"Oh who are these people?" Jisoo questioned with brows drawn together as the van stopped in the familiar entryway of cars outside the condo entrance. She saw people with balloons and banners on their hands just by the grand entrance to the lobby.
The staff on the front seat looked at her unbelievably.
"They're fans, Kim Jisoo. You must've forgotten that you were on national television and media platforms for more than a month."
Jisoo slowly nodded and the staff laughed seeing her shy look, "Don't worry, we had contacted the condominium of your arrival and they sent bodyguards."
Jisoo's eyes shot open, "Bodyguards? Isn't that a little too.. dramatic?"
"Not for someone famous already. You can wear these sunnies while you go out, your eyes still look puffy. It was nice knowing you." The staff said, lending Jisoo black sunnies. Jisoo beamed a small smile and said her thanks.
On cue, there were 2 bodyguards by the van door as she opened it.
"Kim Jisoo!"
"Jisoo, you're my big winner!"
Jisoo blinked a few times, overwhelmed and surprised. She was also shock to see a flash of a camera. She didn't know how to react so she just uttered a small 'hello' to everyone, which made everyone scream for her louder.
"We love you Jisoo, cheer up! You're our big winner!" Someone spoke, raising up a banner that had her face on.
She never knew she'd suddenly have fans because of a reality show. She guessed the show was that much of a big deal.
Still feeling shy, she entered the condominium safely with the bodyguards' arms preventing the people from going too near her. She was thankful for that as she felt quite stuffy and conscious with the sudden attention on her.
When the condo's tinted glass doors shut securely, she removed the sunnies and smirked at Joy who immediately greeted her with a hug.
"Welcome back, cous! Oh my gosh I can't believe I missed you even if we are used to being far away from each other!" Joy excitedly said in their embrace.
They broke off the hug and started walking in the condo's less-populated lobby, "You look shakened up."
"The people outside quite surprised me."
"I thought you're friends with IU and Yoo In Na? So, you must've hung out with them and had paparazzis snooping around."
"Yeah, but people were snooping at us for them and not for me. This kind of startled me."
"Well, wait 'til you see all the gifts the people sent to you and Lisa. Even your IG fans from Korea knew about you being in a reality show because IU posted you as a support."
Jisoo held her forehead in disbelief, "Oh God that woman really.."
Joy chuckled lightly as they arrived in their unit.
"How do they even know my address?"
"Well, that I don't know but I think they knew that from seeing me in and out of the condo, knowing we're cousins from your Instagram. So maybe they guessed you were staying with me?" Joy answered with her own assumption.
"Ahh I don't wanna ask anymore.." Jisoo uttered tiredly, flopping herself on their sofa. Jisoo exhaled when her body twitched with the feeling of an unfamiliar sofa.
Jisoo sighed. She got too used to the sofa in the big brother house that she felt weird from their own sofa.
Joy surveyed her cousin's tired look, "You should go rest first. Eviction challenges are always live broadcasted, so I saw how exhausting the challenge was."
Jisoo frowned remembering the big brother house again and covered her eyes with her forearm and leaned on the sofa's backrest.
Joy pulled Jisoo by her hand so she could stand up, she didn't want her cousin to rest uncomfortably on the sofa, "Go. I'll wake you up for dinner."
Jisoo just followed her orders and went to her room. She felt her chest tightened as she hugged the pillow beside her. "This should've been Jennie.." she frowned at her pillow as her tired eyes forced her to doze off.
The next morning arrived and it hasn't been the usual day that Jisoo had when she just stepped foot in Australia. She was just out for an early run but people knew her and has been waving at her and she could only return an awkward smile at them because of shyness.
This time, Jisoo was invited by big brother's hosts for an interview that was mandatory for every week's evictee of the big brother house.
"Yes, sir. I'll get right into it after the interview I'm attending. I apologize. Thank you for your patience, sir." Jisoo spoke in her phone with her fingers rubbing her temple in stress.
Jisoo crossed her legs as she was in a café at 9 in the morning.
