The last class of the year was going to end any minute soon and everybody was exited for the summer break. Most students were happy just to get the hell out of school, but Jennie Kim wasn't. Jennie was happy for different reasons.
She was really planning to make something of this break. She was planning to step out of her comfort zone a little bit. Her life had always been near perfect; A loving family, perfect grades and a loving group of friends. However, she had always felt a little bit empty. She didn't like to complain, or even talk about it for that matter since she didn't want to come off as ungrateful for what she had, or spoiled. She had nearly everything.
After the summer break, she would be entering her senior year. And she was going to be ready. Her first step to stepping out of her shell was going to be asking out Chahee. The girl she had been crushing on a little bit lately. She wasn't known to the whole dating "situation", she had never even kissed anyone before. She was particularly unfamiliar with asking somebody out because, mostly, girls didn't ask boys out. But since Jennie had come out as gay a few months back, she knew that she has to become more familiar with it soon.
Jennie stared at the clock to watch the last seconds pass by, as everybody probably was. When the bell rang, all hell broke loose. Cheers and claps were heard from all over the school. There were even some people throwing their papers on the floor. As much as she wanted to join them, Jennie had to pack up her things quickly because she was going to meet her closest friends Rosé, Irene and Nayeon at Starbucks after school.
Leaving the school was hard, as she had to avoid wild teenagers everywhere but she finally made it to the café at the end street. Of course she was the first one to be there, but she didn't really mind because it gave her the chance to tell her friends about her plans to ask Chahee out. They had been aware of Jennie's little crush on the girl before but when they asked she would never confirm it, or deny it.
A few minutes later, the three other girls entered the place. Jennie started growing nervous immediately. After they noticed her, Rosé and Nayeon started waving excitedly, they sat down opposite of Jennie while Irene sat next to her in the booth. Irene extended her fist for Jennie to bump it and she did, chuckling a little bit.
They talked a bit about their summer plans after settling down and ordering their usuals until a silence fell over the friend group. Jennie's heart started beating faster and louder and she decided that it was a kind of now or never situation.
"Sooo...." She started. Three pairs of eyes were glued to hers and that made her even more nervous, although she didn't know why. These were her friends, the same three girls that she has been through everything with. Why was she so nervous? Especially about something so small. She didn't realise how long she had been quiet until Irene spoke up.
"Spit it out." The small girl said while slurping her drink very loudly.
"Okay, okay." Jennie held up her hands defensively.
"You know Chahee from my math class right?" Jennie said hesitantly.
"Yes?" Rosé squealed enthusiastic while Nayeon mouthed an 'I knew it.' to an already smirking Irene.
Jennie nervously fidgeted with her fingers and finally spoke up.
"Well, I'm going to ask her out..." For some reason she straightened her shirt before going on. "...this afternoon."
She looked up from her shoes that she had been staring at for a while and was confronted with three smirking faces.
"Good for you, girl!" Nayeon exclaimed while Irene clapped next to her. "I'm sure you've already planned out every word and move."
Jennie blushed a little, because, yeah, that was exactly what she did.
"Maybe.." She didn't even have to look in the mirror to know the fact that she was flustered.
"It's about time you get some." Irene muttered. Jennie playfully shoved her shoulder as Rosé covered her mouth with her hands and Nayeon struggled to hold in her laughter.
There was more playful banter back and forth between the girls and before they knew it, the afternoon was almost ending. Rosé pulled out her phone to check the time and smirked.
"I think you still have something to do, Jen." She winked at Jennie and Irene and Nayeon started cheering.
"Well," she stood up to escape the awkward situation. "I guess I should go then." She said her goodbyes to her friends and started walking to Chahee's house. She had known where it was because she had been there to give her homework before. It wasn't that far from school but it was a while away. Every step she took made her more and more anxious. What if she would say something wrong, or worse, not be able to say anything at all? Endless options of worst case scenarios played in her head and she decided that it would be a good idea if she just practiced what she would say. Just once more.
"Okay, how about:" she started speaking to herself out of nervousness. "Hey Chahee! How are you?" She stopped. Stupid question, she wasn't going there to make small talk. "Okay, no, no." Jennie ran her hand through her hair and groaned in frustration. "Hey Chahee! I'm sure you're thinking; Why is she here, at my house! But I was wondering if you wanted to hang out with me some time, like, not normal 'hanging' but like 'date hanging' because, you know, I-" She was interrupted, rudely.
