-VII.II-

While Blackpink’s company leaves them with little to no plans for the next few months after concluding their last comeback’s promotions, Jisoo decides that she wants to be lazy and rest for the entirety of it. She thinks deserves it after all of her hard work.

But of course her plans never really turn out how she wants them to when Lisa and Chaeyoung are involved. The one day Jennie decides to hang out with her other friends is the same day both of the maknaes drag her into the unknown.

“Where are we going?” Jisoo asks while Lisa drags her by the arm, practically chucking the eldest into the van, “It’s too early for this!”

“We’re going on a trip!” Chaeyoung sings, and Lisa’s quick to tag along, “In our favorite rocketship!”

The pair continue to sing, while Jisoo whines loudly, “Manager-nim, why are you letting them do this?”

“You need to get out of the house sometimes, Jisoo,” Their manager shrugs and starts the van, “And not just for schedules,” Their manager says pointedly and Jisoo whines.

“Soaring through the skyyy~!” Lisa and Chaeyoung yell out enthusiastically.

This is the one time Jennie’s not around, and Jisoo feels like a parent having to watch over her kids on a field trip.

The sun shines gently on all three of them when they get out of the van. When Jisoo gathers her bearings and squints at the giant sign nailed onto a tree, she can’t help but suddenly ask.

“Excuse me, we’re climbing a what?!” Jisoo turns to glare at the maknaes as soon as her poor eyesight finally processes the words.

“A mountain!” Lisa shouts happily, “Don’t worry unnie, we picked an easy trek since you get tired easily,” She nods to herself proudly, sending a thumbs up to Jisoo.

“You both know I hate physical activity, right?” Jisoo looks between her two friends.

“If you actually did, you wouldn’t be an idol, unnie,” Chaeyoung claps back and Jisoo sighs in defeat. It’s not like she can say no when the couple prepared for everything already. The pair prepared Jisoo’s bags and equipment before even telling her about anything. How they managed to grab her stuff while she was in her bed for majority of the day is a mystery to Jisoo. They even volunteered to carry most of the bags, well aware that Jisoo is the least athletic out of all of them.

“Does Jennie know that we’re here?” Jisoo can’t help but ask. Even though Blackpink doesn’t have a formal leader, everyone usually lets both Jisoo and Jennie know of their whereabouts just to be safe.

“...Yes?” Lisa says while Chaeyoung turns away from the both of them. Jisoo can already tell that Lisa’s lying. Rosé’s looking away because she can’t lie herself. The eldest only raises a brow at the maknae as she crosses her arms to get her point across.

“Okay, we didn’t tell Jennie unnie. She’d kill us if she knew you were going to go hiking with us!” Lisa whines loudly, “But it’s not as dangerous as you think, you can trust us! Right Chaeyoungie?” The maknae pulls Rosé towards herself as they both throw puppy eyes at Jisoo.

“...Fine,” Jisoo gives in without much of a fight, and already the two makanes are celebrating much too loudly.

“But all of us better stay in one piece when we get back down here!” Jisoo tries to add in the midst of their celebration.

The trek isn’t hard, both Lisa and Chaeyoung say, but Jisoo has absolutely no experience of climbing a mountain of any kind, and it shows. Both Lisa and Chaeyoung have their eyes on the eldest as they flank her to make sure she’s safe. Every time Jisoo makes a small slip, both of the maknaes have their arms wide open, ready to assist her. Lisa stays behind Jisoo in case she slips, and Rosé leads the group and helps the eldest by telling her the safest places to step on.

By the time they reach the top, Jisoo’s a sweaty mess. Both of the maknaes, however, haven’t broken a sweat in the duration of the climb. Jisoo thinks it's because the couple spent more time waiting for her to catch up than climbing the mountain. If Jennie were with them, they’d probably be even more tired trying to assist the both of them, the eldest thinks. The sun’s already completely up by the time they get to the peak. Instead of feeling hot, the cool wind of being up so high sends some chills down Jisoo’s back.