Since 7 o'clock, she had been making calls and joining meetings of new and updated projects in the firm that she had missed to look over for a whole month. Thankfully, Jisoo hasn't accepted any client proposals when she arrived in Australia as she was just done with her last client in Korea via remote. The firm also didn't mind that the newbie had been missing for a month since she would only start her payroll when she accepts projects from contractors, which has not happened yet.
With the money she saved up in Korea, she might survive another few months jobless.
"God.. I miss Jennie so bad," Jisoo frowned, not knowing how to comfort herself because Jennie wasn't there to hug her.
She sipped her Americano, almost spilling it when a figure appeared on her right.
"Hi! You're Jisoo from big brother right?" A tall man asked her.
Jisoo shyly nodded, "I guess I am.."
"I saw how crazy good you are at tasks, hopefully you can come back too."
"Come back?" Jisoo raised her brow.
The man turned to his back when someone called him, "Bo Hyun, quick take a photo with her, we're leaving!"
The name sounds Korean. There must be really a lot of Koreans here in Australia.
He showed a thumbs up to his friend and faced Jisoo again, "Can I take a quick photo with you?"
"Sure.." Jisoo said in a low voice instantly smiling when the man had the front camera of his phone towards the both of them.
"Thank you!" The guy smiled then left.
"Ah I'm still not used to this.." Jisoo uttered, forking a slice on her cake and eating it.
"Jennie would've loved this strawberry cake.." Jisoo whispered to herself, now feeling emotional again remembering that she left Jennie at the house crying.
Jisoo breathed, "Jennie's gonna win and it's just less than 2 months 'til the season ends. I already can't wait." She mumbled to a smile, excited to be one with her lover again.
20 minutes later, Jisoo had stood up when she received the call from the same staff that contacted her for the interview, telling her that they were on their way to the cafe they agreed to fetch Jisoo.
Jisoo didn't need to go home and change since she already was in the outfit she's wearing for the interview.
As she got in the van, the same woman was also on the frontseat.
"Looking pretty as always, Kim Jisoo." She said.
"Thank you, do I have to wear a blindfold again?"
Her words made the driver and the staff crack up, "Don't worry, you won't experience another kidnapping stint again. The interview is at the company network that's handling Big Brother Australia."
Jisoo nodded, "What was your name again?" She asked.
"It's Krystal and we'll be seeing each other quite often now. It's my job to handle the evictees' schedule."
"Huh? So there are other schedules other than this interview?"
"Depends on the company, but so far this is the mandatory one."
Jisoo sighed knowing this was the only schedule that was mandatory. She didn't want to expose herself more to the public, and the only moment she'd allow herself to be in contact with the big brother staff again was if she would see Jennie for that schedule– which wasn't possible.
Hours later, she felt exhaustion from all the questions on the interview.
She was asked if she had plans on being an actress, if she plans to stop being an architect, if she plans to rejoin big brother for the next season, and what her opinions were about Jennie's previous company dropping her when they got exposed. It was a lot of controversial questions but she guessed it was to gain the interest of more people.
"Thanks Krystal, thanks Ben for fetching me and dropping me at my condo. Honestly, I still have things to do, and I kinda don't like the fame so I mean no harm in saying that I don't really want to see you two again." Jisoo uttered scratching her nose.
Ben, the driver, and Krystal laughed at her again as they found her effortlessly funny, "Sorry Jisoo, just following our work." She said playfully making Jisoo shake her head smiling.
Krystal continued speaking, "Sorry too because you're gonna have to see us again." but Jisoo was already out of the van when she said that.
Jisoo took her phone out when she entered the lobby so she would make the company call she agreed on taking when the interview was done but she stopped when she heard someone say her name, yet again.
She calmly faced her left where the lobby couches were and she almost dropped her phone, seeing the person who called her.
"Mrs. Kim."
The woman smirked and stood up to extend her hand to a shake with her but Jisoo just stared at the hand so the woman fixed her formal wear instead.
"May we talk at the restaurant?" Jennie's mother questioned. Jisoo didn't have to answer and just started walking.
≪ ≫
"I guess you're not here to have a chat with someone who ruined your daughter's life, right?" Jisoo said in a monotone voice as they sat adjacent to each other in the condo's first floor restaurant.
