"Good morning noona," Hyunsuk kisses the top of my head, an arm firmly wrapped around me. "I made you pancakes."
It wasn't a normal occurance for my brother to do that, much less him preparing me breakfast.
But today he did.
"Thanks Hyunsuk," I smiled a little, then realized he's already wearing his uniform, "Off to school early?"
"Yeah, I have a presentation today."
"Goodluck," I ruffled his hair.
He quickly backs away, "Noona, not my hair!" he pouts and I laughed a little.
"Mom said stay home if you need to," he seriously says afterwards, "Or take a vacation."
"I'm okay," I said, trying to widen my smile but he looked at me suspiciously so I snorted. "I promise, I'm fine!"
It's only been a week since Lisa and I broke up and my family had been treading around me carefully. Somehow, they just knew. Maybe it was because of that night, when I got home quietly and passed by them with bloodshot red eyes. Or maybe it was when I got home drunk the next day, although passed out that my brother and Jisoo had to carry me inside. Or maybe it was the quiet sobs during the night and intolerable quiet moments of my day.
"Jisoo said you can take the afternoon off," Jackson informs me at work while I was cleaning the glass table.
I stopped and stared at him, then to Andrew who looked clueless.
Even at work, people seem to know how broken I am despite my smiles.
"I'm perfectly fine, Jackson."
"Jisoo said she'll fire me if you won't agree."
"Since when did you ever believe her?" I raised a brow.
He purses her lips then shrugs, "If you ever change your mind, just get your bag and go alright?"
I sighed and just smiled, "Thanks, Jackson."
It was a few moments later when Andrew made his way beside me, "You okay? Any problem?"
I looked at him and nodded, "I'm fine."
He runs his fingers through his messy hair, as if debating on what to say next so I only raised a brow at him, and then he clears his throat, "Did you break up with her?"
His question didn't really surprise me.
Although, I was wondering if people thought Lisa dumped me because she realized I'm no match for her.
"The other day, she waited for you but you ignored her," he explains. "You don't seem to be the type to be angry for long, pretty obvious she was begging for you to take her back."
Lisa did. On that night we broke up, she cried and hugged me, begging me not to break up.
"I fucked up. I'm so sorry, please don't leave me," she wraps her hand on my wrist, her other one pulling me by the waist as she tilts her head, her nose brushing against mine, "Please, hun. I'm so sorry. Please don't do this."
Why do people hurt the people they love?
"Sorry," I said quietly, gently freeing myself from her hold and turning my head down.
"Just one chance..." she whispers, "I love you so much, Jennie."
I left her there looking so shattered. She tried to follow me, convinced me to stay so we could talk it out, but I hailed a cab and left without looking back.
I've been ignoring her calls and messages, until they stopped coming.
"There's nothing sexier than a woman who knows how to love herself," he says, smiling a little.
I scrunched my nose. "You don't even know why we broke up."
"Well I don't have to," he runs his fingers through his already messy hair and then to the stubbles on his jaw, "It's hard to deserve people like you. We lose you all the time because we're stupid."
"Went through a recent break up of your own?" I asked curiously.
He chuckled lowly, shaking his head, "Not recently, no. Just happened a lot. But to be clear, I'm just stupid. Not a whore, or a cheater, or whatever."
I think that's the first time I genuinely laughed today.
2 YEARS LATER
"Where are you Jennie? I can't see the fountain you're talking about!" Jisoo whines over the phone, "My feet hurt. I can't do this anymore."
I rolled my eyes, "Always the overdramatic. I see you already so I'll hang up. Bye."
Andrew chuckles, looping his arm on my shoulders, "Thanks for coming with me, babe."
"Of course," I kissed his cheek, wrapping my arm on his middle as we walk.
We've been dating for the previous 10 months. He's an amazing guy.
"Yah!" Jisoo finally sees us, waving both her arms like a maniac.
We're here on this resort on the outskirts of the city, for Andrew's new singing gig. He recently signed up with a band as their guitarist and later, we get to meet their other members.
He's finally pursuing his dreams and I want to support him the best I can as his girl.
He deserved it, after being so patient with me for so long. After waiting for me to be over her.
"Finally, you're both here. I was dying of boredom inside," Jisoo gushes, "Why can't a rich woman like me live without responsibilities?"
She was probably talking about her family insisting she widen her network by being introduced to the guests of her cousin. Her cousin is opening another business, that's why they have this massive event- to introduce it to their partners.
"My God, Jisoo," I shook my head at her, "Where's Nayeon?"
"She said she'll be fashionably late!"
"Babe, I got to go..." Andrew murmurs, looking around, "We have to set up our things. You sure you don't want to come backstage?"
I pinched his cheek and grinned, "No, I want you to focus."
"I can focus with you in there," he pouts. Cute.
"You can't even get your hands off her at work," Jisoo teases, which is why I glared at her.
"How would you even know, you seldom visit the store these days!" I gave her a pointed look.
She makes face, as if the staff didn't just scold her boss.
I then turned to Andrew, "Go, I'll be fine with Jisoo. I'm sure Nayeon's arriving soon too. Goodluck on your performance later and have fun, okay?"
"I will," he bends a little to kiss me on the lips.
