To Hear Again

But as she listens to Jisoo start talking about how her performance today helps her get into character and that they should spend more time together, Jennie cannot help but think of all the stories she has heard about this girl. She decides that she is probably fine. That this girl is probably the exception to the rule because she smiles like she is someone that everyone loves and always will.

So instead, Jennie gives Jisoo her number so that "they can hang out soon" and as she stares at the retreating back of the girl everyone adores, all Jennie can only think of that it feels really good to hear music again and that Kim Jisoo is probably the most enchanting person she ever met.

...

...

It only takes them three days and a trip to the sauna before they are spending most of their time together.

Both of their schedules are at its most hectic, particularly since Jisoo has started shooting her scenes and Jennie herself is being groomed for her "biggest comeback", all the while crossing international borders during a world tour. But even when they could not be together in the flesh, they make time to at least talk once a day.

It is a fast friendship and Jennie loves every minute of it. Because those days that she gets to be with Jisoo, she finds herself laughing with the other girl and singing silly songs and cooking her kimchi fried rice. On days that she is halfway across the world, she recalls a joke that Jisoo has once blurted out and it does not even have to be funny for it to leave a smile on Jennie's face as she drifts to sleep.

These are the moments where Jennie understands why even the most hateful of people finds it hard to dislike Kim Jisoo. She does not think she ever hit off so well with anyone since Rose and Lisa, who she has been training with since before they all debuted into solo artists. In another world, had Jisoo signed with YG instead of SM, Jennie thinks the four of them would have made a good girl group.

Jisoo and Jennie are total opposites but instead of inciting conflict, it almost feels like Jennie has found her other half because they complement each other in every way possible. Jennie attempts to teach her how to play the guitar whilst Jisoo helps her get in touch with her inner "variety show charm" she keeps on being told that she severely lacks as a soloist. Both eventually end up being failures because Jisoo thinks everything that deals with musical instruments is "too hard" and more often than not, Jennie's savage repartees get in the way of aegyo.

"My sense of humor will rub off to you one day." Jisoo tells her, as they eat through dumplings and fried rice, sitting cross-legged with Stranger Things playing in the background. "I promise."

"I'll teach you piano next time." Jisoo does not even wince and only throws her head back in laughter. Not for the first time during the day, Jennie finds herself chuckling with her.

"It's a deal then."

They sit with each other in silence, munching on the lunch that Jennie painstakingly prepared after reading somewhere that Jisoo's favorite food are dumplings. Soon, Netflix gets replaced by Youtube and random songs play until it starts shuffling through the tracks of Jennie's debut album.

Jisoo raises a perfectly-shaped eyebrow at Jennie's insistence to flip it to someone else's song. "Hey. Don't tell me you're embarrassed." Jisoo sounds surprised. "It's not like I haven't listened to this before."

She shrugs, giving up on reaching for the remote that Jisoo relentlessly keeps from her hands. "I know but it is always weird to hear songs from my debut album. Especially now.

Especially now—she does not say. Especially now that it is the only album out of her three full ones that contains the songs she actually wrote and not the quick cash grabs her company produces because all the bad things that people are saying about her have become unbearably louder than the music in her heart.