While Jennie's mother ordered a cup of coffee, Jisoo didn't order anything.
"I don't want to be rude, Miss Kim but I'm on the clock right now and need to make calls as soon as I can so if you may relay your purpose of visiting, you instantly may." Jisoo said straightforwardly.
She still wasn't happy of how Jennie's mother made Jennie miserable, even if she was 'doing what's best for Jennie', it wasn't at Jennie's advantage because she just straight up controlled her like a toy.
Mrs. Kim sighed now placing on the table a folder that she's been holding in her hands. Jisoo didn't take it and just raised her brow in suspicion.
"On the papers are everything needed to file a report on Ms. Hwang's alleged assault with intent to rape on Jennie."
Jisoo's face grimaced with her choice of words, "Alleged? It was very true, Miss Kim. Witnesses other than me, are back at the house and surveillance crew of the show can also attest to that. We can even get the proof from a surveillance camera of that awful human touching your daughter."
"Yes, I have the proof right here after that boss of the show gave me a copy. I haven't filed this yet so basically the police doesn't know about this."
Why haven't she?
"What are you even saying?" Jisoo said now in gritted teeth.
"Well even if Ms. Hwang gets jailed for let's say 6, 7 years imprisonment, it would still cost money before that happens and by the end of those years, Ms. Hwang is still gonna be released and she can even pay her fine if she wanted to be released sooner, so what's the point of wasting money then?"
Jisoo bit the insides of her cheek to force herself not to slap the woman in front of her. Jisoo was so close to doing it. She couldn't believe that this woman birthed Jennie.
How could a mother say things like that to her child? She thought.
"But with you and your other friends, I'm sure you want to push this through. Don't you, Kim Jisoo?"
"Spit it out." Jisoo uttered, her hand on a tight fist in anger of the lady.
"Well I'm offering you a deal." Mrs. Kim paused and took out her pen and placed it on top of the folder.
"I'm signing this official file to report the crime, only if you succeed in persuading Jennie to take me again as her manager as we sign her under a different company once she's out of that show. Many companies are now interested in her, and you see, without me she wouldn't survive those companies."
Jisoo arched her brow at the woman. She was spatting out nonsense and she felt like her teeth would crack anytime because of how she's been forcing them together in irritation. She was very much provoked already.
Jisoo didn't even have to ask if Jennie's mother was serious in doing that to her own daughter as she knew that the woman was really capable of being that heartless.
"So you're saying I'll try and manipulate Jennie to go back to the manager whom she fired herself?"
"If manipulate is the right word then yes."
Jisoo faked a giggle in disbelief of the lady in front her. She sat properly, gripping her hands on her handbag and stared down at the woman.
"Mrs. Kim, I would never.. never treat Jennie like the way you did. If you think you can bribe me of getting that damned report sent to the police in exchange of taking away Jennie's freedom, then you are very much mistaken. I will not decide on this file charges on her behalf because again, I am not in control of her decisions and of her life. She has the right to choose what to do with her perpetrator. If her own family cannot do it for her, I think Jennie is big enough to do it herself, maybe not now but soon she will." Jisoo sternly said, then she stood up instantly. She let out a low scoff when she didn't even see a glint of guilt in Mrs. Kim's eyes.
"I believe this ends our conversation and I respectfully hope this is the last time we'll see each other. Thank you for your time, Mrs. Kim."
Jisoo walked away before she could hear more senseless words from the woman's mouth.
With what happened, she could only want to go back to the big brother house and just be beside Jennie again. If Jisoo had almost exploded in anger of that woman, she couldn't imagine how more infuriating it must've been for Jennie, being controlled by her for years.
"Fuuuuuck, I want to see Jennie so bad." She grunted in the elevator while stomping her feet around like a kid in tantrums.
Just as she dropped her body in her bed after a series of calls for the past 30 minutes, her phone chimed of another notification from Instagram.
"I think I should turn off these IG notifications, it's gonna cover all the notifications I should be reading for work.." Jisoo told herself and opened the app.
