1145pm.
It was Friday night and almost 36 hours since she last saw Jisoo. She thought she would see her somehow in classes but strangely they did not even cross paths during lunch for the past 2 days. With Lisa's snoring in the background, Jennie had completed her assignments and started packing her papers and pens quietly away to get ready for bed.
Drumming her fingers lightly on the desk, she glanced at her phone and contemplated. Should I drop her a friendly text, you know, in case she has fallen ill? And, as a good friend, I can update her on homework? Although they had each other's numbers, they had never texted or called, and it made Jennie nervous at the thought of initiating contact with Jisoo. A couple of minutes passed before Jennie reached for her phone and swiped at the screen.
Just then, her message tone rang loudly, scaring Jennie half to death as she hastily switched the device to silent mode and observed the sleeping figure across the room. Still snoring. Phew! Exhaling deeply, she turned her attention back to her phone. The screen illuminated with a few notifications, and at the top was Jisoo's name with a preview of the message received: "Miss me? ;)"
A big wide smile spread across Jennie's face and she softly climbed on to her bed and leant against the wall, before tapping on her screen, "Who are you?"
Buzz. "Gasp! I'm hurt! :("
Giggling softly, Jennie typed, "Hi hurt. What can I do for you?"
Buzz. "Be the remedy for my hurting heart. </3"
Jennie rolled her eyes and sent, "And how exactly shall I do that?"
Buzz. "Let me take you on a second date. Tomorrow?"
Squealing into her pillow before she knew it, Jennie caught herself and slapped her warm cheeks lightly to stop her idiocy. She bit her bottom lip as she typed a reply, "Hmm, pick me up at noon at Y Dance Academy, okay?"
Buzz. "More than okay. I'd go to the ends of the world for you. <3"
Jennie placed the phone on her bedside table and plonked her head on to the pillow, grinning uncontrollably.
She's asking for a second date... And she didn't, umm... you know, take advantage of me when I was dead drunk the other night. Maybe Jisoo isn't a snob or a flirt. Maybe she is a reformed pigeon after all, and this isn't a game to her.
Maybe Jisoo is really worth a shot...
Trying her best to contain her bubbling excitement, Jennie fell asleep with a smile dancing softly on her lips, thinking about the only person who could make her heart race and her face blush and her right brain triumph.
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Being fifteen minutes early, Jisoo was in tight black jeans and a light turquoise long-sleeved pullover that wrapped her torso snugly with a wide collar, her silk blazer draped over an arm, waiting in the spacious lobby of the prestigious dance academy, well-known for its quality instructors, exorbitant fees and rich students. I thought she was cautious about spending.
Just then, her phone buzzed repeatedly. Hitting the green button, she picked up the call, "Hey Dad, everything okay?"
"Jisoo ya, all's good here, what about things on your side?" Hearing her dad made her miss home.
She pursed her lips, thinking, before she answered, "Good here too. Rosé and I are working on two prime targets. Estimated time to close, 2 weeks."
"Hmm, can you do it in 10 days? Other firms may beat us to it if we take too long," Her dad sounded worried, making Jisoo pinch between her eyebrows as she shut her eyes tight. She never disappointed and she was not planning to make an exception.
She inhaled deeply and clenched her jaws, before exhaling, "Okay, Dad, we'll try our best."
"Excellent! Call me if you need backup or anything, got it? Talk to you again, Jisoo ya." She could hear her dad's tone of relief, then she opened her eyes and gave a tired smile at no one in particular, "Got it, see you Dad."
Releasing a loud sigh as she sank back in her seat, Jisoo thought back to Wednesday night and the wee hours of Thursday, when Jennie was in her bed and Jisoo had spent a full half hour sitting next to her, wiping her face, neck, arms and legs with a damp towel, smoothing the creases in her brows, brushing away strands that stuck to her forehead, and struggling so hard to decide between the mission and her feelings, her mind and her heart.
Something about Jennie made Jisoo hesitate on a mission for the very first time, and Jisoo felt herself bordering on dangerous attachment to this special girl, for reasons she could not even explain.
In the end, her heart won and her emotions dragged her out of the room, leaving the girl unchanged from her dress, so she could still have Jennie in her life for a little bit longer...
"Sorry! There was a queue in the showers." A gentle, warm hand on her shoulder snapped Jisoo out of her thoughts, as she looked up to meet round cat-like eyes and a gummy smile, damp brown locks that ended in perfect curls over her shoulders, a simple white tee tucked into high-waisted faded denim shorts, with slender legs ending in clean white sneakers. The girl's neck, arms and legs were sprinkled with little droplets from the shower, as a black duffel bag hung over a shoulder.
Jisoo felt the hand on her shoulder shove her playfully, cutting her out of the blatant ogling. "Quit staring, perv. Let's go, I'm starving!" Jennie cracked a grin as she pulled Jisoo up to stand.
"Can't help the staring but I can help the starving. Before we go, let's put this on, because..." Jisoo chuckled as she draped the blazer over the girl's shoulders and sang, "Baby, it's cold outside."
