It takes them almost an hour to get to the beach what it with being in the exact opposite direction of Cheumsan.
They stop at a gas station on the way, picking up some snacks and drinks. Nayeon and Taehyung are asleep and Jennie stays in the car together with Joohyun while Seokmin and Y/n go inside the shop.
Joohyun leans forward in her seat, her arms folded right behind Jennie’s head. When she talks, her breath puffs against the back of Jennie’s head. She smells sweet; like roses and some exotic fruit.
“What’s up with you two?” She whispers, both their gazes on the shop windows where Y/n is smiling at something Seokmin shows her.
“What do you mean?”
“You’re ignoring each other,” Joohyun says. “What happened?”
Jennie sinks back in her seat and feels Joohyun twist her fingers through her hair, something she would’ve never done if they were back in the village. She wonders how their friendship would look like if they met somewhere else, under different circumstances.
“We had a fight, I guess.” Jennie shrugs. “I think I said something that made her angry.”
Joohyun shakes her head, a sigh leaving her lips. “Don’t get me wrong. She’s like, my favorite person on this planet, right after Seulgi. Maybe even along with her, if she’s not in one of her moods.” They both laugh quietly at that. “But she has quite the temper, doesn’t she?”
Jennie nods her head. “Yeah.”
“You better put her in her place when I’m not here anymore,” Joohyun continues. “Don’t let her push you away or take it out on you just because she can’t deal with her emotions.”
“Can we not talk about you not being here anymore?” Jennie can’t help but pout.
“I’m leaving tonight, silly. There’s only so much longer you can ignore it.”
“Well, I plan to ignore it until the very last second, if you don’t mind.”
“Aww, are you going to miss me that much?”
“Yes,” Jennie says seriously and feels Joohyun deflate a bit behind her.
“I’m glad we got to meet Jennie,” She whispers, reaching out to pat her cheek gently.
She sighs and leans her head back. “Me, too, Joohyun.”
-
The beach is deserted, just like Nayeon said it would be, because no one in their right mind would chose a dark, gloomy day like this to go to the beach.
Seokmin parks the car in the deserted parking lot and they move around for a while, stretching their limbs, packing the stuff they want to take to the beach, avoiding each other like Jennie and Y/n are currently doing.
The sand is wet and cold against Jennie’s feet but she tries to keep her spirits up. At least it’s not raining, and everyone seems to be in a fairly good mood, even Y/n, who jokes around with Nayeon and holds Taehyung’s hand when he climbs up on a big rock to jump down from it on the other side.
Seulgi spreads out a huge blanket where they put down their bags and the snacks they bought.
Jennie looks up at the sky and sees a bunch of seagulls flying through the air, and their sounds together with the waves of the sea, the salty scent in their, it all serves to calm her down the tiniest bit.
At the beginning of her insomnia, Jennie used to listen to different recording at night; it was either the sound of rain, thunderstorms, the chirping of crickets, or a recording of the sea.
That stopped helping a long time ago, but it seems to still have a very relaxing effect on her body.
“Race you to the water!” Nayeon yells and Jennie hears Taehyung laugh and when she turns to look at them, she sees them get out of their clothes, wearing swim trunks and a bathing suit underneath.
Jennie laughs and shakes her head when both of them just run into the water, Nayeon screaming when the cold water touches her feet. She jumps back, whining as she wraps her arms around her upper body.
“It’s freezing!” She screams. “Taehyung! How are you doing that?”
But Taehyung seems to be having the time of his life, already having gone underwater and wet his whole head. “It’s good for you! Trust me.” He reaches out to help her into the water, holding her hand, and Jennie grins because she can see the blush on her cheeks all the way from where she's standing.
“That’s a heart attack,” Joohyun mutters a while later, pointing at the kids from where she’s unpacking some of the Gimbap Jennie’s grandma prepared for them.