Jisoo can already take a hint at why the pair decided to bring her here. During their trainee days, the two used to always ask if they could meet up at the rooftop of the company building whenever they wanted to talk or just get away from the world for a while. Jisoo fondly remembers that it’s Jennie who started talking to the maknaes on the rooftop when things were hard for them. She figures that this is their new way of doing that now that they have time to actually get out of the city.

“Is there a reason why you brought me here?” Jisoo starts once she’s done chugging down her bottle of water, tossing it beside her backpack on the ground, “If it’s trouble in paradise, I don’t think I’m the best person to ask,” The eldest jokes, knowing that the couple have been as strong as ever.

“Have you ever wanted something that seems so… unbelievably out of reach?” Rosé says urushering Jisoo to sit down on a nearby rock beside her.

Jisoo turns to face Chaeyoung completely, “Well being in a group with you guys only sounded like a dream,” She says, already seeing the frown form in both of the maknaes’ faces, “But by some miracle, here I am,” Jisoo grins, throwing finger guns to lighten up the mood.

“By miracle you mean Jennie, right?” Lisa quips and settles beside Rosé.

Jisoo can’t help but smile fondly as she decides to dodge the question, “Both of you are idiots for fighting because of me, by the way. Chaeyoung wins over both of you any day with her pasta,”

“We know that’s a lie, unnie,” Rosé’s quick to retaliate, “You can’t resist Jennie’s mandu cheeks,” She jokes, and Jisoo rolls her eyes.

“You’re…” Jisoo pauses as she remembers squishing Jennie’s cheeks. The eldest practically strangled Jennie with a scarf before she left, knowing the weather would be too cold for her best friend, “Not wrong. But what’s the real reason you both dragged me here today?” She asks.

Jisoo can see both Lisa and Chaeyoung’s entwined hands both fidgeting. She sees the both of them struggle to say anything first as they not so subtly nudge at each other’s shoulders.

“You see we—” Chaeyoung nervously starts.

“We’re here to talk about your feelings and help you get the girl, unnie!” Lisa practically yells in an attempt to explain the situation normally.

“Excuse me, what?”

The eldest wonders what they mean by that. All of them know that she’s not seeing anyone at the moment, nor has she been with anyone… Like, at all. Jisoo realizes quite belatedly that she and Jennie haven’t actually dated anyone, now that she thinks about it.

“I… don’t understand?” Jisoo mutters, looking between her friends for clarification, “If you think I’m seeing anyone in secret, that’s not the case. Jennie would’ve caught me already if I were.”

“See?” Lisa flails her long arms into the air, “There is not a single moment where you don’t mention Jennie unnie.”

“What about it? She’s a member of our group and my best friend, so of course she’s going to be in our conversations one way or another?” She involuntarily tilts her head. Jisoo doesn’t want to look into the stares she’s getting from both of the maknaes. 

Maybe Jennie would—

Jisoo freezes. Lisa might not be completely wrong… Jennie always seems to be on her mind these days. But when has she not? They’ve been attached to the hip since childhood, so that should be natural for them to think about each other all of the time, right? Jisoo suddenly feels her chest tighten, something feels off.

“I don’t know, unnie,” Chaeyoung sighs wistfully as she turns her gaze to the horizon, bringing Jisoo out of her thoughts, “As much as I love my friends, I don’t think about them every minute of the day and include them in every conversation… unless it’s about Lisa, of course.”

Lisa shrugs, “Yeah, like… is it normal for two homies to make rings for each other and to go out on a rollerskating date while looking at each other like that? I mean, you both have done worse before that— I think I’d die being in a bath alone with Chaeyoungie, you both weren’t even five feet away from each other— but, y’know...” The maknae rambles and makes random hand gestures as she speaks.

“What?” Jisoo blurts out as soon as everything clicks, “You guys think I like Jennie. You made me climb a mountain just because you both think I like Jennie,” She surmises and laughs humorlessly, leveling a stare at the both of them.

Jisoo tries to ignore the churning at the pit of her stomach. She tries to ignore how her chest tightens when she thinks of Jennie. They’re best friends. They’ve been best friends for their whole lives.

