Best For Me | jensoo

Chapter 7

The girls stood in Jisoo's hall, the early morning air sneaking in under the front door and cooling their ankles as they entwined. Jennie pulled back from their kiss reluctantly and cupped Jisoo's cheek with her hand, gazing into warm brown eyes that, even now, took her breath away.

"I have to go," she murmured, feeling Jisoo's arms tighten around her and her mouth brush lightly over her own. She responded to the kiss despite her words.

"Don't go..."Jisoo murmured back, pulling out of the kiss and rubbing her nose gently along the side of Jennie's. "Stay, and I'll make it worth your while."

Jennie chuckled softly but pulled away.

"I can't. I have to go home, Jongin will leave for work soon and Elly can't stay alone."

The mention of her husband changed the atmosphere palpably and Jennie stepped back, conscious of the change.

"Call me," Jisoo said, her brows furrowing. It wasn't a question.

"Of course," Jennie replied earnestly. "I'll..." She reached out a hand, tucking one stray dark strand behind Jisoo's ear. "I'll see you soon." She also made it a statement, not a question.

She drove home in the milky quiet that was dawn, arriving back in time to still find Jongin's car in the drive. Mindful not to block him in, she made her way silently to the door, praying he was asleep when she got there.

No such luck. He was at the dining table with a cup of coffee, looking exhausted. He didn't turn when she opened the door and she thought she might make it past him without anything being said. He caught her halfway to the hall.

"Where were you?"

She stopped, but mirroring his movements from the night before, she didn't turn around.

"At a friend's house." She prayed she didn't look too rumpled. She figured she could plead sleeping on a couch.

Or doing something on a couch.

"You just leave, just like that?" He sounded pissed off. Jennie wasn't in the mood.

"I wasn't home for four hours, Jongin. I think on the balance of things that means I have a long way to go until I catch up to you." She kept walking. If he replied, she ignored it and threw herself into the shower.

The water flowing over her body made rivulets as it streamed down onto the shower floor. Jennie closed her eyes and leaned back against one wall, feeling the water wash over her.

She could still feel the trails that Jisoo's hands had left on her body like they were burnt into her skin, and the water did nothing to wash them away. And then the guilt hit. Her eyes slammed open as the magnitude of what had happened screamed through her.

Pushing off from the wall, she grabbed the soap and scrubbed, harder and harder, as though she could erase the very essence of what she'd done by macerating her flesh. She stepped out of the shower raw and uneven.

Jongin had disappeared when she made it back to the living room, rubbing her hair with a towel and trying to wiggle the last drop of water from her ear.

She could hear Elly rousing in her room and, looking out the window, she knew Jongin had left. She figured he had gone to work. As mad as she was at him for disregarding her opinions and wishes, she was beyond glad he wasn't here today. She wasn't sure that she wouldn't have spontaneously combusted with the guilt if he had been.

For the third time in as many weeks, it was Elly who came to her rescue without even knowing it. The little girl bounded out of bed with so much energy that Jennie nearly forgot that she herself hadn't slept, due to the contagiousness of it.