Home. She's home.
Jennie thought as she looked around the familiar view. Chanel sunglasses covered her eyes from the harsh glare of the sun. The pier had that salty smell of ocean breeze mixed with oil and gasoline. She scrunched her nose in distaste.
Kai and her friends texted her and asked why she wasn't in class, she told them a little lie and said there was an emergency at home.
She slowly got down from the ferry, the sea breeze ruffling her silk white button down and caressed her jean shorts covered legs. She almost wanted to go back and sail to Seoul, back to the University, back to Kai and away from this nightmare. She did nothing the whole 2 hour ride but fidget and worry.
As she rounded the gate, Jennie saw a familiar face waiting for her just outside the pier, it made her smile a bit despite everything.
"Hello, Ahjussi." She can hear the tiredness in her voice as she greeted the old man.
"Hello, little Jennie." He answered, fondness obvious in his eyes. The old nickname made her giggle faintly.
Myungsoo has been her family's driver even before she was born, he was like a real uncle to her and he treated her like family even though they're not related by blood.
"You ready to go home, Jennie?" He asked her as they got settled in the car, her bags already in the trunk.
The question was weighted and his look towards her meaningful.
"Ugh so you know about it too." She grumped.
"Well it's all everyone at home's been talking about. It's kind of a big deal, the Kim's little princess is gonna get married soon."
She scoffed and rolled her eyes, "Don't count on it just yet, Ahjussi. I'm here to convince dad not to go through with it."
"You've always been a stubborn little one, Jennie. It was so hard to change your mind once you've decided on something. I remember your cousin daring you to eat a whole chocolate cake, gave you a toothache for a week but you were so proud you finished eating the whole thing." She giggled at the memory with him.
“Also that time you wanted to learn how to ride a horse so bad so your father sent you to the Manoban farm and when you found out that Lisa would be the one to teach you, you threw a tantrum.”
“Oh god, I remember thinking I'd rather get food poisoning than be taught by her.” She groaned.
“You both only managed to do one training session together before you two called it quits.” Myungsoo laughed.
“Cos she was being such a smartass!” Jennie defended herself still giggling.”She couldn't go a minute without calling me a brat or a whiny princess.”
“Was that why you kicked her in the shin and left her in the middle of the field while you rode away with her horse?” He asked, eyes shining with amusement.
Jennie blushed and slid down her seat a bit, “She deserved it. I rode that horse the whole day and managed to learn by myself.” She finished proudly. “Lily, that was her horse's name and she was Lisa's favorite so she was extra pissed when I stole her horse for an entire day.”
Myungsoo just shook his head with a smile.
They reminisce some more, the ride filled with laughter as they smoothly made their way down the road towards home.
© © © © © © ©
Jennie watched as one of the plantation workers opened the huge gate for them. There were a lot of new faces she noticed. The plantation nearly had six hundred workers and they all come and go every other month. She rarely visits ever since she left to go live with her grandma in the city since she was ten, and she hasn't visited for almost a year, all the people looked unfamiliar to her.
They drove for another hour and a half and the car finally came to a gradual halt as they finally reached the massive house. The tire grinding softly against the gravel.
She wasn't even completely out of the car when the door opened and her mother hurried out, looking beautiful in her white blouse and cream loose pants.
“Baby!” Her mom exclaimed, getting to where Jennie was in seconds and engulfed her in a tight warm hug. Jennie inhaled her mother's scent that she missed so much, even though her mother visited her in the city three months ago.
“Hey mom, missed you” She said, still squished inside the woman's arms.
“Missed you more” Her mom answered affectionately. “I'm sorry about this, Jennie. But we don't really have a choice.” Minhee Kim’s tone was apologetic as she pulled back from the embrace and looked at her only child. Her precious daughter.
“I came here to tell dad that I'm not going through with this arranged marriage.” Jennie answered resolutely.
“Jen, there's no changing your father's mind. There's too much at stake, we need that land.” Her mother explained as gentle hands cupped Jennie's face.