Jisoo shakes her head. That just can’t be.

“I mean... Are we wrong, unnie?” Rosé starts, “If you tell me you’ll be fine, completely okay with Jennie dating someone else right now, we’ll drop this,” She talks back bravely, now looking at Jisoo.

“Just because it looks like that to you, doesn’t mean it is,” Jisoo says in a warning tone as she gets up. The thought of Jennie dating someone else sends her mind spiraling into places she’s never even considered before. She tries not to think about Jennie any more than she already is.

“Actions can speak louder than words, unnie,” Chaeyoung challenges the eldest, “I can see the look in your eyes whenever you look at Jennie… Please stop denying it.”

The eldest glares at Chaeyoung, “I don’t see Jennie in that way. I’m fine with her dating—” Jisoo doesn’t realize that she’s stopped talking. Her mind pictures Jennie happily clinging onto someone else and the thought alone makes her insides churn. She suddenly gets up and paces around.

Jisoo can’t fathom why she feels so irrationally angry at the thought of someone else caring for Jennie. Shouldn’t she be happy when Jennie finds someone who cares as much, if not more, than she does? Perhaps it’s her protectiveness over Jennie getting to her? However, Jisoo knows deep down that she’s always been a rather protective friend to those she’s close to.

Jisoo also knows that deep down, what she feels for Jennie is different as much as she doesn’t want to admit it.

Lisa decides to join the conversation, getting up to squeeze her girlfriend’s hand to calm her down before she gets up herself.

“Look unnie, we’re not here to back you into a corner,” Lisa says once she gets in front of Jisoo and takes a hold of the eldest’s hands, stopping her from walking, “It’s just… We love the both of you and we think that you could both be happier together... Not that you aren’t already, but being together is different, and it’s… I can’t even begin to describe it, unnie.”

“I—” Jisoo steps back, and Lisa releases her hold. The eldest can’t help but let out a deep sigh.

She can’t get Jennie out of her mind. As much as she denied it earlier, the thought of being with Jennie sends a whole swarm of butterflies straight into her stomach despite all the risks she knows would have to be taken just to tell her how she feels.

“.”

“Yeah, same,” Lisa says in a somber tone. The couple watch as Jisoo slowly slumps to the ground and curls into a ball of hopelessness.

“Well that was fast,” Rosé says as she watches Jisoo, happily surprised at the eldest’s sudden admission, until she realizes something.

“Why do you say that like you aren’t already with me?” Rosé spins to face Lisa as she raises an accusatory brow.

“Mood,” Lisa supplies helpfully, obviously teasing her girlfriend as she pretends to be forlorn.

“Lisa!” Chaeyoung shouts.

“Anyways let’s talk about your feelings now that you’re acknowledging them, Jisoo unnie,” Lisa pointedly ignores her girlfriend as she plops down beside Jisoo’s curled form.

Jisoo can only groan in response. She hates talking about her feelings when she’s supposed to be the one listening and giving advice.

“Lalisa Manoban, don’t ignore me!”

The three of them end up talking about their feelings openly which is a feat in itself given that Jisoo hates talking about her emotions.  Jisoo realizes many things after their hiking trip and the days that creep closer and closer to her birthday.

For starters, she’s probably been in love with Jennie for longer than she can tell. JIsoo can’t tell when her platonic feelings evolved into something more because of how natural it is to just... be with Jennie. Even everyone knows that when there’s Jisoo, Jennie is never far behind. In fact, she’s never behind Jisoo. Jennie’s always been by Jisoo’s side. They fit together like lock and key, and Jisoo never questioned anything about their clingy dynamic until recently.

Jisoo isn’t as dense as what both Chaeyoung and Lisa think whenever they try to nudge her in Jennie’s direction. It’s just, she just doesn’t want anything to change. It’s like what they say, if it isn’t broken, don’t fix it. 

Sure Lisa and Chaeyoung have managed to make them work, but Jisoo isn’t as reckless as sh