It's been little over three weeks since that turn of events in Lisa's car and everything seems to be going their ways.
Lisa had been fetching and dropping Jennie from and to her house almost everyday. Lisa said she wanted to spend as much time with Jennie as she could possible attain on a daily basis considering their tight schedules. Jennie didn't argue anymore, other than the idea that everything is going according to her plans, Jennie secretly likes the company too.
Jennie is liking this. Nothing is rushed. Everything feels so light, so carefree and enjoyable — totally opposite to what she had before this. Jennie won't still admit though, that this is growing inside her. Everything Lisa does and says are creating foundations in her but she refuses to accept that.
Their friends knew about it too. Jongin was the first one to somehow congratulate Lisa but still gave his bestfriend a heads up to not put her heart out in her sleeves, at least not this early.
BamBam and Mina were delighted to hear it too. They even charged Jennie's meals on their tabs the very same day Lisa told them about it, saying their friend finally won't be the outcast in their group because apparently, BamBam got into a relationship with a woman he'd been hanging out recently and Mina made it official with her long term fling.
Everything seems to be going quite well on Lisa's side.
Jennie's friends however got the shock of their lives when they knew about it. Jennie never really shares a lot of her personal happenings to them but one thing they know and certain, in no way hell Jennie would flip her preference switch that quickly.
They were fine with her breaking things off with him — Chahee was the first one to celebrate that, high-fiving and fist bumping all their clueless classmates — but they sensed something is off. It doesn't sit right.
They — Jisoo, Chaeyoung, Joohyun and Seulgi — knew her history with Lisa, and to know their current status made all of them raised an eyebrow.
"Are you sure you're not pulling any plot here, Ruby Jane?" Jisoo asked after a few seconds of brief pause and shock when Jennie told them about it.
Jennie denied everything and told them people change when Chaeyoung confronted her about her sexual intimate preferences.
Jennie being the most stubborn acorn in their circle so they raised their hands and stepped back knowing they won't get any specific detail but that doesn't mean they were totally giving no single care about the situation.
They happened to really like Lisa and they don't want to see her getting hurt. No one likes seeing anyone getting hurt — but not to Jennie, unfortunately.
If you're curious about Nayeon's reaction, she literally yelled at Jennie over the phone which almost made the latter drop her gadget straight to the pavement.
Nayeon was not pleased, she was irritated but more importantly, she was scared. She was scared for the two of her friends, she knows that what she's afraid of will be inevitable. Jennie will hurt Lisa, or maybe, both of them will get hurt.
If she was only in Seoul longer than she had to be, Lisa and Jennie would've made up, cleared up all their resentments and regrets before starting anew to see what happens but she wasn't.
Before the call ended, Nayeon said one last thing to Jennie, a reminder. "I told you multiple times about this but you are so selfish and too drowned with that loathe you have for her. If you hurt Lisa, trust me when I say that I will never back you up. You're all alone in this."
As for him? Well he did not stop. There were multiple occasions that Jennie saw his car parking outside the campus but she was quick enough to avoid him by going straight to Lisa's car.
He never stopped reaching out using different numbers but Jennie was smart enough to change her digits instead of dealing with him.
It's still a challenge to stop him but Jennie sees the progress recently when he finally stopped showing up.
The exam week was draining but it was over. All those joint studies Jennie and Lisa conducted — though it always ended up having long make outs — were worth it, they were certain of the majority of their answers.
The teacher's program was a successful event too so finally, Lisa and Jennie have the time to hang out again. It's weekend so Lisa has no work and Jennie is free from any weekend escapades — though most of it were with him.
Lisa dials Jennie's number which was answered just after four rings.
"Hey."
"Hello. Where are you?"
"Home. Why?"
"Are you free?"
"Kind of. I am just having yet another FRIENDS Marathon."
Lisa chuckles. "You've watched that multiple times."
"So? You got a problem?"
Lisa ended up laughing by now. "No ma'am but is it okay for you to stop watching that first and have a date with me?"
"Hm. Interesting. What do you have for me?"
"Do you fancy a quiet picnic?"
Jennie never had a picnic date before and it made her excited. "I'd love to. Where?"
"Namsan Park then we'll have dinner at N Seoul Tower, got the reservations done."
"Sounds like a plan."
"Nice. Be picking you up in 30?"
"Make it an hour. I need a shower."
"Sure, I'll get things prepped for us too."
"Okay. See you. Bye."
"Bye."
Lisa goes straight to her kitchen to check all the things she needed to bring in the trip while Jennie excitedly kicks her blanket off and rushes straight to the shower to get her business done.
Shortly after, Jennie and Lisa are now on their way to their destination. They've been jamming to old songs while casually holding each other's hands and throwing shy glances at each other. If you don't know Jennie's agenda, you'll think this is another display of young admiration and infatuation.
