LA LA LOVE YOU | LIZKOOK

xiii. silent communications

The girls celebrated New Year's together as a four at Blackpink House. They even brought little party hats and streamers to ring in 2018. They ate delicious food and drank wine, before watching a movie together and then falling asleep piled up on top of each other on the sofa.
A few days after their break with no filming, they were back on their band schedule. They had two award shows coming up and Lisa was starting to get nervous that people would see straight through her and Jungkook's new relationship status. Online shippers had already analysed and picked apart every public interaction they had ever had, including the many times that Jungkook had reacted to watching Blackpink's performances at these shows.
She had therefore found it prudent to warn him to tone it down this year. She would have told him no reacting to her stage at all but that would probably be suspicious too. Instead she told him to keep his inner Blink fanboy as low-key as he could.
The first award show of the year was the Golden Disk Awards, where they would perform Playing with Fire and As If It's Your Last. If anyone had asked the Pinks why they were performing PWF again at another end-of-year award show, they would have also sighed exasperatedly and shrugged their shoulders in defeat.
Lisa admired her reflection in the full-length mirror of their dressing room. Her velvet blue dress with rhinestone decorations was a little short and she hated dancing in dresses but at least the Pinks' outfits were well-coordinated and complimented each other.
After getting ready, there was a bit of time before the start of the show, so the Pinks went to explore the idol green room, where a lot of other groups had gathered to socialise or relax before and after the show.
They saw BTS talking amongst themselves, so Lisa dragged the other girls over to say hi.
It had felt like so long since her and Jungkook had seen each in the flesh, that she almost forgot to bow to her sunbaes first in greeting.
"Hey, girls," Namjoon greeted back politely, bowing back to them. "Excited for the show?"
"Yeah, it should be good, I wish we were first to perform though," Rosé replied.
"Just to get it out of the way?"
"Yeah," she chuckled. "Then we can relax and just enjoy everyone else's performances."
"I totally agree," Jimin said with small smile to Rosé.
"Lisa-ssi, you going to be okay out there?" Hoseok asked with a smirk.
"Huh?" she replied cluelessly.
"We warned Jungkook to not get too carried away with his reaction to your performance, but same applies for you."
Now that all of the Bangtan members and Blackpink members knew about their relationship, this was actually the first time it had been addressed with them all present. Even though they had met backstage at BTS's concert, they couldn't talk about their maknae's new relationship with their managers there.
"Yeah yeah, you don't have to worry about me. I'll just treat Jungkook like a stranger slash sunbaenim."
"Ah, I was wondering where Black-Hearted Lisa had gone, I hadn't seen her for a while," Jungkook said with a mock hurt expression.
His members laughed at his expense.
Lisa poked his cheeks where his dimple has appeared from his pouty expression with a little laugh.
"Ahh you two are a cute couple," J-Hope said wistfully.
Lisa pulled her hand quickly away with a blush and the tips of Jungkook's ears also turned red.
Hoseok laughed at their reaction. "Don't worry, no one saw you being all cutesy."
He was referring to the fact they got careless in a public space, despite only being surrounded by fellow idols.
"Jennie, something wrong?" Jisoo asked, nudging Jennie in the side who had been preoccupied from the conversation and had been staring at the other side of the room.
"Huh? Yeah I'm fine," she replied distractedly.
"Ahh," Lisa said with a knowing smirk. "EXO, eh?"
The SM boy band had been chatting at the other side of the room and that was the area where Jennie's eyes kept landing.
"Yah, Lalisa!" Jennie scolded.
Lisa giggled evilly, while Rosé gave her unnie a wide eyed look. "Is something going on between you and a member of EXO sunbaenim?"
Jennie shook her head quickly. "No!"
"That sounded awfully high-pitched," Jimin added with a laugh wanting to join in on the hijinks.
Jennie spluttered for a reply before pinning Jimin with a withering stare. "Be careful, Jimin-ssi, or everyone here will know about your crush."
"Wha-!" Jimin stammered with a panicked look on his face. "How did you-"
"It's way obvious." Jennie shrugged and considered her opponent checkmated, as Jimin obediently stayed quiet.
"Wow, Jennie noona is scary," Jungkook said with a faux shiver.
The rest of the members nodded their head along in wide-eyed silence.
"But she's a mandu really," Jisoo said, pinching Jennie's cheeks, to which Jennie pretended to bite Jisoo's fingers off.
While the rest of his members and Blackpink chatted and got to know each other a little better, Jungkook inconspicuously tugged Lisa a little closer to his side.
Lisa smiled up at him while tugging him by the shirt a little closer into her side too.
"I think the shows about to start, so we should all get out there," Namjoon said. "Good luck, girls. Lovebirds, don't be obvious," he added, pointing two fingers at both Lisa and Jungkook.
As their members went ahead of them and the green room cleared out, Jungkook and Lisa both stayed behind for a little longer.
When they were sure no one was there, Lisa wrapped her arms around Jungkook's shoulders, standing on her tip toes to reach him. He also slid his hands around her waist and buried his nose into her loose brown hair.
"I missed you."
"Me too," Lisa replied with a pout into his neck. Her lips tickled against his sensitive flesh.
"This is harder than I thought it would be."
"I have some days off coming soon, will you be free?" Her voice was muffled as she shifted to dig her face further into his shoulder and shirt collar.
"Yeah, I'll make time."
They parted slightly to look at each other's faces.
"You look cute today," he said, his fingers brushing lightly against her ever-present bangs.
"Thanks," she said, her nose scrunching up as she smiled shyly. "You too." She similarly mirrored his actions but brushed back his bangs a little from his forehead.
They kissed briefly before they let each other go, too soon for both of them but knowing that they didn't have much time before someone noticed their absence.
Lisa went first departing the room, and Jungkook waited a minute before making his exit. 