The notify was a tagged picture of that the guy had taken with her at the café this morning. She just liked it and went back to her profile that was chiming over and over again for new comments and followers.
Her previous 81k followers months ago was now at a whooping 620k followers. She had no idea big brother australia was that tuned in around the globe. Aside from that, she messaged her famous friends brawling at them to why they posted her about being on the show.
Knowing her friends, they just poked fun at her even more, now that she was starting to gain fame too.
Jisoo sighed. Even though she wanted to post a picture, she was even too shy to do it now. So she just typed and searched for Jennie's account and when she just typed her name, a verified account appeared immediately.
Jisoo smiled at it and clicked the follow button right away. She liked every recent picture Jennie posted until she got tired of scrolling and went to her DMs.
J (@jennierubyjane)
kimjisoo: A day without you and I'm already missing you like crazy :(
She giggled at herself knowing that the only time Jennie would get to see her message was when they'll be together when she's out of the house.
Her thoughts was disturbed when her phone rang for another call. Again.
"Oh God, it has already been a long damn day and it's still 2pm." Jisoo uttered scratching her nape. She felt like her day had already been a week without Jennie because of so much that had happened. The interview, the calls, the public attention, and the psychotic mother.
Jisoo sighed and picked up the call from an unidentified number. "Hello, Kim Jisoo speaking."
"Kim Jisoo, it's good to talk to you again."
Jisoo raised her brow with the unfamiliar voice, "Good afternoon, miss. My apologies but who am I speaking to?" Jisoo said now sitting back up on her bed.
"I'm the one who scouted you for Big Brother Australia. It's Nancy."
≪ ≫
[Week 6] Day 39 of 77 - Wednesday
3 nights have passed since Jisoo got evicted.
By Tuesday, they had their 3rd HoH and Irene had won it, forcing her to choose the 3 housemates for nominees to play on Veto. She didn't want to choose the already miserable Jennie so she had to choose Lisa, Rosé, and Eunwoo.
With those 3 nights, Jennie had only been tiring herself with her tears in her lover's bed. She barely left Jisoo's bed and the only time she did was during wake up call and during chore duty. So basically, she still fulfilled her duty as a housemate.
But nonetheless, Jennie hadn't spoken to anyone. She was lifeless and she didn't look too good at all.
Rosé had been trying to reach out to her but she was always unsuccessful. Rosé tried again this time.
"Jennie, come on you've barely left the bed." Rosé spoke softly hoping she could convince Jennie to leave and eat with them for lunch. Especially when she purposely missed breakfast to mope in Jisoo's bed yet again.
Rosé had always given her the space that she needed for 3 straight days and she would understand if she didn't want to talk but Jennie was immensely neglecting herself. Even in the HoH challenge, Jennie did really bad, her movements were weak and her mind was obviously not in the game. Rosé had definitely believed that if Jennie kept on going like this, her performance in the next challenges would get affected too, especially knowing that she still wasn't safe since the Veto challenge was just around the corner.
Worst case scenario is that she'd get evicted because of how bad she's possibly gonna do with all the challenges at this state and Jennie would certainly regret it.
"You barely eat, Jen. Look at you.." she spoke again, facing the back of the laying Jennie.
Even not looking at her face, Rosé knew she was awake because the duvet was moving because her shoulders were bouncing up everytime she hiccups from her continuous cries.
"Jennie." Rosé sighed, "Jisoo wouldn't want to see you like this.."
If mentioning Jisoo was the only way for Jennie to pull herself together, Rosé was glad to do so.
"Jisoo promised that you would see each other outside, right? Please stop treating yourself like this. This isn't healthy anymore."
Rosé bounced on the Lisa's bed next to Jisoo's where Jennie was when Jennie finally slowly moved, now sitting up.
"I don't know.. what to do without her, Rosie.."
"Oh Jen.." Rosé frowned seeing Jennie's face again, still with heavy and thick eyebags and red nose. Pain was written all over Jennie's face. Those words were the first thing she uttered after not breathing a single syllable for the past 3 days.
