Say You Love Me (ChaeYu / ChaeTzu)

Ch.35 Morning Night

A week has passed since their arrival and meeting with Suho. The plan immediately commenced the morning following the meeting and three of the elite groups assigned on the mission went to their designated towns. Of course, Tzuyu, Chaeyoung, and ITZY stayed behind but they spent a good chunk of their time with the Suho and the town's resistance members. They secured and verified their plans while trying to remain as inconspicuous as possible; with the help of the actual police officers who joined them, it was easy. Everything was going as plan so far and they were just waiting for confirmation from the Elite groups that they have taken over the local police departments of the towns they infiltrated. As they did that, Tzuyu and Chaeyoung went on patrol with another undercover national guardsmen that came with them.

"Oh...it's the Chou's..." Tzuyu hears and stops to look in the direction of the lady-like voice. It was a middle-aged couple walking by and they were looking across the street. She follows their gazes and sees her relatives walking down the street with what appeared to be groceries. SOme people avoided eye contact with her relatives or just nodded out of politeness to them but it was obvious everyone, including the older couple, were afraid. They were especially afraid of the three undercover officers patrolling right there...Tzuyu nearly forgot that she was undercover. 

"They've been going out more recently...like, shopping," She hears the man say, "I saw them at the pharmacy the other day, their neighbor usually shops for them, right?"

"Yeah, you can't blame them though...they're afraid of the officers after what happened..." When Tzuyu heard that jolted and remembered that she's disguised. She proceeded to walk and although she was walking forward with Tzuyu, her gaze never left the taller girl's face.

When their patrol ended, they were back at the department and ITZY was there decoding some message from Noctis. The two offered to help but the group of five insisted that they were alright and that the two should relax after their patrol. And so, they enter the empty break room and have a seat at one of the tables. After Tzuyu takes off her hood and visor, she looks up as Chaeyoung takes off her hood and visor which makes her heart nearly stop. The shorter girl's hair was messy at first but after slowly running her hand through her hair two times, it set itself in all of it's wavy glory. Tzuyu couldn't stop staring, she could've sworn her draw even dropped a little. Even after months of dating and seeing a sight like that, her heart stops or skips a beat as if it's the first time. 

First time... Tzuyu thinks deeply and remembers the song Jihyo wrote and showed to them that she called First Time. If Jihyo wasn't a Princess, she would definitely be a celebrity musician and songwriter.

'...you have literally liked her since you first saw her a year ago and you haven't even done the deed?' Nayeon's words echoed in her head as she continued to hover over the two words. She can't lie though, a lot of things have been making her linger on the words her older sister told her. So many things and said things make her blush furiously.

"...Tzuyu?...Tzu?...Babe?" Chaeyoung calls her and she finally snaps out of her deep, deep thoughts.

"Hm? Yes? What's up?" Tzuyu asks blinking and then locking eyes with Chaeyoung. 

"N-nothing much," Chaeyoung falters a little at the intensity of Tzuyu's gaze, "You were just staring at me for a long time and slowly turning red so I thought you had something to say."

"Huh? Oh, no no..." Tzuyu chuckles and shales her head, "I was just thinking hard about something."

"Eh? What is it? You're not overwhelming yourself shouldering everything again are you?" Chaeyoung asks and reaches over to hold her hand. 

"No, I'm actually pretty good," Tzuyu smiles endearingly and meets her half way, "It's good thinking, I guess? I was just thinking about something Nayeon-unnie told me the last time we talked."