young & wild | chaeyu

seventeen ; water-bottle

"Oh, Jihyo helped you out?" Chaeyoung said with mild surprise. Of all people, Chaeyoung had not expected Tzuyu to become closer with the brunette soloist. She'd hoped that Tzuyu would get to know Dahyun a bit, since Chaeyoung knew for a fact that Dahyun had a pure soul and would want to help her out. But despite Chaeyoung dropping hints to Dahyun about talking to Tzuyu, Dahyun was painfully oblivious. At the moment, Dahyun was hanging out with Momo a lot, and she seemed to be in a constant state of shock about it. It was getting old fast, but Chaeyoung didn't want to be rude. Besides, getting to meet and dance with your idol would be a very dazing experience, so Chaeyoung understood where Dahyun was coming from.

"Yeah, she did," Tzuyu said with a smile. "Jihyo was very nice. And smart, too."

"That's nice of her," mentioned Chaeyoung vaguely, not wanting to talk about Jihyo. "How was training? Did you eat and hydrate enough?" she asked, wanting to change the subject.

Unfortunately, Tzuyu didn't get the memo to talk about something other than Jihyo. "I did," Tzuyu grinned widely. Chaeyoung turned her head to look at her. Tzuyu didn't even notice the smaller girl's gaze burning a hole through her, and the way Chaeyoung's expression changed from irritated to gentle upon seeing Tzuyu's big, bright smile.

"That's good," murmured Chaeyoung quietly, then realizing she was staring at Tzuyu a little too much. Quickly, her ears burning with embarrassment, she looked away, head down.

"Jihyo saw me practicing, and gave me her water, actually," Tzuyu admitted with a laugh. "So I was hydrated because of her water bottle."

"She-- oh." Chaeyoung cut herself off, biting her lip.

Tzuyu didn't seem to notice Chaeyoung's tense voice and agitation. "Isn't that crazy, Chae?" While the nickname caused her brunette's heart to leap in her chest, it didn't relieve the irrationally negative emotions clouding her mind. "She's so talented," she gushed. Chaeyoung inhaled deeply to calm herself.

Tzuyu frowned slightly, noticing for the first time Chaeyoung's unusual behavior. "What is it?"

"N-nothing," Chaeyoung stammered uncertainly, feeling thrown off. What was it that was bothering her so deeply. Tzuyu was just talking about her idol. So had Dahyun. She was probably just tired of the two of them going on about. That had to be it, right? "It's just that I hear a lot from Dahyun about her idols, so it's not a very interesting topic for me. I guess. And I'm tired. That's all."

Tzuyu felt a flash of self doubt. She hadn't been talking about idols, just how Jihyo had been one of the few to make her comfortable in this unfamiliar country. Was that bad? No. Of course not. Chaeyoung just was uninterested and tired. Normally, the walks with Chaeyoung were preferred to late night practicing, but right then, she felt as though practicing with Jihyo had been significantly more fun than walking with Chaeyoung.

"Does that make sense?" Chaeyoung's soft words jerked Tzuyu out of her racing thoughts.

"Yeah. It does," Tzuyu answered tentatively.

Hunching her shoulders, Chaeyoung managed a tentative smile. "Good." And despite only uttering one word in response to Tzuyu's confirmation, there were many things she hadn't said. She really was too tired to be feeling like this. And she'd gotten a solid eight hours of sleep and still was actually grouchy, whereas the trainee walking with her worked hard all day and slept smaller hours, and was still acting sunshine-y and cheerful. Well, until Chaeyoung had to mess it up again.

Jihyo gave her her own water bottle? Chaeyoung mentally grumbled. That's so stupid. And, to make it worse, Chaeyoung realized something else. Wasn't sharing a drink basically an indirect kiss? Not that it would matter, Tzuyu had her own life and Chaeyoung wasn't homophobic in the least, heck, she was bisexual. Still, it made her itch with discomfort. Jihyo was only a little older than them, beautiful, and immensely talented with her singing and dancing abilities. Chaeyoung was almost jealous of her for that. Not only that, but Tzuyu had sounded so happy talking about her, even if it was only briefly.