Jennie is sitting on the blanket next to her, still dressed in her shorts and her warm sweater. She watches the others jump around and scream like little kids in the water, Nayeon sitting on Y/n’s shoulders and having a chicken fight with Seulgi who’s sitting on top of Seokmin’s.
Y/n hasn’t made an effort to talk to her yet and when they accidentally bumped into each other earlier when Y/n was undressing, the older just looked up at her with wide eyes before turning away again.
“You guys are being stupid,” Joohyun says once she’s finished sorting all their stuff out, sitting closer to Jennie to share some warmth. “You’re leaving by the end of next week and you’re spending your time ignoring each other?”
“She’s ignoring me,” Jennie says. “I didn’t do anything wrong. She should be the one to apologize.”
“I agree. I don’t even know what happened but knowing Y/n, I agree.” She chuckles and lets out a dramatic sigh. “Her and her stupid pride.”
Jennie hums, feeling a bit bad for talking like that about Y/n when she could at least come up with another hundred reasons why she likes the girl so much. “I just wish I knew where she was coming from when she lashes out on me like that so I can, I don’t know, understand her. But she just comes across like a douchebag like this.”
“The only way to get Y/n to open up is to get her completely shit faced,” Joohyun says. “Either that, or you.”
Jennie glances at her, furrowing her eyebrows. “Me?”
“Oh, come on.” Joohyun grins and nudges her shoulder. “You’re like her weak spot. You should’ve seen her when Seokmin made a joke about you the other day. She definitely didn’t take it well, having someone making fun of her boo.”
“Stop.” Jennie groans, feeling her cheeks heat up at the information.
“She’s so smitten with you, Jennie.” Joohyun’s smile is warmer now, less teasing. “I wish things were different. I would feel a lot better knowing she still has you once I’m gone.”
Jennie tenses up at her words. Isn’t that exactly why Y/n and her had their stupid fight in the first place? “Did you talk to her?”
“About what?”
“About leaving the village,” Jennie says. “Whenever I bring it up she clams up and gets all… angry.”
“Yeah. I know.” Joohyun and her both look at Y/n, who looks so carefree right now, pushing Nayeon under water and holding the girl’s wrists when she tries to playfully hit her. “I’ve been talking to her about this for years, Jennie. I honestly think you’re better off talking to a wall instead of talking to Y/n about this subject.”
“Why is she so adamant on staying?” Jennie can’t help but let frustration bleed into her voice, a sort of aching longing tugging on her heart when she watches Y/n throw her head back and laugh. “I mean, I know what part of the reason is. But I just… I don’t get it.”
“Why do most of us don’t do the things we know is best for us?” Joohyun shrugs and tucks a strand of hair behind her ear. “Most people don’t like the unknown. Y/n is one of those people who like to play it safe. The village, no matter how much a nightmare it is, it’s safe. She’s scared. It’s that simple.”
“Comfort is the enemy of progress.”
“Come again?”
“It’s a quote,” Jennie explains. “My best friend has it printed on her bedroom wall. I should show it to Y/n, sometime.”
Joohyun smiles and leans more into her. “Who knows. Maybe it’ll get through to her somehow.”
They fall into silence for a while, surrounded by the rush of the waves, the seagulls all around them, the wind tugging on their clothes, the screams and laughter of their friends.
Things seems so peaceful, away from the city, the judgemental eyes, the rumours.
It’s just them, together, having a good time.
“Joohyun.”
“Hm?”
“Are you happy?”
Joohyun glances at her, tilting her head, and Jennie does the same, both of them staring into each other’s eyes for a silent moment. “Are you asking me if I’m happy to leave the place where people have done nothing but trying to control me and put me in my place my entire life?”
Jennie pulls a pained face. “Yeah. I am.”
“I’m not happy it had to come so far, Jennie,” She says. “I’m not happy I’m leaving my parents behind like this.”
“I’m sorry,” Jennie mutters.
