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Qiyana wasn’t surprised when she was offered to join True Damage, she knew her reputation preceded her and that she was talented, not to mention having anyone from her family was for sure going to boost any group’s sales no matter how mediocre it was, so when the Akali showed up on a meeting she had with her manager she knew this time it was going to be something special, she finally got her chance to prove herself and maybe the first step to turn the whole scene upside down like she always planned.
It turns out that joining True Damage was full of surprises, the first of them was the lineup. Where she thought she’d find a bunch of talentless idiots (and Akali), she found people as talented as she was, and the latina had to give it to Akali, she put together an impressive group, there was Senna, the already massively famous singer that disappeared after the news that she got out of a shitty contract with a record label. Ekko, the lyrical genius that cared more about his community than fame. And Yasuo, Fucking Yasuo , she heard about him and followed his work, but sometimes she doubted he actually existed.
The other surprise was how she felt more like in a family hanging out with the group than with her own family. At first, she expected it to be purely professional, make a song together, cash their checks and repeat in a few months or something, but she couldn’t be more wrong even if she tried. Qiyana never felt like she belonged in a place quite like she felt when she was around them. They made her feel at home at all times, and even if she didn’t say it out loud, it meant a lot to her to finally be in a place where she could let her guard down and feel loved by everyone around her. It was nice.
However, the biggest surprise that she encountered was Yasuo himself. For years, Qiyana had been looking to collab with him, but she couldn’t find a way to contact him, even with her family’s contacts. You didn’t just find Yasuo and ask him to do something together, it was always the other way around, and Qiyana always wanted him to notice her, it would be huge for her image and help her get the edge she needed to set her apart from the rest of the family as the rightful empress of her genre. Judging by his reclusive nature Qiyana always thought that he would be extremely closed off and kind of an asshole, but it turns out he was a kind-hearted person, ready to give advice to anyone that asked him for it, and had the patience of a saint, even when she got one of her perfectionist outbursts on the recording booth, he was all smiles ready to comfort her and tell her that it was okay, that they would try again later.
At first, it was confusing to Qiyana to be treated that way, she always expected people to get tired of her antics quickly and snap at her, but Yasuo just laughed it off and kept encouraging her to keep working on it, that she’d get it right the next time. It took months for her to get somewhat used to it, but the nights she spent in the studio with Yasuo slowly became her favorite.
Just sitting around and watching him working on beats or arrangements for Giants was very entertaining, he was very methodical yet passionate with his work, she usually just laid on a couch and hummed along while he stayed completely quiet and bopped his head to the beat, muttering to himself what could be fixed and quickly getting to work on it.
Sometimes Ekko would join them to hang out, and even fewer times Akali or Senna would show up when they weren’t busy with either promoting the group or spending time with their respective partners, but most of the time it was just the two of them alone, it was peaceful, and every night the singer felt herself growing closer to the DJ.
Eventually, their nights in the studio became almost a daily thing, they’d just listen to whatever Yasuo was working on while Qiyana worked on her lyrics, and they’d order takeout for dinner whenever they felt like they needed to eat something, Yasuo even installed a TV on the studio so they could watch movies together when they were eating or when they felt worn out from working.
Qiyana felt something shift within with time, her fondness towards the DJ growing into a confusing mess of feelings, where she used to get mad whenever he ruffled her hair she now felt like leaning on his hand, or how she would feel giddy every time the brunette let out a soft chuckle at a movie they were watching, or how she could just watch him for hours while he worked, stuck in his own little world.
Or how she longed for him to hug her tightly like he did when they finally finished their first show as a group and he was so excited he just hugged her out of nowhere before twirling her around.
She knew what it meant to have all of those thoughts running through her head, it wasn't the first time she had a crush on someone, the confusing part was how she was unable to suppress those feelings. The latina had always been able to ignore her crushes until they went away, after all, her family had taught her she was unworthy of love, so she knew that having those feelings was useless, but for some reason, she just couldn't with Yasuo.
Every time she thought her feelings were going away they’d come back full force by the smallest show of affection he gave her, it felt like she was going mad. Whenever she felt like she was over it he would always just do something, no matter how small it was, a small hug when she walked into the studio, or the quick kisses he gave her on the forehead when she left, or that time that he told her she was 'really pretty' while he was drunk.
She wouldn’t admit it even if her life was on the line, but she held the last one pretty dearly in her memories.
She wanted to confess her feelings towards Yasuo if only it meant that she would get rid of the feeling of her chest feeling light and fluttery whenever he said as little as hi to her, and if she also could get rid of the way she got irritated every time she’d see him hanging out with other people outside the group then that would be even better as far as she was concerned.
