A month had passed since everything. Since Rosie had gotten admitted to the hospital, since Jimin had told Jennie about everything, since Taehyung had walked Jennie to class in front of everyone despite being notorious of rejecting anybody, Since Seokjin had admitted everything to Jisoo under the rain.
A month had passed and everyone could feel the difference it had made.
The walls were thick. Thick, hard, polished and beautiful and yet it did not hinder the students from gossiping about the things that were happening amongst La Tremoille's Prestigious Students.
In the vast cafeteria dining hall, students were seated with their friends, others in long lines getting their lunch, and some indulging in their books and studies.
Everyone had different outfits. Some were wearing the school uniform and some wearing their uniforms for their extra curricular subjects and sports.
Seated in the middle of the dining room, Jennie Kim in all of glory was seated wearing her school uniform, precisely her House Uniform.
Students who went to La Tremoílle were divided into 4 houses based on their professions and personalities.
They also had head girls and boys who were usually announced as elites of the batch as well. (Read more about it in the La Tremoille Chapter)
Sitting on the wooden oak bench of the cafeteria table, flipping back and fort through her magazines and her fashion critique notes, she sighed in exhaustion and closed her work, deciding to eat lunch since she suddenly felt hungry.
Closing her eyes and massaging the space in the middle of her forehead, she was stressing over her assessments at the moment because she wanted it to be as perfect as possible, but it didn't really help with her busy schedule, the extra curricular were piling on top of one another.
Opening her eyes once more, she finally went up and got her food. After getting some truffle pasta and peach fruit tea, she had gone back to her seat and did not look up again, she was too tired to care about what people thought of the mess she looked like, even though she looked far from one.
Looking up, she saw the girls who were seated at the seats in front and at the side to that of her table suddenly were all looking at the same direction. Their whispers were getting louder by the second.
Jennie was too tired to care anyway, she wanted to get some sleep, because she didn't think going to the academy would be this stressful and yet fulfilling.
She also noticed how within a 100 meter radius, she was the only girl from the Emerald House. She was fully surrounded by people from the Golden and Obsidian house, and she wanted to leave as soon as possible.
She didn't really complain about being the only one since in her own opinion, the Emerald House had the best uniform design anyway. But she didn't like big crowds these days.
"I like you!"
"Please accept my confession"
"I've been longing for you!"
Continuous remarks similar to those kept repeating in Jennie's ears and she didn't know wether to block her ears from hearing them or just leaving.
Suddenly, a presence had gone in front of her and sat on the seat facing her. Gasps and whisper suddenly started, more furiously this time, and when she looked up, He was staring right at her.
"What are you doing here?" She asks, she didn't know if she was happy or bewildered that he was sitting with her.
"Sitting" He responds back, the playfulness was still present thought so slightly, the underlying cold tone would've made anyone be embarrassed and leave but she knew him a lot. Too much.
It wasn't an answer that seemed as if he was insulted by her question but rather, he was teasing her for it. She heard it, she could see it in his eyes as she looked at him.
It's as if his eyes spoke to her directly
Come play with me
"Why here?" She responds in a tired tone, she didn't really want to talk to him, not when it was quite open and every one of his admirers were watching her every breath.
"Can't I eat with my fellow head student?"
An amused smile followed.
She didn't know what to say. She couldn't handle this type of pretentiousness. She didn't know if the reason why he doing this more often was because there was something going on around them-
No- no, that wasn't even an option, she thinks.
He was most likely just annoying her like she did to him when they were kids.
And most likely, his excuse for annoying her at this time and day is due to their co-leader positions as head girl and head boy of the Emerald House.
She wasn't one to restrict and hinder someone from receiving compliments because he sure did look handsome in the house uniform. When did he ever look bad anyway...
Especially since head students had their own specific uniforms that were quite different from the rest of the students under that house, it made him even more eye catching.
Jennie was known to be someone who had a lot of Close friends. But she wasn't one to be easy to talk to. The elegant heiress was too intimidatingly classy and graceful that it had intimidated anyone else who was trying to talk to her which led to people to blatantly gossip about her instead of talking to her instead.
She had a lot of admirers, too much, in her opinion since she wasn't one to talk a lot. Having an icy expression and a constant resting bitch face had made her win the title of Ice Princess ever since she was a child.
She doesn't blame Taehyung for being so charmingly outgoing and flirty towards her whenever he teased her when her personality towards others was the complete opposite. She was a very private person, someone who had restricted herself from being too open, free and easy.
Until she had met him.
The guy who was looking at her this very moment was the reason why she felt free when she raced, he was the reason why she was able to laugh so carelessly and openly.
He had been the reason, ever since he caught her eye when they were children, she had tried to get his attention, but his aloof personality made her hesitate.
