Dating, Jisoo knows, is something Jennie Kim doesn't do.
So when she spies her friend presumably tongue-deep in some random person's mouth, she doesn't even bat an eye, just continues to drink and hope they don't get kicked out for indecency.
It was a very typical Saturday night for the both of them: Jennie getting shoved against a wall, or being led to the bathroom, or doing something inherently sexual, and Jisoo just glad to be here.
She looks back to check if her friend isn't doing something potentially concerning, but instead sees her walking over the bar where Jisoo's at, stumbling a few times while she's at it.
"What happened to your, uh, buddy?" Jisoo asks after helping her up the stool.
Jennie looks up from where she was messing with a paper napkin. "She left." Her brow furrows as if she was trying to remember. "Said she..." Jennie trails off.
"Said she what?" Jisoo asks.
All Jennie does is give an indifferent shrug. "Dunno. She never finished."
Jisoo isn't surprised when Jennie looks like she really couldn't care less. She looks her over. Although adequately drunk, hair mussed, lipstick smudged, she still looks fantastically, absurdly beautiful, and is easily considered the hottest person in the entire club. (Like, besides herself, naturally.) Jennie knows it too, Jisoo figured it out a long time ago, loves using it to her advantage, enjoys it, really. Jennie Kim can have practically anyone she wants.
And, like, Jisoo isn't really jealous, though. She has a loving girlfriend, mind you.
"Why aren't you drinking?" Jennie asks, now attempting to make a paper plane out of her napkin.
Jisoo gives an amused smile. "I'm supposed to be looking out for your ass, remember?" She says it like she doesn't tell her that a thousand times already.
Sometimes Jennie's drunk and Jisoo's relatively sober, other times it's the other way around. More times than not Jennie is the one intoxicated, though, and neither of them is drunk at the same time unless a third and much more responsible body was involved, usually in the form of Chaeyoung, Jisoo's girlfriend and their other roommate.
Jennie nods. "Right." She examines her handiwork on her finished plane. (Now that Jisoo's really looking at it, it could possibly be a boat too.) "You know, that girl was really pretty." Then with wide eyes, Jennie leans over, looking like she's ready to share an earth-shattering secret.
Jisoo isn't sure what Jennie's doing for a second, but leans the rest of the way in so her best friend doesn't fall and damage her ass. Fingers cupped to the side of her mouth as to not let anything unwanted reach anyone else's ears, she whispers, "Like, I think she's even prettier than me by like, a whole lot. Like, beautiful." Then she adds: "And her ass is so nice."
"Wow, really?" Jisoo says with an amused tilt in her voice, wondering how clearly Jennie actually saw her face in the darkness while she was too busy with her hands up the other girl's top.
Jennie nods. "So nice." Then she frowns almost comically. "Oh, no. I miss her, Chu," she says despairingly.
Jisoo can't help but laugh at that. Jennie says things like that all the time; she's doubtful the girl even remembers her name. "What was her name?"
It takes her a while to respond. Then, "Lisa, I think." Jennie's hands move idly to unfold her airplane/boat. "Or was it Lana? Lena? Lauren? I don't know." She tries to smoothen out her creased napkin. "Maybe it's time for me to pass out, Chu."
Jisoo hums in agreement at that.
*
They manage to make it home in one piece, walking up to their door with Jennie's arm slung over Jisoo's shoulder supporting her, a typical Saturday night completed. Correction, Jisoo checks her phone, Sunday morning.
Jisoo fishes for her keys in her purse, earning an annoyed grumble from Jennie, whose eyes are closed like she was trying to catch some sleep. "Oh, shut up," Jisoo says, "you're lucky I'm such a good friend." Jennie just grumbles again and Jisoo takes it as a sign of defeat.
The door creaks as it opens and the pair finds Chaeyoung sitting on the couch watching TV. She stands when she sees them enter, stretches and yawns. "Hey, did you have fun?" She asks, giving Jisoo a peck on the lips.
"You didn't have to wait for us, babe," Jisoo says, twisting her lips into a slight moue out of worry.
"I know, but I needed to work on a few pages of my book anyways," Chaeyoung says. "Plus, I didn't wanna sleep without you."
Jisoo visibly softens before Jennie says, "I was going to throw up from being drunk, but I think I'll just throw up because of you two."
"Oh yeah, like you aren't always getting all handsy with some rando at the club." Jisoo shoots back.
Jennie moves and takes her arm off of Jisoo to toss her heels in a random direction and starts to slowly shuffle into the bathroom in her inebriated state. "I'd protest but it's a true statement, so." Jisoo hears the bathroom door shut.
*
In Jisoo's opinion, Jennie's completely insufferable when she's hungover without getting laid the night before. Actually, it's also completely insufferable when Jennie and her partner are inconsiderably loud, so Jisoo kind of loses, either way she looks at it.
But this time her insufferableness was caused via incessant whining with Jisoo admonishing, "Then don't drink as much, you idiot."
She still holds Jennie's hair back regardless.
*
It's the Monday after when Irene breaks the news that they're all going to be next-door neighbors.
"What?" Chaeyoung exclaims. "Really?"
"Yes, really!" Irene's voice is heard throughout the speaker on the phone. "Me and my roomie are going to be living right across from you!"
"When?" Jisoo asks, barely able to contain her excitement.
Irene was her, Chaeyoung, and Jennie's best friend throughout high school and even when Irene had to move halfway across the country to Busan away from the other three. Now with Irene coming back, everything's going to feel right again, their old friend group together like almost nothing's changed.
"This Wednesday," Irene says, "I wanted it to be a surprise but I just couldn't hold it in anymore, you guys! We'll be together again!"
Jennie's smile matches the one on her two friend's faces. "Who's your roomie?"
"Her name's Lalisa and you'll love her," she replies. "She's actually started going to school here so she's been living with her aunt in town until I'm coming down. Anyways, I know she'll fit right in with us."
They spend the rest of the time talking and catching up, eventually becoming a very vocal competition on who can share the most embarrassing stories of each other with Irene, excitement showing in the girls' smiles, laughing through the phone speaker, almost impatiently waiting for the real thing.
*
"Guess who needs help moving in?" Is the first thing Irene sing-songs when she sees them all for the first time in months.
"Irene!" Chaeyoung, Jisoo, and Jennie shout all at once. They run up, Jisoo reaching the girl first (she has her athleticism to thank for that) as she tackles her into a hug, the other two soon following.
Then it becomes a big mess of: "We missed you!" "I love you!" and "You still owe me thirty bucks!"
Jennie eventually shushes them all with a hiss of: "You guys, shut the fuck up," noticing the blinds of a few windows opening up to come take a peek at all the commotion outside.
Then it seems like Irene notices the girl standing near the door of their car, looking extremely uncomfortable and out of place, picking at the sleeves of her sweater, at the same time the other girls do.
"Oh," Irene says, like she just remembered the girl's presence. "This is Lisa, my roommate." She grabs her by the wrist to get her to come closer to everyone else. "Lisa, this is Chaeyoung, Jisoo, and Jennie."
"Hi, Lisa." Jisoo gives her a friendly smile, understanding how incredibly awkward she must feel. She overlooks the flush in Lisa's cheeks when her eyes fix on Jennie, just dismisses it for a mix of shyness and an oddly chilly breeze; she doesn't glance over at Jennie either, the recognizing glint in Jennie's cat-like eyes going unnoticed.
*
In a short span of twenty minutes, Jisoo's already learned that Lisa is a clumsy person. She can attest to that, by the way, the girl carries her poorly taped-up boxes, politely brushing aside any help from Chaeyoung or Jisoo, almost tripping twice (once from her unlaced boot and the other by the sidewalk curb she "didn't know existed there").
She was kind of a mess, really, but whatever, Jisoo doesn't judge.
"Hey, Lis, you mind helping Jennie with the couch?" Irene calls to Lisa when she comes back from inside their apartment, chin gesturing to Jennie because her hands were too busy helping Chaeyoung carry a humongous box that was just about bigger than the smaller girl.
"Yeah, Lisa, you mind helping me?" Jennie says, hands already on said couch.
Jisoo hears a hint of teasing in her voice, ignores it because it's Jennie and she flirts with basically everyone. She looks down at her phone to check the time, misses the way Lisa blinks, back straightening at the sound of Jennie's voice.
Jisoo looks up to see Jennie and Lisa lift the couch with an efforted grunt, Jennie walking backwards and Lisa walking forward, she thinks nothing of the way Lisa's eyes are glued to the armrest and nowhere else, until—
"Lis, make sure to watch out for the—"
"Oof."
"God dammit."
