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"tutor your heart" reflection
Dec. 30th, 2025 12:39 pmcross-posted to tumblr
title: tutor your heartword count: 17,704pairings: hsu nientzu/yoon seoyeonlink: https://archiveofourown.org/works/74628746
so this was my first attempt ever at creative writing (outside of a class i took to fulfill my gen ed requirement—clearly doesn't count) and i finished it in less than two weeks (loona days to be exact haha) so Woah? i didn't think i'd write so much but soon after i started i found myself itching to reach for my phone and open the notes app to continue it. and yes this was originally written in my notes app up until a little after part I where i moved it to google docs.
i started it mainly because i was frustrated that 131 was such an underrated ship among wav writers despite how much content they've been giving us (Everything about isac, the most recent moment being nien playing with her lips on live and saying offhandedly "yeah seoyeon does this all the time" Girl.)(at the time of writing this that was the most recent moment but then they dropped the pair dance in fly up. WOAH.) and i love them so much so i was like Fine. i'll have to take matters into my own hands.
this idea had been sitting in my brain for a while before i even considered writing it but i didn't think i'd ever bring it into fruition; it was more so just something i would think about as a bedtime story of sorts for myself. i think the version in my head was only up until they met as seatmates? not very fleshed out, clearly.
this idea had been sitting in my brain for a while before i even considered writing it but i didn't think i'd ever bring it into fruition; it was more so just something i would think about as a bedtime story of sorts for myself. i think the version in my head was only up until they met as seatmates? not very fleshed out, clearly.
i actually finished this a little while before i posted it (the timeline was 11.10–11.22) but i saved it for today because it's what i consider to be the third 131 day (1130) which also happens to be sullin's birthday! if she likes rpf this could be a present for her LOL (im joking. i hope none of them ever read this). also, i posted it on ao3 so that i could post about it on my twitter at a very specific time (11:30 KST on 1130) except this translates to 6:30 AM for me.. and my solution was to just wake up early on a sunday morning to post in time so i planned on going to sleep early—i would have done so if it weren't for the fact that 131 then posted this reel like Okay. now i can't sleep. which is to say im writing my last edit to this reflection running on like six hours of sleep.. anything for 131 🧡💙🧡
now to talk about the actual story 👇
background
like i said, this story started out as a treat for me in my head so i already knew a little bit about how i wanted to characterize them: nien being playful and silly and seoyeon trying to be serious but easily flustered. enter wall-climbing-gate (get it? cause she was jumping the gate but also like watergate LOL).
i chose to do an HS au because i like the possibilities it possesses as a backdrop for really falling in love for the first time + it's closer to my actual experience (and i say closer in terms of age—in reality none of this has ever happened to me). i also set the story in korea so that things like class presidents, break periods, and and rotating teachers actually have some significance, even though i wouldn't be writing from experience in that regard. i just didn't think it'd be realistic for all of them to be in some random american high school, yknow?
especially because american high schools don't really care for class presidents (in my experience), don't have break periods/rotating teachers, and care more sports/extracurriculars, which wasn't really the type of story i wanted to write. shouldn't this mean i should've included hagwons in here somehow? maybe. but then that would be taking this simple one-shot and doing more with it than it was originally supposed to be, so in the end i left it as it was.
especially because american high schools don't really care for class presidents (in my experience), don't have break periods/rotating teachers, and care more sports/extracurriculars, which wasn't really the type of story i wanted to write. shouldn't this mean i should've included hagwons in here somehow? maybe. but then that would be taking this simple one-shot and doing more with it than it was originally supposed to be, so in the end i left it as it was.
i also made the 02z + yooyeon third-years and 03z second-years in mixed-grade homerooms. in reality i know korea keeps the different grades distinct but i wanted to preserve the slight age difference dynamics, especially between seoyeon and xinyu, without having to pull in random other 2003 idols to have as classmates. also, maybe no one else caught this but their teachers' names do come from the loona members LOL specifically artms and yves. we still love you chuussemble. i also feel bad because yooyeon/dahyun/mayu only get brief appearances and the younger members are straight up not mentioned at all but again, the story was mainly centered around seoyeon/nien as second-years. i am interested in writing about them in the future though!
another slight mishap: in the conversation about age systems sohyun says that korea's already abolished that system two years ago, which is technically true for today. in this work though, Technically since they're still in high school it'd be set in ~2020ish, aka before the change in 2023. however, since it was a funny conversation and also set the groundwork for the more significant seoyeon-xinyu dynamic, i left it in. let's pretend the system already changed at that point!
xinyu
given the spontaneity of this fic i was just making things up as i go, so i didn't plan for xinyu to be an instrumental character but i'm So glad she was. i think some people characterize her as just being flirty and hot (which she is, to be fair) but she is also sooo much more than that. especially being seoyeon's unnie i think she has a lot of valuable wisdom and advice to give to seoyeon, and their dynamic might have been my second favorite to write—the first being seoyeon and nien, obviously.
nien
like i said, i had no plans going into this—it was kind of just supposed to be self-indulgent, so i did not expect the emotional depth that nien's character ended up having. nien :( i need to protect her from anyone who tries to hurt this ray of sunshine because she really just brightens everyone's day, mine included. i really wanted to lean into the concept of nien being a foreigner in korea while also being mixed taiwanese-vietnamese. she's said before that she can't read or write vietnamese as well as she can speak/understand it (and she does have an accent there too), but i was curious about how that would affect her native language (chinese).
