« chapter three »

•••

“Are you two comfortable? Is there anything else you’ll need?” Jisoo was wringing her hands, tense but trying to act casual. Lisa had told her about what happened at Chaeyoung’s house, but Jisoo was trying to not fret too much to avoid adding to Chaeyoung’s worry.

Lisa tried for a genuine smile. “It’s fine, Jisoo, we’ll get you if we need anything.” She turned back to glance at Chaeyoung, who was curled up on Lisa’s bed, wrapped in a blanket. “Maybe hot chocolate ... ?” she suggested suddenly, thinking it would help all of them relax.

Jisoo nodded, finally relieved that she had something to do. “I’ll bring some snacks too,” she said quickly, closing the door behind her as she left.

After the door closed, Lisa turned to the redhead. “Hey, Chaeyoung?” she called softly, placing a hand on the girl’s shoulder. “You okay?”

She wasn’t expecting an answer, but she detected a slight nod, which more than relieved her. “Do you want me to leave for a minute?” she asked. “I can go help Jisoo, and you can change into more comfortable clothes ...” Lisa almost face-palmed and made her way to her dresser. “I almost forgot. Let me set out some pajamas."

We’re about the same height, so the fit shouldn’t be a problem ...

Rummaging through a drawer, she pulled out a plain white t-shirt and grey sweatpants. “Here,” she said, setting them next to Chaeyoung on the bed, “These should fit. I’ll be back in just a few minutes, okay?”

As soon as she got a nod of acknowledgement, Lisa hurried out of the room, eager to also have something to do to distract herself.

«•••»

Lisa slowly made her way to her room, balancing a tray of some small vegetable sandwiches, cookies, and hot chocolate on her own after insisting that Jisoo go ahead and go to sleep.

Reaching her door, she carefully shifted the weight of the tray onto one hand and knocked with her free hand. “Chaeyoung? Can I come in?”

There was a shuffling sound, and a light cough, as if to clear the throat. “Yeah.”

Lisa pushed open the door, and thanked whoever was watching over her that she was able to maintain balance of the tray. Chaeyoung’s eyes widened when she caught sight of everything Lisa was holding. “Here, let me help,” she said, quickly rising to her feet.

“No, no it’s fine.” Lisa shook her head, and slowly placed the tray down on her dresser. She turned back to Chaeyoung, who, she noticed, had changed into the pajamas Lisa had set out, and they fit naturally. Since Chaeyoung appeared to be more comfortable and relaxed now, Lisa thought she could push the matter a bit. “So ... want to talk about it?”

Immediately, Chaeyoung stiffened. She shook her head, the most movement she made all night. “Not ... not yet.”

“That’s okay,” Lisa nodded. “Here, eat something ... want to watch a movie?”

«•••»

Two movies and a full plate of snacks later, Chaeyoung was fast asleep. Lisa carefully shifted so that Chaeyoung was no longer leaning against her, and then she moved Chaeyoung more completely onto the bed so that she could sleep comfortably. Lisa grabbed an extra blanket from her closet and curled up on the beanbag in the corner of her room, finally left alone with her own thoughts.

There’s something more ...

But what if there isn’t?

I mean it’s clear, right? She just said she didn’t want to talk about it ...

Okay, so maybe there’s more, but ...

I’ll just have to wait.

With that thought, Lisa closed her eyes and let the exhaustion take over.

«•••»

Chaeyoung left early the next morning, but Lisa was glad she could be with her parents again. After all, her parents would probably be able to provide more support than Lisa, who was merely a friend.

Okay, enough of that, Lisa thought to herself. She finished packing her bag for the dance class she taught on Saturdays. No more thinking about that for today. Just check up on how she is on Monday in class. She slung her bag over her shoulder and headed out with a quick good-bye to Jisoo.

Just as she was about to fully revel in her first true moment of being completely alone the entire week, her phone buzzed. She scrambled to take it out of her bag without dropping everything, and when she finally checked who it was, she froze.

New Message from Jennie Kim

She glanced around her to make sure she wouldn’t run into everyone, and she opened the message, knowing that avoiding it would only be worse.

J: We need to talk. Come to my office when you get here. Someone else will take care of your shift.

Now Lisa was alarmed. Jennie had completely slipped her mind the past few days since she had always been with Chaeyoung or otherwise occupied with preparations for their showcase ... now, the thought of Jennie was at the forefront of her mind.

And Lisa was not excited.

«•••»

Taking a deep breath, Lisa reluctantly knocked on the door.

“Come in,” a voice said lazily from inside.

