Jennie opened the door for Roseanne and the girls entered a bare, white room with nothing but a desk, a chair, a computer, and a printer.
"Is this the only computer they have?" Roseanne asked.
"No," Jennie laughed. "They have a whole computer lab in a room behind the front desk. This is just where Charles comes when he has to print out the guest's boarding passes or other flight info."
"Ah," Roseanne breathed, walking closer to the chair. She wasn't sure who Charles was, but she guessed he was an employee.
"Go ahead," Jennie motioned to the computer. "Check your email or whatever." Roseanne felt a little rude checking her email while the girl just sat there but Jennie insisted. It only took about a minute to check her email, though, since she had just checked two days before. Subconsciously, Roseanne typed Facebook into the url bar and logged in. She had a few new notifications, one of which was a comment on her profile picture. She clicked the link and her photo, a picture of Roseanne and her friend Seulgi hugging tightly, both clearly a little tipsy, at a party before Roseanne left for break. Seulgi was the one who commented. Roseanne giggled a little when she read it.
Ahh love you babe! Missing your ass come home asap
"Looks like you're having fun," Jennie laughed softly, her voice surprising Roseanne a little.
"Oh, yeah," Roseanne smiled. She smiled back.
"You look cute. You both do," Jennie quickly added, worried she said too much.
"Thanks." Roseanne felt her smile grow a little wider.
"Friend me," Jennie blurted out. Roseanne turned to look at the girl but Jennie quickly leaned over Roseanne, her arms falling over each of her shoulders, and she typed her name into the search bar. Roseanne's body froze. Jennie could have easily come around the front of Roseanne to type on the keyboard, avoiding any contact. But she didn't. And now Roseanne could feel the girl's breath falling down her neck.
Roseanne saw the brunette's profile picture, Jennie in a pool with Ella on her shoulders. Roseanne immediately noticed that Jennie had cropped the photo so that it cut off Jennie's body from her shoulders down. Tease, she thought.
"Jennie Kim," Roseanne read out loud, learning of the girl's last name for the first time.
"Roseanne Park," the shorter girl read back, making Roseanne smile a little.
There was a moment in the air then that both the girls felt. Neither of them was sure exactly what it was, but their gaze held a little longer than usual and the silence lasted a little longer than normal.
Roseanne gulped, swallowing any nerves that had just popped through her body. She turned back to the computer and logged off Facebook, standing up from the chair. "Your turn," she said to Jennie.
"Oh, I'm fine," she shrugged. "Aren't you going to show me that song?" She asked.
"Oh, right!" Roseanne sat back on the chair, almost having forgotten why they came there in the first place. She pulled up Youtube and typed in Washing Line- Thommy Wilson. She clicked on the Balcony TV version since she was a bigger fan of the acoustic.
As soon as the video loaded, Jennie leaned over Roseanne's chair, resting one hand on the desk, the other on the back of the chair. Her head hung right above Roseanne's shoulder as she peered over the girl at the computer. Roseanne froze, happy again to be so close to the girl.
"Aw," Jennie cooed. "He's cute." Since the boy was only 15, Roseanne didn't feel any jealousy at Jennie's minor swooning. Jennie liked the boy's cute, shy look. She liked his Australian accent, too. She really liked the music, though. When the boy started playing guitar, she was mesmerized by the tune.
"It's pretty," she hummed at the start. Roseanne nodded but didn't take her eyes off the screen. If she moved to face the girl, there was a slight chance their faces would bump.
I admire your washing line
You never commit any crimes
Jennie loved his voice. It was so pretty. She didn't even care she already had no clue what the boy was singing about, as long as she continued to feel this calm.
You stay outside you never complain
You keep a smile through the pouring rain
Roseanne's smile grew as one of her favorite songs played throughout the tiny room.