"I've.." Jennie started to speak, "I've become better because of her both mentally and emotionally. She made me believe in myself and in my dreams. Now I feel lost without being around her. I feel like shit and I cry even more knowing how her love for me can't change the fact that she's away and it's so fucking toxic of me to think that way.." Jennie ranted in between her crying hiccups.
Jennie broke into tears again, "It's so annoying that I can't just bring myself to accept that Jisoo and I are still going to meet by the end of the show or until I leave, because I just feel suffocated without her around. I feel like I'm just bound to go back to the lifeless person that I was before her."
Rosé felt how Jennie was so frustrated of herself. She knew Jennie had depended herself on Jisoo because they fell in love when Jennie was broken and when Jennie wasn't happy with the life she had. She had only started feeling better when Jisoo came into the picture and falling in love with Jisoo had only made her unhealthily too dependent on her for her happiness.
Rosé sat quiet for a minute, waiting for Jennie to rant some more but that must've been everything that Jennie could decipher from her messy thoughts.
"It's okay to feel that way Jen because you're acknowledging how that kind of thinking isn't doing you any good."
She finally uttered those words hoping Jennie would understand more of how she felt. And if she did understand more, she would then hopefully try to fix that.
"Jisoo came and became the only source of real happiness that you haven't felt from the life you had outside. Now that Jisoo's gone, it must've felt as if she had also left with your happiness in her hands-"
"-and that shouldn't be the case, Jennie."
Jennie bawled her eyes out even more as Rosé's words pierced too hard in her chest, that it hurted.
Rosé sat on the bed, placing her arm around Jennie's shoulder to console her as Jennie sobbed in her arms, "You have dreams, right? Believe me, Jisoo would be over the moon if she knows you are doing your very best in achieving your dreams. Apart from Jisoo, those dream of yours were there before she even came. She was just an instrument to make you more motivated to reach it, so you've been doing that for yourself too."
Rosé caressed her hair as a tear escaped her eye. She didn't want Jennie to be like this anymore so she was trying her best to make her realize things.
"You've been miserable for way too long, Jen. You've been under the unbearable control of people in your life before and now that you have the chance to choose yourself, don't deprive yourself of it. Do yourself a favor and live with the love that Jisoo made you feel and live with the things you had loved more about yourself because of her." Rosé planted a kiss on Jennie's hair.
"You don't have to change the way you think overnight but if you just start by slowly accepting that no one else and not even Jisoo is responsible for making you happy and feel good about yourself 24/7, then you're gonna start embracing who you are without other people or Jisoo's validation.."
After a few minutes of silence with only the sound of Jennie's gradual calming breaths from all the sobs, Rosé noticed that Jennie had finally fallen asleep. She sighed in relief knowing her friend didn't have enough sleep the past 3 nights already.
She gently removed Jennie's embrace on her and laid her head softly on Jisoo's pillow. Rosé made sure the shirt she had been hugging and crying on nonstop was in her arms, and she guessed it was Jisoo's.
Rosé softly shut the door close and was a bit startled when she was met with Lisa and Irene who looked like they were about to cry.
Rosé rolled her eyes playfully at the two, "She's asleep and eavesdropping isn't good, you guys.."
Lisa jumped to hug her girlfriend's neck so suddenly with Irene joining in the embrace, "You did so well, my Rosie." Lisa told her as she heard everything. Every right thing that Jennie should hear to ease her mind.
Irene sighed, "Finally.. I hope Jennie feels better when she wakes up. Let's cook more food before the house task begins so Jennie could eat more." Irene uttered.
Rosé curved her lip to a small smile, glancing at the clock, "Yeah, so we still have 3 hours then. Let's eat."
Irene spoke as they slowly walked to the dining table, "The house task must be about those numbers on the television." The three of them glanced at the tv in the living room that had 30000 on it.
"Sure is. I wonder what the catch is." Lisa uttered.
"God I hope it's not food again, I need good food.." Rosé pouted as she sat on the chair in front of Kai who was already eating their lunch.
"What are you doing?" Lisa asked Eunwoo who was writing on a notebook that Lisa was familiar of.
"Oh he said he wants to try to know what possible things we can associate with those numbers, that's why he borrowed my pen and notebook." Rosé responded and right after she did, Eunwoo dropped the pen loudly which made Kai almost choke on his water in shock.