“Ugh whatever I'm still gonna try.”
“Stubborn girl. Just go inside and freshen up.” Minhee instructed, playfully tapping her daughter's butt to which Jennie rolled her eyes to but followed anyway.
“Your father's out on the field, I'm just gonna go and tell him you're already here.” Her mother called as Jennie made her way up the stairs.
“Don't tell dad I'm here. I hate him right now.”
“Hard-headed girl indeed. This is gonna be a fiasco.” Her mother sighed as she went to the kitchen.
© © © © ©
Jennie opened the door to her old room and discovered everything's the same as she left it exactly a year ago. She saw that Myungsoo already put her bags on the bed.
She took a quick shower and changed in comfy shorts and shirt then collapsed on top of her bed. She groaned and snuggled into her pillow, lying on her stomach. Her childhood bed is still the best bed she's been on, the one she had in Seoul just isn't as good.
Her eyes drooped, she hasn't slept well for the past two nights because of this whole problem her father dumped on her. With another soft groan she went out like a light and fell into a deep slumber.
She felt a heavy weight jump on her back in what felt like a minute later. Jennie voiced out her displeasure and the person on top giggled. She opened her eyes when she realised who the sound belonged to.
“Snobby bitch. You didn't even text me to let me know you're home.” Nayeon said as she plopped down beside her on the bed.
“I'm sorry I just got here an hour ago.”
“It's already 3 in the afternoon, you took a 4 hour nap.” Nayeon laughed at her cousin.
“Ugh” She sighed when she looked at her phone and confirmed that Nayeon was right.
“So… I heard your skinny ass is getting married.” Nayeon got comfortable on the bed as she wriggled around and finally settled on her side to look at Jennie with eager eyes.
“Really? That's what you wanna start with?I just woke up from a long nap. It's like you want a slap or something.“ She lightly hit the other girl with a pillow, face grumpy which made Nayeon grin even wider.
“You can't blame me, it's kind of a big deal! The only heir of the Kim family is gonna marry the dashing Lisa Manoban.” Nayeon narrated with flare, like the dramatic person that she is.
“Lisa? Dashing? I still have nightmares about her sticky fingers pulling on my hair.”
“Lisa did have super sticky fingers didn't she? It's like she always ate lollipops and instead of holding it by the stick she held the candy itself.”
“Ewww” They both giggled loudly. “And her snot! Gosh her snot. It's like she had a whole factory of it up her nose.” Jennie added with a laugh.
“Hey Jennie, wanna see me do a backflip?” Nayeon copied an eight year old Lisa, fake snifling every other word just like how a young Lisa used to do which had them in another fit of giggles.
“But did you know I had a crush on her?” Nayeon confessed after a short silence between them. The confession made Jennie sit up and look at her cousin incredulously.
“You had a crush on snotty Lili!?”
“Well yeah, it was after you left when we were fourteen or something. It was just a harmless crush though. Puberty happened and she got super pretty and almost every girl in class had a crush on her anyway, so it wasn't all that serious.” Nayeon looked up at Jennie and snorted at her disbelieving face.
“Eight years later and she's as hot as ever. A lot of girls are really jealous of you, you know. ” Nayeon added with a teasing smile.
“Huh…” Jennie mused, her brain unable to comprehend that snotty Lili apparently became the campus crush.
“She's actually a great person, Jennie. She'll be good for you. We'll, if you ignore the whole forced marriage thing.”
There was a knock on the door before Jennie could answer. It opened a few seconds later to reveal her mother's face.
“Jen, your dad's here… along with Lisa and her parents. Come meet them downstairs.”
Those words made Jennie pause, her heartbeat started to speed up as she wrung her suddenly cold hands.
“Already?! I thought I'd have one more day.” She agonised while looking at her mom with puppy eyes.
“Time to face the music, sweetie.”
“Fine.” She angrily got up from the bed and was about to go to the door when her mother stopped her.
“Are you really gonna meet them looking like that?”
