T W O

               "  091225  "

               Jennie stares to the right of her at the girl who has just taken her seat. As for the new girl, she simply turns her head to the left and gives Jennie a straight face for just a second, then grins slightly at her.

               Jennie's eyebrows twitch. Her facial expression shows confusion.

               Rosé still looks at the two, wondering what had just happened, and what exactly Jisoo had meant when she said something to Jennie; her curiosity drags onto her and can only be removed with answers to her questions.

               What is 091225?

               Rosé tries to think to herself. She, too, is distracted from the class lesson.

—

               The bell rings, and the first class ends. Most of the girls within the room immediately stand up and turn around to make their way towards Jisoo's desk, being loud, noisy, and making random squeals.

               "Jisoo – ! I can call you casually by your name right?"

               "Would you like me to show you around the school?"

               "Hey would you be my friend?"

               "Could I have your number?"

               "You're really pretty!!"

               Jisoo simply looks around with all the faces and bodies of both guys and girls, giving them a nervous grin while tipping her head slightly at them. She wants to excuse herself, but she doesn't know how.

               Jennie slams her desk with both of her palms and stands up, "Can you guys just all shut up?" She yells at the others for being too rambunctious, "You are all so loud!" She makes a straight face and walks through the few students in her way and reaches for Jisoo's left arm and starts pulling her without making eye contact with the latter. With no time to respond, Jisoo instinctively gets up to walk as well to prevent herself falling forward to the floor.

               "What the hell?"

               "Heeeey... Who does she think she is?"

               The students give their disapprovals vocally.

               "Where do you think you're taking her?"

               "We were talking to her first!"

               "The loser wants to hog the new student all of a sudden!"

               Jennie pays no attention and continues to drag her out of the classroom, and towards an empty space at the school. Jisoo, feeling the discomfort of being dragged around finally tugs her arm out of Jennie's grasp. Jennie immediately turns around and faces her.

               "You were there, weren't you?"

               Jisoo tilts her head in a questioningly manner, with a face that needs clarification, but full of innocence (and a little feeling of everything previously listed about her being fabricated).

               "Were you or were you not?" Jennie asks while furrowing her brows, "091225, you said that to me this morning, didn't you?"

--

               Jennie was still walking on the sidewalk. She didn't know how much time had past when she started walking. But if she remembered correctly, Driver Choi said she still had a mile left until she reached the school.

               There was a big intersection that Jennie had run to when the walk sign was still on, but had a red hand signal by the time Jennie got to the pole. Jennie looked at the clock on her phone and made a face.

               There's only ten minutes left, damn it; I don't want to be late. If I just run, and if I just keep on running like I did earlier, I can make it.

               But Jennie forgot the instinct to look left and right before running across the crosswalk.

               The horn of a big dumpster truck instantly sounded right after a couple of steps.

               Jennie looked to her right and widened her eyes, but her body was paralyzed.

               Oh !

               ...

               Did I die?

               Where am I? Why is everything black? I can't feel anything, and I can't open my eyes...

               Then, a weird, distorted voice spoke.

               "Zero."

               "Nine."

               "One."

               "Two."

               "Two."

               "Five."

               What? Who's talking? Who is that?

               "Remember..."

               0-9-1-2-2-5?

               What?

               "Get up."

               Jennie jerked her eyes open and gasped. She was lying on the hard cement of the sidewalk, safely across the intersection she had wanted to cross in the first place. Her face twitched along with the pain from the signals that her nerves within her body sent her. She was cold again and full of cold sweat all over. And when she pushed herself up, she could feel as if she had just finish running a marathon — every energy that she had earlier to even make a ruckus in the car with Driver Choi and Rosé was gone and out of her.

               She gasped deeply and breathed deeply for air; she was shuddering as well, and for some reason, her body kept shaking on its own.

               Was it always this cold — 

               Why did she feel so suffocated...?