And sometimes, because of that constant hesitation, she failed to notice the warm, gentle and endearing eyes he had for her whenever she looked away.
But that's a story for another time.
Looking back up at him, he was watching her, as if trying to read her but he was having a hard time doing so, and yet, he seems to be enjoying the struggle.
A smirk appeared on his face.
Then it was followed by a cross of the arms and laying his back on the chair as if waiting.
She was opening and closing her mouth, hesitating yet again to talk to him. She usually wasn't like this. She was a very straightforward person who knew what she wanted and how to get it, she was a smart woman who knew how to play these games.
And yet when it was with him, she finds herself becoming a stumbling mess. And she hated messes.
He loved seeing her messed up, and maybe that was the reason why she was stressing over the fact that he was facing her right that moment.
She had never took notice of the guys around her, and maybe that was because she never saw anybody else except him...
She didn't want to admit to anyone but, during those high school years, he had tugged on her heart strings, and she knew that he only saw her as a friend, nothing more, nothing less.
She smiled in sadness, realising the sad days where she wouldn't do anything but hope that he would at least look her way at least once. She wasn't one to express her feelings too much. A tsundere.
She was known during their high school days to be a cold person, and if anyone knew how furiously she would blush when she was with him, people wouldn't believe that she was the jennie Kim they knew.
That was the reason why, since that incident 2 years ago, she promised herself.
She promised that she wouldn't let him affect her anymore. No matter how many charming smiles and alluring gazes he sends towards her way, she wouldn't budge.
She was doing so well....if it weren't for the fact that he was the one who was initiating their conversations now.
When they used to talk back in high school, he was a smooth talker and she knew it, she saw it and heard it, and yet, whenever she spoke to him, he had mixed responses that made her feel sad.
She was a teenager in love.
Thinking about it, she sighed more deeply and had an alluringly sad smile on her beautiful face as she looked at him.
Kim Taehyung, staring at her with wide eyes, as if his breath got hitched.
"How have you been?" She asks.
"We're schoolmates, I'm surprised you don't know how I am these days" he grins in return.
"I don't mean these past few days or weeks, how have you been these past two years"
And he had stiffened, she could see it. It wasn't noticeable when he immediately went back to his calm natural state, but she had noticed it.
"Doing quite fine, not as good as you have I presume?" He says, his face with a light teasing, he was always teasing her these days, completely different from the Taehyung she knew from high school, and when she was about to answer, she saw a flicker of sadness in his brown eyes.
She was surprised. Not as good as hers? Does he even remember what happened 2 years ago? Did he remember what they said to one another? Did he-
She calmed herself down. She had to.
"I don't think so...I think that-" She starts off until a familiar voice entered.
"Taehyung ah! Jennie ah!" A sweet melodic voice said.
Jennie looking back towards that voice and Taehyung looking towards the the person coming towards Jennie's back, Kim Jisoo stood there, arms in locked with that of Kim Seokjin.
She was...glowing.. Jennie thought.
She hadn't seen her friend glow that much and have such a euphoric face since such a long time ago...and when Seokjin Hyung? (She doesn't like calling them Oppa remember?)
Taehyung seemed to have thought the same because when Jennie had looked to see his reaction, he had a face of slight surprise.
Kim Seokjin, was walking towards them, locked arms, with Kim Jisoo.
"So we have new lovebirds" Taehyung mutters under his breath, only for he and Jennie to hear.
Jennie could only nod in silence as they watched their friends approach them.
"Hey" Seokjin starts with a calm gaze towards his friends that turned so gently when he looked at the female that was beside him.
"How long have I not talked to the both of you? 5 years?" Taehyung asks.
"Very funny tae" Jisoo remarks.
"Well this is new..." Jennie says back.
They were surprised. Jennie and Taehyung had locked eyes when Jin had gone beside Taehyung to sit beside him and Jisoo towards Jennie.
That moment of eye contact made them realise they had the same questions.
They're on good terms already? I thought they broke up 3 years ago?
The two could only wonder in silence as they watch both of their friends sitting in front of each other so comfortably.
"You two...made up?" Jennie starts.
"We're back together" Seokjin states as a matter of fact.
"What?!" Jennie and Taehyung say in unison.
"Are we back in time right now hyung?" Taehyung asks.
"Stop it" Jin replies with a smile towards Jisoo.
"It's like we're not even here" Taehyung says to Jennie with a playful smile on his face.
Jennie could only stare at Taehyung and his charming face, she couldn't decide whether she wanted to look at that expression of his for the rest of her life or run away from it.
Taehyung seemed to notice Jennie's lack of response and her expression showed that she was in deep thought so he stopped the teasing.
He knew when to stop. It's just that, it's hard to do so when there's a constant need for him to make her smile. Because for him, one smile is alluring enough for him to burn the whole world for her.