But again, it was yet another thing she couldn’t do. Being who she is, Qiyana was used to people getting close to her just to take advantage of her position, she lived that situation many times, every time that she felt infatuated with somebody she always set herself up to be hurt by them, so she just didn’t care to try anymore. Even if she knew that Yasuo wouldn’t do that, she didn’t even want to think about the possibility of it happening again, so the better option was to squash those feelings and move on.
So, if she couldn’t get rid of the feelings naturally, she’d do it the only other way she knew how to work through her feelings, so she called Seraphine, the only other producer she could confide with something like this. After all, Yasuo couldn’t know about this project.
—–––
And so, a few days later Qiyana found herself sitting in K/DA’s studio, with an excited look on her face at the idea of working together with her, which kind of fed into her ego a little bit.
“Soooo, what are we doing?” Seraphine’s joyful voice filled the studio, and Qiyana couldn’t help the small smile that formed on her lips. The younger girl’s mood was pretty contagious after all.
“Just a cover of an old song, but with a new twist.” The white-haired girl answered and pulled up the song on the studio’s computer, making the producer hum in question when she read the title.
“The title means “To live like this is to die of love”, right?” Seraphine asked and her smirk became a teasing one after Qiyana nodded, making the singer scoff and look away.
“Don’t look too much into it.”
“I won’t, but I do wonder why you called me instead of doing this with Yasuo.”
“Because he’s…” Qiyana panicked, trying to look for a believable excuse. “Busy… Working on something with Ekko.”
Seraphine snorted and acted like she didn’t do it when the latina turned to glare at her. “Sure, sounds fun though, I’m in.”
“Genial, let's get to work then.”
—–––
It took them a few weeks, turns out that re-recording an entire song with a new arrangement and instrumentals was harder than Qiyana anticipated, without even accounting for the many times she almost scrapped the whole thing and was about to tell everyone to do it all over again, but she welcomed the distraction that came with the work.
Of course, she missed hanging out with Yasuo during those weeks, and it hurt every time she saw the look of disappointment on his face whenever she told him that she was busy and couldn’t go to the studio, but she needed to do this for herself, and now that the song was out to the world she started her process to get rid of her crush.
On the day of the release, Qiyana stayed at her apartment the whole day and avoided all social media after she made the announcement and the video was posted, and just took a ‘me day’ that she used to catch up on sleep and to watch movies by herself.
A couple of hours after the song went live her phone started ringing with the tone she set for Yasuo, so she picked it up and opened her texts with him
🌪️Niño del Viento🌪️
🌪️Niño del Viento🌪️: Hello Qiqi
🌪️Niño del Viento🌪️: Congratulations on the new release!
🌪️Niño del Viento🌪️: I'm still learning Spanish so don’t understand what it says besides a few words here and there but it sounds really cool!
🌪️Niño del Viento🌪️: I can’t believe you were hiding this from me tho ☹️
QueenQi👑: 😂😂😂
QueenQi👑: Thank you, Yas
QueenQi👑: And I wasn’t hiding it, it was a secret project
QueenQi👑: And that means not telling anyone, even you lol
🌪️Niño del Viento🌪️: Lol it’s okay, I understand, I was just teasing
🌪️Niño del Viento🌪️: Hey so I was wondering
🌪️Niño del Viento🌪️: Do you wanna like
🌪️Niño del Viento🌪️: Go out sometime?
QueenQi👑: For dinner? Sure, I’d love to
QueenQi👑: I didn’t know you missed me that much lol
🌪️Niño del Viento🌪️: No, not for dinner
🌪️Niño del Viento🌪️: Well, it can be dinner if you want
🌪️Niño del Viento🌪️: But I meant like a date
🌪️Niño del Viento🌪️: And of course I missed you
Qiyana left her phone on the table and took a deep breath “Esto tiene que ser una puta broma…” She muttered and tried to calm down, but she failed and just grabbed her pillow and threw it against a wall. “¿Por qué me pasa esto a mi?” She screamed before grabbing her phone again with an angry scowl.
🌪️Niño del Viento🌪️: Qiqi?
🌪️Niño del Viento🌪️: If you don’t wanna go it’s okay
🌪️Niño del Viento🌪️: Just ignore I even said anything okay?
QueenQi👑: Cierra la puta boca
QueenQi👑: You’re taking me to the most expensive place you can find
QueenQi👑: I’m not accepting a no for an answer
🌪️Niño del Viento🌪️: Okay?
🌪️Niño del Viento🌪️: Tell me whenever you’re available and we can schedule
QueenQi👑: We’re going today
QueenQi👑: And that’s final
🌪️Niño del Viento🌪️: I’ll pick you up at seven then?
QueenQi👑: You better