A Love in Three Chapters [Completed]

Chapter 1.2

"By the way," Hannelore chirped, "I just met this beautiful lady through Armand. She curated this amazing party for tonight. She's from Seoul too, would you believe?"

Hannelore motioned to a petite woman whose eyes regarded her playfully. The former was obviously lost in whatever inside joke that's happening between them at the moment, but Lisa didn't dare correct her anymore. "Her name is Jennie Kim. I thought it would be good to introduce the two of you seeing you have arts and Seoul in common. Jennie, this is my good friend Lisa Manoban, founder of LMLabel."

Jennie slowly broke into a playful grin. "Yes, I think we've met before," She extended her hand to Lisa, whose poker face was getting harder and harder to maintain. She reached for her outstretched hand.

"Lisa. Nice to meet you again." Jennie broke into her gummy smile and Lisa broke character, smiling widely as well.

Hannelore didn't seem to catch on much to what was happening. "Ah, small world. I guess you've met each other back in Seoul?"

"You could say that," Jennie deadpanned. Lisa nodded.

"Yeah, we met in Seoul."

"Ah," Hannelore commented, sucking a bit of air through her teeth as a distraction when she ran out of things to say. But like the puppy that she is, she found something else interesting that caught her eye. "Hey, that's Enid. Wait, let me leave you girls to catch up. Let me say hi." And she ran off to the other side of the building shouting Enid's name, leaving Jennie and Lisa in the old art wing. She looked at Jennie for a beat then tentatively opened her arms, offering a hug. Jennie slowly moulded herself into that space, like she always used to years ago.

Years ago. Lisa may have forgotten a lot from years ago, but the feeling of wrapping Jennie in her arms was definitely not one of them. Especially how Lisa suits into the small curves of Jennie's body, how Jennie fits exactly near her neck when she nestles her head there, how Jennie's arms wrap her completely. Lisa remembered always thinking about how it felt perfect, those hugs were. They both stood there and embraced each other for a long time trying to make up for the years they haven't seen each other, never mind that there were other people in the room as well.

"It's been too long," Jennie's muffled voice on Lisa's chest finally broke Lisa's reverie, although she still hasn't budged. She's trying to maximize this moment as much as she can. "How have you been?"

Jennie pushed her self away for a bit to look at Lisa's face as the latter sighed in slight frustration. She wished she didn't have to let go.

"I'm well. Nothing much interesting happening."

"So, Paris, huh?" Jennie moved away a bit more to look at Lisa, still not believing her eyes. "So weird seeing you here. And in my event, too. How weird is that?"

"Yeah, that would be thanks to Hannelore. She...uh...was trying to look after a boring friend on a Saturday night." Lisa motioned to herself and made a face. Jennie giggled.

"I take it she doesn't know about your secret identity?" When Lisa furrowed her eyebrows in confusion, Jennie answered her own question. "Blackpink?"

"Ah, vaguely. When she met me I was already LMLabel and she's not exactly into K-pop. Besides, we were already beyond K-pop expiry when that happened so I don't expect anyone to even remember us anymore."

"Touché." Jennie conceded. "So. LMLabel, huh?"

"Yeah, yeah. That's...uh...keeping me occupied lately." Lisa started to sit down again in front of the canvas and Jennie followed suit. Lisa noted that Jennie has put in a small distance between them, but she chided herself after realizing she's been unrealistically hoping for a lot of familiar things to happen tonight since seeing Jennie again.

"Yeah, I heard about it. Congratulations."

"Heard?" Lisa asked, taking a sip of her scotch. Quite a tall shot in her glass, she noted. Hannelore knew her well.

"Read." Jennie corrected herself. "I keep tabs online." She smiled like she just revealed an open secret.

Lisa grinned a little and let the scotch burn a bit on her tongue. She really didn't want to stop staring at Jennie's face but she's worried about coming across as rude, so she tried to look around the blank walls when she could. Jennie didn't seem embarrassed at all a bit, though, staring at Lisa intently. She reached for Lisa's hair and stroked it fondly. "Your favourite hair colour is back."

Lisa smiled a little. "Yeah, there's no one to please at the moment, so it's back to ash brown."

"You mean the fans, right? I know you hated all the colours the stylists insisted on you."

Lisa wanted to say she meant when Jennie liked her hair coloured lightly, but she stopped herself. Jennie didn't really need to know.

"How long has it been?"

Five years, Lisa thought to herself. Three since I last saw you, five since we broke it off.