Lisa opened the door to find Jennie with her feet propped up on the desk in front of her while using her laptop. Her brown hair was, as usual, pulled into a ponytail, and she was biting her lip as her fingers flew across the keyboard, rapidly typing. Based on the calculator and open financial tracker on her desk, Lisa guessed that she was handling the finances of the academy right now. Upon Lisa’s arrival, she looked up.

“Well,” she started, placing her laptop on her desk and lowering her legs. “You can set your bag down and take a seat.” Her voice was cold, Lisa noted. This might be worse than usual.

Lisa followed the instructions and sat down in one of the free rolling chairs in front of Jennie’s desk. She tried to ignore the goose bumps that were forming on her arm as the seconds dragged on, making time appear to pass slower than it actually was.

“I heard that the new girl stayed at your house yesterday,” Jennie started, getting immediately to the topic.

“She did.” Lisa’s response was stiff.

“Can I know why?”

Lisa frowned, wondering where this was going. “Someone had broken into her house,” she answered truthfully, “and she needed another place to stay that night.”

Jennie began drumming her fingers on the desk. “She could’ve stayed at anyone else’s house too, am I right?”

Still not understanding, Lisa let Jennie continue with her questioning. “We’ve been practicing a lot together so I thought—”

“Ah, so I see you two are pretty close already, aren’t you?” Jennie exclaimed, slamming her hands on the desk. The pencil stand at the edge of the desk quivered at the force, and Lisa jumped at the sound.

“W-what? What do you—oh.”

Suddenly, everything was clear.

“There’s nothing between us,” Lisa clarified.

She was mentally berating herself; this was why she didn’t have too many close friends in the dance academy to the point where she would invite them to her house, and why she had no friends at all outside of the academy.

Jennie laughed humorlessly. “Right. Because that’s exactly what it seems like when you invite her over to your house. Every day, wasn’t it?” She had gotten up, and was stalking around the room.

“But she just had to practice—”

“Taeyang would’ve helped her.”

“He said she needed to fit in with the group, so learning from a student would—”

“It could’ve been another student!” Jennie was behind Lisa at this point, and she spun Lisa around in her chair to face her. Lisa was trapped—Jennie had grabbed the two handles of the chair, and her arms were blocking any escape.

Lisa sighed. Keep your cool ... “I had more experience with teaching,” she said, her voice calm and steadier than she expected it to be. “Especially because of that summer job you forced me to take up,” she mumbled.

Jennie shoved the chair Lisa was in backward. The chair rammed into the desk with a thud, knocking a few things off the desk with the force. “Who got you into this academy, huh?”

Keeping her gaze focused on her feet, Lisa didn’t answer. Jennie grabbed her by her chin and forced her to make eye contact. “It was me, wasn’t it? And this is how you repay me? By going off with another girl?”

Unable to handle it anymore, Lisa grimaced and slapped away Jennie’s hand. “Get off of me,” she said, trying to get up from the chair.

Jennie pushed her back down. “I asked a question, and I expect an answer. What does she have that I don’t? I said I’d give you anything, didn’t I? I even accepted you when I had a list of rich clients that could actually afford the damn tuition. But you—”

“Okay, enough!” Lisa ducked under one of Jennie’s restraining arms and stood up. “I told you, there is nothing between Chaeyoung and me,” she said, clearly stating each word, her voice rising. “Just like there is nothing between you and me!”

Jennie was furious, her eyes blazing with anger. She stepped forward with a hand raised, and Lisa ducked reflexively, an arm lifting in defense.

There was a knock on the door.

Jennie froze in her tracks, and Lisa realized, in the silence that ensued, just how loud her own breathing was. She quickly collected herself, and headed toward her bag, her gaze maintained on Jennie.

Jennie also collected herself, her prior emotions shoved under a smooth façade of calm. “Come in,” she said as soon as Lisa had picked up her bag.

Another student, one of the lower levels, entered hesitantly to hand a stack of papers to Jennie. They headed toward her desk, with the boy explaining what the papers were about, and Lisa took that as her signal to leave.

“Someone else will take care of your shift.”

Remembering the text Jennie had sent, Lisa decided that she was done for the day. This confrontation was easily the worst she had faced with Jennie, and she was spent. But before she could push the encounter out of her mind, Lisa realized that there was only one option to prevent this from happening again.

She had to stay away from Chaeyoung.

«•••»

The next Thursday had come, and somehow, luck was still with Lisa. She hadn’t had to face Jennie again so far, and she also hadn’t been paired up with Chaeyoung during the speed dating activities. Lisa knew that Chaeyoung may have realized something was wrong already by the way Lisa had been avoiding her like the plague during class, but she chose not to voice it. There was minimal interaction between the two.

Until, of course, Thursday afternoon.

“Lisa.”

She jumped as she slammed her locker shut in surprise, and glanced toward the source of the voice. “God, Seulgi,” Lisa huffed, annoyed. “That scared me.”