“What's wrong with my clothes?” Her mom gave her a judgemental once over. Jennie felt insulted.
“You look like a bum.”
“This whole thing is depressing, leave me be!”
“Nayeon can you help your cousin look presentable? She's being a little brat right now.”
“Don't worry Aunt Minhee, I'll have her looking so gorgeous Lisa won't know what to do with herself.”
Jennie still hasn't recovered from the insult when her mom sent an approving smile Nayeon’s way and closed the door.
“As if I care what Lisa thinks!” She shouted, hoping her mom heard it.
© © © © ©
Jennie and Nayeon finally made their way downstairs after Nayeon wrangled her into wearing an off shoulder white flowy dress that ended just above her knee.
She can hear voices as she slowly made her way down the stairs. The first thing she saw was her dad's back as he talked to their guests in the living room.
She could see Mr. and Mrs. Manoban but she couldn't see the third person because her mom blocked the view as she placed fresh cookies on the coffee table.
Her mother moved out of the way and she finally laid eyes on Lisa. The girl was smiling and laughing as she chatted with Jennie's dad.
Jennie stopped short at the sight of her, it was true then, puberty did her good. She was tall, Jennie could tell even with Lisa sitting. She had on a cute green polo shirt with pink designs that accentuated her broad shoulders and slim hips. Her hair that used to be short and messy now almost touches her shoulder. It was light brown that oddly looks silver when light hits her head at a certain angle.
She is more than pretty. Lisa Manoban was stunningly beautiful in that panty dropping way. Jennie hated her even more.
She saw Lisa chuckle at something her father said, look at her general direction for a second then look back at her father, paused, then whipped her head to look her way again with a startled look in her pretty round eyes.
“J-Jennie… ” The girl stood up so fast she almost knocked off her tea cup that was on the coffee table.
“Wow. ” Lisa uttered in awe, throat bobbing up and down as she swallowed hard. Watching Jennie as she descended the stairs, face stoic except for the single raised eyebrow pointed Lisa's way.
“Jennie, come here sweetie.” Jaehyung Kim called towards his daughter.
Lisa watched as Jennie rounded the couch opposite her, her finger idly tracing the back of the couch as she made her way towards her father's side, still pinning Lisa with her intense feline eyes. Lisa started sweating for some reason.
“Hello, sweetie.” Her dad softly greeted as she gave him a half-hearted side hug, she was still mad at him.
She politely bowed to the Manoban family, Lisa awkwardly returning the gesture as Jennie bowed to her.
“Your daughter looks a lot like her mother, Jaehyung.” Marcus spoke, which was probably his way of calling her pretty. “My youngest is a good kid, she'll treat you well.” He patted Lisa's shoulder as he looked at Jennie with a mustached smile. She gave a strained smile in response, biting the inside of her cheek to keep herself from voicing out her thoughts on the whole situation, she didn't wanna be rude to their guests.
“You've gotten even prettier, Jennie. And I love that dress on you.” Lisa's mom spoke after an awkward silence.
“Thank you, Aunt Charity.” She smiled in appreciation, she liked Lisa's mom, she's always been kind to her. ”It was actually Nayeon who picked this dress for me.” She consciously ran her fingers on the edge of her dress while Nayeon gave a smug smile on the other side of the couch, munching on her cookie.
“Oh none of that, honey. Just call me mom.” Jennie blushed as Lisa stuffed a whole cookie in her mouth, her eyes darting everywhere but never landing on Jennie. A muffled laugh can be heard which suspiciously sounded like Nayeon.
Jennie just picked up a tea cup to distract herself. She felt eyes on her as she took a dainty sip. She looked up and confirmed her suspicion that it was Lisa staring at her. She raised her eyebrow at the girl, just like she did earlier and put on the bitchiest face she could without everyone else noticing the action.
Lisa choked on her cookie as she avoided Jennie's intimidating stare. Everyone looked at Lisa as she continued to cough.