Jennie laughed with a backward throw of her head as they started walking, "Thanks then, baby. Is this your least favourite blazer that's why you're always lending it?"
"It's actually my favourite one, for my favourite person," Jisoo smirked with a wink. It was the truth but she was not expecting Jennie to buy it, so when Jennie gave her a sideways hug around her shoulders and whispered thanks in her ear instead of giving the usual eye-roll, Jisoo widened her eyes and parted her lips in surprise as she halted her steps, watching the back view of Jennie shyly skipping ahead to exit the building.
Blinking rapidly, Jisoo shook her head and tried to calm her raging heart, before jogging forward to keep up with her date. She managed to pull open the car door to the passenger seat just in time, grinning goofily as Jennie chuckled and climbed in with a word of thanks.
"So, this fancy academy is where you learn your fancy moves from?" Jisoo jerked her chin towards the building, while she clipped on her seat belt and checked that Jennie had done so too, before driving away from the curb and merging into traffic.
Jennie quirked up an eyebrow and a side of her lips, "Close, but this fancy academy is where I teach my fancy moves."
Genuinely impressed, Jisoo glanced over and exclaimed, "Woah no shit?! That's very cool! And very smart, I would say – rich students pay good money for good instructors."
"And I need the good money, so, win-win," Jennie shrugged.
"Hmm, what will you do then if you become a chaebol overnight?" Jisoo figured this was a good opportunity to try Rosé's befriending strategy, since she could not bring herself to carry out her own strategy on Jennie.
Stroking her chin like she had a beard, Jennie started, "I will probably head straight to my mother's place and," she chuckled, "we'll both jump for joy together, then donate a portion to charity, then," Jennie beamed at Jisoo who caught her from the corner of her eye, "finally buy a fancy house like yours and move my mother in with me."
Jisoo laughed softly and reached out her hand in the general direction of Jennie's head to pat her for her filial piety, but her palm ended up hovering in front of Jennie, who then ducked under and bobbed her head upwards to complete the patting herself. It tickled Jisoo quite a bit, such that she was chuckling now with an open mouth and crescent eyes.
When Jennie stopped bouncing her head, Jisoo felt her hand resting on the crown of Jennie's smooth hair, and she glanced over only to see Jennie grinning her gummy grin and inspecting her with eyes so gentle Jisoo would give whatever the girl wanted if she asked for it in this moment.
"She must be so proud to have you," Jisoo gave Jennie one more pat before withdrawing her hand. As much as she would like the conversation to be pure and innocent, Jisoo had a mission, so she kept her eyes on the road, followed the strategy and probed, "What about your dad and your siblings?"
There was a pause, as Jennie looked down and picked at her fingers, "I don't have any."
"Why?" Jisoo blurted out before widening her eyes purposely and hurrying in one breath, "Oh gosh I'm sorry that's so insensitive take it I never asked, Jennie." If making Jennie uncomfortable already pricked at Jisoo's heart, pretending to be careless with her words then dishing fake apologies literally made Jisoo sick to the stomach.
This was why she never used Rosé's befriending strategy – too much attachment, too many emotions. Hooking up with a person whose name she could barely recall a few days later was so much easier for Jisoo, no strings attached; but she could not bring herself to do that to Jennie now, she was in too deep and before she knew it she was already sinking in the quicksand of Jennie, unable to even take the clothes off the unconscious brunette that night.
"It's okay," Jennie's voice was weak but sincere, "Well... I don't know who my biological parents are, actually. My mother found me crying in the bushes outside a burning hospital, and she waited for someone to turn up for me but nobody came and when her lungs were filled with too much smoke, she decided to bring me home. Turns out my biological mother had died and left me a letter."
They had reached a red light and Jisoo turned to face her passenger and covered her hands gently in hers, "Jennie, I'm sorry to hear that. But if it's any comfort, I am more than certain that your mother up above and your mother on Earth are equally proud of whom you have grown up to become."
Watching a tear slide down from Jennie's eye, Jisoo almost died of immense guilt. She felt no joy even though she just obtained critical matching information for Miss J.
Instead, she gently cupped the girl's cheek and softly swabbed away the droplet with the pad of her thumb, earning a small smile and appreciative eyes from Jennie. Jisoo sighed in slight relief, returned the smile and patted Jennie's cheek twice, before retracting her right hand back to the steering wheel while her left one continued to blanket Jennie's hands, stroking the girl's knuckles soothingly.
When the light turned green and the car was shifted to drive, Jisoo felt Jennie's warm palm turn upwards to interlace their fingers together, before she heard a faint word of thanks. Jisoo glanced over and witnessed that Jennie was no longer picking at her own fingers, instead she was playing softly with Jisoo's fingers, poking at the tips of her fingers and lifting them before letting them snap back into position.
Every once in a while, Jennie would look over and Jisoo would catch her eye, watch her favourite smile in the world, and share a silly chuckle. And Jisoo decided there and then that she would never tire of this precious girl, as she manoeuvred the car to park neatly in the lot for the lunch of their second date.
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A/N: let me know if the story is progressing too slow or too fast or just nice for you? <3