Lisa trips over the forgotten sidewalk once again, the couch making a blunt sound after hitting the concrete, echoing throughout the parking lot.
"Oh, god, I'm so sorry." The apology comes out of Lisa's mouth in a rushed manner. She runs a hand through her hair. "Uh, I really need to remember that that's there." She forces a nervous laugh to come its way out of her chest. Jennie snickers and Jisoo decides it was because of the joke Lisa had cracked, so she doesn't glare at her.
"It's alright." Jisoo steps in to take Lisa's spot. "I gotcha."
Lisa gives another laugh. "Yeah, thanks." She walks slowly back to the truck, an embarrassed blush painting her cheeks. "I think I'm just going to stick to carrying, like, lamps and small-to-medium-sized boxes that weigh less than I do."
Irene fondly rolls her eyes and Jennie exhales in amusement. "Just don't break anything else, Lis. I got my eye on you," Irene warns more than says.
"Yeah, just as it probably should be," Lisa replies, voice muffled from her location inside the truck, presumably looking for more lamps.
Because of countless years of friendship, Jisoo knows exactly when the gears of Jennie's mind are turning, thoughts ranging from innocent to, well, the opposite of that. Moving the couch into Irene's living area, Jisoo knows it's one of those times.
"What is it?" Jisoo asks. Jennie meets her eyes, and they also have a weird ability to read each other's thoughts because one side of Jennie's mouth curves upwards and Jisoo knows it means she'll tell her later. She rolls her eyes but still waits.
*
After moving all the boxes inside Irene and Lisa's apartment, Chaeyoung proposes they take a break and invites them into their place.
Chaeyoung's in the kitchen baking cookies as Irene's looking at all their pictures on the walls of the living area with Lisa following her around, giving Jisoo the slight impression of a lost puppy.
"Aww," Irene says, pointing at the picture with Jisoo and Chaeyoung in matching Mickey Mouse hats kissing outside a castle in Disney World. "I forgot how super cute you are." Then she laughs. "So I'm guessing Jennie and her single self took this picture."
Jennie snorts. "You know it."
"You still stuck on that whole 'dating people is lame' thing or whatever?" Irene asks airily and turns to look at her, her smile easy on her face.
Jennie matches Irene's smile but directs it at Lisa instead. "Of course."
Lisa quickly turns away to pick up a picture frame on the coffee table. She puts it back down as soon as she realizes it's a picture of Jennie.
Jisoo notices that.
"Can one of you give me a hand, please?" Chaeyoung's voice is heard through the partition separating the kitchen.
Jisoo's about to call back to offer her assistance, but Irene gets to it first. "Ooh, I'll help!" (By help, Jisoo knows it's just her attempting to eat leftover cookie dough.)
She walks to the kitchen and Lisa stands for a little bit, probably deciding whether or not to follow her or endure minutes of potentially awkward silence. She opts to follow Irene, of course.
Jisoo glances at Jennie, expecting her to explain whatever it is she's been wanting to say and Jennie wastes no time, leaning over to say in a hushed tone: "That's Lisa."
Jisoo's brow scrunches in confusion for a second and then: "Wait, as in like, 'your latest drunken makeout' Lisa?"
Jennie nods, seeing the humor in all of this. "Precisely."
"Oh my god."
"I know."
"Oh my god."
"I know."
Jisoo giggles, seeing the humor in it too, and says, "So that's the Lisa who you've drunkenly admitted was prettier than you by, like, a whole lot," she quotes her friend's words from that night, "the one that's, 'like, beautiful'."
Jennie isn't even fazed. "Hey, but her ass is nice, isn't it?"
Jisoo can't do anything but agree because it's true.
"So that's why she's been acting so weird," she says. "I thought she was just really, really shy."
Irene walks out of the kitchen with Lisa in tow as Jisoo and Jennie are still giggling.
Irene raises an eyebrow. "You guys look like you've just been talking mad shit about someone."
Jisoo's still giggling but Jennie's managed to calm down a little. "Oh, it's nothing."
She tuts. "Wow, I haven't seen you in an entire year and you are already keeping secrets from me." Irene's eyes are still narrowed at them because she isn't sure if it really was nothing or if she just missed out on some big juicy info on anyone. Still, she lets it slide.
Chaeyoung announces that the cookies are ready and three out of the four girls literally jump out of their seats to fight their way to the stovetop, Irene almost knocking over Chaeyoung and Chaeyoung yelling at her to watch it.
"Damage my girlfriend and I damage your face, Bae," Jisoo warns. Irene just sticks her tongue out.
After each grabbing a few cookies in hand, the girls make their way into the small dining area.
Chaeyoung and Irene get into a conversation to which Lisa chimes in from time to time, the first time Jisoo's heard her speak since they stepped inside their apartment.
Jisoo examines the way Lisa's long dark hair flows more than falls past her shoulders in loose waves, hands reaching up and occasionally fixing her bangs, flipping her hair to one side and the other— a habit that Jennie has, too—crooked glasses resting on the bridge of her nose, wearing a white sweater with the image of the sun kissing the moon on it, a faded stain, that Jisoo can assume is orange juice, blooms in a small spot near the collar—Lisa shifts and a curl of brown hair covers it up—and like, Jennie really wasn't exaggerating because Lisa really can fill in those dark blue jeans she's currently wearing, even while one of her boots still can't be bothered to be tied.
She oddly pulls that look off, Jisoo thinks, just the right amount of a good fashion sense crossed with a slightly scatterbrained personality. It's kind of cute, she admits.
Jisoo looks over to Jennie and sees that she was probably doing the same thing, upwards tilt on her mouth like she's sharing an inside joke with herself—which, she probably is.
Lisa's hands are actively moving around as she's telling a story, pulling her bottom lip between her teeth when she finishes telling a particularly funny bit about her little sister.
Jennie glances to Jisoo at that, a quirk in her eyebrow.
Jisoo gives her a look like, Are you seriously having these thoughts right now?
Jennie shrugs, a quirk in her eyebrows like Well what can you do?, folding her hands to rest her chin on them, elbows on the table, either listening intently at Lisa's story or just staring at her lips (or possibly both).
God, sometimes her best friend is just so unbelievable.
*
It's a Saturday afternoon. Jisoo has just finished the gymnastics class she helps in coaching, the range of six-to-ten year-olds being especially bratty today. (And one particular seven-year-old she had almost gotten in a fight with over which foot was her left foot, and ugh, god.)
"It was not a good day today," she calls out to anyone in general, after tossing her sports bag onto the floor beside the couch.
"Alcohol?" Jennie inquires from her spot on the other side of the couch, because her logic is just to get drunk to solve your problems. (And, well, sometimes Jisoo thinks it's pretty empirical logic.)
Right now is one of those times. "Hell yeah, girl."
"Did I hear alcohol?" Irene's head pops out of the kitchen along with Chaeyoung's. "I'm in."
Jisoo's inclined to remind Irene that she literally has her own apartment to reside in, but instead she says, "Yeah, why don't we all go? It can be your welcome party." Then she sees the hopeful look on Irene's face and adds, "That I'm not paying for, by the way—just inviting."
"Yeah, fine." Irene huffs and exits their door. "I'll get Lisa."
*
At the end of the night, Chaeyoung ends up overpowering all of her karaoke partners by ten-fold, even Irene, who made an attempt to channel her inner Beyoncé and be the loudest one there, ultimately failing when Chaeyoung went into opera mode—which Jisoo didn't even know was a thing you could do in karaoke, but whatever.
Jennie makes an affronted gasp when Chaeyoung dedicates a rather giggly rendition of "Love on Top" to Jisoo instead of her, but eventually gets over it once a tall and fairly good-looking guy buys her a drink, soon forgetting trivial things like personal space, and whispering in each other's ears, something Jisoo's sure she doesn't want to know about.
Lisa's only a couple drinks in, just laughing and smiling at anything funny to laugh and smile about, and she sings a few duets with Irene, but declines her challenge to see who can down the most drinks without, well, dying, so Jisoo can tell that Lisa is thankfully unlike her counterpart in this department, too.
(And she hasn't made out with anyone this time, so.)
Irene, loud and boisterous when sober, becomes increasingly everything with each and every shot she takes and Jisoo has to restrain her from dancing atop her chair at one point, Chaeyoung laughing so hard she looks like she might puke.
So, a typical Saturday night, but new and improved.
Jisoo isn't sure if she should be worried or excited to see what future Saturday nights behold.
*
It takes Lisa a while to warm up to her new neighbors, Jisoo notices, but she starts laughing along with them brighter and louder a little more frequently each and every day, and she thinks it's progress.
