Dirty Little Secret // jensoo

Chapter 9 - END

"I will be." She smiles. They hug after that, lingering a little longer than usual. Chaeyoung comes over then, hugging Jennie goodbye as well and suddenly she is alone again.

She closes her eyes, takes a deep breath, repeats her own words over and over again in her head, because she has to believe she will be okay eventually.

The bell above the door chimes, Jennie turns around to ask what Lisa or Chaeyoung forgot, or to tell whoever else it is that they are too late and the exhibition is over. But her words don't come out and for a moment she even forgets to breathe.

Still holding the door open, halfway in, as if afraid to step any further, she stands tall and somehow impossibly insecure.

Jisoo.

Jennie stares at her, almost afraid to believe that she is real. Jisoo decides to step inside, closing the door behind her and making the bell chime again. It shakes Jennie awake and she breathes in for what feels like the very first time.

"Hello." Jisoo sounds tentative, but hopeful and beautiful. As beautiful as she looks, even more beautiful than Jennie remembers her.

She's wearing deep blue dress pants, a white blouse neatly tucked in and an immaculately tailored black coat on top. Her hair is braided to one side, resting over one shoulder.

Jennie isn't fine at all.

"Hi." She finally replies, breathless.

"Am I too late?" Jisoo asks, eyes boring into Jennie's soul, no doubt asking a hundred different question with the same four words. But in that moment Jennie knows that the answer to all of them, in every lifetime, would be no. You're right on time. She can't say that though, not yet, maybe not ever.

"Not at all." She says instead. Jisoo smiles, Jennie soars.

Wordlessly Jisoo starts moving around the gallery, looking at the artwork with the same enraptured attention she had last time. A little uncertain, but afraid that she might disappear if not in view, Jennie walks two paces behind. Studying her like she is studying Jennie's paintings.

It's unreal having her here, after all those months. Thinking about it earlier in the evening she hadn't been sure what she'd say or how she'd feel, but standing her now, so close that all she has to do is reach out and they'd be touching again, Jennie knows she made the biggest mistake of her life.

She should've gone to her after that last postcard. Hell, she should've gone after the first. She should have been with her from the moment she was free of Jongin, because Jennie knows now that Jisoo is very many things, but none of them is a rebound.

Jennie knows now that if Jisoo lets her, she's never going to let her go again.

.

"This may be your best work yet." Jisoo finally says, after almost an hour of silently walking through the gallery. At some point Jennie had come to stand next to her as she looked at one of the bigger pieces in the collection, handing her a full glass of champagne; Jisoo had smiled so warmly. After that they walked side by side, Jennie's fingers itching to reach out all the time, but her conscience telling her to wait.

Jennie nods, agreeing.

The silence stretches and there's so much that Jennie wants to say, but she's not sure if now is the time or place. A part of her knows there's never going to be another time or place, but if Jisoo makes any indication right now that she's not looking to talk, Jennie will accept that. So she waits.

After a while Jisoo finishes her champagne and slowly posits her glass on the table next to them.

"I'm glad I came." She says, nodding resolutely, as if she was debating something and has now made up her mind. "I'll go now." She says then, shoulders straight in confidence. But she sounds so small and so defeated and even though Jennie just told herself she'd accept it if Jisoo chose to leave without talking she feels like her second chance is slipping away.