"Here." Eunwoo said putting up the notebook to his chest so the housemates could see it.
All their brows just drew together as they couldn't interpret Eunwoo's bad handwriting.
"Do all smart people have really bad handwriting?" Kai said with his nose scrunched.
"Here," Eunwoo pointed the upper part of his writing, "is a calculation of those numbers where if we multiply it by the its-"
"Eunwoo, can you just skip to the part where it's interesting for us?" Lisa cut him off then they all giggled.
Eunwoo rolled his eyes laughing as well, "Well those numbers can be a lot of things but judging from it, it can be seconds, it can be the number of steps that we can only take, or the number of spoons we can only eat.. or whatever."
He continued, "If it's number of seconds, it's 8-9 hours converted so what house task can we do with those hours?"
"Number of sleep?" Irene asked back and they realized that too.
"Yes, I have written that option and if that's the case until Saturday which is 3 days then we have 2-3 hours of sleep everyday."
"Oh hell no." Lisa palmed her forehead just imagining the stress from it.
"But that's just a theory." Eunwoo talked back.
"What else can it be then?" Rosé questioned.
Kai with creased forehead answered, "30000 can also be money, right?"
Their foreheads creased now remembering that it really was. Eunwoo responded to him, "Yeah that's the 2nd place prize on big brother basically."
Talk about social distancing from the 1st place prize. Rosé thought.
"Maybe it's just motivation again. For the money." Irene shrugged.
3 hours after, Jennie had awaken. Her eyes kind of hurted as she opened them because of heaviness. Her body immediately eased up when she had a whiff of what smells like Jisoo. She internally sighed giving a kiss to the pillow that Jisoo's shirt covered but not worn on.
"I miss you.." she whispered with her raspy voice. Those were the same three words she's been saying to the pillow since Sunday but now, there weren't painful tears anymore- now just pure longing of her lover.
Shifting her body, she embraced the pillow tighter as she relished at the vague presence of Jisoo.
She felt a gentle touch on her shoulder behind her and heart beamed in delight as it instantly anticipated for the figure to be Jisoo. Her body twisted in much hope as it was shattered to see just her friend, Rosé smiling softly at her.
"You're already up.." The blonde's words trailed off with her heart almost dropping to her soles when she saw Jennie's eyes in a glimmer of tranquil. She felt like her friend was in a better place than she was hours ago. Rosé didn't know if it was because she finally had sleep or if it was really because she actually felt better. Nonetheless, she'd take any progress from her any day. The sight touched Rosé and she couldn't help but embrace her friend and break it off a sweet second later.
Rosé beamed a small smile again, her hand resting on the top of Jennie's head, "Let's eat?"
The blonde stood up properly as Jennie went back to her position which was laying with her back faced towards her. She was about to pout until Jennie had slowly sat up after a few seconds, still with the pillow and Jisoo's shirt between her closed arms.
"You can just prep yourself in the bathroom first Jen. By 3pm, big brother has a house task for us.. We'll wait for you outside, okay?" Rosé told her lightly and another progress was in form when Jennie just nodded.
Rosé hid her smile as she got outside, so the housemates wouldn't make much noise if they see her grinning from waking up Jennie because grinning would only mean good news.
Jennie hadn't stood up yet as she shut her eyes thinking of Jisoo, "I'll try to be better, Chu." She whispered under her breath.
≪ ≫
A day after the events in the Big Brother House
[Week 6] Day 40 of 77 - Thursday
"When have you guys been here?" Jisoo asked the people in front of her, as she had her arms crossed.
She studied the area and the place had just a small living room connected to a kitchen and a dining area and there were 3 doors by the end of the small living room. From the looks of it, it looks like her and Joy's condo but a bit bigger.
"Since last week." One of the woman answered her, munching on her snack in the living room.
"So how many days has it been?" Jisoo questioned again, still in disbelief of the people chilling on the long sofa.
"12 days considering it's Thursday right? We got here by Sunday."
Jisoo sat on the monoblock chair which was adjacent to the long sofa. She massaged her forehead, "Unbelievable.."
