Jennie rang the doorbell of the Park household and waited patiently on the porch. Normally when she collected her girlfriend for school, she just waited in the car and Chaeyoung kept a look out from her bedroom window for her, but she couldn't just do that today. In the three weeks since their Biology field trip, they'd gotten even closer, the important three little words that had been spoken during the time as well as progression about things physically had really cemented their relationship.
The door opened to reveal a surprised Chaeyoung, bookbag on her shoulder. Jennie looked at her sunken eyes and could see she had been crying.
"Baby, what's wrong?" she asked, then kicked herself for the term of endearment. She knew better than to give the Parks any reason to be suspicious.
Chaeyoung saw the apologetic look cross the brunette's features.
"Don't worry. You can call me Baby. You can call me Love; hell you could start feeling me up right now if you wanted 'cause my parents left an hour ago for another one of their stupid conferences," she said, spitting out the last bit venomously.
"Oh, love," Jennie said, going forward to embrace the blonde, angry with her girlfriend's parents for leaving on this day.
"I just thought they'd be here for my birthday, ya know? I mean its only once a year," Chaeyoung sobbed into the taller girl's shoulder.
Jennie didn't know what to say so she just stayed quiet, holding the taller girl to her.
Chaeyoung pulled away a few minutes later when she felt something hit against her head and looked to the side in wonder.
"Sorry," Jennie said, pulling on the string of the balloon that Chaeyoung hadn't noticed before, having been too distressed, "Um, Happy Birthday."
She handed the red balloon with '17' in big white writing on it to the other girl who looked at it again before bursting into a fresh set of tears.
"You are the best girlfriend in the world," she said through her tears.
"If I am its only 'cause you make me like that," Jennie replied.
Chaeyoung wiped the tears from her eyes and took a deep breath.
"I am not letting them ruin my birthday. I have you and the gang and nothing could be better than that."
"Did you at least get a nice present?"
"Money in a card. Same as every year."
Jennie rubbed her arm comfortingly and placed a kiss on her cheek.
"Well from this moment forward I promise the best birthday ever, okay?"
"Okay," Chaeyoung agreed with a small smile, "Lets get to school."
•••
Chaeyoung undid her seatbelt, then sat back in her seat, not ready to leave Alexis quite yet.
She'd had a wonderful day at school, the gang all making her feel special all day, she'd gotten a new CD from Lisa and blouse from Jisoo, even Seulgi had gotten her a cupcake with '17' in icing on it and had produced a little candle so they could all sing Happy Birthday to her in the quad.
Now she was going home to get ready before everyone was meeting at the diner later. She was grateful that her birthday happened to fall on a Friday so she could celebrate on the day without having to worry about school the next day.
"So I'll see you at seven, yea?" she asked her girlfriend.
"Yep. Um, Chaeng, I... your present is in the glove compartment."
"Oh baby you didn't have to get me anything," Chaeyoung said, opening the glove compartment and pulling out the small box, wrapped with a simple white ribbon, "But I'm glad you did."
Jennie chuckled and watched as Chaeyoung undid the ribbon and took the lid off of the box.
Chaeyoung gasped as she saw the glinting necklace staring back at her and picked it up out of its box. She looked at the two hearts dangling from it, one with a 'C' engraved, the other with a 'J'.
"Jennie...this is...this is too much."
"You deserve it."
"Thank you. Thank you so much. Will you help me put it on?"
"Sure."
Chaeyoung handed her the necklace and Jennie fastened it around her neck. The blonde looked down, tracing the hearts with her finger.
"Um, could I ask you something? You can say no," she said, averting her gaze over to Jennie.
"You can ask me anything, beautiful," Jennie replied.
"Would you stay with me tonight?"
"Of course I will. Can't have my girl being lonely on her birthday."
Chaeyoung smiled, realizing Jennie didn't quite understand her meaning behind the offer, but deciding it didn't matter right now anyway.
"Thanks. So, um, seven?"
"Seven," Jennie confirmed and leaned over for a quick kiss before Chaeyoung got out of the car and went towards her house.
Jennie drove the five-minute drive to her own house, grabbing her bookbag and going into the bungalow.
"I'm home, Mom," she called into the hallway and saw her mother's head pop out from behind the kitchen door.
"Hey sugar. Good day at school?"
Jennie walked into the kitchen and sat down at the table, dumping her bag beside her.
"Yea, it was fun. We all sang Happy Birthday to Chaeng and stuff. Oh, she asked me to stay at hers tonight, her parents are away and she doesn't want to be alone on her birthday, that okay?"
Her mother's eyes widened slightly, but she cleared her throat so she could speak lucidly.
"Of course it is, Jennie," she started and sat down next to her daughter, "I know you and Chaeyoung are very much in love, I can see that whenever you're around each other. So if you both think you're ready to take the next step in your relationship, then I trust you to know yourself well enough, okay?"
Jennie took in what her mother was saying and for the first time realized what Chaeyoung might have actually meant by her request. She felt a sudden rush of excitement at the prospect, put quickly put those feelings aside, knowing that her mother was sitting right beside her and also that she couldn't be 100% sure that that is what Chaeyoung meant. She decided it didn't matter, just sleeping with the blonde beside her was better than anything she had ever felt before and if that's all they did, she was fine with it. She turned to her mother and smiled.
"Thanks, Mom. I don't really know what's going to happen, but if you've taught me anything, it's respect for myself and others...so, um, that won't be any different."
"You're a good girl, Jennie. But please, don't do anything in a bathroom or the backseat of your car. You have your own private bedroom here-"
"Okay, Mom, not even we are close enough to be discussing this," Jennie replied, blushing.
