Signs • SaTzu (Completed)

4

It was Wednesday morning and Sana was walking out of her favourite café with a vanilla latte in one hand, and a paper bag containing a cinnamon roll in the other. She shaded her eyes with the bag, noticing a familiar beige trench coat sticking out in the crowd.

It was Tzuyu.

Sana wanted to call out her name to get her attention, but she knew that it was hopeless. Not being able to talk was rarely an inconvenience to Sana, the people closest to her knew sign language, and she could get by with simple gestures and written notes if she needed to. But then sometimes, like when she wanted to get a girl's attention, it was the most frustrating thing in the world to her.

Luckily for Sana, Tzuyu was walking straight towards her. As she got closer, Sana waved her hand holding her cinnamon roll, catching Tzuyu's attention. Tzuyu's face lit up when she realised it was Sana.

"Sorry, I was in a world of my own, I almost didn't see you then," Tzuyu said as she moved closer. Sana tried to reply, but realised she didn't have a spare hand to write with. She gestured to Tzuyu to wait a moment, clamping the paper bag between her teeth and pulling out her phone. She quickly typed out a reply and held her phone out to Tzuyu.

'I was just stopping for some coffee before work, I thought I'd say hi'

Tzuyu handed Sana her phone back. "I'm glad you did, it's been a terrible morning so far, I could use some cheering up," she replied with a grimace as someone walking past bumped into her. Sana took her by the elbow and steered her towards one of the tables outside the coffee shop, moving out of the way of the stream of shoppers and business people rushing down the street.

Sana waited for Tzuyu to settle into the chair opposite her before pointing at her and giving her the OK sign, figuring that Tzuyu would understand.

"Just family and work stuff you know," Tzuyu sighed, "my mom's in town for this business gala, which is a nightmare, and there's so much work to be done at the office, and so much planning to make sure it all goes well."

Sana recalled Chaeyoung talking about the rebranding of Chou Corp, which Sana assumed was what the gala was for. She watched Tzuyu as she carried on ranting about the gala, realising she spoke with her hands a lot.

'Why don't you just do what you want to do?'

Tzuyu laughed as she read the message, "Well that would be too easy now, wouldn't it," she said sarcastically. She sighed again, staring intently at Sana, like she was making up her mind about something.

"I don't know if you know, and well, you're still talking to me so I figured you don't know, because if you knew you probably wouldn't want to talk to me anymore," Tzuyu rambled, getting all flustered. Sana grabbed one of Tzuyu's hands and trapped it underneath hears on top of the table, taking and exaggerated breath in and out to make a point.

"Right," Tzuyu said, calming herself down, "well, I was adopted when I was younger by the Chou family, you might've heard of that name before because my brother owns Chou Corp, except now I've taken over because... he's the guy who bombed congress last year." She looked at Sana, fighting back tears as she waited for her reaction.

'I know'

Tzuyu looked up from the phone, a crease between her eyebrows from the confused look on her face. "If you know then why have you been nice to me this whole time?" she asked.

Sana's heart hurt for Tzuyu. She'd been right, she was lonely. How many people had turned their backs on her after her brother had blown up all those people? How many people held her responsible? Did people not realise Dylan had hurt Tzuyu too? It wasn't hard to imagine why she had decided to move to National City and rebrand the company. She was looking for a fresh start.

'Because none of it is your fault, and I think you're hurting too, and it's not fair'

Tzuyu read the message and gave Sana a sad smile. "You know, you're the first person to tell me that, all of my friend's back home... they wouldn't answer my calls, they stopped texting me, they just cut me off," she choked out, "sorry, I didn't mean to get all upset on you, but you're the only person who's actually had a proper conversation with me since I moved here."

Sana grabbed Tzuyu's hand and gave it a gentle squeeze, giving her a reassuring smile.  

'Well what are friends for?' Sana typed out, holding the phone up for Tzuyu to see. They both wore matching grins as they looked at each other, and Sana hoped she'd cheered Tzuyu up, even just a little bit.

Tzuyu reached forward and plucked Sana's phone out of her hand. "Well if we're friends now, you should at least have my number," she said as she typed it into Sana's phone, handing it back when she was done.

Sana smiled down at her phone, looking at the new contact in her phone. She laughed when she saw that Tzuyu had typed in her first and last name, as if there was another Tzuyu that Sana might know.

"And speaking of being friends, would you please come to the gala, you might actually make it fun," Tzuyu begged, biting her lip as she waited for Sana to answer. Sana nodded her head enthusiastically, beaming at Tzuyu, a matching smile spreading on her face too. How could she say no when Tzuyu looked so cute when she was nervous?

"Brilliant, I'll text you the details," Tzuyu said, glancing down at her watch, "but now, I had better be getting back to the office, I'll see you soon," she said, pushing her chair out from the table and standing up.

Sana waved goodbye and watched Tzuyu disappear into the crowd. Finishing her latte, she stood up and headed to work, hoping she wouldn't be late.

---

She texted Tzuyu as she walked to work, so she had Sana's number.

The rest of the day passed by in a blur of texts between her and Tzuyu, and Sana found it impossible to stop smiling, even when the head librarian, Miss Grant, had scolded her for being ten minutes late to work.