They reached the destination little under an hour because of the traffic they're forced to experience on their way there but didn't stop them from finding a perfect place to set up the picnic blanket and everything that Lisa prepared for them.
"It's a nice day today." Lisa says, eyes looking around the quiet area they chose to occupy, saves from the casual passers by.
"It is." Jennie replies, she's now drinking from a milk box. "You chose the right area."
"I've been wanting to visit this place since I flew in months ago but just couldn't find the perfect time."
"Ah. How many tourist spots have you been to?"
"Not so much. Planning to go around during fall break."
This made Jennie look at Lisa. "You're not going home? Thailand I mean."
Lisa shakes her head, grabbing a box of juice to devour. "No, I'll visit someone in Gwangju."
"Who?"
"The only person I consider as family."
Jennie doesn't want to dig deeper because they're still starting to get to know each other day by day and also because Jennie thought it doesn't matter anyway, all of this is just an act leading to revenge so she just hums and continues to sip from her treat.
They shared casual conversations about almost everything. They talk about the joint program project of their departments as it's going to be less than a month left because it was rescheduled a month before the initial date.
Because of the reschedule, they will be very busy soon so Lisa treasures this. Considering their hectic schedules especially Lisa with school and work, it'll be hard to spend the same hours of the day that they used to have for the past weeks.
Time flies when you're having fun.
The sky is getting darker so they make their way to Lisa's car to leave all the picnic gears before heading towards the N Seoul Tower.
It was a quiet, comfortable and romantic dinner. Lisa always brings Jennie to a place where she could relax and be away from the bustling city of Seoul and she appreciates that. She only remembered telling Lisa once about wanting to get out of the metropolis once in a while and the latter caught that immediately.
Jennie's ex boyfriends and flings were never this attentive and as consistent as Lisa so this is new to her.
"Thank you for the day. I really had fun." Jennie says, removing her safety belt off of her after Lisa had parked her car in front of their gate.
Lisa smiles. "Always a pleasure and I had fun too. Do you have any plans tomorrow?"
Jennie chuckles. "Another date, I assume?"
Lisa nods, still smiling. "Yes. If you don't have something to do of course."
"You miss me quite fast, Miss Manoban."
"I do and we will have a hell of a month after Sunday so I want to have as much quality time with you as I could."
Jennie's chest starts to warm at that. It's genuine, she knows. "Is this your another way of making me sweep off my feet?"
Lisa grins. "Is it working?"
Jennie playfully shrugs with a teasing smile. "Meh."
"There's a lot of time to do that. Not going to give up so easily, Miss Kim. So, tomorrow?"
"Sure. Where are we going by the way?"
"Everland." Jennie's eyes widen after hearing that which makes Lisa smile. Lisa knows she hits the right switch. "Yes, panda and capybaras."
"Oh my God."
"Knew you'd love it."
"How did you know I'm obsessed with them?"
"You have panda and capybara stickers in one of your sketchbooks, capybara chain dangling on your bag and a panda pen sticker. So I figured you must've been so fond of them."
Jennie could feel the warmth against her chest and stomach once again. The very small part of her that has been telling her not to continue her plans ever since the beginning is slowly creeping out again.
"So?" Lisa says when Jennie did not say a word and just looking at her.
Jennie's finally able to snap out of it and grins hesitantly. "Yes. It's a date."
"Nice. I'll pick you up before 12 o'clock. Let's have lunch together."
"Sounds good to me."
"Okay, I'll see you tomorrow."
Jennie leans in to land a quick peck on Lisa's cheek, it's been like a normal routine for them now. "Text me when you get home. Drive safely."
"Yes ma'am."
Jennie playfully glares at the snickering Lisa before finally going out of her car and retreats inside their property with a smile never leaving off her face.
***
"Oh my God! Lisa look! So cute!"
They've been leisurely going around the Everland for about 20 minutes and Jennie looks like a kid who just got her first trip in a sanctuary. Pointing this animal to that animal with a huge smile — the gummy smile — on her face and Lisa could not be happier and relieved to see that.
They watched Pandas wrestling their caretakers, feed up butterflies and staring at the quiet, sleeping or eating capybaras. They didn't even notice it's already almost 5 o'clock in the afternoon if they did not walk by a huge digital clock.
Lisa bought Jennie capybara and panda stuff toys and Jennie purchased panda keychain and stickers for Lisa to use a zipper accessory and phone designs as their gifts to each other.
They then decided to have a dinner before officially ending the day.
They were in the middle of their meal when Jennie caught someone in her peripheral vision. She follows that direction and comes eye to eye with a pair of glaring and bloodshot eyes. It's him.
Before she could even do or say something, he's already stomping his way to their table which literally made Lisa jump a little bit after a hand slams against their table — and oh boy it caught everyone's attention.
"So this is why you broke up with me huh? It's because of this woman?!"