Before long, it's like Lisa's almost part of their friend group. Almost.
Like, if it wasn't for the way she avoided any type of communication or contact with Jennie. Like, at all. For Christ's sake, she still can't even look in her direction without doing a complete one-eighty.
But it's not all her fault; Jisoo knows it's a good part of Jennie's fault too. It's Jennie's fault because of how she basically enables the entire thing, obviously aware of the situation and making it a little worse with every deliberate smirk, every lingering glance, hell, every good morning she greets Lisa with, the poor girl always looking like she isn't sure who Jennie's directing them at.
It almost makes Jisoo feel sorry for her. If, like, the entire thing wasn't kind of funny.
But she's a good person, though, she promises, so she eventually asks Jennie to tone it down a notch. To paraphrase, she tells her best friend to stop being that big of an asshole and to take it back a bit.
("I know you're just joking around with her, but jeez, Jennie, let the poor girl live her life peacefully. It legit looks like she wants to dig a hole and lie in it forever every time she sees you."
"Fine, I'll apologize to her."
"Good.")
*
"Lis."
"Irene, I don't understand how this is really any of your business," Lisa half groans, face warm and pink.
"Lis, it's my job as your best friend and roommate to be involved in your sex life, is it not?" Irene says matter-of-factly, looking to the other girls for support.
"Nuh-uh, girl, I'm not getting into this discussion," Chaeyoung says, flipping the channels on the TV remote. Jisoo agrees.
"But do we really have to do this right now?" Lisa takes off her glasses to wipe them, probably an excuse to avoid any eye contact.
"Lalisa, I am genuinely concerned for your well-being. You can actually like, explode or something if you aren't, like, you know-ing enough," she says it like she's a doctor listing symptoms to a patient.
"Or are you just really determined to embarrass me?" Lisa puts her head in her hands.
Jisoo's never met anyone who can be so easily embarrassed, but then again, she wouldn't exactly be enthusiastic of anyone talking about her sex life to a bunch of people she's only known for a few weeks either.
"You know you can talk about this like, in your own room, right?" She says, but Irene ignores her with a scoff.
"What're we talking about?" Jennie comes out of the hallway, wringing her wet hair with a towel.
"Did you know Lisa's only had, like, two boyfriends in her life?"
"Irene!"
"What? I'm just proving a point that you need to go out more!"
Jisoo thinks Jennie looks like she just struck gold. "Only two boyfriends? Looking like that? I don't believe it."
Lisa looks like she wouldn't be opposed to full-on sprinting an entire marathon just to get out of this conversation.
Irene continues. "C'mon, Lis, Tae was an asshole for breaking up with you over a damn text—you gotta realize that."
"I do realize that." She's playing with her glasses now, folding and unfolding. "I just—" She promptly cuts herself off with a long groan, putting her face in her hands.
Jennie speaks up. "Well you could've, you know."
All eyes are on her now. "Could have what?" Irene asks.
Now, Jisoo loves Jennie. Jisoo loves the way Jennie's so socially aware and educated and eloquent, she loves how Jennie uses all three of those qualities at once sometimes, putting a hateful person in their place, or just educating someone after they've made an ignorant statement. Jennie has an ability to tear people down with her words, and the same with building them up, too. She loves how Jennie's so vocal and passionate about things in general, loves it when Jennie opens her mouth to say something.
But right at this moment, seeing the way Jennie's eyes are glinting, the statement bubbling up from her throat, on the tip of her tongue, waiting until she opens her mouth again, Jisoo thinks it'd be best for her to keep it shut.
Naturally, Jennie keeps talking, ignoring the furtive warning What did I tell you about taking it down a notch? shake of Jisoo's head.
Lisa must be noticing the same thing Jisoo has because she fixes on her with wide doe eyes, mentally bracing herself for Jennie's next inevitable words.
"Like, I probably would have slept with you, I mean." Oh my god. "Like, if I correctly recall that night we made out in that club." Oh my god.
Lisa looks at Jennie in utter disbelief. Jisoo does too.
She really needs to get that girl a filter.
"What?!" Is what comes out of Chaeyoung and Irene, like they both heard that the Earth was in the middle of an alien invasion.
"Oh my god."
Now Jisoo's the one putting her face in her hands.
"Whoa, whoa, what? Which night? When? Huh?" Chaeyoung's TV shows are completely forgotten now.
"YOU MADE OUT WITH LISA?" Irene shouts, surprise and disbelief plain on her face.
A hiss comes out of Lisa, "Oh, just announce it to the entire apartment complex, why don't you?"
"What the fu—" Irene stands up from the couch now. "Details," she demands, looking back and forth from poor Lisa's still-in-shock face and Jennie's faux-confused one, like she isn't sure what she said, that was so wrong.
Jisoo's eyes peek out from her hands, eyebrows raised, looking at both girls like she's asking, Well, which one of you is going to explain? and Lisa then looks at Jennie, realizing that she herself should be the one to explain, because of the possibility that what comes out of Jennie's mouth is only going to make her look super embarrassing. (Like, even more so.)
So, Lisa takes a deep breath and just goes for it, not really given much of a choice. "So, Irene, remember the first week I made it back to Seoul when I told you that Tae dumped me over a text?"
"Yeah, and you somehow convinced me not to kick his white ass. I remember."
"And you told me to go out and do stuff and to not think about it?"
"Yeah?"
"So, I took your advice, and long story short, that's how I ended up, uh..." Lisa clears her throat. "How I ended up... yeah." She finishes lamely.
"How she ended up pinning me against a wall of the club," Jennie supplies. Lisa and Jisoo wince while she wonders about Jennie's lack of shame.
"Well..." Chaeyoung drawls after a few too many beats of silence. "At least you did end up not thinking about that Tae guy that night."
Irene whistles. "Lis, I didn't know you were actually going to take my advice." Her face lights up into an amused grin, shock forgotten. "I thought you were just going to board yourself up in your old room with your Minion pajamas and cry yourself to sleep with ice cream leaking out of your mouth or something. I even had the perfect mental image." She walks over to give Lisa a pat on the back. "But like, coincidentally making out with one of my best friends and our future neighbor? Much better."
Then she stops, squinting a little, looks Jennie up and down, and then does the same to Lisa. "But no funny business better happen between you two. I'ma be watching a little closer from now on."
Lisa turns crimson. Jennie snorts.
"So," Chaeyoung stands up and declares. "That was wild. Who wants some brownies?"
*
"I apologized to her, by the way," Jennie says the next day.
Jisoo raises an eyebrow. "Really? You did?"
"Yeah, I did. We're good now."
"Good," she says. Jisoo knows Jennie never means to make situations get weirder than they should, she just doesn't believe in constantly having to keep things to herself. Granted, she probably should have kept that one to herself, but...
Jennie tries and that's why Jisoo loves her.
*
And if making Lisa flustered was some sort of running joke (which it kinda was to Irene, at least), it soon runs dry. Soon, she can stand to be in the same room with Jennie, saying good morning back when Jennie greets her, and Irene even stops making allusions about what happened that night because Lisa seems to have gotten over the entire ordeal; instead of stammering and blushing, she just rolls her eyes now.
Jisoo considers it a good thing; she didn't know how long she was going to last with the daily sight of Lisa's pink cheeks and wide eyes.
*
Jisoo has a checklist for this sort of thing.
She and Jennie are at one of Jennie's friend's cousin's roommate's boyfriend's party that she somehow got dragged to because Jennie whined that Jisoo still owed her for that one time she lost the TV remote and Jennie found it for her behind the couch. According to Jennie, Jisoo jumped up and down and gathered her in a hug saying, "Thank you so much! Oh my god, I, like, owe you my life now." (Jisoo claims she remembers nothing of that, but in the end she still begrudgingly accompanies her.)
It goes like this: a thinly veiled excuse to say hello, a purposely crooked smile, fingers running through her hair, lingering eye contact, excessive flirting, and then bam—Jisoo will be yelling at them to get a room.
But like, Jisoo doesn't judge because it's not her business, even though it really can get annoying sometimes.
(But Jisoo's such a good friend that she overlooks the fact with grace.)
*
So Jennie doesn't date. That is already an established fact.
But what she does occasionally have is Chahee.
Chahee's pretty cool, Jisoo thinks, and she and Jennie have a lot of similarities. They both dress alike, have similar music tastes, and they're passionate about a lot of the same social matters.
And, well, they have another common interest, too; like each other. Out of everyone Jisoo's seen hook up with Jennie, she's pretty sure Chahee's the one she's seen her with the most—either in or out of her bedroom.