And the washing line stands up all-day
Soon enough she's gonna have to say 'I'm tired. I need my rest my whole life I've tried my best'
Well you deserve it more than anyone, standing out there in the midday sun
Well you deserve it more than anything
Cause we'll all open our arms and let you in
Roseanne wasn't sure if Jennie would understand the song right away. None of her friends got it. Every time she played it her roommate would huff, "I don't understand how you're still listening to this shit. It's about a fucking washing line!" Roseanne knew it wasn't, but honestly, even if it was about a washing line, she would probably still love it. It was so damn catchy.
And all I wanna do is go dancing in the rain with you
And all I wanna do is ease some of the pain for you
for you
This was Roseanne's favorite part. Jennie's face really lit up. With the mention of one word, she fell in love with the song.
I admire you washing line
Your smile is as warm as sunshine
Without letting the song finish, Jennie declared, "I love it."
"Yeah?" Roseanne smiled, careful to not turn her head into Jennie.
"Yes," she smiled, sitting herself down on top of the desk so she could face Roseanne.
Jennie missed the rest of the words, but when the part came up again, she sang along softly, rising to her feet to do a little twirl.
"And all I wanna do is go dancing in the rain with you!" Roseanne giggled a little but she noticed how graceful Jennie looked. "That's the cutest part," Jennie confessed. Roseanne nodded in agreement.
"Have you ever danced in the rain?" Jennie asked over the music.
"Uh, not that I remember," Roseanne admitted.
"You would have remembered," Jennie smiled. "It's so fun."
"You like dancing?" Roseanne asked. There was something in the girl's brown eyes, though, that already told her the answer.
"I love it," Jennie told her, her voice getting softer. Just talking about dancing was making her miss it again. It's not that she didn't dance anymore. She pretty much danced in some capacity every day. Still, it wasn't anything compared to her high school days. "I'm a dancer," Jennie continued. "Well, I used to be a dancer," she said disappointedly, unsure if she could still call herself a dancer.
"Really?" Roseanne asked, her face lighting up a little. Her eyes quickly fell down the girls body and she nodded. It made sense, her being a dancer. She had a dancer's body.
"Yeah," Jennie breathed. Roseanne could sense she was a little distraught. "Well, I used to. In high school."
"Like competitions? Or, like, just for fun?"
"Well both. I went to the studio every day after school. I had a bunch of competitions and shows, but it was more of an outlet."
"Do you still take classes or anything?" Roseanne really wanted to see the girl dance. She liked the way she moved already. She could only imagine what seeing her dancing would do, especially if she was any good.
"I wanted to go to college for it. I had some schools picked out and some offers but," she paused, "it just didn't work out that way." Jennie didn't want to tell her that she didn't take up dancing because of her parents who never actually told her she couldn't pursue dancing. When she told most people that, they laughed at how dumb she was.
Roseanne quickly realized that Jennie didn't want to talk about this any further, so she changed the subject.
"Well I wanna see you dance. Are you gonna go to that club sometime?" Jennie smiled, relieved that this girl didn't push the college subject any further.
"Actually, one day a week it's an 18 and older club, and since I've never been able to go to that before, I'm gonna check that out. I'll make sure to let you know which day I decide to go."
"Good," Roseanne smirked. "Because I love a girl that can dance."
Jennie felt her face get a little red, but she was getting better at controlling it. Roseanne had made a few comments like this. Ones that made her a little more nervous than comments like that normally did. She wasn't sure if Roseanne was normally like this or if she was actually...flirting? Part of her told her that that's how she was with everyone. Another part of her told her that maybe she was into her. Jennie wasn't completely sure which part she actually wanted to be true.
She also didn't want to offend Roseanne and make her into some stereotype. Jennie had never been friends with an openly gay girl. Almost all her male dancer friends were gay, and she knew two bisexual girls, one of which would accredit Jennie to helping her discover her bisexuality. Still, Jennie didn't want to assume Roseanne was into her just because she was trying to be her friend. She knows how rude it is when guys act like her dancer friends are hitting on them just because they're being friendly. Maybe Roseanne was just being friendly?
Roseanne wasn't just being friendly, though. She still wasn't sure how Jennie was reacting on the inside, but she knew her flirtatious comments still made Jennie a little bashful.
