. They come for the short skirts and boobs."
"Is that why Jihyo became an umpire?" Chaeyoung laughed at her own joke, Jeongyeon joining in in sync. She always laughed at her lame jokes. Always. It made her heart flutter.
After their laughter died down, Jeongyeon sat forward on her chair as if to start to speak again, however Chaeyoung didn't see this, causing both girls to start speaking at the same time.
"Can I ask for some help?" Chaeyoung asked
"Ireallylikeyou." Jeongyeon spluttered. Too quickly to be understood and drowned out under Chaeyoung's question.
"Wait!" Chaeyoung laughed a bit. "You first. What did you say?"
Jeongyeon's face went beetroot red with her own words that remained unheard.
"No, you go first." She said, trying to keep her breathing steady.
Chaeyoung, oblivious to Jeongyeon's confession, nodded and continued.
"Okay then... Can I ask for some help with... Sana?"
"Uh... what about S-Sana?" Jeongyeon stuttered. Chaeyoung thought that it was a little strange for Jeongyeon to be acting so shy all of a sudden.
"You know how I feel about Sana... I just... can you ask her a question for me?"
"Sure, you weirdo." Jeongyeon seemed to have recovered from whatever left her so flustered and stood to pick up her box again, an indication for Chaeyoung to follow her. "What type of question?"
Chaeyoung walked close by Jeongyeon as the strode down the path toward the notice board.
"You know how she shares the philosophy classes with Tzuyu?" Jeongyeon stopped when they reached the board and began pulling out several posters to pin to the cork.
"Yeah."
"Can you just ask her... if Tzuyu is getting bullied?"
"Bullied?" Jeongyeon paused with a pin one hand and her other hand holding the poster secure to the board. "You think she's getting bullied?"
Chaeyoung shrugged, taking a pin of her own to help.
"I just have... a bad feeling." She didn't want to expose Tzuyu's crying to everyone.
"And you want to talk to Sana about that? You know she hates Tzuyu's guts."
"I know." They pinned the last poster to the board, so it was completely covered, then Jeongyeon picked up the box again to move on to the next notice board. "But she's the only one who can know anything."
"I'll ask her later." Jeongyeon said. "I think there's a practice for the Lions later today. I'll meet them before I go home."
"Thanks, Jeongie." Chaeyoung smiled big, intentionally acting cute which caused Jeongyeon to roll her eyes.
A voice interrupted Chaeyoung's cuteness, causing both girls to turn their attention ahead.
"Hey guys!" It was Momo.
They both gaped at her, seeing who was standing with her, their hands intertwined, and huge smiles plastered on their faces.
"Hi!" Kim Heechul smiled at them both.
A/N: Time for some Homo vs Samo drama!!!