And she definitely favors her over any of the boys Jennie's hooked up with, she thinks, remembering Jungkook, and Mino, and, god, don't even get her started on Kai.
Like, she doesn't even mind that she saw Chahee with only a blanket wrapped around her naked self, drinking a glass of orange juice in the kitchen one fateful morning. (Okay, sort of.)
And she's even been to a number of their game nights. Which is like, practically a sacred bi-monthly ceremony full of bets and temporarily ruined relationships. But she had brought over some nice-looking wine with a name that Jisoo couldn't pronounce and they beat Jennie and Chaeyoung's team by five points that night. So Chahee and her alcoholic beverages were deemed welcome at any point in time for the rest of their lives.
"And, you're sure you don't actually like her or anything?" Jisoo had asked her once after game night as they're picking up the game cards that were haphazardly thrown onto the floor by one of Jennie's sore loser tantrums, as Jisoo likes to call them.
Jennie just laughs it off, waving her hand dismissively and saying, "Nah, Chahee's pretty and funny and stuff, but we've established that whatever we're doing is just a thing." She shrugs, kneels down, and reaches under the coffee table for a 'add four' card that they've been missing for almost three minutes now.
She grabs the card and hands it to Jisoo to complete the stack. "I'd tell you if I ever actually liked someone, Chu," she says with a tilt in her mouth, noticing the curious raise in her friend's brow.
"Mhmm," she hums. "You better. I'd like to be the first person informed when the impossible happens, the earth opens up in a fiery pit of smoke, and entire civilizations collapse," she adds dramatically.
Jennie rolls her eyes. "On second thought, I think I'll just confide in Chaeyoung and make her swear not to tell you." Jisoo feigns offense. "And then Chahee and I will just have loud sex all night to make you suffer." She winks.
Jisoo's face scrunches up in disgust at that. "Ew." She puts the box of UNO cards down. "You know what, you can just clean all this up by yourself then, since this is all your loser mess anyways." And she walks out of the living area with her head shaking and Jennie's laugh ringing behind her.
*
"Irene, move the fuck out of the way!" Jennie shouts as she dodges a potentially tooth-shattering encounter with Irene's Wii remote.
"Shit, Jennie, blame this tiny ass apartment you got!" She shouts back, knees bent and bouncing from side to side like she was actually playing a professional tennis match at Wimbledon, or something.
"Watch the language, you dumbasses!" Jisoo says, returning Irene's serve with her pink Wii remote.
Jennie steps on Irene's foot and she yelps, completely missing the return to stop and glare. "Are you fucking—"
"You know you wouldn't be losing so badly if you'd just work together," Chaeyoung says when she and Jisoo score another point.
"Whatever, doubles suck anyways," Irene says indignantly.
"You suck anyways," Jennie half-mutters.
"That's it." Irene pauses the game on her serve, ignoring Jennie and Jisoo's groan. "I refuse to work with the likes of her." She points an accusatory finger at Jennie. "Lis," she says, and Lisa's head snaps up from her spot on the couch.
"Huh?" She hums around a mouthful of popcorn.
"You're going to go avenge me in this game." She takes the popcorn bowl from Lisa and puts it on her own lap.
"Okay," she says, uncomplaining. "I've only played this like, a total of three times in my entire life though, just so you guys know." She stands up and wipes her hands on her jeans.
*
A good thing: Jennie doesn't accidentally step on Lisa's foot and Lisa doesn't accidentally step on hers.
A not-so-good thing: They still lose.
(Irene shakes her head chidingly. "I'm disappointed but not surprised.")
*
Jennie sighs dramatically, "Chu, do I really have to do the grocery shopping all by myself? My lonesome? Unaccompanied? Solo?"
Jisoo exhales in somewhat-acknowledgment. "Yeah, it's your turn this week."
Jennie looks up at Chaeyoung in a pleading manner.
"Sorry, Jen, but no." She cuddles into Jisoo's side. "Oh, but remember to get me some yogurt, though."
Jennie gives one big groan and splays herself out onto the couch. "But I hate grocery shopping by myself."
"Then go call up Chahee or something," Jisoo says, absentmindedly running her fingers through Chaeyoung's hair.
"Who's Chahee?" Irene pipes in from the kitchen. "Oh, and by the way, you ran out of yogurt."
Jisoo doesn't even know how and when she got here. "Oh my god, get out, Irene."
"What?" Irene says. "It wasn't even me who ate the last of the yogurt, it was Lisa!"
Lisa's voice is heard from inside the kitchen. "Irene's lying to you guys, she definitely ate it." She comes out of the kitchen and into the living room along with her unwelcome friend.
"Okay, we shared it."
"Out!"
"Okay, we'll leave, but just answer the question," Irene says. "Who's Chahee?"
"Jennie's girlfriend who isn't actually her girlfriend," Jisoo says.
That makes Jennie sit up straight. "She's not my girlfriend!"
Jisoo would drop the conversation at this point, but she's still a little annoyed at Jennie's refusal to do the damn groceries, so incredulously she says, "I never said she was."
Irene says, "Wait, what? I thought you weren't into dating."
Jisoo shifts to see Lisa checking her phone, one hand tapping something on her jeans. Jisoo doesn't think or frankly cares enough to think about it.
"I'm not into dating," Jennie says, crossing her arms. "We're just, like, a thing."
"A thing?"
"A thing."
Irene raises an inquiring eyebrow. "So like, friends with benefits."
Jennie's nose wrinkles. "It sounds trashy and cliché when you put it like that."
"But it is like that, isn't it?"
"Well," Jennie tilts her head, defeated, "essentially, yeah."
"You got a boo," Irene sing-songs.
"She's not my boo."
"Oh, my god, are you going to get the groceries or what?" Chaeyoung shouts, muffled by Jisoo's shoulder.
"What? Me too?" Irene protests.
"Yeah, because you ate all my damn yogurt!"
Irene sighs, the same sigh Jennie had made earlier. "Fine. C'mon, Lis, we have to help get this loser some groceries."
Then upon the look on Lisa's face, she says, "Girl, don't give me that look. It was a combined effort."
The door closes behind the three as Chaeyoung lets out a breath and Jisoo says, "Oh, thank the Lord, I thought they'd never leave."
Then, "Who gave Irene a key?"
*
"Irene, that's not a real word."
"What? That's some bull. Says who?"
"Other fellow English speakers that aren't you."
"I don't believe you."
It was game night again. The Scrabble board is laid out on the carpet, the six girls (including Chahee) were sprawled out on the living room floor. (It was Jennie's night to pick the game. Obviously.)
Irene made the fatal mistake (well, fatal for Jisoo anyways, because she's been sitting through this argument for three minutes now) of putting down some word that Jennie's hell-bent on insisting doesn't exist (it doesn't, by the way) and Jisoo isn't sure if Irene seriously thinks it's an existing word or if this is a new way to mess with Jennie, but it's taking forever.
Irene looks to Chaeyoung, like she'll back her up on this.
"Hey, don't look at me," Chaeyoung says. "I'm only a kindergarten teacher."
"But don't you write books, too?"
"Yeah, ones about bedtime and brushing your teeth. I barely even type more than eight letters for each word."
Irene scoffs. "You know what, Jennie?" She throws an S piece at the girl and it lands on her hair before falling beside her. "I don't need any more of your damn negativity in my life." She turns. "Hey, Chahee." She takes her cup and holds it out. "Pour me some more, please? Love you."
"Irene, it's still your turn," Jennie reminds her.
Irene swishes her newly filled cup. "I already went."
"Yeah, but it wasn't a real word."
Irene groans exasperatedly. "Jesus, Jennie, just take it or leave it."
"What if I wanna leave it?"
Jisoo wonders how long this can go on until her head explodes. Hopefully not long. She looks down at her pieces. She can make the word fish, she thinks, choosing that to be her next game plan if Irene and Jennie will ever get the hell over this argument.
They don't get over it as soon as Jisoo wishes for it, but eventually, Irene drops out of the game altogether, saying, "Okay I'm quitting and switching over to a new game I like to call: Being Super Cute and Annoying." She refills her glass. "And also getting tipsyyyy," she sings.
"I'm with you there, sister." Chahee, who had dropped out two rounds ago, high-fives Irene.
*
Jennie ends up winning (not really much of a shocker there) and Irene does end up fulfilling her promise (that no one really asked her to keep).
After the night finishes, Chahee decides to "sleep" over with Jennie, Jisoo and Chaeyoung decide to tuck in, and Lisa is left with dragging a reasonably tipsy Irene safely to their apartment.
("Gee, thanks, you guys."
