"Wasn't that supposed to be like a serious confession?" Hoshi asked, taking a seat on their couch.
Making it just in time for dinner, the delivery guy arrived with their spicy rice cakes and chicken.
"I can't believe you saw that. I didn't tell you about my plan on purpose so you wouldn't come and ruin it." The maknae said, sighing.
But in truth, nothing was ruined. He was just embarrassed that his members had to see all that. And because they witnessed something as complicated as that, they would have something to tease him with.
"I gave you a deadline and you weren't here. We were recording without you so we asked manager-hyung where he dropped you off and there you were, confessing." Jihoon told him to calm his nerves down.
And of course, they never calmed after the confession. It was his first attempt in confessing and he thinks he failed.
Mingyu sighed for the 10th time.
"It's not that bad, you know? She doesn't hate you or anything. She even gave you a kiss. That's progress, right?" Joshua asked as if he was reading the maknae's mind.
But it wasn't helping. He was still in panic deep inside his soul. What does he do next? He confessed, but there was no answer. He kept asking himself if it was really this complicated to tell someone your feelings.
"Doesn't seem like he's convinced," Jeonghan told Joshua.
"So?" Mingyu began. "What do I do?"
Jihoon felt sad for the maknae. "Sorry to say this Mingoo, but we got nothing. You're gonna have to figure this out on your own."
-
The following day was a school day. It was the day before the deadline for Mingyu's project with Tzuyu. He still didn't know much about her, despite spending a considerable amount of time with her throughout the month.
When Literature Class came, there was no clue as to what would happen when the two idols would meet. And being the worrywarts Dino and the others were, they skipped their first class to spy on the two.
"Stop squirming!" Seungkwan whispered, agitated.
Ninja, Seungkwan, Dino and Vernon silently pushed each other for the perfect spot to observe Tzuyu and Mingyu.
"Okay, okay, stop for a moment!" Vernon said, pushing everyone away. "1 inch from one another, understand? We don't need and want to be caught by their teacher or anyone at all."
Surprisingly, the others listened. They all agreed that getting caught will not bring them any good.
From inside the classroom, Mingyu's members were barely noticeable. In fact, it's as if they weren't even there. But Mingyu was too busy staring at Tzuyu to notice that four pairs of eyes were watching him.
"Can I help you?" Tzuyu asked, finally turning to him. She must have gotten fed up with all the staring.
"I-I just wanted to uhm.." he looked around her desk, "Borrow that pencil!" He pointed at her pencil case.
"This? This pink pencil with the fuzzy pink ball?" She asked, weirded out.
She could be a little dense sometimes, after all.
Mingyu nodded and Tzuyu immediately gave the pencil without another thought.
Crap, I'm so bad at this, he thought to himself.
Meanwhile, Seungkwan was mocking Mingyu about his communicating skills on the other side of the classroom windows.
After a solid 35 minutes, the bell rang and it was the end of their first class. With the others' extra 15 minutes before their 2nd class, they decided to pull Mingyu out of the game.
As soon as Mingyu's literature teacher got out of the room, the four of them zoomed inside and speedily dragging Mingyu out of the room.
"I knew you were stupid, but I didn't know you were that stupid." Dino told him.
"What are you talking about? And why are you all here? This isn't your classroom," Mingyu stated, quite obvious.
"Yeah, yeah, whatever you want." Vernon said, throwing Mingyu's words away as fast as it was thrown in. "Anyway, you're changing rooms, aren't you? Why don't you offer to help her carry her things?"
"That's really smart!" Minghao commented.
Mingyu agreed. It was a bold move, but it wouldn't seem suspicious. It was perfect and natural.
"Damn, I have 10 minutes left to get to Physics Classs. Gotta go!" Vernon said afterwards.
One by one, the members left. But not before wishing him good luck.
15: Tzuyu
Chou Tzuyu had no idea on what to do the next day. She kissed him out of impulse. It was not an act of regret, in fact, she felt quite fulfilled.
She contemplated on whether she should talk to Mingyu or not for a long while, eventually coming to the conclusion that she should do it when the time is right.
Picking up her backpack and her textbooks, she proceeded to head to her next class.
"Need some help?" Mingyu asked, giving her a timid smile.
Tzuyu was completely taken aback. After what happened, she expected Mingyu to be wary of her. After all, she was a little overly aggressive on her actions yesterday. She was hesitant to hand over her textbooks. As much as possible, she wanted to avoid Mingyu.
"No? Uh, how about lunch? I'll treat you." Mingyu asked, hopeful.
Tzuyi remained quiet. It was awkward for her, still.
"I really want to get to know you more, Tzuyu. If you'll just give me the chance. I really do like you." He added.
There was silence, then Tzuyu finally gave him a smile.
"So how about it? Lunch?" He attempted to ask again.
"Sure, I'd like that!" Tzuyu replied.
As Mingyu took the textbooks away from her arms, the instrumental of TWICE's debut song played in the backdrop.
Tzuyu's phone was ringing.
"Why don't you move on ahead?" She suggested and Mingyu followed.
"Hello?" Tzuyu began.
"Hey, it's me. I'm back in Korea. Wanna go for coffee after your classes?"
"Minho? You're in Korea? Why? Did something happen in the US? Is your mom okay?"
"She's fine. Everything's okay, don't worry."
"I see."
"I'll come see you after, okay?"
"No, I'm bu—!" The call ended.
—
"Hey, you're back. Took you long enough to get here. Who called?" Mingyu asked, offering Tzuyu the seat next to him.
Tzuyu sat down, looking quite distressed. She didn't expect him to be back so soon. In fact, she never thought of him arriving back to Korea. Ever.
Just when she was about to be happy with someone, something interrupts.
"Jihyo called, she told me that we were needed at our agency after our classes," She responded, covering up the truth.
Tzuyu wasn't ready to face him yet, but she had no other option. It was either now or never.
"If that's the case, then we won't be able to have lunch together.." Mingyu pondered on the thought. "We'll have it tomorrow then!"
Tzuyu gave a dim smile. She couldn't resist lying. She felt terrible that she's just a good liar when she doesn't want to be.
—
The bell rang, signaling the closing of last period. As their teacher closed the doors, everyone immediately stood up to fix their stuff. Tzuyu was especially fast. She went up the quickest, stuffing everything in her backpack without bothering to organize it properly.
Mingyu was confused. It didn't seem like her at all. Normally, Tzuyu would take at least an extra ten minutes in the classroom after hours simply to organize her textbooks inside her backpack.
After fixing her things, she hurriedly ran towards the door without giving Mingyu another glance.
"Bye.." Mingyu said to nothing.