-&-

Jungkook had underestimated how hard it would be to keep his eyes off of Lisa during the night. When they performed As If It's Your Last, he tried to keep his eyes lowered and refrained from dancing along even though him and his members would always mess about to this song in their practice rooms. It was the most difficult during the opening move, when Lisa's purposeful hands dragged her dress a little higher up her leg, enough to reveal a hint of black safety shorts beneath. Thank god for the safety shorts, Jungkook had thought.
When it was Lisa's parts in the chorus and rap, he couldn't help but lift his head slightly and sneak glances at the big screen to get a glimpse of her. She was in her natural element on stage and Jungkook loved seeing her opening up and being herself when she was performing.
"Jungkook, check this out," Taehyung said next to him, nudging his side as the chorus came around again. Taehyung danced the cheography, trying to goad Jungkook in joining in with him, but Jungkook resolutely didn't take the bait.
He almost breathed a sigh of relief when the song was over and he could relax again.
The night continued and Jungkook thought he was in the clear and could relax without thinking too much of what he was doing and how he reacted at these events, until he spotted one of his regular fansites pointing a camera in his general direction. He sighed and shifted in his chair, seating himself upright.
"And the winner is," the MC who was currently up on the stage spoke out, his voice ringing out through the stadium, "Blackpink!"
Him and his hyungs stood up and clapped politely, turning to watch as Blackpink came down the stairs. They bowed to each member as they walked past in turn.
Jungkook tried to be casual and disinterested when he was bowing, avoiding eye contact with them, but especially with Lisa.
On Lisa's end, she thought she had done a good job not reacting whilst walking past the Bangtan boys, as she had kept her eyes locked with the ground. She thought she saw from her peripheral, Jungkook also keeping his gaze on the floor, so much so his head almost collided with Taehyung's back as he bowed because he hadn't been looking.
After the show, the two groups managed to meet again in the crowded hallways where all the staff and other idols had all gathered to say a final goodbye for the night.
"He was obvious still, wasn't he?" Lisa asked the Bangtan members.
"He was obvious by trying to act not obvious..." Namjoon said with a chuckle. He patted Jungkook's shoulder. "But he did the best he could."
"I think they caught all of our reactions on camera," Jimin said with a hint of exasperation. "From the performances and the award wins."
"It was hard to not react," Jungkook said with a sad pout.
"I bet, buddy," Taehyung said sympathetically, wrapping his arm around Jungkook's shoulders.
"Oh well," Jennie said with a careless shrug. "If they want to ship you, they'll ship you - it doesn't matter what you do or how you act."
"Exactly," Namjoon replied.
"Even the fans see how made for each other you two are!" Hoseok said gleefully, to which Lisa and Jungkook eyes met in surprise before quickly looking away in embarrassment.
"Anyway, we need to go. Our manager is calling," Rosé said, bowing to the BTS boys.
"See you at the next event," the boys called back as they parted.
Lisa and Jungkook only smiled and waved at each other, not able to do anything more while so many people were still gathered. In their silent gaze, they managed to convey everything they wanted to say to each other though. A silent 'goodbye', a silent 'text me' and a silent 'I love you'.