LA LA LOVE YOU | LIZKOOK

xxiii. reckless

"Jennie-unnie," Lisa whispered, creeping into the sleeping girl's room. She left the door open behind her as she tip-toed across the wooden floorboards. When she reached the edge of Jennie's bed, she jumped into the air and fell right on top of Jennie.
"Good morning, unnie!"
Jennie groaned underneath her and tried to push Lisa off the bed. "Go away, I'm tired."
Lisa didn't let it deter her and instead burrowed her way under the duvet to spoon Jennie.
Lisa had also just woken up. It had been a long time since she had woken Jennie up like this and it wasn't that often when they were all sleeping at the dorms.
"Did you get back late again last night?" Lisa asked slyly with a knowing smirk.
Jennie hummed, which Lisa took as a yes.
"Was it because you were seeing him?"
At the question, Jennie got shy and buried her head under the duvet, to which Lisa snickered.
"It's been, what, three months now right? Has he asked you to be his girlfriend yet?"
"Not yet," Jennie said, her voice muffled by the duvet.
"Who would have thought Kai-ssi would be the type of guy to drag his feet?"
"Oh, he's enthusiastic alright. I just like making them a little desperate before I give in," Jennie snickered conspiratorially.
Lisa's mouth formed an 'o' shape listening to the words of one more experienced then her in the dating field. Her only real experience had been Jungkook, not counting her elementary school boyfriend from Thailand.
"But make sure you're careful, okay? I know I'm the younger one, but you don't want your dating life exposed like mine almost was..."
Jennie turned to face Lisa and gently swept Lisa's hair behind her ear. "I'll try to be careful, Lalisa, thanks for worrying about me."

-&-

A few days later and the Pinks had decided to celebrate New Year's together. They celebrated at the dorms with a few bottles of wine and a Korean BBQ set up in their living room.
They had the Sydney New Year's Eve broadcast from two hours ago of their fireworks display on the TV, as Seoul didn't have any fireworks on, and they wanted to experience how Rosé celebrated New Year's as a child.
As the countdown began to ring in 2019, the four girls clasped hands and chanted along with the crowd. All four of them were a little bit tipsy but were in high spirits.
"3... 2... 1... Happy new year!"
They hummed along to Auld Lang Syne as it was being broadcasted out from Sydney.
"Cheers, girls! 2018 has been our most successful year as a band, but hopefully 2019 can completely top it!" Rosé toasted, raising her wine glass.
"Cheers! the other three girls mimicked.
Jisoo messaged her family and also wished them a happy new year. They normally celebrated the Lunar New Year more zealously in her household, so her parents had probably already fallen asleep, but she thought it couldn't hurt.
"Omo..." Jisoo said quietly. However her members immediately picked up on the sound of distress from their oldest member.
"What is it, unnie?" Lisa asked.
Jisoo was still arrested by what she had read on her phone and didn't react right away. However, when she raised her head, her eyes were wide and the blood had rushed from her face.
"This is not good..." She held up her phone so the other three girls could see.
It was a news article with a picture of Jennie and... Exo's Kai?
"You're Dispatch's New Year's couple..."
Jennie's mouth dropped open and she froze. She had also gone deathly pale.
"What?!" Lisa cried, grabbing Jisoo's phone from her so she could read the article. Rosé leaned over Lisa's shoulder too to get a look.
"They even have a picture of you getting into his car, unnie," Lisa said quietly, having scrolled down a little to see the papparazzi-shot photograph.
"I feel sick," was all Jennie had managed to get out. Before any of them could react, Jennie shot up and headed straight to their shared bathroom.
They heard her retching into the toilet bowl, throwing up all the wine they had drunk and the hearty dinner they had just eaten. Jisoo went to go help Jennie and hold her hair back.
When they both came back into the living room a few minutes later, Jennie still looked miserable and pale. Lisa offered her a glass of water and wrapped a blanket around her as they all ushered her to the couch.
"Are you okay?" Rosé asked worriedly, before slapping her palm onto her forehead. "That was a stupid question! Sorry, of course you're not okay."
Jennie groaned and buried her head into her hands. "What do I do?! Was I really stupid enough to get caught by Dispatch?!"
"You can't blame yourself," Jisoo advised. "It's Dispatch we're talking about. They'd rummage through the whole building's rubbish bins, or hide amongst your dirty laundry to get an exclusive. They have no morals when it comes to making news."
"Didn't they let you know that they were going to post this beforehand?" Lisa asked perplexed.
Jennie shook her head. "Of course not. You and Jungkook only got the forewarning because you were lucky enough to be going out with one seventh of Korea's national treasures." Her tone was acerbic and bitter, but given the situation, all the members empathised with Jennie. She continued to explain, "If Dispatch had exposed a BTS member's dating life, it would probably backfire in their faces with the amount of fans they have. President Moon is even a fan. Exo are big but not that big... And they clearly don't care about us, Blackpink, either..."
Lisa felt sorry for her member - she had been close to being in the same boat but it clearly didn't compare to actually experiencing it. Jennie was already a private person, but to have something so personal exposed on top of that must have felt so degrading.
"What are you going to do?" Rosé asked tentatively.
"What can I do? I guess I'll lay low for a while... I bet Sajangnim is going to call any moment now," she said with a large sigh, already dreading the inevitable scolding from their CEO for not being careful enough.
"Maybe you should talk to Kai-ssi too and see how he's doing too?" Jisoo suggested.
"Right now I'm too annoyed," Jennie huffed. "It's as much his fault as it is mine! He was even the one who suggested we should meet in that public car park that day." Jennie crossed her arms stubbornly and pouted, her cheeks blown out. "I can't believe how stupid I am. And I've jeopardised the group over a stupid guy!"
The other three shook their heads and offered Jennie comfort, reassuring her that they would always be a four and they didn't blame her in the slightest. All of them had dated to varying degrees of success, so they had all taken the risk before. But it just had to be Jennie who had gotten caught.
"What makes me even more angry is that Jongin-oppa will hardly be affected by this. Him and EXO will bounce back from this in a week like it didn't even happen. Whereas for me, I'm always going to be known as the member with a dating scandal - the one who once dated an EXO member, or the slut who sleeps around..." She rolled her eyes but tears had started to well up. "It's ridiculous," she finished weakly, her voice soft and trembling.
Jisoo rubbed comforting circles on her back. "Yeah, we all know the double standards in this industry are effed up," Rosé agreed.
Jennie's phone began buzzing next to her.
"It's Sajangnim," Jennie said in a defeated tone. She went into her bedroom to take the call, while the other three girls stayed out in the living room, the atmosphere a lot different to how it had been a couple minutes ago. This definitely wasn't the great start to the New Year that they had imagined...