He didn't know if he had already made it clear towards her that he felt that way, or if she had thought that he was just mindlessly flirting with her.
Because he realised that, he would wait for her. He'd wait for her feelings, no matter how long. No matter who she falls in love with first, no matter how many more times she would fall in love with others before she even notices him, he cares not of, but rather he only desires to be her last and only love.
But she didn't seem to understand his feelings and thought him only as a friend who she has known for the whole of her life.
An antagonising pain would've struck
his heart if it weren't for the fact that the pain has always been there since he fell in love with his-
"We talked already" somebody interrupted his thoughts.
It was Jisoo smiling sadly.
And thus the explanation of how Seokjin gave up his life and had let someone blackmail him in return of Jisoo's safety.
The two decided not to say anything about the rainy scene of a Monday morning to their friends, it felt too personal, well maybe Jisoo would tell Jennie in secret, but not in front of Jin who she might feel embarrassed talking to regarding what she felt at that moment.
"Hyung, you're really one of a kind huh?" Taehyung remarks while clasping the shoulder of his friend.
Jisoo and Seokjin laughed in return, and despite the happy atmosphere there was still an underlying hesitation to think of grasping that happiness fully due to the past they all experienced.
The past they can't get away from.
Lisa...
"She would've loved seeing all of us laugh together" As Jisoo fiddles with her keychain that was attached to her bag.
"She would've.....She is just...the sun itself..so bright...and so far out of reach....Lisa" Jennie replies back.
It wasn't a coincidence when Jennie noticed how Taehyung's smile slowly went away as he stiffened at the mention of her name.
It also wasn't a coincidence when Jisoo noticed how Jin suddenly took away his gaze from her.
The two girls could only wonder why. It was most probably because they were both grieving as much as them.
But the the wariness that the two males expressed made them doubt it.
Before one of the four could speak, a loud voice could be heard.
"Where the fuck is he?!"
The 4 Elites had looked at each other.
Seulgi.
Jimin's Fiancée, Seulgi, was a woman who seemed to get everything her way. She was the daughter of the Kang Enterprises, one of Jimin's grandfather's oldest friends.
It didn't come as a shock that she got engaged to Jimin when they've known each other since they were young teens.
It also wasn't a secret that people stated that Jimin and Seulgi were close friends since they were young and that they were potentially dating when they were teens....according to the public.
But it had bugged the minds of everyone how he never seemed to be with her and was always with another girl who had gotten their face blurred.
"Where the fuck is he?!" Seulgi repeats.
"Where the fuck is Park Jimin?!" She screams.
The whole cafeteria was silent. Since there was a raging socialite who didn't even study in the academy was in the middle of the cafeteria, no one decided to say anything.
And then, Seulgi's cat-like eyes flared madly towards the table where the 4 elites were sitting.
"Where the hell is your friend?" She asked in a furious tone. No time for games.
"Why?" Taehyung replies in a joking tone.
"Because I want to know why the fuck is he starting to back out now?" Seulgi exclaims.
"Back out where? The engagem-" jisoo starts.
"No- Not-" Seulgi starts
Something glimmered in Jennie's eyes. It was realisation. She knew what Seulgi was talking about. He wasn't backing out of the engagement, he was backing out of it.
"Why don't you calm down and try to get that stick that's shoved up your ass out of it" Jennie replies in a bored tone. And yet there was a wave of emotions behind her exterior walls.
Seulgi was furious as she looked at Jennie who seemed to be calm as if everything wasn't falling apart.
"You fucking bit-"
Pack.
A slap.
Jennie awaited the pain of the slap yet it never came.
Seulgi was initially planning to slap Jennie's elegant bored face out of oblivion if it weren't for the fact that Taehyung had caught her wrists before she could even slap Jennie's face.
"Stop it right now, you're not in the place where you're allowed to do that. At least show some decency to his name considering that you're Jimin's fiancée. This is why Jimin was better off with Rosie" Taehyung exclaims.
"Tae" "V thats enough" both Seokjin and Jisoo say at the same time.
Taehyung didn't budge. He looked at Seulgi in such hatred in his eyes. And then looked towards Jennie who was looking at him. Her face was...blank.
"I'm tired" Jennie says as she stood up and walked away.
At times she really wished she could just walk away from everything.
His eyes followed her until she was too far off to be seen, and she knew it without looking, because she could feel the stinging gaze he gave her.
She wasn't tired. She wouldn't have usually walked away. It was his eyes that made her do so.
Gone was the face that was usually a mask of playful charm. After he said those words and looked from Seulgi to her, she saw his eyes that showed an emotion he never gave towards her. Never in the 12 years she has known him has he ever shown that type of emotion.
Raging anger.