Her mother knew that she was pushing it slightly with the last bit, but she just didn't want her daughter getting caught somewhere in public. It had been bad enough when it had happened to her, and if Jennie hadn't resulted from that particular night, she knew she would have mentally blocked it out just from the embarrassment of it all.
"Okay. Just know this is your house as much as mine and that's all I'm going to say. You guys are going out tonight, right?"
"I'm picking up Chaeyoung at seven. So, I'm gonna go get changed, okay?"
Her mother just nodded and Jennie bolted from the room, thoroughly embarrassed by their conversation, but pleased in a small way that if anything were to happen, she knew her mother would be okay with it. She thought, not for the first time, that she was lucky to have such an incredibly supportive and nice parent.
She quickly showered and changed into her outfit for the night, black jeans and blue blouse, then went downstairs and ate dinner with her Mom, before she realised it was time to go her Chaeyoung. She went to leave, her mother giving her a slightly longer hug than she normally would and got into her car, driving towards the Park household for the third time that day.
She pulled up outside the large house and got out, ringing the doorbell. It opened to reveal Chaeyoung standing there in a shimmering green dress that went to her knees.
"You look absolutely stunning," Jennie said breathlessly as she took in her girlfriend's attire.
"You don't look half bad yourself," Chaeyoung gulped as she saw the tight-fitting jeans.
"I, um, brought a bag? You know, night stuff," Jennie said, holding up said bag to indicate.
"Oh yea. I'll put it up in my room, then we can go, yea?"
"Sounds good."
Jennie watched Chaeyoung go up the stairs and return a minute later, small clutch purse in hand. She held out her free hand, which Jennie took, smiling, at the two headed out the door; Chaeyoung pausing momentarily to lock it.
They arrived at dinner twenty minutes later. It had actually only taken ten minutes to drive there, but the lure of Alexis' backseat had proved too appealing and they had fit in a quick smoochie-session before entering.
They spotted Jisoo and Lisa at a table and walked over. Chaeyoung sat down on the little couch and Jennie snuggled in beside her. The blonde looked around at the significant crowd and was glad her friends had managed to nab a table. She looked to the bar and noticed Irene, who seemed to sense someone was looking at her and turned, sneering across the room when she saw whom it was. Chaeyoung just grinned back.
Since Jennie had called her out all those months ago, the cheerleader and her diligent group of followers had left them all alone, apart from the occasional scowl or turning their noses up when they walked by, but the onslaught of verbal assaults that Irene had plagued her, Lisa and from high-school onwards Jisoo, with had completely erased. She felt oddly proud that she was the girlfriend of the girl responsible for having an Irene-free existence.
She was pulled from her thoughts as Seulgi came to the table with a tray of drinks.
"Lisa, you owe me forty bucks."
"Forty bucks? It's just a round of cokes!"
"Yea but I bet the bartender that I could catch an olive in my cleavage, and if I did, the drinks were free, otherwise I'd pay double. It's the first time my breasts have ever let me down," Seulgi sighed, sitting on the arm beside Jennie and taking one of the cokes.
Lisa reluctantly pulled out her wallet and handed her girlfriend over two $20 bills. Seulgi happily tucked it into her bra.
"Hey Chaeng, nice bling," Lisa said as she noticed Chaeyoung's new necklace.
"Thanks," Chaeyoung gushed, holding it out for everyone to see, "Jennie got it for me."
"Is that the one you were telling me about?" Seulgi asked.
Jennie nodded at her and Seulgi leaned down to whisper in her ear.
"You'll reap the benefits of buying her that later."
Jennie just blushed and took a large gulp of her coke, while Jisoo checked out the necklace.
They all chatted for the night, the two couples getting up at sporadic times to dance, Jisoo finding a group of girls to just dance among rather than actually with until Seulgi decided she wanted to get up and sing, dedicating her rendition of 'I Touch Myself' to Lisa. She finished to a large round of applause and Lisa went up to collect her, declaring it was time for them to leave, her blush caused from embarrassment or something else, the other girls didn't and didn't want to know.
Soon after, Chaeyoung looked around and saw Jisoo was off dancing again and turned to Jennie.
"Hey, you wanna head back to mine?"
"Sure. We should tell Jisoo we're leaving though."
"Yea. You go start Alexis and I'll let her know."
They parted with a kiss as Jennie headed towards the outside of the club and Chaeyoung towards her friend. A few minutes later they were both in the car, driving back towards Chaeyoung's house.
"Did you have a good birthday?" Jennie asked.
"I had a great birthday. One of the best nights of my life."
And I hope it gets even greater.
Jennie parked in the driveway of her girlfriend's house and got out of the car, rushing around to open the door for Chaeyoung.
"Thank you, m'lady," Chaeyoung giggled as they went to the front door. She fumbled in her pocket for a minute, nervous.
How do I let her know? And...what if I mess it all up? No, can't think about that now. Focus on making your beautiful girlfriend know that you want to show her just how much you love her.
She got her key out and unlocked the front door, holding it open for Jennie to walk through.
"You hungry, baby? Thirsty?"
"No, I'm good thanks, love."
Love. That's exactly right. We're in love and making love is a part of that. Come on, Chaeyoung, you can do this. Tell her.
"Wanna, um, hang out in my room?"
"Sure."
Chaeyoung led them up the stairs and into her bedroom, going over to her dresser and kicking off her shoes. She turned and saw Jennie sitting on her bed, looking around her room with a smile on her face.
"I love your bedroom. It's so...Chaeyoung. I remember thinking that our first date. It's very Chaeng-y."
"And that's a good thing?"
"That's the best thing."
Now or never.
She walked over and sat next to her girlfriend on the bed, cupping her cheek before bringing their lips together tenderly; putting all the love she had into the kiss. She pulled back, only an inch and rested her forehead against the brunette's.
"Make love to me, Jennie."