"Shoot, do you know what time it is?" Roseanne asked, realizing she promised her Dad she'd meet him for lunch. She turned towards the computer and saw that it was already past one. "I gotta go meet my Dad."
"No problem," Jennie smiled. She quickly ran over to the computer, cleared the internet's history, and turned the lights off before opening the door for Roseanne.
"Thanks for taking me here," Roseanne smiled.
"Of course," she said. "Thanks for showing me that song." Roseanne nodded and took a step past Jennie. Jennie felt her eyes scan down Roseanne's body. She watched her walk, Roseanne unaware of the pair of eyes watching her. Jennie wanted to see her dance too. No, she didn't wanna just watch her, she wanted to dance with her.
XxXxXxXxXxX
After spending the entire afternoon with her Dad, Roseanne wasn't thrilled to learn that Jennie would be spending the evening with Kai. Roseanne thought about going out to the lobby to make some other friends, since it was inevitable that she couldn't spend every day with Jennie, but she settled for a movie in her room.
But Roseanne's mind was buzzing with thoughts like it normally did whenever she spent time alone. She dug through the closet to find her suitcase and pulled out her favorite leather-bound journal. On the cover, RPC was engraved in cursive letters. Her mother bought it for her as a going away to college present. Roseanne went through journals like it was her job. Her Mom bought her first one for her when she was only seven, but Roseanne didn't really start using them until she was about fifteen. For a long period of time, she was too paranoid about who would read her private thoughts, so she just didn't write any of them.
Once she got over that, she realized how amazing it felt to write. She wrote about everything. She wrote about her day. She wrote about that boy in class who wouldn't shut up. She wrote her thoughts on the new episode of Girls. She wrote about her future and she wrote letters to the people in her future. She wrote ideas for movies. She wrote short stories. She wrote poems. She doodled. She wrote her name over and over again. She didn't care what she was writing, it felt good to just write.
She started writing about the lodge since she hadn't written anything since she got there. She drew a tiny map of what she could remember so far. She explained minor details and wrote about how pretty it was. But eventually, like she had expected, Jennie's name was scribbled onto the page.
Roseanne stopped.
She wasn't exactly sure what she wanted to say. She wrote about her immediate attraction to the girl, but as she wrote, she realized that wasn't entirely what it was anymore. She actually liked spending the time with her, and not just because she was so pretty. It was only when there was a knock on her door that Roseanne stopped and realized she had written an entire page about the girl.
Roseanne laughed a little at the knock. She told her Dad he could knock on their connecting doors but he continued insisting on acting like their rooms weren't connected.
"What's up?" She laughed as she pulled open the door. "Oh," she breathed, shocked at the figure standing at her door.
"Oh, sorry," Jennie breathed, noticing the girl's confused expression.
"No, sorry, I just, I thought you were my Dad."
"Do you have your own room?" Jennie asked.
"Yeah, sort of," Roseanne explained. "He's connected to mine," she said, nodding towards his room.
"Oh, cool." Roseanne smiled as it sunk in that Jennie was at her door. Then Roseanne blushed a little, pulling her journal behind her back, a little embarrassed to be holding it. Nobody really knew she journaled. They knew she was interested in writing, though, so she assumed they wouldn't think anything of it.
"So what's up?" Roseanne asked after a long pause. Jennie felt silly. She was the one who had knocked on her door and she wasn't saying anything.
"Well, Kai actually had to babysit, so I thought I'd see if you were free." Jennie hoped she didn't look too desperate. She also hoped Roseanne didn't think she was just a backup plan. Truthfully, Kai asked had her to babysit with him, but Jennie didn't feel like spending the night with him and his little brother and sister.
"I thought maybe you'd wanna go get some ice cream or something," Jennie shrugged. She wished she could think of anything other than ice cream, but she couldn't.
"Yeah, sure," Roseanne smiled. "Let me just grab some shoes," she said. "You can come in," she laughed when the door almost closed on Jennie's static face. Jennie took a step inside and watched as Roseanne tossed a notebook onto the bed. She slipped her feet into her tiny tan Uggs as her black sweatpants fell over them.