"Is that how you ask somebody out?" A husky voice mocked from behind her. She turned back, finding herself face to face with an unfamiliar face of a girl. The first thing she noticed about the girl were her doe brown eyes. That was mostly because everything else she wore was black, the skinny jeans, boots, the 1975 T-shirt and even a black snapback. It was the exact opposite of the creative combination of colours that Jennie was wearing. The black of the strangers' clothes made her eyes stand out so well though, Jennie almost got lost in them. Almost.
"What is that supposed to mean?" She shot back at the stranger, putting her hands on her hips to show that she wasn't intimidated by the rude girl. Which she actually kind of was.
"Well, if you want to impress someone, you shouldn't act like you're about to pass out. Which you kind do." The girl said as if it was nothing.
"Oh, and I'm guessing you are an expert?" Jennie didn't normally get annoyed that fast but this girl was pushing her buttons in just two sentences.
"Oh yes." The other girl said as if she had been preparing for that question all her life. "First of all, I'm guessing 'Chahee' is a girls name?" The girl asked while adjusting her snapback. Jennie nodded carefully, not because she was actually interested in what this girl had to say, but because, if she was doing something wrong, she wanted to know.
"Well okay," the girl said. "Then it's easy. Just wait till she turns around, and just yell 'Ey Chahee, you got a nice ass."
The girl started laughing uncontrollably and Jennie felt very embarrassed. She taught that the brown eyed girl was going to say something useful, or help her. But instead she just mocked her. She didn't only feel embarrassed, but for some reason she felt a little bit hurt. All she could manage to do was roll her eyes and walk away from the rude stranger.
"Wait!" The stranger managed to yell between her laughter. "Don't go." She yelled after Jennie. It didn't sound somewhat believable, at least, it didn't make Jennie stay. Only walk away faster if anything. How disrespectful. Who did that girl thinks she was? Although Jennie was having a conversation with herself, it's rude to be butting in to it. She really thought the brown eyed stranger was going to help her. God, why was she so dumb? Maybe it were her star-filled eyes, or her full pink lips that convinced Jennie to listen to her, but she was happy that she could pull herself out of that little trance she was in and walk away.
When she shook herself out of her thoughts, she found herself in front of Chahee's house. Her initial nerves started to come up again and she went over her 'lines' one more time as she pressed the doorbell.
She had to wait a while, which didn't really help her nerves a bit. After what felt like an eternity, Chahee opened the door. Her flashing white smile, blue ocean eyes and undeniably beautiful blonde hair looked perfect as always and made Jennie weak in the knees.
"Hey, Jen." Chahee smiled at the girl and Jennie was surprised that she could still stand up normally.
Jennie's mind drifted to the brown eyed stranger and she felt her confidence build as she grinned, straightened her posture and held her head up.
"Hey Chahee, how are you? Are you enjoying your break already?" She asked surprisingly smoothly. She high fived herself in her mind, nothing could go wrong now, this was a solid start.
"Yeah, it's okay so far." Chahee chuckled which made Jennie smile. She has always loved the sound of people laughing or chuckling wholeheartedly. It meant that even though life wasn't always okay, in that moment, people forgot. And of course, she also smiled because Chahee's laugh was the cutest thing she had ever heard. Although, the brown eyed girls laugh was very inviting... No, what was she thinking. It was Chahee's. Of course.
"But, uh.." Chahee voice brought Jennie out of her thoughts. "Is everything alright? Do you want to come in?" That's when Jennie lost all her chill.
"I..uhm...I didn't.." She started to stutter but stopped herself before she could make things worse. She took a moment to breathe and accepted the fact that she probably looked like a complete dork right then. She looked up at Chahee's eyes again and they were filled with confusion and amusement. Jennie smiled again
"Well, no. That's okay." Jennie settled on, knowing that if she would have come inside she would make a complete fool of herself. Not that she didn't want to, because man, she really really wanted to. Chahee's expression went to confused again and Jennie interjected her before she could speak.
"I'm actually here because, I really want to go on a date with you Chahee. I was actually really nervous and still am, omg." She nervously chuckled and went on. "I really wanted to go on a date with you and I wanted to know if you want it too, do you?" She said rather confidently. She almost wanted to say please, but stopped herself. Chahee's confused expression softened and she thought for a second, Jennie was sweet, pretty and one of the nicest people she knew so, why not really?