"Sorry, Lis.")
*
If she ever—when—she becomes rich, Jisoo swears her first action as a billionaire would be to buy and demolish this entire apartment complex and hire people to construct a bigger and better one with thicker walls. And quite possibly with hot tubs. But more importantly the thicker walls part.
Jisoo rubs her fingers against her temples, eyes closed, and gives out a tired sigh.
Chaeyoung sips on her coffee. "I told you to start sleeping with earbuds in or something," she admonishes, contentedly munching on her toast.
"I wouldn't need to if Jennie would stop having sex so loudly," she grumbles.
Chaeyoung just hums in amusement, like yeah, good luck with that.
Jisoo thinks Chaeyoung's just lucky she's a heavy sleeper.
*
Jennie pads into the kitchen in only her old Paramore shirt two sizes too large that she uses to sleep in. "Is that bacon I smell?"
Jisoo harrumphs. "Yeah, but it's only for people who don't have loud sex at two in the morning."
"That's fair."
*
It's late September, nearly October, and the weather has chilled relatively quickly for a place like Seoul. Chaeyoung's little elementary-school-fall-carnival feels like a true-fall-carnival instead of what it was last year, when the temperature that day was somewhere in the high eighties and kids were running and sweating their face paint off under the sun, Jisoo thinks as she stuffs her hands in the pockets of her jacket, the wind blowing her curly hair in various directions until she fixes it.
"Um, Lisa, that looks absolutely nothing like a dog," Jennie whispers to Lisa, never taking her eyes off the brown blob the girl had painted on that poor six-year-old's cheek even as he runs off to go try some other game booths. "Don't you volunteer at an animal shelter?"
Lisa gives an indignant huff. "It does too. I think I would know what a dog looks like, considering, as you said, I volunteer at an animal shelter."
Jisoo walks up to them, stopping momentarily to glance down at the same little boy's face. "Alright, which one of you drew that turd on that kid's face?" She points her thumb back at him from where he's in line for one of the other booths and cocks her hip. "May I remind you guys that you are the ones that decided to volunteer with me at this place, or...?" She raises an eyebrow. "I do not want to get in trouble with the principal, aka my girlfriend's boss because of you two."
Jennie laughs and sips on her soda while Lisa sighs. "It was supposed to be a dog," she mumbles ashamedly.
"Lis, aren't you studying to be a vet? Don't you volunteer at an animal shelter?"
"That's what I was saying," Jennie says.
"I'm just saying..." Jisoo says, "if a bunch of angry parents start showing up and demanding why their childs' faces look like that, best know I'm outta here and you two artists will have to deal with it."
"What? Why me?" Jennie asks.
Jisoo rolls her eyes. "'Cause you two fools specifically asked to run the face painting booth, so I just gave it to both of you because I figured, 'Hey, they both say they know what they're doing, so they can just share'." She crosses her arms.
"That makes sense."
Jisoo turns to join Chaeyoung back in their own game booth, hearing Jennie's half-teasing "It's okay, Lis, not everyone appreciates the arts," behind her.
*
"What's the point of going to this Halloween party if I can't even dress like the devil?" Jennie whines, bottom lip jutting out as far as it can go.
"Jennie, it's a church Halloween party." Jisoo would hit her if she wasn't too busy zipping up her fairy costume. "For mine and Chaeyoung's church."
"I say let Jennie go," Irene chimes in from where she's helping Chaeyoung put her princess tiara on. "It'll look hot."
"We're trying to help raise money for a charity, Irene," Chaeyoung scolds, blindly reaching behind her to try and slap her arm.
"But she looks hot, though," Irene counters. "Right, Lisa, doesn't Jendeuk over here look smoking?"
"Uh, yep," Lisa agrees, too high pitched and cut off too soon. She brings her hand to push up her glasses, which Jisoo can infer is just a rather poor ruse to hide the blush in her cheeks, considering even she can see through it.
"Jennie, either you're going with us or you're not." Ew. Jisoo sounds like her mom.
"Fine. I'll go see if my cow costume still fits." Jennie trudges back into her room. "But I am not going to let that devil outfit go to waste, so you can bet your ass we're going to a real party soon."
*
Sure enough, Jennie keeps her promise.
All five of them are dancing in a terribly stuffy living room turned dancefloor at Jennie's friend's house (the type of friend that Jisoo usually tends to stay away from, but...), and all the glitter fused makeup is wearing off her face so she probably doesn't look like the most divine fairy at the moment.
*
Okay, so.
Jisoo thinks Lisa's a mess.
Jennie thinks Lisa's a hot mess. Emphasis on the hot.
At least, that's what Jennie admits to her, breath ghosting warm over Jisoo's ear, making her turn to face the girl, giggling a, "Even when you're trashed you still have a beautiful way with words, don't you, Jen?"
*
For someone who trips over her own two feet a good half of the time, Lisa isn't that bad of a dancer. Just clean up her technique a little and really, it'd be pretty hot.
"Chu Bear."
Jisoo turns and suddenly finds a pair of very friendly, vodka and a hint of soda-tasting lips on her own.
She pulls back and wipes Jennie's red lipstick off her. "Jen, really? You're messing up my makeup." Then she briefly thinks about how silly all those M-words in that sentence were.
Okay, Jisoo's a few drinks in.
But it's fine because Lisa had more or less volunteered to be the designated driver for tonight. (Meaning they all played rock, paper, scissors and she lost.)
"Get off my woman," Chaeyoung shouts over the music in one of her weird Western cowboy accents that she only makes either when she's inebriated or when she's reading a book to one of her kindergarten kids. She grabs Jisoo by the ruffles of her costume and kisses her square on the mouth for good measure.
Jennie pouts, crosses her arms. "But there aren't any hot people here that want to make out with me," she whines plaintively.
"Irene would take offense to that," Jisoo says.
As if on cue, Irene, dressed as an angel with the halo on her head not-purposely-but-still-somehow-fittingly crooked, staggers up to them, putting an arm around Jennie. Lisa, in a sexy nurse outfit that Irene had dared her to wear, shows up on the other side of Irene.
"What would Irene do now?" Irene says, a little slurred.
Instead of answering, however, Jennie leans over and kisses her. The second-long flash of surprise dies out in Irene's eyes as she shrugs and complies.
Jisoo looks over to see Lisa gaping at them like they were a spectacle to be seen. They kinda were, she guesses: A drunk devil making out with an equally drunk angel with the drunk angel's sober nurse beside them and like, seriously, Lisa might be the one needing medical attention with her jaw dropped so low, it could possibly be unhinged.
Like a snake, Jisoo thinks. She so should have been a snake for Halloween. At least it didn't require that much makeup and glitter.
Jisoo then laughs, thinking about how the nurse might need to nurse herself. She takes a picture of the sight, still giggling, the flash of her phone camera startling Jennie into pulling away.
"Whoa there, Jendeuk," Irene says when they do. "Did I somehow do something to make you instantly fall in love with me? Is it the skirt? It's probably the skirt. Your ass was always a sucker for a cute girl in a skirt."
Lisa's still got that look on her face so Irene turns to her and says, "This is Jennie's way of being friendly once you really get to know her. She's like a dog, but like, instead of humping she makes out with people." But then she winks. "Well, and maybe a little humping, too."
Jennie laughs a little too loudly, glances at Lisa a little too conspicuously, then says, "That reminds me—" She reaches past Irene to grab Lisa by the wrist, lips, eyelashes and smirk all being put into effect. "I haven't exactly been all that friendly with you yet, Lis."
"Really?" Lisa lets Jennie drag her closer, not sure if it's the atmosphere around her making her bolder than usual. "I thought you were being pretty friendly with me when we were at that club."
"Yeah, but that was when you were a stranger," Jennie informs. "Now I'm your friend, and I think, as a friend, that you should kiss me." She says it slowly, like it's nothing, which Jisoo knows is one of Jennie's many talents, knows that it contributes to the whole super hot, could get literally anyone I want vibe that Jennie's got going on.
It does work for her, though, Jisoo admits. Even when the truth is that Jennie is probably the biggest dork in the entire universe, she does sell it well.
"Come, on, Jen," Irene urges, clapping her hands impatiently, "let's get this show on the road before you put me to sleep with all that staring."
Jisoo shoots her a look. What are you pulling, Kim?
Jennie leans in, Lisa's eyes fluttering closed. She kisses her softly, pulling away and looking back at Jisoo, seeming to say: See? I'm not trying to pull anything because I'm a good person.
"Finally," Irene says. "I thought you would never get your lips in there! Now you're officially part of the squad!"
