The Tiger King (Chaelisa)

50| Fallout

"I'd rather not mess around with drugs, thanks."

Lisa rolled her eyes at her sister's terse tone. "Nini they're just your average painkiller prescribed by the doctor, could you stop treating it like it's crack?"

"They had you high, what's to say what they'd do to me?" Jennie said grimly. "Besides, it's not safe to dabble like that, taking prescription drugs carelessly so...I'd rather have new ones prescribed with instructions, if the situation ever comes to that."

Lisa turned a page of her comic. "Suit yourself then. You can go ahead and flush them."

"Okay."

They were quiet for a few moments but the room was suffocating with unspoken tension, the conversation still not unfinished.

"It's a good thing your arm's healing steadily," Jennie began, breaking the silence, "hopefully in a month's time, it will be healed and we can go into the Grand Slam without a hitch."

Lisa's head shot up. "What? But I thought...you said..."

She wilted when Jennie raised an eyebrow, her mouth running dry as realisation dawned on her.

"You lied?"

"I didn't." Jennie stirred her yogurt calmly, too calmly. Lisa knew that carefully blank face, the one Jennie used to coax and cajole her, to persuade.

"Jen, you told Jisoo..."

"That we'll wait until your arm heals before we get back to boxing," Jennie nodded, "I never mentioned about dropping out of the Grand Slam, though. That's just what everyone else is assuming."

Lisa stared, her jaw slack.

"Your name is still in the running, I didn't pull us out just yet. As far as anyone is concerned, you still qualify. We just have to make sure you don't end up rusty by the time we actually get to the Grand Slam," Jennie said briskly, "and we've already slacked off these last few days."

"We've been running..." said Lisa faintly.

But Jennie shook her head. "Running won't substitute for actual punchbag training. So tomorrow I want to get back on track with some punching, okay? Not your hurt arm obviously, we should wait a little more, but we can't afford to let your progress so far go to waste. Competition will be tough."

"But Jisoo...and Rosie...I thought..." Lisa's eyes were wide, the comic completely forgotten in her lap.

"Well, whatever you thought, put it out of your head because this is our plan of action now."

Jennie finished her yogurt and pulled some scraps of old newspaper towards her that had old game plans scribbled in the margins. "Enjoy the concert tonight because we're picking up the pace from now on and we need to match up with intensity and endurance-"

"Stop. Stop it. Just stop."

Jennie quirked her eyebrows. "What?"

Lisa glared, her jaw set. "What do you mean, what? Jennie, are you out of your senses? First of all, you want to risk me going into the Grand Slam when I could potentially harm my hand again, for good this time?"

Jennie waved her hand dismissively. "You always heal, don't be so dramatic. Now as I was saying—"

Lisa's fist slammed down on the papers, successfully grabbing Jennie's attention.

"Why?" Lisa gritted. "Why do you want to go in so badly? You heard the doc. You heard everyone else. Jisoo even offered to help out! What's wrong with you?"

This time it was Jennie's turn to stare. "What?"

"Stop playing dumb!" Lisa gestured at herself. "I thought we were going to lie low and...you said you'd figure out what to do about the money."