The other short-haired woman laughed knowing that was the same expression she had when she arrived at the place, "Yeah we never knew this was also part of the game, Jisoo."
"House Challengers."
Everyone paused to their movements once a woman's robot voice sounded.
They giggled seeing Jisoo's confused expression of the voice, "Yeah so that's Miss Jane. A woman counterpart of big brother." A guy with spiky hair answered.
Jisoo's brows met in the middle upon hearing her 'title', "That's just cheesy."
"I heard that, Jisoo." Miss Jane spoke on the speakers and Jisoo just showed a peace sign to every corner of the room, not knowing where this woman robot was.
"Let's give a warm welcome to our new House Challenger, ex-housemate Kim Jisoo!"
Everyone yelled and clapped for her and Jisoo still can't fathom the idea that she was in a house with people, again, with a lapel microphone, again, and with cameras watching her every move, again.
"Jisoo, I am Miss Jane, and welcome to the Big Brother House Camp! I'm sure my staff had told you what happens now." Jisoo exhaled with her heart pumping as she remembers what Nancy had told her days ago on the call.
"For formality's sake, I will repeat myself. You will all battle to secure a spot in the Big Brother House when week 8 comes."
Jisoo scoffed a low laugh, amused as she has been told of that sentence for the third time already.
"As you know, getting back to the house should be a critical and tough challenge for all of you. Someone who will rise to the top will be the only one to win the spot. For now, since last week's beginning of this camp, the house challengers have just been accumulating points for every task that I have been giving. These points will give you a massive jump and advantage for the final House Camp challenge where we can hail our House Camp Winner."
"Yeah!" The guy hollered and the other two girls with him just laughed.
"Now for Jisoo who had just arrived today, she will be given the points that the lowest house challenger has, for fairness. This will also go to the next house challengers who will be added soon."
"You may view the television screen for the official tally." Jisoo nodded and glanced to her right where the television was.
Ryujin - 5 points
Jackson - 4 points
Seulgi - 2 points
Jisoo - 2 points
Jisoo exhaled internally in relief after seeing the names. At first, she thought Yeji was here too because the previous housemates were, and she maybe just didn't see her because she was in the bathroom or something. She felt contented knowing that Big Brother had the decorum and consideration to not invite her back.
"Now once we have our last 2 House Challengers from the Week 6 and 7 evictees, we will do the Final Battle Back Showdown."
"In the house?" Jisoo asked to make sure of it. Her heart pumped in excitement.
"Yes, in the house." Miss Jane answered. Jisoo pressed her lips so it won't curve up so widely as she now thought she has the chance to see and be with Jennie again. Aside from that, she now was given another chance to win Big Brother again.
"For now, enjoy the live broadcast of challenges and episodes from the Big Brother House. I will come back to you once there is another task. And oh, congratulations again to Jackson for securing a point from the last task."
Jackson showed a complete smile, "Thanks Miss Jane! Turning the house upside down was worth it to find that stupid gold chocolate coin that you hid." They laughed. Miss Jane bid her goodbyes and the three had already stood up to start cooking their lunch.
"Damn it, so it was you three? At dawn in the house?" Jisoo had her mouth hung open in disbelief of the information she had just finally assembled in her mind.
Seulgi giggled deviously, "Yeah and we kinda went a little overboard so you guys would creep out."
"Yeah! We definitely did! We thought we were robbed for pete's sake." They laughed even more at Jisoo's information but Jisoo could only remember the feared face of Jennie at dawn because of them.
Jisoo shook her head smiling, "That's why big brother sounded so suspicious too. That power outage thing was a lame excuse. The company is powerful and rich yet they can't provide a good generator for the house?" Everyone laughed at her rants.
"Good thing you're here Jisoo, it's bored with just the three of us." Jackson smiled placing his arm around Jisoo.
"Oh no honey, you're the only one who's bored. Ryujin and I are enjoying the free food and accommodation." Seulgi told Jackson as she slapped the back of his head playfully.
Ryujin glanced at Jisoo, "Leave him be, Jisoo, he's just bitter because the camp looks less nicer than the big brother house."