Jennie doesn't know why but him insulting Lisa like that pisses her off. "Can you stop making a scene here and go out? Also, there was no us to begin with."
He clenched his jaws, he's clearly out of it — intoxicated base on the scent coming from his mouth, whiskey. "Why did you change your number? Why did you block me? I don't remember agreeing to the whole bullshit you pulled off almost a month ago."
"Excuse me?!" Jennie is now glaring at him. "Are you hearing yourself? Whether you agreed or not, my decision of stopping you from courting me is solely MY say."
"I did not agree to it!"
"So? Who cares? We were done!"
"Is there something wrong here?" Two of the kind servers came to their table after hearing the commotion.
Jennie looks at them. "Yes, can you bring him out of here please? He's disturbing our dinner."
The two employees nodded and hold his arms, gently ushering him to get out of the establishment but being too occupied with his resentment, anger and being intoxicated, he yanks his arm with too much force and elbowed one of the staffs that knocked the poor man out to the floor.
"Hey!" Says the other staff as he rushes to his friend and workmate. Their other male employees are hastily making their way to them.
He looks at the unconscious man on the floor and scoffs. "That's what you get from acting like you can handle me." He then looks at Jennie and marches his way back to her.
He grabs Jennie's arm near the elbow which made Jennie flinch in pain. "Let's talk outside."
"No! Get your hands off me!"
He pulls Jennie again, harder this time but before he could apply another force, a hand landed on his wrist of the same hand he's using to pull Jennie off the chair. "She said get your hands off of her."
Lisa's deep, cold and threatening tone caught Jennie's attention so she looks at her. Lisa's eyes are dark but her face is calm. It made Jennie gulp.
"You get your hands off of me. This is between me and her. What do you have anyway? Did you already screw her? You— ugh!!!"
The size of Lisa's hand is enough to hold his entire wrist which makes it easier for her to apply force enough to hurt his wrist. "Get your hands off of her. Don't make me repeat myself again."
"You!"
"Lisa!"
Being a high ranked taekwondo and dance athlete has a lot of perks and one of them is reflex. Before he could even land his fist on Lisa's face, Lisa had already ducked, pulled his hand to effectively stumble him forward before pushing him so hard to the floor by his shoulder.
Lisa did not let go of his hand though, once he was on the ground, she turns his entire arm and pinned his wrist down his lower back — she did not apply too much force so she won't hurt him, after all he's already intoxicated.
With his entire body pinned against the tiled floor, a hand and forearm against his back and Lisa's knee sitting perfectly on his thoracic area, he could no longer move.
"I told you to not make me repeat myself."
"Get off of me!"
"Nope."
"Ugh!" He squirms but Lisa has effectively disables all his abilities to recover.
Seconds after, two policemen got in and handcuffed him. They were instructed to follow them to the precinct shortly after while the others officers are writing down statements from the other witnesses.
When he's already stabilized under the policemen's hands, Lisa turns to face at Jennie who immediately hugs her so tightly.
"I thought you're going to get hurt."
Lisa gently caresses her back. "With his slow ass? Nah, he could never lay a finger." she then gently breaks the hug. "Are you hurt?"
Jennie shakes her head. All of this happened too quite fast and all she remembers were getting so scared for Lisa's safety and being in awe moments after. "I am okay."
"You sure? Your arm?" Lisa noticed the red mark.
"It's fine. It'll have a little bruise but nothing life threatening. Thank you."
"For?"
"For what you did."
Lisa smiles. "It's nothing. I'd do it anytime, anywhere and in a blink of an eye. Should we go?"
Jennie nods. Lisa paid for their meals and quite of a tip, apologized for the commotion they have caused and checked if the staff was okay. When she saw him conscious, they then walked back to her car to drive straight to the precinct.
Jennie did not press any charges so did the establishment and the staff. He needs to be in custody for 24 hours though because he's intoxicated and a bond needs to be settled due to the damages so he could go out.
"Well, is this an eventful day." Lisa says, she's now driving to Jennie's house.
When Lisa did not receive any answer from Jennie, she throws her a quick glance and finds Jennie looking at her. "What?" She asks, eyes back on the road.
"Don't you have questions?"
"Huh? What questions?"
"About him and I?"
Lisa shrugs. "None. You said you broke it off with him anyway so there's no need to ask."
"And you believe that?"
"Yes. You did not stutter, your voice was firm and your eyes were telling the truth."
"What are you now? A behavior analyst?"
Lisa chuckles. "No. I just know you're telling the truth. It's been a tiring day for you so don't stress it out too much."
"So is to you."
"Hell yeah but I'm used to it because of my work. Take a rest. We have 30 minutes before we reach your house."
Jennie stares at Lisa's side profile for a while and the wave of guilt is slowly crashing her consciousness. She clenches her jaws and looks away.
Why are you so good to me, Lisa?