A Place Further than the Universe

Prologue

Tzuyu and Sana first met when they were five and six years old, respectively, at Disney World in Orlando, Florida. They were standing outside the line to ride Peter Pan's flight. Sana had to finish her cotton candy first before going on the ride so they were standing nearby waiting for her to finish.

Sana had barely begun eating her candy when she heard someone crying, she turned her head to see a little girl crying while pointing at her fallen corn dog on the ground.

Tzuyu had begged her mother to get her a corn dog but she was a little clumsy while holding it.

"Mama.. mama.." Tzuyu cried while her mother tried wiping her face to get her to stop. Seeing as she wouldn't stop, Sana walked up next to her and held out her candy to her.

"Ahh look-" her mother said in a language Sana wasn't familiar with. "This little girl's giving you her candy, take it".

"Here" Sana said and grabbed Tzuyu's wrist to put the cotton candy stick in her hand. "Don't cry, baby"

Tzuyu sniffed and wiped her eyes. She shyly looked at Sana before hugging her mother's leg. Sana giggled, "bye-bye" she waved at Tzuyu.

"Tell the little girl bye, Yuyu" her mother smiled towards Sana and her mom.

With a little more encouragement from her mother, she waved her little hand and then buried her face back in her mother's leg.

Sana's mother laughed and called her cute. Then she bid Tzuyu's mother goodbye and walked back to where her husband was.

Little Tzuyu watched them leave, then looked at the candy in her hand and smiled. "Mama look" she said as she took a bite of it. She was happy now that she had something sweet to eat.

When Tzuyu was sixteen, she was excited about going to Korea for the student exchange program. There, she would live with a Korean family while attending a nearby high school.

She's never been the most sociable person, but she's always been willing to try new experiences. She was fascinated by Korean culture, having only learned some of it by keeping up with her favorite Korean idols. However, that was not her only purpose for wanting to go to Korea. She had also applied for the exchange program in Japan. It just so happens that she got accepted to go to Korea first, which was her first pick.

She was scheduled to stay with the Park family who lived roughly three blocks away from the high school. The Parks were very friendly people. At first, it was a little awkward living in a house with strangers but luckily they were nice and treated her well as if she was their own. She made great friends with the eldest daughter, Park Jihyo, who helped her with her Korean lessons.

It was there in that school, in Korea, where Tzuyu met Sana again for the second time. She was only half a month into her first semester and was sitting on one of the tables at the school's language center, trying to finish one of her assignments. Sana had approached her with a paper in hand.

"Hello" Sana greeted her in Korean. Tzuyu looked up and slightly bowed her head, "Oh Hello" she replied in Korean.

Sana nervously smiled and sat down across from her. "I'm supposed to ask you some.. Uhh.. questions. Can you help me?" she said in an accent, Tzuy barely understood what she was trying to say. Sana's assignment was to find someone to ask questions to in Korean and write their responses down also in Korean.

"Uhm, I'm not Korean" Tzuyu replied and right away Sana noticed her accent. She must be a foreigner too.

"Oh, I'm sorry" Sana slightly bowed in apology and Tzuyu told her it was okay and gave her a small smile. Sana said goodbye and walked away, Tzuyu watched her go and thought to herself, do I really look Korean?

They were both in the same program but that was the first time they actually noticed each other. Ever since that small interaction, they began to see each other even more around campus. They would usually only greet each other with a small smile. Until one day, when Tzuyu was sitting at the same table, Sana sat down and finally began to have a proper conversation with her. Well, she tried to.

Their Korean was still not that great. At the beginning of their friendship, they had a little trouble communicating with each other but that just made Sana eager to learn the language more so that she could communicate better with Tzuyu and with the other students on campus. Everyday she would hang out with Tzuyu so that they could study together and just because she liked being around the taller girl.

They had fallen in love after being just friends for a short while and were in a relationship for the remainder of the school year until they had to go back because the exchange program had ended. It was sad for them to say their goodbyes but both agreed that they could make the long distance relationship work. Tzuyu went back to Taiwan and Sana went back to Japan but they both texted and facetimed each other daily. Sure, they had a few bumps in the road but they made it work for a couple of years until they both graduated high school. After graduating, Sana attended a university in her hometown in Osaka.

Tzuyu had plans the moment she said goodbye to Sana in Korea and boarded that plane back home. After graduating, she managed to get a scholarship in Japan, to a school relatively close to Sana's one. She couldn't bear to be apart from Sana so she worked hard to get into that school.

Tzuyu struggled a bit during the first few years. Her Japanese wasn't fluent but Sana had been teaching her for years so she could get her way around. She had to take a 40 minute train ride just to go and visit Sana at her school which she could only do on the weekends since she was a broke college student. They each took turns visiting each other but it was getting tiresome of them being closer but still far apart.  By the time Tzuyu was in her junior year and Sana in her senior year, Tzuyu decided she would rent an apartment a little closer to Sana's university.

It was hard at first finding a part time job as no one wanted to hire her because she was a foreigner and a student. However, she managed to find a part time job working at a bakery to pay for rent. The old lady at the bakery was kind enough to hire her. Eventually, Sana moved in with her and she also got a part time job at an ice cream parlor across the street from where the bakery was. They both worked and studied hard and eventually they both graduated.

Sana graduated first and with her art degree, she landed a small job as a graphic designer for a pastry shop. Sana loved to paint, and her dream was to one day become an animator. After graduating with a bachelor's degree in software engineering, Tzuyu got a job as an IT tech at the local PC cafe.

At 21 years old, Tzuyu proposed to Sana. She saved up for a few months from working at the cafe to buy Sana a ring. A year later, they were married and also adopted a puppy named Ichi. For 5 years they were happily married despite a few circumstances.

In the second year of being married, Sana's mom dies and that crushed her. It left her an orphan as her father had died when she was young. Tzuyu had never seen her so down and it took months for her to come to terms with it.

They eventually moved to a bigger apartment since they both got better jobs. Tzuyu got a better job at a bigger company and Sana finally landed a job as an illustrator on an up and coming small children's cartoon show.

In their fourth year of being married, Ichi gets a tumor in the head and after months of trying to get her treated, she dies. Sana takes it the hardest.

In the fifth year, almost sixth, they were planning to start trying for kids. They were both working stable jobs and felt that they were ready and it was time to add a new person to their little family. Sana was supposed to book the doctor's appointment soon. But all their plans went to shit when Sana got the call that changed her life forever.

Tzuyu had died in a car accident. A drunk driver hit her car and she died on impact. And Sana's world came crashing down.