Lisa grimaces at the wording of her sentence, exclaiming, "Irene!" as she gets dragged to the dancefloor once again.
*
Chahee shows up late to the party eventually, so Jennie stops all her drunk whining, leaves Jisoo and Chaeyoung to dance in peace, drags Chahee by the arm to what she guesses is one of the bedrooms, and—
Gross.
She also feels sorry for whoever's bedroom that is.
*
"Don't you dare get any Cheeto stains on my couch, Irene Bae!" Jennie says as Irene barges through the door (uninvited, of course), a bag of Hot Cheetos in one hand, iPhone in the other, with a laughing Lisa invariably trailing behind her.
Irene sits down beside Jennie, after dancing around a little. She takes an earbud out of her ear. "What was that, Jendeuk?"
"I said: Don't get any stains on my damn couch, Irene."
The taller girl pouts. "Don't have to be rude about it."
"This couch is literally my baby."
"Damn, then I don't really wanna know who the father is."
Then Irene smooths her hand over the red couch cushion below her. "Why does it matter, anyway? My Cheetos and this couch are both red. It's like, camouflage, basically, right? Besides, this old thing doesn't even match the rest of the furniture in the room. I don't even know why you have it."
Jennie stops, gives her an affronted look, and Jisoo, seated on the chair beside them, half listening, half watching the TV, braces herself for one of Jennie's very informative speeches like it's a reflex.
"Irene, okay, one: camouflage doesn't work like that if the bugs can still get to it, two: this is the red couch from Paramore's first album, 'All We Know Is Falling', you know?"
"Oh," Irene says, nodding, although Jisoo knows she doesn't have the faintest idea what Jennie's on about. "Cool."
She scoffs. "Did you not know seventh-grade-me at all? They were all who I listened to, remember?"
Lisa perks up at that from the other side of the red couch. "Oh, I knew this was what it was!" she says, leaning forward so she can see Jennie past Irene. "It looks just like it."
Jennie grins at that, leaning forward, too. "Thanks, it literally took me forever to find one like it."
"That's so cool."
"So cool," Irene repeats, standing up, crumpling the now empty bag. "Lis, I'm going to go eat some leftover pizza back at our place, but you can stay here with Jendeuk and talk about furniture for a while, I guess." She opens the door, puts her earbuds back in, and turns to blow them a kiss. "Have fun."
Jisoo's still only half listening in on their conversation (she's too busy trying to figure out who killed the television lady's son), but she hears the topic shift from artist to artist; from Paramore to One Direction to The 1975. She hears Jennie's enthusiastic "They're so good live," to Lisa's "Really? I've never seen them live," to Jennie's "Dude, really? In that case, I'm totally taking you to one someday," then: "I've already decided so it's too late for you to refuse."
She eventually tunes out, figuring out that oh, the gardener killed the lady's son. Typical.
*
"Dibs on being that one black and red dude from Sonic the Hedgehog," Jennie says, grabbing the Wii remote. "What's his name again?"
"Shadow."
"Yeah, Shadow."
"Why?" Irene asks.
Jennie shrugs, turns on the console. "He looks cool. And he's like, super fast."
"Alright, I guess," she says. "I'm going to be Princess Peach, though, 'cause she cute."
It was game night and Chaeyoung had dug through their limited collection of video games as per Irene's request, because "I swear if I have to play another game of bowling or tennis one more damn time, I'm going to lose it". So Chaeyoung found that weird video game where it's Mario and Sonic, but like, they compete in the Olympics, too.
(Jisoo doesn't really get it, and honestly, she didn't even know that it existed, much less that they owned it.)
But anyways, it was the Winter Olympics version and Irene deemed it fitting because it was snowing outside.
So, here they are, playing the 2010 Winter Olympics version of a Mario and Sonic video game.
And each of them was only one drink in. What a night.
Scratch that, Irene just poured herself a second drink after earning a devastating fourth place in figure skating.
("Yo, this shit is rigged, I tell you. You can't have perfect timing that many times in a row."
"Chahee did."
"Yeah, Irene, I did."
"Shut your face, Chahee.")
Bobsledding, though, proves to be the biggest challenge for the girls yet.
Mostly because they actually have to do things as, like, a team.
They're split up into two groups of three: Irene, Jisoo, and Chaeyoung (nicknamed by Irene as Team Awesome), and Jennie, Chahee, and Lisa (which the latter had nicknamed as Team Better Than Team Awesome).
"Right!" Chaeyoung takes charge of the commands for her team and they're doing really well, putting a sizeable distance over Team Better Than Team Awesome's bobsled. "Left!"
Team Awesome's opposers, however, are doing not so good. Lisa keeps leaning along with her remote, and in whatever direction it goes, the top half of her body automatically has to follow. It seems to mess them up for a while; they're way behind until Jennie and Chahee start following Lisa's movements and they finally somehow start picking up.
They still finish in second place, but Lisa whoops, shouts, "Teamwork!" and moves to high five Jennie and Chahee like they won.
At the end of the night, Team Awesome has six wins in total and Team Better Than Team Awesome has three. (Three-and-a-half if Jennie insists on counting their tie.)
*
After they run out of the drinks Chahee had brought, Irene noisily invites them to crash at her place because they were all reasonably buzzed and the roads were too icy for Chahee to drive (and Jennie, Jisoo, and Chaeyoung complained about how everyone's just going to eat most of their food if they all crash at their own place).
"Wow," Jisoo remarks after stepping into their apartment, "you are a mess."
"What?" Irene rears back, sounding genuinely offended. "Me and Lis even cleaned up a little today."
"There's a banana peel on this counter," Chaeyoung says.
Lisa hums like she just remembered. "Oh, yeah, I forgot to take out the trash. But, we did a spectacular job on cleaning the bathroom, right Irene?"
"Yep," Irene agrees. "It's spotless in there."
"Yeah, you could even eat off the tiles if you wanted."
"Lis, that's nasty," Jisoo says, taking a seat on the sofa beside Chaeyoung.
"No, it's not," Irene insists, sitting on Jisoo's lap.
"You haven't even seen how clean the bathroom is now, so you wouldn't know," Lisa tacks on.
Jisoo gently-but-also-kind-of-not-gently pushes Irene off of her lap, spilling her onto the floor with a gasp.
Chaeyoung and Lisa are the only ones laughing at the sight because Jennie and Chahee are caught up in a little makeout session on the other sofa.
"Ew." Jisoo throws a pillow at them, separating the two with an annoyed grunt. "Please control yourselves, nasties."
"Ooh!" Irene exclaims. "Idea!" She sits up from her current spot on the floor and says, "Let's play Spin the Bottle."
Jisoo thinks about it, looking to her girlfriend first and then looking around.
Jennie, of course, seems enthused about the idea of kissing in general, so naturally, she agrees with a shrug. "I'm in."
"I'm in, too," Chahee says.
Jisoo and Chaeyoung look at each other for a moment before they shrug and agree also. "Fine, I guess."
"Well, because we're in middle school," Lisa says.
"Then it's settled!" Irene claps and Jisoo winces a little, thinking about all the potential noise complaints this night has probably gotten them.
They use a half empty water bottle left on the coffee table for the game bottle because everyone was too lazy to get up.
To summarize it, everyone kissed everyone, albeit a little too giggly to really take anything seriously. Jennie was probably the most happy about this, partly because it's Jennie, and partly because she's drunk.
The game is over but she's still giggling into Chahee's neck, nipping and licking it from time to time. Jisoo snaps her fingers, complains again, and even manages to separate them for a little bit.
By now, everyone's probably knocked out, or at least close to being knocked out. Chaeyoung and Chahee were in conversation last time Jisoo had checked; she looks over to see the both of them asleep on one of the couches now. Her and Irene were talking about some obscure topic she had already forgotten about, and Irene drifts in and out of sleep, opening and closing her eyes from time to time. A wave of peace washes over the room, with nothing except for Beyoncé playing on Irene's iPhone like a quiet lull, only punctuated by Jennie and Lisa's intermittent chuckling from their spot near the floor.
"Okay, but seriously, like the bathroom is so, so clean," she hears Lisa whisper. "I worked like, really hard on it."
"Did you now?" Jennie whispers back.
"Yep."
"Nice."
"Yeah."
Silence follows suit and Jisoo closes her eyes.
"I got a neat idea," Lisa whispers.
"What?"
"You wanna go eat some food in the bathtub with me to prove how clean it is? I promise it's like, super clean." She giggles, then snorts, then giggles again.
"Dude, yeah, let's go."
"Okay."
They must have gotten up because Jisoo hears a faint cracking noise and Jennie saying, "Did you hear that? My knee popped," followed by more giggling and Jennie's shh.