“I'm okay! Cookie went down the wrong pipe. ” She wheezed, no one noticed Jennie's satisfied smirk as she continued to sip her tea.
“Okay, why don't the grown ups talk while you and Lisa get reacquainted in the garden?” Jennie's father suggested as he looked at Jennie expectantly.
“Nah, I'm good here dad.”
“Jennie…” He whispered lowly.
“No really, I like it here. I love these cookies.” She took a bite and chewed slowly looking her father straight in the eye.
“So take the cookies with you.” He took the plate of cookies and shoved them towards his daughter. “Here! Lisa go ahead, kid. We'll be right here.”
Jennie frowned but had no other choice but to follow. With one last secret glare towards her father, she stood up and sashayed away leaving Lisa to scramble after her.
She plopped down atop a wooden bench when they reached the garden. She liked this spot best because it was the most shaded part cause of the trees surrounding it. The garden has grown even more beautiful over the year she was gone. There were different pops of color here and there because of the flowers but it was mostly green from the trees and shrubs.
She felt Lisa sit beside her but she ignored her in favor of grumpily munching on her cookie.
Lisa gingerly sat beside the girl. Jennie was beautiful but she also had this haughty air about her that made Lisa nervous.
Jennie did look really stunning when she first saw her as she stood on top of the stairs with Nayeon. She wore an off shoulder dress that showed her graceful neck and delicate shoulders. Her hair a messy and sexy dark halo. But she was still a small girl, still petite. Her head only came up to Lisa's chest, the younger girl noticed as she stood up to greet Jennie. For some reason that fact made her feel giddy.
And now, being alone with her in this garden had Lisa itching to fill the stifling silence between them. The task is definitely hers cos it's clear Jennie has no plans to talk to her as the shorter girl continued to act like she wasn't there.
“My mom's right you know, you've gotten even prettier since the last time I saw you.” Lisa sat, upper body angled towards her. A faint blush on her cheeks as she scratched her nape. “But you're still kinda shor-”
“Do you remember back when you attended my 7th birthday and you poured blue ink on my soda when I wasn't looking and I had blue teeth for the entire week?” Jennie cut her off looking straight into her eyes, her face expressionless which sort of scared Lisa.
“I uh… I did that? I'm pretty sure that wasn't me, that was my brother I think.” Lisa floundered.
“Your brother was already in high school, Lisa. Why would he do that to a seven year old kid?”
“Oh, one of my cousins! Probably Mino. Definitely Mino.” Lisa whispered conspiratorially.
“And back in third grade? When you flipped my skirt in front of the whole class during lunch period?”
“You had on cute panties though. Sailor Moon. I was a fan too, you know.” Lisa chuckled but immediately stopped when she saw Jennie was far from amused.
“Don't you see what I'm trying to get at, Lisa? We don't even like each other! Why are you so nonchalant about this whole thing? I mean, don't you have a girlfriend or some girl you like?” Jennie's left eyebrow was raised. Lisa didn't know eyebrows could go that high. Impressive.
“I don't have a girlfriend.”
Jennie sighed miserably.
“My point is, this is all wrong. Our parents are forcing us to marry each other just cos they're too prideful to give up a piece of land.”
That gave Lisa pause and she looked down at her lap as she breathed out heavily.
“That's not just a piece of land though. It's 20 hectares of perfectly healthy soil, losing that would mean huge unemployment of the workers from your side and ours.” Lisa looked at the cat-like eyes staring skeptically at her. Imploring Jennie to understand. “And besides, my dad's decision is already cemented, I can't really go against his wishes.” The taller girl added quietly.
“Well unlike you, I'm not my father's puppet and would like to take control of my own damn life.”
Lisa frowned at that.
“And besides, I have a boyfriend.” Jennie spat as she stood up and marched out of the garden.
Lisa stared at the empty spot Jennie occupied. “A boyfriend…?” Lisa's eyebrows furrowed. “Jennie, wait! You have A WHAT?!” she shouted as she found herself scrambling to follow the angry girl yet again.