Roseanne wished she had known Jennie was coming, she would have worn something a little cuter. She was relieved Jennie was in sweats, too, though she looked much cuter than Roseanne. She grabbed a zip up hoodie and followed the brunette out of the room.
"How'd you find my room anyway?"
"Charles," she shrugged. "He works at the front desk."
"Ah," Roseanne smiled, happy that she found her. "Does Kai have to babysit a lot?" She asked as they stepped onto the elevator.
"Uh, not really. But my Aunt just got in, so my parents are taking her out to dinner. They invited Kai's parents along, so he's on babysitting duty."
"Where's your sister?" Roseanne asked.
"She has her own little friends, too, thankfully," she smiled. "Roseanne followed Jennie off the elevator and she leads her down a long hallway to a section with a few tiny stores. In the corner was a tiny ice cream parlor.
"Jennie Kim," A young guy smiled from behind the counter. He was probably only a few years older than the girls, Roseanne suspected.
"Hi there," she grinned.
"Welcome back, how've you been?"
"Pretty good, you?"
"Good, good," he smiled. "Is this your friend?"
"Oh yeah, this is Roseanne," She said, pointing to the girl. "This is Bobby."
"Hi," Roseanne smiled.
"Hey," he grinned. He wasn't particularly attractive, but Roseanne could tell he was a sweet guy. "What can I get for you two?"
"Brownie sundae," Jennie smiled like a young kid. Roseanne giggled at how excited she looked.
"I'll have the Same," She decided.
"Sounds good," he nodded, turning around to make the two sundaes.
"I haven't had a good sundae in forever," Roseanne said.
"It's homemade," Jennie squealed. She could hardly contain herself. "The brownies are warm, too." They watched as Bobby made their sundaes. When he was finished, Jennie and Roseanne were waiting over by the register.
"Two brownie sundaes," he smiled, handing the two dishes to the girls. "On the house."
"Bobby," Jennie sighed. By the way she sighed, Roseanne figured this had happened more than once.
"No, I insist. It's your first one! A welcome sundae. It has to be complementary," he smiled.
"Alright," she agreed. "Just this one," she told him. He nodded and Jennie walked over to the table. Roseanne sat next to her and laughed a little.
"Wow, you didn't even have to work for that one."
"Huh?" Jennie said, confused, scooping the first mouthful into her mouth.
"Well when I get free stuff, I usually have to at least work for it." Jennie just stared at her. "Does that happen a lot?" She asked. "You get free stuff a lot?"
"Not that often," she said slowly. "I mean, Bobby tries to give me free stuff a lot, but I don't normally let him. Sometimes at the mall I'll get a free soda or something."
"And you don't have to try?"
"Try?" She asked.
"I mean, you just walked up and smiled. You didn't even have to flirt." Again, Jennie just stared, like she wasn't sure what they were talking about.
"I guess that's what happens when you're so damn attractive," Roseanne said, taking a bite of her ice cream. Jennie looked up, her eyes struggling to hide her surprise. A few moments passed, both girls silently eating their ice cream.
"This is really good-"
"Is that why you think he gave it to me? Because he thinks I'm attractive?" Jennie asked genuinely.
"I'd give it to you for free, too," Roseanne admitted, barely looking up from her bowl at the brunette. "Guys always give stuff away to girls they think are attractive," she shrugged.
"So you think he thinks I'm attractive?" Roseanne looked up and nodded slowly at the girl, a smile on her lips.
Jennie looked over at Bobby. He was smiling at her. When the two made eye contact, Bobby bashfully averted his eyes. Jennie didn't really care, though. She was still stuck on what Roseanne said. First, that's what happens when you're so damn attractive and then I'd give it to you for free, too. Jennie stumbled on her words a few times before finally managing to get out what was eating at her.
"So you think I'm attractive?" The words were super quiet. Her nervousness made Roseanne smile.