Then footsteps shuffle from the living room to what is presumably the kitchen, stops, followed by refrigerator humming, and muttering too far away from Jisoo to discern. Then footsteps grow louder until they grow faint again, the bathroom lights flicker, she hears a faint "We don't necessarily have to eat off the tiles, but we could, in theory, you know," and the shutting of the door.
*
The next morning, Jisoo finds Jennie and Lisa sitting on separate ends of the bathtub, an assortment of chips, pudding cups, and gummy bears are strewn all over the space between them.
She flicks the light on and Jennie and Lisa wake up with a hiss.
"Oh, god, turn that fucking shit off!" Jennie yelps.
"Fuck," Lisa simply says, blindly dislodging a chocolately spoon from her elbow.
Jisoo turns off the lights with an amused smile twisting her face. She shakes her head, follows Jennie's wishes, backs out the room, and almost says, "Have fun on not puking."
*
Irene is back in Busan for her cousin's wedding.
Meaning, Lisa had no one to cling to for an entire week.
So on the second Irene-less day, Lisa invites herself into Jisoo's apartment, one of the only few unfortunate habits she had picked up from Irene.
"What's up?" She announces. It looks like she had just gotten off from work; her hair is up in a bun and there are coffee stains on her white button-down.
"Hey, Lis," Chaeyoung greets with a smile. "How're you holding up without your other half?"
"Ugh." She plops down onto the only unoccupied chair in the living room. "Lonely. The only good part about her being gone is that I don't have to fight her to reach the shower first. She hasn't even texted me since yesterday," Lisa says. "What if she needs me? What if she's like, dying, or something?"
"It can't be that bad," Jennie says. "No wedding could ever be as bad as the Red Wedding."
Then met with three blank stares, she says, "You know, Game of Thrones? No one? Chu, Chaeyoung, I've made you guys watch some episodes with me one time, remember?"
Jisoo, not remembering because she recalls falling asleep with Chaeyoung tucked into her at the time, says, "Oh, I don't think we reached that episode."
"Yeah, I don't think we did, babe," Chaeyoung agrees.
"You guys all suck and I'm going to make you all watch this phenomenal show with me." She looks at Jisoo and Chaeyoung. "Again."
"Please," Jisoo says, "you probably just watch it for that one girl's boobs."
Jennie scoffs, crosses her arms. "While I do respectfully appreciate Emilia Clarke's boobs on an aesthetic level, the storyline is fantastic and it's genuinely a good show."
Then all their phones buzz. Lisa gets to hers first, says it's Irene texting the group chat, reads it, and laughs.
wedding update: no one told me the groom's best friend would be hot as hell!!!! ima try and get me some!!!!! wish me luck lmao
*
"They're asleep." Jisoo just barely wakes up to hear Lisa's muffled voice through the quiet shouting of a bunch of television dudes in armor. She looks down to see Chaeyoung snoring on her chest.
"I'm not surprised," comes Jennie's voice.
She closes her eyes again, but then Chaeyoung snores and wakes up.
"Hmm?" Chaeyoung hums, slowly starting to sit up, so Jisoo does too, sees Lisa and Jennie seated together on the red couch, shared blanket and popcorn bowl in the space between them.
"You guys suck," Jennie says.
Chaeyoung hums what sounds faintly like a "Sorry, Jen, love you," wraps her arms around Jisoo and drags her back down on their shared seat, and starts snoring again after a few minutes.
*
If there was one thing Jisoo disliked about her beloved home state, it would have to be the horridness of the weather.
Seriously, it could be as dry as a desert one morning with not a cloud in sight and a complete down-pour storm within the next five hours. It could be ninety degrees out and start freaking hailing the size of golfballs one day with no actual warning that it will. It's kinda like all Mother Nature does is spin a wheel and randomly decide what the weather is going to be for the next few hours.
She blames it on pollution and the Ozone layer and whatnot.
*
Thunder booms at the same time they hear knocking faintly similar to the tune of a One Direction song against the door. Jisoo gets up to answer it, opens the door with a "Hey, Lis, what's up?"
"Um." Lisa shifts, pushing up her glasses. "So, I was minding my own business, you know, in my room, and I heard a sound—which wasn't the thunder, by the way—it was another sound. Like, a spooky sound. Anyways, I think there's a slight chance my apartment could be haunted and like, I don't want to get possessed or anything so do you like, mind if I take shelter against the supernatural in here?"
Jisoo exhales a laugh. Lisa's grown on her, she really has. "Just come in."
"You know you can just say you're scared of thunderstorms and being all by your lonesome, right?" Jennie teases from her usual seat on the couch.
Lisa frowns like she expects someone to take her previous statement seriously. "Jennie middle name Kim, I absolutely do not joke about the creepy creatures of the dark."
"Ruby Jane," Chaeyoung supplies.
"Jennie Ruby Jane Kim, I absolutely do not joke about the creepy creatures of the dark," Lisa repeats, plopping down beside her.
Jennie gasps, reaches over to smack Chaeyoung's arm. "Chaeyoung Rosanne Park, you have no right putting my business out there like that just because Lisa is a scaredy-cat in denial."
Now it's Lisa's turn to gasp. "Fine. When you become the first one to die in this horror movie, then you'll realize."
"That sounds ominously like a threat, Lis."
"Nope, just a warning."
*
Later in the evening the power, unfortunately, does cut out, like a horror movie, and Chaeyoung and Jisoo scream, cling onto each other, the same time Lisa shouts, "I told you guys! This is some supernatural activity," and Jennie quips, "Okay, ghostbuster, calm down," though Jisoo can sense that she's a little uneasy now, too.
(And if she was looking a little closer: Jennie's knuckles brush against the side of Lisa's knee and stay there as if she needs something to touch.)
Jisoo turns on the flashlight on her phone and walks hand-in-hand with Chaeyoung into the kitchen to find some candles. They find quite a few candles in the drawers and a couple of lighters, too. Jisoo lights one, turns off the flashlight, and pockets her phone. They walk back into the living room where Jennie is giggling stupidly at Lisa's ridiculous faces with her phone light illuminating below her chin and up her nose, the hand brushing against the side of Lisa's leg is now completely on her knee, and they were sitting just a fraction of an inch closer than when she left them.
Jisoo hardly notices, though, too busy handling the candles with one hand and holding onto Chaeyoung with the other.
"Alright, can one of you put this one in the bathroom?" Jisoo asks after lighting a candle.
Jennie, being the closest, takes it in her hand. "Sure," she says, though she doesn't sound very sure.
She's purposely slow at getting up, too, until Lisa stands abruptly, saying, "Alright, scaredy-cat, I'll go with you."
"My hero," Jennie snips dryly, even though Jisoo can detect the underlying tone of relief in her voice.
*
They come back a few moments later and Chaeyoung proposes they should play a game until the lights come back on.
Since the Wii is out of the question and no one (except for Jennie) wants to play Scrabble, they opt for a fairly old Candy Land game that Chaeyoung brought back from her classroom, pushing the coffee table out of the way and laying it out onto the living room floor.
Though Jisoo will admit: considering the multitude of candles they have surrounding them, the entire thing looks more like a demon summoning than an innocent game. Like, she can imagine a candy cane demon stepping out of the game board, or something.
Wow, Lisa must be rubbing off on her.
*
Chaeyoung wins for the second time in a row, whooping out a victory, saying, "You wanna play again?"
Lisa groans instead, and says, "How do you always manage to draw the best cards? Not fair."
Chaeyoung winks. "A winner never reveals her secrets."
Jennie huffs. "Cheater."
*
A few hours pass but the power still hasn't come on so Jisoo suggests that they can just chill in the living room for a while. Chaeyoung disappears into their bedroom and comes back with a blanket, a book, and her reading light; Jennie finds her deck of cards and starts to play solitaire on the carpet with her back against the red couch; Lisa dozed off earlier, and is still dozing off on the couch above Jennie's head.
The lights come back on eventually, and Jisoo checks the time and sees that it's well past midnight, and after blowing out all the candles, she steps back into the living room to find her girlfriend awake and yawning.
"Should we just leave them there?" Jisoo whispers, gesturing to both Jennie and Lisa, fast asleep. Jennie is still sitting on the carpet below Lisa, head leaning back, so it looks like it just barely touches Lisa's nose; Lisa is lying face down, her limbs spread out on the couch, legs uncovered by her blanket, and one arm hanging dangerously close to grasping Jennie's boob.
