Million Dollar Girls : If Love Lasts... | MiChaeng, DahMo, SaTzu, 2Yeon Book 2

17) Study Dates

Weeks have passed and they planned a study date. A Friday evening in Tzuyu's house was a perfect time after their lectures.
They've learnt so much and expected the work to be harder than High School. At least some did.

As expected, they divided into their courses, Business and Fine Arts.
Dahyun and Chaeyoung were taking a break whilst Tzuyu was still working on her case study of 'Samsung - Tesco, Korea'.
On the other hand, the Japanese girls were already finished with their theory work, an assignment was given to them for next week.
'Make a contemporary dance'... seems easy enough.

Momo was on her phone, she was texting the group chat that they have with Yeji, Eunbi, Dino and Hoshi. They got closer over the few weeks.
Dahyun noticed that she was giggling to herself, maybe a little too much.
She went over and smoothly hugged her from behind.

"Whatcha doing?" Dahyun said joyfully.
"Texting." She answered bluntly.
"Texting who?"
"It's just friends."
Dahyun nodded, "Cool." She rolled her eyes and went back to her seat.

"Just friends." She murmured.
"What happened?" Chaeyoung asked.
Dahyun cleared her throat, she sat up straight and spoke, "She's texting those people from her Fine Arts class."
"So? What's wrong with that?" Chaeyoung smiled, she knew what went on with her friend's mind.
"Nothing... just she's being blunt about it." She scoffed.
"She does have a right to her own privacy."

"I know.. but." Dahyun stopped suddenly.
"But what?" Chaeyoung smirked, "Is it because you're jealous?"
She shushed her immediately even so she covered her mouth.
"Did you have to say that out loud?" Dahyun whispered aggressively.
"So you admit it?" Chaeyoung smiled devishly.
"No..." She paused.
"You do don't you?"

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"When has Tzuyu stopped?" Mina pointed out, Sana looked over to see her writing vigorously.
"What do you mean?" She asked.
"She hasn't stopped working, since we got here."
It was true, Tzuyu only responded with one worded answers or short phrases and nodding at for no reason. She was stressed, Sana knew it was from her recent work.

She walked over and sat by her side.
"Hey... don't you want to take a break?" Sana sweetly smile, but was not seen.
"No thanks. I'm good." Tzuyu said monotonously as she kept writing.
"You've already done so much."
"I-I know... but it's better if I finish."
Then slowly, Sana lowered her pen for her and softly talked.

"You have plenty of time, just relax for a moment." Sana leant her head on her shoulder.
Tzuyu seemed to regain herself, her eyes adjusted to the artificial lights as it blurred her vision.
It was as if she was waking up for the first time in an unknown place. It reminded her of what she got today.
"Wait here." Tzuyu hastily ran upstairs into her bedroom. It was a mess filled with textbook and paper scattered around, nobody could hardly ever find anything. Luckily, Tzuyu knew where everything is.

The place she was looking for was under her bed, a small gift box was found.
She smiled as she found it and gave it to Sana.
"What's this?" Sana opened and revealed a white necklace and imprinted it showed a lovely message:
'No Sana, No Life'

"T-Tzuyu... you didn't have to." Sana sighed.
"It's fine, you deserve it." Tzuyu gingerly got back on track with her work presuming that's all that her break offered her.
The gift was beautiful and immaculate, it was perfect like snow settling on the ground.
Yet, Sana was not too happy.

The past few days, Tzuyu had been giving her gifts as a surprise. Of course they were delightful, but she knew that she was struggling inside. Sana knew that Tzuyu hid her stress away from public and instead of owning it up, she tried to make people around her happy instead.
Tzuyu acted strangely, she became distant with expressing her feelings, she put on a smile even though it was obvious she was faking it. To add on, she often visited her company's building.

She was isolating herself in her room and by Nayeon's perspective, it was like as if she changed. Though, Tzuyu's admiration for her friends and especially Sana were still the same, keeping them joyous. Only Sana noticed these slight changes.

Sana couldn't face the fact that Tzuyu is facing a lie and was living unhappily with distractions from her work. The truth has to come out. She had to do something.
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.
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Chaeyoung, sitting alone by herself, stared wistfully at her untidy notes. The names she wrote were buildings of companies around Seoul, she was planning to investigate within their facility. She didn't stop there, she wanted to explore her own parents building in Reid old office.
There are bound to be clues there.

Yet, she couldn't stand to be in there for just a second. She was the heir of the company, she could never live up to them.
The pressure, the stress to become on top, she couldn't face that challenge. Now she found out her family were in some suspicious activity, she must found out this dirty secret.

Just then, Mina walked over to her, she closed her notes and put on a smile.
"Hey, are you finished?" Mina asked, she sat down and let out a yawn.
"Yeah, I'm revisiting notes..." Chaeyoung's voice quieted mumbling the last few words.
"I was going to ask where you were for the past few days?"
Chaeyoung prepared her answer in advance, knowing someone will ask, "I was having a time with myself," she said, "I just needed to get out of the school mindset."

Mina smiled, "That makes sense, I mean look at Tzuyu she's overworking herself."
Chaeyoung laughed, "I don't know who she is anymore. She was just a High Schooler going out with all the girls and now she's a College student giving it all her best."

They both sighed simultaneously.
"I worry sometimes about you," Mina said, "I know there's something wrong."
"There isn't." Chaeyoung shook her head, but there was.
"You can tell me, you do trust me?"
"Yes, I would tell you, but there's nothing to say." As Chaeyoung put on a fake smile, she frowned.
Liar! She called herself.

"Okay. If there's nothing wrong then nothing is wrong." Mina hugged her tightly, she caressed her hair and went back to her seat.
Guilty, Chaeyoung faced away and let out a sigh. She couldn't tell her the truth.
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As usual, the bodyguards were on their own thing in the background. Jihyo was talking to on her phone whilst Nayeon and Jeongyeon were outside. The clouds came rolling in casting in front of the sun, now it felt dull.

Then, Jeongyeon's phone rang.
"Hello?" She answered.
"Ah... yes." She walked inside.
Nayeon followed her as well as listen in.
"Next week... yes... okay thanks." Jeongyeon hid her phone in her pocket and expecting Nayeon to ask.

"Who was that?"
"It's just a friend." Jeongyeon said.
"Was it Seungyeon's friend again asking to hang out now?" Nayeon raised her eyebrow, waiting for her response.
"Actually, yes it was. She wanted me check up on when we'll meet up with Seungyeon." She said it nonchalantly.

"Okay..."
Jeongyeon smiled and kissed her forehead.
"You know I love you."
"O-Of course." Nayeon said.