people have said that she speaks the standard dialect in taiwan with little/no vietnamese accent, which is why i made it more of a childhood occurrence for her that eventually wears off when she gets older, especially because she also said she would visit her grandparents in vietnam when she was younger. all of these things, in combination with her also living in korea, makes for a complex character who still smiles throughout it all :') this is also why i love the fact that her chemi name with seoyeon is sunnyz—it really encapsulates how lovely and bright they are, especially because sunny days are my favorite type of days (which reminds me of an edit i saw of them that used w2e's sunny days as bgm. peak.)
people have said that she speaks the standard dialect in taiwan with little/no vietnamese accent, which is why i made it more of a childhood occurrence for her that eventually wears off when she gets older, especially because she also said she would visit her grandparents in vietnam when she was younger. all of these things, in combination with her also living in korea, makes for a complex character who still smiles throughout it all :') this is also why i love the fact that her chemi name with seoyeon is sunnyz—it really encapsulates how lovely and bright they are, especially because sunny days are my favorite type of days (which reminds me of an edit i saw of them that used w2e's sunny days as bgm. peak.)
seoyeon
drawing back on what i said about seoyeon being easily flustered, her perspective was fun to write because i wanted to explore her thoughts and feelings every time nien flirts with her (lots of inspiration from this clip: https://x.com/sszlitz/status/1946736327065817208?s=20. the sunnyz pill y'all. it's potent). i was worried that i may have been writing too much from her POV and not enough from nien's, but i think it balances out (somewhat) by the end (and even if it doesn't, nien's parts are still impactful as they are so i'm not too torn up over it).
i also wanted to emulate how humble and selfless she is in real life, how she doesn't let the role of S1/class president get to her head (too much) to the point where it kind of contributes to the main conflict. i can totally see her thinking that she can't bring herself to ask nien to stay for her—as much as both she and nien want her to—which becomes a point of conflict between the two of them. that's why she needs that push from xinyu to go get her girl! (did i consider a dramatic airport scene? yes. but the swings were more sentimental). also, i don't know if anyone caught this but the first couple of times they meet seoyeon references the warmth of the lingering summer (representing their blooming relationship) but the night of the "fight" (not really a fight but feelings were hurt) she hugs the pompompurin plush that nien gave her and notices the cold (representing how they've hit a cold patch in their relationship).
i also wanted to emulate how humble and selfless she is in real life, how she doesn't let the role of S1/class president get to her head (too much) to the point where it kind of contributes to the main conflict. i can totally see her thinking that she can't bring herself to ask nien to stay for her—as much as both she and nien want her to—which becomes a point of conflict between the two of them. that's why she needs that push from xinyu to go get her girl! (did i consider a dramatic airport scene? yes. but the swings were more sentimental). also, i don't know if anyone caught this but the first couple of times they meet seoyeon references the warmth of the lingering summer (representing their blooming relationship) but the night of the "fight" (not really a fight but feelings were hurt) she hugs the pompompurin plush that nien gave her and notices the cold (representing how they've hit a cold patch in their relationship).
misc
about sohyun having a car—i know high schoolers in korea usually take the bus or walk instead of driving their own car, so i probably told on myself as being american for that one. but, at the same time, it's not impossible that sohyun could have a car, and just imagine her picking xinyu up and driving away like the power couple they are. i had to keep it in.
another thing i didn't intend was the part where dahyun says she'd be 131's unnie if korea still followed the lunar calendar for age reckoning—turns out she actually said this in real life! in the 03z signal (251103) and i didn't know before i wrote it i just naturally included that part out of my own volition which was kind of sick to see when i did actually watch that signal in full
Seoyeon's eyes shoot open and she looks at Nien, affronted. “Hey! What's that supposed to mean? We only have like, eight centimeters of height difference, maximum.”
this part was hilarious to me. eight centimeters is a lot, seoyeon.
also, the scene with the ice cream sticks was inspired by a tweet i saw where someone said the person holding the ice cream would be seoyeon and the person biting and running away would be nien—when i saw it i was like That's perfect. (https://x.com/ppoint_021325/status/1958029846782833057?s=20).
there were also two 67 references in here. i'm sorry. but in my defense i'm not actually brainrotted like that (i don't even have tiktok) it's because people around me IRL kept saying it so when the opportunity came up i couldn't resist.
final thoughts
and that's it! overall this was super fun to write and i'm satisfied with how it came out (though i think if i reread it any more times i'll start creating problems for myself haha). i know i technically left nien's arcade wish unfulfilled (what does she make seoyeon do?) but maybe that will be explored in an epilogue 🤔 i'm also already thinking of new plots to try out, which i kind of can't believe. also, when i was writing xinyu's parts i was thinking that it sets up perfectly for a soxinz-centered prequel, so that might be something to look forward to! no promises though. i was also intrigued by an HS au with the 03–05 members or the 06z and younger, probably with 1124 or 38 as the main focus. maybe. and of course, 131 is always on the brain.. we'll see when i have time.
thank you for reading the story and this long-winded reflection! i have nothing to plug but my twitter (be my friend!)
