7pm || Jitzu

Chapter 2

Jihyo runs to Tzuyu who is now crying. She sits her down and takes out her phone. She knows Tzuyu does not understand what they are shouting at her but is aware that she's too late to come in.

"I'm sorry, Tzuyu. It's my fault. I shouldn't have invited you for a walk this late" she writes.

Tzuyu doesn't reply. She doesn't know what to do. She takes out her wallet, looks inside, and starts crying harder seeing she only has 3 won left. She can't even go sleep at the sauna tonight.

"Come with me?" Jihyo tells her forgetting her phone. Tzuyu doesn't reply, not understanding her. "Sorry" Jihyo tells her and starts writing on the phone "You can stay at my place tonight. I'm so sorry this happened".

Tzuyu reads it but doesn't reply. It's not that she's afraid to go with her. Since she was little, she's always trusted people and her mother used to tell her she should not trust strangers so easily. She feels sorry for Jihyo. She has done too much for her already. She should have been more careful and looked at the time. She knew she would get in trouble again.

"Please" Jihyo says and helps her get up from the floor. Tzuyu accepts, not seeing another possible solution unless she wants to sleep on a bench.

They walk in silence and after 10 minutes they arrive at Jihyo's apartment. It's small, there's only a living room, kitchen, bathroom, and a small room converted to a study room so she can work on her Uni projects. She dreams of owning a small fashion brand and needs space to store her fabrics and a table to work and sew.

She signals the small sofa to Tzuyu and goes to her kitchen. She brings to glasses of water to the living room and puts one in front of Tzuyu. "I'm so sorry" she tells her again, hoping she understands her.

She sits down next to her and takes out her phone. "I'm sorry. I don't have a bed. I sleep here in the living room with some blankets. Is it ok?" she writes.

"Yes, it's ok" Tzuyu writes and looks up at her. She smiles and Jihyo smiles back. She feels so grateful to her.

Jihyo gets up and starts preparing the blankets. She does not have much space but she puts them as separate as possible. She doesn't want Tzuyu to feel weird already having to sleep in her house. "You can sleep in this one" she writes and points at the ones with the cute animal blankets.

Tzuyu gets up and moves toward the blanket but Jihyo holds her hand and stops her. She lets go fast realizing she shouldn't do that to a "stranger" and takes out her phone again. "Are you hungry? I have leftovers, please eat something more with me" she writes. Tzuyu nods and Jihyo feels happy that Tzuyu is not feeling too shy there with her. She points at the kitchen and both move towards the fridge. Jihyo takes out some food and starts plating them. Jihyo sees Tzuyu's eyes go wide seeing all that food and smiles. They take it to the table and start eating in silence. Tzuyu's eyes are red from crying but she doesn't look sad anymore. She finishes her food and bows to Jihyo.

Jihyo laughs and writes "You don't have to bow. We are friends now, ok?". She takes the plates and goes to the kitchen. She starts washing them when she feels Tzuyu close to her. She looks back and sees Tzuyu pointing at the plates and at herself. Jihyo knows she wants to help but shakes her head. Tzuyu gets closer, almost back-hugging her, and gets one plate. Jihyo freezes for a second, no one has done anything like that before to her. Backhugs to Koreans mean something more and you don't get this close to someone you don't know. She shakes off this strange feeling and lets Tzuyu help her. She ends up cleaning and Tzuyu drying.

Jihyo later takes out one pajama for Tzuyu and points at the bathroom so she can change and get ready. When they are ready to sleep, Jihyo feels awkward but Tzuyu looks unbothered. After all, she lives with more people and Jihyo has only lived with her mom or alone so she's not used to it.