The Tiger King (Chaelisa)

72| Jennie's Story

previously: lisa hulked out, nearly strangled rosie, nearly killed jennie. jennie snapped but was held back by rosie. lisa disappeared. irene and seulgi showed up to the scene. jennie passed out.

Jennie was roused to the sound of monotonous beeping. When she cracked her eyes open, soft light greeted her, making her blink several times to adjust. Her hurt eye twitched violently in protest but the whole area was pleasantly numb. Slowly slowly, she was able to open her eyes without the light feeling like a knife lancing through her eyeballs.

Her body felt stiff as a board, pain slithering up her spine when she tried craning her head. It felt like she had been asleep for months as she groggily assessed her surroundings. The framed portrait opposite her bed swam into focus; it displayed a kitten playing with a ball of yarn.

Little by little, the memories returned and she instinctively winced, her heartbeat picking up when she remembered Lisa's murderous streak, how she found her sister strangling Rosé and then unleashed her fists upon her, how Lisa had silently disappeared out of the Vault door and Rosé was crying and...

God, she was in hospital! Had Irene and the others called the cops? Where were they? Where was Lisa? How long had she been asleep? Panic seized Jennie and she suddenly couldn't breathe. The beeping machines picked up on the uptick in her heart rate.

"Hey, hey you're awake. It's okay, it's okay, you're safe," said a familiar voice.

Jennie's mouth dropped open when she spotted the dishevelled figure sitting next to her bed. 

"Momo?"

"Yo. How you feeling?" Momo said. 

Jennie almost spat the question back at her because Momo herself didn't look too good. Her shirt was wrinkled and her hair was a tangled birds' nest. At least she smelled clean, or maybe it was the overpowering smell of the floor cleaner covering her stink.

"What are you doing here?" Jennie frowned.

Momo chuckled faintly. "Keeping the chair warm for Rosé. She and Seulgi went to get her kid from music school or whatever. Asked me to keep an eye on you. Irene will be popping in later too. It's around 3pm by the way."

"Oh...but why are you here?" Jennie asked again. She could still recall the harsh words they exchanged last time they had spoken on the phone at the time of Somi and Dahyun's deaths.

"Well I was home playing some Halo and I get this hysterical call from Irene and she was panicking real bad cos' she said you passed out. And this chick Rosé who says she's Lisa girlfriend was saying we can't take you to regular hospital so Irene was at the end of her tether cos she said we can't ask Matthew for help either cos' you had a fallout...so I stepped in and took care of things."

"Stepped in? Took care of things?" Jennie repeated, still not understanding. "Why? How?"

Momo spread her arms wide. "This is a family hospital. My family's hospital. You think I went to get treated in some  public hospital place whenever I got a regular old bruising at the Slammer? I needed somewhere discreet and private. Luckily, my family owns this chain of hospitals. I may be disowned but...I pulled some strings with the cousin who's in charge now. He was always a softie."

"Oh...Irene knew?"

"No. She was just lucky she got the idea to call me."

"Oh..." Jennie said, unsettled. She made to get out of bed. "Well, it's really...nice of you. Please send me the bill, I'll make sure to pay you back and—"

 Momo patted Jennie's hand, stopping her in her tracks. "You don't owe me a single won, Jen. " she said, her voice soft. "It's on me."

"But—"