“No, hear me out.” Joohyun shakes her head. “I’m not happy right now, but I know I will be once I start a new chapter of my life with Seulgi. There’s no way I will ever be as miserable as I was in that village. So don’t be worried about that. This is what I want. This is what I’ve wanted for years.”
Jennie can’t see anything but genuine determination in her eyes and she nods, mumbling “Okay. I’m glad.” and suddenly Joohyun pulls her into a hug.
She knows they’ve only known each other for a short time, but she already knows that they would’ve become close friends if they had more time and if circumstances were different.
“Alright, enough of this sappy bullshit,” Joohyun mumbles and pulls back. Jennie decides not to tease her when she sees the wetness that’s gathered in her eyes. “Let’s go join the others.”
-
The water is Ice Cold.
Five minutes in, and Jennie can’t feel her toes or her legs anymore, and the latter really worries her.
Her teeth are chattering but she’s having fun either way, even if Y/n’s still ignoring her, looking away hastily whenever their eyes happen to meet.
In fact, Jennie has so much fun she completely loses track of time, doesn’t even notice all the others leaving the water and shrugging them off when they try to get her to come out, too.
She’s currently looking for pretty seashells to take back home and give to Lisa as a present but it’s a bit hard, given how dense the sand is because of the rain, and most of the ones she finds are either too plain or broken.
Her fingers are stiff at this point, her whole body screaming at her to go back and warm up, but a stubborn part of Jennie would rather risk freezing her limbs off than go back and have Y/n ignore her whole existence.
“Jennie.”
The sudden voice makes Jennie drop the few seashells she’d managed to find, the water of the sea immediately pulling them back in. “No!” Jennie whines and leans down, trying to catch a few of them, but the prettiest ones are already gone. She pouts and stands up to glare at whoever scared her like that, only to freeze for an entirely different reason than just the cold weather.
Y/n is standing there, staring at her, wearing her shorts and her upper body covered in her maroon hoodie. Her hair is spiked at the tips, obviously toweled dry but still damp.
“I think you’ve been in there enough,” Y/n speaks. “Get out of the water.”
Jennie frowns at her. Is this seriously how Y/n is going to approach her after what she did yesterday? Order her around?
“No, thanks. I’m fine.” Jennie scoffs and turns to look for seashells again.
“Jennie,” Y/n repeats, clearly getting annoyed. “Your lips are blue. You’ll get sick. Just come out.”
“Don’t tell me what to do.”
“You’re being a bitch.”
Here we go again.
They just love running in mindless circles, don’t they?
“Yeah, you keep telling me. But I still want to stay in the water.”
“Why?”
“Because you’re not here.”
There’s a beat of silence and when Jennie glances at the girl, she kind of regrets her words because Y/n looks hurt. She bites down on her tongue before she can utter out an apology.
Y/n owes her an apology, not the other way around.
“Jennie, please,” Y/n tries again, a lot less authoritative now. She sounds tired and Jennie’s heart wavers at her pleading tone. “I want to talk to you.”
“Oh, now you want to talk?”
“You can be mad at me all you want, but please just get out of the water.”
Jennie stays where she is for another three seconds, glaring into Y/n’s soft eyes, before she just gives up.
She’s so weak for this person.
This isn’t just a stupid crush, a silly summer romance.
The feelings Jennie has for Y/n are the closest thing to love Jennie’s ever experienced in her life so far.
She doesn’t care that she only met the girl last month. Isn’t life too short to care about trivial things like that?
Whatever it is she’s feeling for Y/n, it doesn’t really matter right now, because Jennie is still hurt and upset, so she walks past said person and stomps back to the others who are all wrapped up in warm blankets. She takes the towel Seulgi hands her while looking up at her and Y/n with a puzzled expression.
She can see Joohyun glaring at Y/n from the side and wonders if Y/n even notices it or understands why both of them are so mad at her.
Before Jennie can sit down on the blanket, she feels Y/n grab her arm and start dragging her away from the rest of their friends and towards the van.
----