The Tiger King (Chaelisa)

63| Beavers and Penguins

No. Her sister was wrong.

She was going to prove Jennie wrong all by herself. She was happy with Rosé, heart overflowing with love every time she set eyes on her beautiful girl. 

Rosé could be doing the most mundane action—

like stretching in front of her computer after a long typing session and rubbing her eyes after she took off her glasses, or humming at the stove, or tapping her leg while she chopped vegetables, or absently kissing Ella's head, or tickling Leo or Lego or Bori, or cocking her head and listening carefully as she tweaked her guitar, or laughing with tears in her eyes when she belted out lyrics to Taylor Swift and danced with Ella around the apartment, or muttering while she inspected the Cadillac before their morning sessions to make sure it was ship-shape

—and Lisa's heart would do flips. 

Spending time with Rosé felt natural, getting to know all her little tics and mannerisms, understanding when she wanted some space to herself, and falling in love a little deeper each day waking up next to her.

Ruining such bliss because of a stupid thing like a recurrent nightmare was stupid and making mountains out of molehills. She didn't want Rosé or Jennie or Jisoo to worry, not when they had all summer to enjoy before the true grind to fight in boxing matches started again.

Before she found the right time to tell Rosé about...well, everything.

So Lisa plunged herself into distractions, banking on tiring her mind enough to sleep deeply and not dredge up old nightmares that she used to get years ago.

But try as she might the dreams still returned, and it seemed they weren't going to leave so easily.

>

"Yang, sir, I want to ask something. About last week's...events." 

Rosé couldn't stop thinking about why Jinyoung would invite Jisoo to Rkive, and she had no doubt that he knew just exactly who she was and her relation to herself. 

So why risk their careful secrecy and operations to throw it all away? What was the reason? 

Jinyoung was cunning and calculative, the mastermind behind the hunt for Tiger King. Surely, it couldn't have been as simple as a fatal lapse in judgement?

Yang glanced her way, raising an eyebrow for her forthright question. Jaehyun and another Jay walking with them stiffened but Rosé didn't care. This was the only chance she got to speak with her boss before she was off for her night job. He had been absent all week, leaving her antsy about their last run-in.

"What is it, Thorn?" Yang grunted, taking the cigarette out of his mouth to talk better. He was smoking more these days. "Make it quick, Doni and Coni are expecting you."

"Did you talk to Jinyoung-ssi about why my neighbour was there and how he potentially could have exposed me?"

"I did," Yang huffed, "I informed him how unhappy I was that he didn't consult with me beforehand. He was his usual cryptic self. But from what he implied...it was on purpose. Keeping her there with him and calling us in earlier. To what end, I have no idea how that would benefit us."

On purpose. Jinyoung kept her there with him on purpose. He had wanted Jisoo and herself to greet each other. If Jisoo had raised her head and seen her...

Rosé recovered quickly. "Why? It could jeopardise our search for Tiger King."

"That's what I said," Yang growled, "but that man is planning something, I feel it in my bones. I just hope he knows what he's doing. But it's in the past now, so good call on foiling his grand plans. He needs to be taken down a notch or two occasionally."