"I'm attracted to you," Roseanne said nonchalantly, eyeing the girl for a moment before looking back down to her ice cream. Jennie felt her entire body catch on fire. The girl's words ran through her.
She wasn't sure why she wanted to know the answer to the question, but it was like an itch she needed to be scratched. Roseanne did way more than scratch the itch. Her answer, as blasé as it had seemed, was making Jennie's head run wild.
Roseanne looked up at the girl with a tiny smirk. She was just being honest, but she could tell the girl was not expecting that answer.
With that declaration, Jennie felt something change. Maybe Roseanne was flirting with her. Maybe she wasn't like that with everybody. Maybe she was actually into her. What Jennie found most surprising though, was how nervous it was making her.
A girl had admitted to having an attraction to Jennie once, and Jennie did the opposite of act nervous. In fact, when Jisoo had confessed that she was starting to question her... feelings for girls, Jennie was way supportive. She had only known the girl for a little under a year, but they had grown pretty close while dancing together. One night, when they were having a heart-to-heart about Jisoo's sick grandmother, she must have been feeling really close to Jennie.
When Jennie pulled away from their hug, she asked, "Can I kiss you?" Jennie let her, and soon enough they were kissing for quite some time. That wasn't the first girl Jennie had kissed, but it was the first girl she had kissed sober. And she liked it. Well, Jisoo was probably the best kisser she had ever kissed, technique-wise, but Jennie didn't really feel anything special. Jisoo understood that Jennie wasn't into it, but thanked her graciously for giving it a try. Things weren't that awkward afterward, since Jennie was usually so open to things like that.
That's why this whole thing was weird to Jennie. She had always been so comfortable with things like this. But Roseanne and her comments had been making her squirm.
"So do you like to draw?" Jennie asked, trying her best to suppress her thoughts for the time being.
"Huh?" Roseanne asked, confused. "I mean, it's I like to doodle. What do you mean?"
"The notebook. You threw it on the bed, did I interrupt you drawing?"
"Oh," Roseanne remembered. Now it was her turn to squirm. "Sort of, I mean, I was writing. But I was just writing cause I was bored."
"Sorry," Jennie said.
"No, it's okay," she said. "I'm not bored anymore."
"Good," she smiled. "So you like writing, then? What were you writing about? Sorry, that's too personal. I mean, what do you like to write about?"
"It's okay," Roseanne giggled. "I was just writing about the lodge so far. I hadn't written about it yet. I write about anything. And everything. Things I see, things I feel. My thoughts. Stories. Anything, really."
"That's awesome. Are you studying writing?"
"Yeah," she smiled. "I'm studying creative writing, actually."
"Hanyang's really big on that, aren't they?" Jennie suddenly remembered.
"Yeah," Roseanne breathed, her eyebrows knitting together. She was surprised at how much the girl knew.
"Do you want to write novels?"
"That. Or movies or Tv. I'll do anything, really," she shrugged.
"That's awesome," she breathed.
"What are you studying."
"Business," Jennie said, not so enthusiastically.
"Do you like it?"
"It's okay," she sighed. She was a little taken aback that the girl actually asked her if she liked it. Most people assumed she did, since that's what she was studying.
"You don't?"
"I do," Jennie shook her head, confused for a moment that she had said the wrong thing.
"You don't," Roseanne said in disbelief. She was perplexed as to why this girl was trying so hard to convince herself that she liked it. Jennie stared back in the same disbelief. No one had ever called her out like this before. Jennie paused for awhile, contemplating what to say, before Roseanne spoke up.
"You can talk to me," Roseanne said. "About anything. I won't tell anyone. You can trust me."
And Jennie did. She trusted her. She wasn't sure why, since she just met this girl, but she did. She wasn't sure why she ditched her longtime friend tonight to ask this girl to get ice cream with her.
She wasn't sure why she hadn't stopped thinking about her since she left her this afternoon. And she wasn't sure why she was about to tell her things she hadn't told any of her closest friends. But she was.
***
Next update would be at the end of the week 🤗🤗