"Yeah it's literally like a camp, I want to go back to the BB House to have a lavish stay there, don't you agree Jisoo?" Jackson widely grinned.
"He's bitter because we have no pool here." Seulgi spoke calmly as she began cooking.
"Exactly that! To hell with this House Camp." Jackson pouted and stomped his way to the small dining table that had six chairs on.
Jisoo sat down in front of Jackson, "So we only need two more evictees so we can have the Battle Back Showdown?" She clarified.
Jackson nodded, "Uhuh. But it's not gonna be easy. The house camp winner will have to face the Battle Back Showdown with the Head of Household for Week 8 or someone else of their choosing, so there's only 4 of them left there that time." He explained.
Jisoo licked her lips while thinking how tedious the process can be just to get back in the house, which was reasonable.
Ryujin placed plates on the dining table as Jackson stood up to get themselves a pitcher of water. Ryujin was now the one to speak, "Basically if the Housemates knew we had the chance to go back and snatch the big winner title, they would do their best to not let that happen, I'd feel the same too if I was them because it will just settle to a double eviction."
Jisoo's mouth agaped in surprise, "Did you just say double eviction? So two?"
"Yeah, two housemates will leave the house in one week because of the addition of another housemate. That would make sense considering that big brother has to follow the 11 weeks schedule for the season." Ryujin elaborated.
Jisoo bit her lip thinking of the bigger chance of Jennie getting evicted because of the double eviction week.
"The twist of the season that is." Seulgi said behind Jisoo when she was done making egg fried rice.
"And since we have our new House Challenger, Jisoo, let's welcome her with this special treat!" Jackson announced in a loud voice as he got something from their refrigerator.
"A Coca Cola!" Jackson screamed lifting the can of Coca Cola in glory and only Ryujin and Seulgi clapped with his antics.
"Seriously..?" Jisoo asked innocently with the small treat she didn't expect. She was grateful for the welcome but she couldn't help but compare it with the welcoming party back in the Big Brother House.
Seulgi laughed seeing the reaction of Jisoo, "Girl, that's the only shit we got here. They're giving us bare minimum because we aren't housemates. Their big budget just goes to them."
Jisoo chuckled lightly shaking her head from left to right, "It's okay Jackson, you can have it. I don't drink Cola."
Jackson shrieked in glee but shrugged so weirdly right away to hide his little excitement, "I mean if you really want me to, I don't want to waste a good Cola." He smiled but quickly chugged the Cola.
"So the public also knows that we're playing for a back-to-the-house slot right?" Jisoo questioned in confirmation when she remembers the guy telling her he hopes for her to 'come back too' so this must've been it.
"Yeah, our entrance and a few of our tasks were aired on last week's episodes on Friday and Saturday only since Sunday is just a live broadcast for eviction."
Jisoo nodded once again with Seulgi's response and they all sat down when she was also done cooking bacon.
Everything still feels surreal for Jisoo. Just three days after stepping back to the outside world, she found herself returning to the show, and now, she was battling to secure her place on it once more. Even though she was already at House Camp, she couldn't quite grasp the reality of it all. A quickened heartbeat and a radiant smile marked her anticipation imagining the moment she could finally lay eyes on Jennie again inside the Big Brother House.
That Nancy woman might've surprised her with the call 3 days ago. She actually had given her a choice of going to this House Camp or not. Thus, the 3-day interval of the invitation and of her arrival in the Camp.
It only took one Monday night for Jisoo to make up her mind of coming back. By Tuesday and Wednesday, she was busy working on all her papers and meetings again so she would be good to go and ready to leave unlike the first time she disappeared unprepared. What's more was she met with Krystal once more. It turned out that all the ex-housemates received a generous consolation prize of a thousand dollars for their contributions to the reality show, which had proven to be a goldmine through its soaring ratings, sponsorships, and other lucrative endeavors.
Seulgi all of sudden had her glass of water extended to the air, "Cheers for us, house challengers! Less than 2 weeks 'til D-day and hopefully one of us really gets back in!" Jisoo grinned with her remarks.
"Cheers!"