Chaeyoung breathes out a quiet laugh at the sight. "Isn't it funny how awkward it was when they met? I mean, Lisa wouldn't even look Jennie in the eyes the first few weeks after they met. Now, months later they've gotten along surprisingly well. It's kinda weird if you think about it."
But Jisoo doesn't really think too much about it. "Yeah, weird."
*
Those Irene-less days go on like that for the remainder of the week. When not at work or college, Lisa's always spending her time in their apartment. Even just to study; Jisoo would walk into the living room to find her on the red sofa, book in her hands and highlighter placed between her lips, glasses nearly sliding off her nose, occasionally asking people to quiz her on things like pet medication, and sometimes with her feet resting on Jennie's lap if she's there.
There's always another girl present at the apartment with her at all times so she doesn't get all that bored, either. When Chaeyoung's teaching, Jisoo and Jennie are there; when Jisoo's coaching, Jennie is there; when Jennie's out doing god knows what, Chaeyoung and Jisoo are both probably there.
No one minds, of course, because Lisa is just about the farthest thing from boring that a human being could ever be. Even in the group chat, she has an Emoji of the Day bit.
(Today's was the wrench emoji, by the way:
imagine a world we would live in if we didn't have one of these bad boys!!!!
Irene had typed back: Lis do u even know what that thing is called
Within ten seconds Lisa then replied: no but i understand its necessary role to this society gosh bae :/)
*
Irene arrives back in Seoul, so they all go out for pizza once they pick her up from the airport, piling into Chaeyoung's car: Jisoo's driving, Chaeyoung is in the passenger seat, and Jennie and Irene seated in the back with Lisa getting the short end of the stick, having to squeeze in the middle seat between them.
The drive from the airport to the pizza place goes smoothly, and they spend the entire car ride listening to Irene's new wedding stories.
"Get this, though," Irene continues with her story. "Then after all that ish went down, my aunt goes, 'Well, at least you got enough cake!' Oh, god, can you believe her?"
"Oh, my God, did she actually say that?" Chaeyoung laughs. "Oh, I love your aunt."
"That reminds me, everyone was asking how you and Chu are doing," Irene says. "They want to know when your wedding is going to happen."
"Aww," Jennie and Lisa coo.
Chaeyoung blushes beside her, looks down, and Jisoo feels her heart swell before she rolls her eyes fondly and says, "What happened with the groom's best friend, though? Spill it girl, did you get some?"
"Well, I was about to until I found out about his girlfriend back home." Irene scoffs, flipping her hair accordingly. "Like, who does he think I am? I'm too cute for that boy's ass."
"Yeah, you go, girl," Lisa says, leaning in to plant a noisy kiss on her cheek.
They all laugh together, and when Jisoo looks into the rearview mirror to see Lisa's hand edging questioningly near Jennie's, she hardly thinks to stop and do a double-take.
Later that evening, after all five of them manage to get themselves into a booth and get their food, Lisa gets pizza sauce dribbling onto her chin—which really isn't a rare occurrence, but this time Jennie is there to wipe it up with a laugh and a wink, and Jisoo merely glances at them until Chaeyoung asks her to pass the parmesan.
*
Jisoo hears the front door slam behind her and Jennie and Lisa walk in, obnoxious and laughing way too loudly for her sleepy mind; she's taking a nap (or was, anyways). The two are still laughing, but Jisoo keeps her eyes shut.
Jennie notices Jisoo on the couch, shushes Lisa promptly, albeit the shushing doesn't completely work because the two are still giggling like they're trying to be considerate, but also not.
She squints her eyes open, sees Jennie and Lisa walk to the dining room table with an alarming amount of ramen noodle packages in their hands.
(Does she want to know? Does she really want to know the context of this?)
They dump it all out onto the table and Jennie asks, "Okay, how do you wanna split this up?" In the tone of someone taking part in a drug deal and not... whatever this is.
"Well, how many are there?"
A few beats and then: "Aw, man there's an odd number."
"I'll fight you for it."
Jisoo's eyes are shut again, but can hear the smirk in Jennie's low voice when she says: "Oh, really? You'll fight me for it?"
She squints her eyes open once more, just barely missing the glance Jennie gives Lisa's lips.
Jisoo kind of wants to know now. "Why is there a pile of ramen noodles on my table?" She questions abruptly, disgruntled, but now sitting up.
Jennie and Lisa jump with a start, taking a step away from each other like they got caught doing something they weren't supposed to.
"You better not have stolen all of that," she says.
"Don't worry, we didn't," Jennie says.
"Then... why?"
"There was a sale at the grocery store," Lisa simply states. "And ramen noodles are God's gift to the undeserving huChuty."
Jisoo gives one solitary nod. She's too tired to actually be concerned, drug deal or not. She's about to ask if they bought the toothpaste she asked for, but she decides not to. "Right." She blinks. "I'll be in my room." With that, she walks away, leaving Jennie, who is now too busy sorting the packets to look up, and a flushed Lisa.
*
Jisoo's been getting... suspicious.
More specifically, suspicious of Jennie.
Not in the wow, my roommate and best friend might secretly be a wanted druglord way, but more like...
Jisoo's been having a good night's sleep for about a month now and she never thought she'd say this, but...
She's a bit worried.
Even Chahee, who's always hung out with them on occasion gives her an odd look every time Jennie sends her home after game night now. Jennie doesn't notice (or she pretends not to, at least), and gives her a peck on the lips before she shuts the door, immediately yawning and stretching afterwards, mumbling an "I'm tired," before she shuts herself in her room, avoiding all opportunities to talk to Chaeyoung or Jisoo.
Again, she's a bit worried.
*
Jisoo is in fact so worried about her best friend's recent mannerisms that she tries to bring it up one morning (keyword: tries, but really, how do you even transition into that type of subject?). Jennie, though virtually lacking in shame and being a considerably blunt person, is paradoxically a private one when she wants to be. She dislikes people nosing in on her business, and what Jisoo's learned from experience, is to just wait until she tells you, not the other way around. Creeping around the subject until she relents is the best way to handle her, because she gets undeniably angry if you don't.
"So, what's up, Jen?" She asks once Jennie pads into the living room.
She shrugs. "Nothing much, why?"
"I don't know, just curious."
"...Okay." Jennie fixes her with a puzzled look, and says, "I'm going to go take a shower now."
Jisoo nods.
Good talk.
*
Jisoo has a hunch. A hunch that itches in the back of her mind, a hunch that wonders if any of this has to anything do with a certain girl living in the apartment across from them. The one that isn't Irene.
She decides to follow that hunch.
*
Jisoo finally pieces it together after about a few more weeks of watching and observing, and okay, she'd like to say that it was from recalling all those Sherlock Holmes marathons Jennie used to make her watch, or those unsolicited mystery genre book reviews and synopses Jennie used to blabber in her ears at least five times a week about (she had a phase back then), but no, it wasn't until she had woken up at around midnight, stomach growling and shivering from her teeth to her sock-clad feet in the arctic cold temperatures Chaeyoung loves to set in their bedroom, that the answer had shown up right in front of her face.
She finds out, kind of like this:
Jisoo gets up slowly from her bed as to not disturb her sleeping girlfriend and shuts the door behind her with a soft click.
Jisoo can hear the faint sounds of 'That's So Raven' murmuring quietly. She looks over with only the TV light to help her, sees one big, blankety lump of dark hair that is definitely a sleeping Jennie. She decides not to wake her, padding quietly over into the kitchen instead.
The fridge greets her with a hum and Jisoo scans its contents, reaching past a foam container with the words "don't you dare even think about fucking touching this, Irene" written in what is obviously Jennie handwriting, and in smaller, much neater scrawl on the bottom right corner, Chaeyoung had written: "please" with a heart next to it, she grabs a carton of milk and pours herself a glass of it. She makes herself a sandwich, leans back against the counter, and eats in silence.
Jisoo hears some shuffling in the living room, suspects it's Jennie getting up so she peeks her head out of the partition, almost chokes on her sandwich because that is not Jennie.
Well, it is Jennie, because Jennie is there sleeping on the couch, but the person who got up from the same couch and is currently up and stretching her arms above her head is not Jennie, but surprising-yet-unsurprisingly Lisa.
She walks to the TV with a sleepy hum, quietly chuckles along with the audible laughing track that plays on the screen, and shuts it off, the living room now filled with darkness.
Jisoo widens her eyes, silently pops back into the kitchen until she hears the front door open and click shut.
So her hunch was correct.
Huh.
If Jennie wasn't mulling over how cute Lisa looked right then, she'd have burst out laughing right away. That being said, her laugh comes out short and delayed and entirely too awkward for her to really save anything about the situation.