Jisoo then tugged me inside the grand venue where guests are all dressed extravagantly. I chose to wear a yellow tube dress because Jisoo insisted that it looked great on me, and sexy.
I can see what she meant with the way Andrew ogled when he laid eyes on me wearing it, paired with some heels. So even when it's different than what I usually would wear in events like this, he gave me the confidence to wear it.
"Hey Jen," Jisoo was looking at me seriously all of a sudden. She bit her lip once, looking guilty, "Lisa's actually here, I saw her earlier."
I kept quiet.
She looked around, murmuring, "Sorry. I should've thought she'd be invited but that totally slipped my mind."
"It's not your fault," I patted her arm, "And it's not really a problem. This place is too big, I might not even see her. And so what if I do? It's been too long, Chu."
"Are you sure?" she still looked worried, "I mean, I saw what you went through after-"
"We live in a small country, Chu. I've seen her at least twice before and it didn't matter then. Much less now that I have Andrew."
A small smile blossomed on her face. "Atta girl! Damn, you don't know how proud I am of you."
"Whatever," I rolled my eyes, also smiling.
Soon, Nayeon joined us looking fashionable herself that not even an hour later, she's already talking to some guy. Jisoo had to drag her away from him because according to her, that insanely rich man is already married.
"Jisoo, your father's been looking for you everywhere!" Chu's mom suddenly appears, looking regal as always. She smiled upon seeing us, "Oh, there you girls are. What are you doing out here on the corner? There's lots of empty chairs in the middle with girls your age, come on now and try to mingle."
"Leave it to my parents to persuade you guys too into networking with these filthy rich people," Jisoo murmurs when we found a table with only two people sitting on it. True enough, the young ones are in here.
Nayeon giggled, "It's fine though. Lots of pretty girls in here."
"Ah there she is, our bisexual queen," Jisoo grinned at her.
I quickly scanned my surroundings, feeling a little uneasy to be at the center of this event that doesn't even suit me.
Surrounded by people... that are way above me.
The host had been busy for a while, following the flow of the program. The lights dimmed after introducing Andrew's band, The Rose.
This is the part where the party really starts and older people start to go on separate rooms to discuss business matters.
So Jisoo grabbed us, urging us to move forward so we could see Andrew up close. There are some people standing nearby the stage too, chitchatting, drinking, dancing.
We pushed past them.
My smile was from ear to ear when the curtain opened, but to my surprise I was met with a very familiar girl.
"What's up everyone? We're The Rose! I'm Rosé, the band's vocalist. This beast on the bass is Taeyang, Mino on the drums, Yedam with the keys... and of course our new member, give it up to Andrew our guitar slayer!"
With that cue, Andrew started hitting his electric guitar, his brows furrowed in concentration as he made the audience roar in excitement.
"Crazy!" Nayeon jumps in excitement, but Jisoo and I shared a look.
Of course part of breaking up includes your friend stalking the 3rd party even when I told Jisoo she wasn't.
Rosé's voice was unique. She sounded like an angel.
So she sings too, huh.
She was having so much fun on stage that people can't help but have fun too. I had fun too as I tried to focus on my boyfriend whose eyes found mine in an instant, his dopey smile appearing.
He looked so cool on stage, seriously playing most of the time and smiling sexily at me whenever we make eye contact.
"How can she work with your boyfriend," Jisoo gushed for the nth time.
"Don't be overdramatic now," I bumped her shoulder playfully to show that it's fine.
When their set ended, my friends excused themselves to the rest room while I went back to our seat... passing by someone even more familiar.
She still looked the same.
Maybe even more gorgeous. She's wearing a black suit dress and high heels, after all, her hair still blonde and a little over the shoulder.
And she's looking at me just the same.
"I saw you out there, having fun with your friends..." she walks up to me, clearing her throat, "I just thought I'd say hi."
"Oh, um..." I took out a sheaky breath and a forced smile, "Hi."
It's just weird talking to her again.
"You look good," her eyes went down to my dress for a split second before they came back to my eyes, looking hesitant. "How have you been, Jennie?"
I tried gathering up the courage to smile. It hopefully worked.
"Not much has changed in my life, actually," I laughed a little. "You?"
It would be awkward to mention relationships. I wouldn't even try asking if she's with Rosé.
"Busier with work, I guess..." she shrugs, "But I love my job so that's okay."
Of course she does.
"Well, everyone must love at least one thing in life right?" Andrew's voice came from behind me, as well as his presence. He held my waist, kissing me on the cheek, "Hey babe."
"Hey," I looked over my shoulder to see him smiling at me, his guitar bag on his shoulder. I brought my gaze back to Lisa whose brows were raised, "You've met Lisa, right?"
I felt him nod, "It's been ages ago but I remember."
Lisa stood tall, her eyes curious, "So you two, huh?"
"Yep," Andrew's hand on my waist wraps on me further, possessively, "I'm the lucky boyfriend."
"Congratulations," Lisa smiles, she takes a glass of wine from a server and raised it slightly as we held our own, also given by the server. She clicked her tongue and nodded after sipping, "Tastes good enough for me. But could do better."
Her eyes were solely on me, unlike she broke it and looked away, "Well, I better get back to my table."