"Yes." She nodded. "I would like that, Jen." She smiled. Jennie let out a breath she was totally aware of holding in.
"Okay, good." She let slip out, she quickly looked at Chahee to see if she heard, and she did. She just chuckled and Jennie could feel her face flushing.
"How about, tomorrow?" Chahee proposed. "Maybe movies or something?" She went on. Jennie happily nodded and smiled as they said their goodbyes. They agreed on texting each other a time an place and Jennie left, Not before finally doing that little happy dance she wanted to. She thought no one was looking but Chahee saw her from her window. Chahee just laughed and shook her head playfully though. As Jennie walked back home, the brown eyed girl somehow flowed back in her mind. She wished she could push the fact that Chahee said yes in her face. 'Expert' her ass.
Before she knew it she was back home and in her room and immediately pulled out her phone, being welcomed by multiple messages in the groups chat with her friends.
(4.53 p.m) Rosé: Soooooo.....?
(4.57 p.m) Nayeon: Jen, what did she say!!!
(5.14 p.m) Irene: Yo Jen, are you gonna get some, or nah.
Jennie halfheartedly rolled her eyes at Irene's remark and started typing away about how it went. Starting from when she was in front of Chahee's door, because the brown eyed stranger's part wasn't important, right? No, no it wasn't. She decided and sent her long ass story to her friends with a proud smile. It didn't take long before she got her responses.
(5.23 p.m) Irene: get it Jen!
(5.23 p.m) Rosé: yaayyy!!
Nayeon just sent a bunch of smirking emoji's followed by a few other ones and it didn't take long before Jennie understood what they meant. She just chose to ignore Nayeon and sent a smiling emoji her friends way. Even Nayeon common inappropriateness couldn't spoil her mood. Nothing could wipe that smile off her face, right then.
She opened her laptop and scrolled through Tumblr for a while until she heard a soft knock on her door, followed by Ella, her little sister, coming into the room and koala hugging her. Their relationship has always been very good and she loved Ella so much, and would do anything for her. Maybe it was the age gap, but Jennie and Ella barely ever disagreed or even fought. There was just so much love. Ella let go of Jennie and started jumping up and down on her bed.
"Finally, schools over!" Jennie managed to hear her little sister say in-between giggles and heavy breathing. Ella made Jennie's mood even better and Jennie started to feel a little bit goofy, resulting to her joining her sister in her jumping.
"Yaay!" She squealed along. After a lot of jumping and giggles, the girls sat down on the edge of the bed.
"Mom, said I had to come get you, dinner is ready." Ella panted, remembering her reason to come.
"Let's go then." Jennie said, lifting her little sister on her back. They walked through their large house and finally entered the dining area. Sometimes Jennie wondered why they had such a big house while they were a family of just 4 people, but it had always been that way. And she didn't want to seem underappreciative or anything, so she always just dropped it. The Kim sisters sat down and soon enough, they were eating. The family talked about basic things and Dara, Jennie's mother, asked how Jennie's day went. The girl pursed her lips. Should she say it? She didn't want to spoil the mood or anything. However, she decided on it anyway.
"I asked someone out today." Jennie said rather proudly. Her father, Jiyong, tensed up immediately. As did her mother, but with her, it was mostly because she didn't know what was about to come. There was a moment of silence. A very awkward one, filled with Jennie waiting for response, Her father looking down and repeatedly hitting his plate with his fork and Ella just looking back and forth very confused, not knowing what was happening.
"It's Chahee, Dad. You'll really like her. She's amazing." Camila spoke again, now very insecurely. Nothing changed, unless her dad just looking away from her and down to his plate where he was still making the obnoxious noise. Her mother was very accepting of Jennie being gay. Her father, however, not so much. He still loved her very much. God, he loved his daughters unconditionally, but whenever Jennie would talk about a girl, or her sexuality. He wouldn't have it. He would just be quiet until somebody started talking about something else. He tried to understand where his daughter was coming from, but her sexuality was making him confused. He didn't like the fact that there was something he didn't have control off in his daughter's life as long as she was living under his roof.
Dara subtly shook her head, signaling for Jennie to drop it. And like always, she did. This time she was determined to bring it up again, and she was determined to have an actual conversation with her father about it, one day. Almost nothing could wipe that smile off her face.