               Regaining a little bit more of her composure, she was successfully able to stand up after two or three minutes. She looked at her surroundings, but the roads were completely empty. No cars, no busy intersection, no dumpster truck along with its driver. The lights were all working properly, the walk signs and the red hand signals, and even the rest of her body were all in its rightful place, as if nothing had disturbed the peace before.

               I don't understand... What just happened? Whose voice was that?

               I couldn't have possibly hallucinated all of that.

--

               "So was it you or not?" Jennie asks again.

               "Yeah, it was me," the latter simply answers, "But what would you want to do even after knowing it was me in the first place?"

               "Were you there for all of it? The whole scene? What happened?"

               "Well... I saved your life, but really, that's all you need to know," Jisoo replies like it's a tedious question, "And if that's all.. I guess that's all then." For some reason, Jennie feels that there was a slight disappointment in her tone of voice. She sees the new girl turn slightly, about to walk away.

               "Who are you?..."

               Jisoo stops in her steps.

               "What are you?"

               Jisoo turns her head slightly to the side.

               All Jennie can hear is a slight chuckle, to which, she doesn't understand why Jisoo reacts like that.

               "Who knows?"

               Jisoo doesn't wait for Jennie's response, and walks away casually.

               What is that supposed to mean? (All she had to say was that she was just some girl who was a human, and Jennie would've rested easy by letting go of that thought).

               Back in the classroom, Rosé is surrounded by her usual group of friends.

               "Hey, are you going to introduce Jisoo to the group?"

               "I think it'd be nice, considering she's such a beauty and all."

               "She looks kind, I think we should go befriend her!"

               But Rosé thinks to herself, why did Jennie drag that girl out of the classroom? Do those two know each other?

               But just a few seconds later, she hears the girls shout and cry.

               "Look! It's Jisoo!"

               Rosé simply makes a face to react to the loudness, Jennie's right, this place has gotten too loud..

               "Hey, pretty."

               Oh no, not you again —

               "Whatcha doin'?" Jungkook walks closer to her desk once again and kneels down, putting both of his arms back on her desk and his chin laying on the top of his arms.

               Rosé sighs, "Jungkook..."

               "Hi there," a third voice joins in. The same raspy, unique voice that Rosé barely heard in the beginning of class.

               Both Jungkook's and Rosé's attention turns to the new girl standing right next to them, Jisoo.

               Jungkook's eyes remain on her while Rosé's head is turned to the right, to face her.

               "Woah, since when did you walk here — I didn't even notice you..." Jungkook comments, then he moves his head and shifts his eyes behind the girl, "And... Where did all of Rosé's friends go?" He makes a face, and harshly whispers, "God dang it, they were supposed to stop anyone from approaching my Rosé so I could have some alone time with her..."

               But Rosé pays no attention to him and his statement at all and just greets the girl at the side, "O-Oh, um. Hey."

               "Hello," Jisoo grins slightly again.

               "Do you nee — "

               "Can you show me around campus?"

               "I — "

               "Oh, well if you don't want to, I could always ask your stepsister to," Jisoo blurts out blatantly.

               Rosé slightly widens her eyes.

               She didn't even wait for my answer for any of those statements —

               "You have a stepsister?!" Jungkook emphasizes his question dramatically, widening his eyes and letting everyone else left in the classroom overhear him, "Since when, Rosé, since when?" He slowly raises from the ground and stands up to lean in closer towards her.

               "What?"

               "Did he just say that Rosé has a stepsister?"

               "Yeah, wait since when? Like, did I hear that correctly?"

               Rosé is simply speechless.

               Jennie wouldn't have ever spoken a word about being us being stepsisters, so how does she know?

               Jisoo slightly narrows her eyes while she remains eye contact with Rosé, grinning wider, "So?"

               "Woah, hey hold on, wifey... You never told your hubby that you had a stepsister, and more importantly, the fact that she's here at this school...! I need to make a good impression of myself for your family, you know!?"