“And you’re scaring me,” the brunette retorted as she stepped closer. “I can swear to the ghost in South Wing that you haven’t said over five words to Chaeyoung all week.”

Lisa didn’t speak, and Seulgi continued her rant. “And that wasn’t actual conversation, either. You said ‘hi’ four times, once each day, and ‘bye’ yesterday!”

“We just have nothing to talk about.” Lisa opened her locker again to take out her bag, which she had meant to do before Seulgi interrupted her.

Seulgi snorted. “Like hell you don’t. I don’t understand why you’re acting like this, and I can tell you aren’t going to explain, but at least talk to the girl. She doesn’t deserve this on top of the worries she already has.”

“Worries?” Lisa piped up without thinking. She mentally cursed her curiosity.

“Yeah, her home is under constant surveillance now, because someone keeps vandalizing it. The doors, windows, anything that was not being watched would be vandalized,” Seulgi explained, slightly relieved that Lisa was responding.

Lisa frowned. If Chaeyoung had been that shaken after only one event, Lisa could only imagine what she was going through now.

And she has to stay in that house every night, too, because you’re the one she’s closest to and you’re avoiding her ...

She immediately shook the thought out of her head. “That’s not my problem, Seulgi.” She quickly started toward the exit, but Seulgi grabbed her arm before she could leave.

“At least talk to her,” she pleaded.

With sadness evident in her eyes, Lisa shook her arm free and headed out. The relief was minimal, though, because her heart was now heavy with worry for Chaeyoung.

The worry didn’t last long—Chaeyoung was waiting for her in the entrance.

Lisa tensed when she caught sight of the redhead, and stopped walking when she lifted her head and their eyes met.

“Hey,” Chaeyoung said, waving weakly.

“Hey.” Lisa’s response came coldly, sounding harsh even to her own ears.

Chaeyoung visibly shrank back, before she took a deep breath to steady herself. “Lisa, are you avoiding me?”

Lisa pursed her lips, her boundaries finally caving in. “I was. I guess I’m not anymore, since I’m talking to you now.”

The smile that lit up Chaeyoung’s face was enough to eliminate the boundaries completely. “Really?” She sighed, her smile dying a little. “Can I ask why you were?”

Wordlessly, Lisa shook her head. “Later,” she said, an unspoken promise being made.

The other girl nodded thoughtfully as she ran a hand through her hair. “Well, I was wondering ...” she trailed off.

“You were wondering ... ?”

“Could we talk?” she asked. “I just, I want—” She swallowed nervously. “I need to talk about it. About what happened at my house.”

Lisa’s eyebrows raised of their own accord. “Wait, what? Why so suddenly?”

“I feel like ...” Chaeyoung looked down at her shoes. “I feel like it’s too big to keep to myself at this point,” she admitted quietly. She glanced up at Lisa, her eyes wide and pleading.

Screw this, Lisa thought, and she walked forward and took Chaeyoung’s hand. “Let’s go.”

«•••»

It should have alarmed her, how easily they returned to the way they were before Lisa had begun to stupidly ignore her. Lisa had never felt this much concern for another individual, had never felt this affected by a simple look.

But nothing had felt more natural to Lisa than walking hand-in-hand with Chaeyoung.

«•••»

Since Jisoo had needed to be physically present at work that day, Lisa didn’t need to explain why Chaeyoung had come with no warning. They immediately headed toward Lisa’s room, and they dropped their bags off near the door. Chaeyoung walked slowly toward the bed, lost in thought.

“I don’t know where to start,” she admitted as she sat down. She brought her feet up to sit pretzel-style on the bed.

Lisa took a seat on the other end of the bed and copied her position. “Anywhere is fine ... and honestly, if you don’t want to talk about it, that’s fine too.”

“I—” she cut herself off, and stared intently into Lisa’s eyes. “Do you promise?”

“What?”

“That you won’t tell anyone.”

“I ...” Lisa silenced her initial objections after seeing the look in Chaeyoung’s eyes. “Okay. I won’t.”

“Not a soul?”

“Not a soul.”

Accepting the promise, Chaeyoung sighed. “This is only a suspicion, honestly, but I doubt I’m wrong,” she started, her voice soft in volume and sounding slightly strained.

Lisa nodded, staying silent, encouraging her to keep going.

“I had a ... a boyfriend, in Australia.” Chaeyoung cleared . “His name is Junhwe ... and I think he followed me to Korea even after I got him put under a restraining order.”

•••

Author’s Note:

i thought that was a fitting way to end the chapter XD

so now, the two problems plaguing both the main characters are revealed! how do they solve them, i wonder ... *evil laugh*

tune in next time ...

~ thana