-IV.II-

A week passes and news of YG’s new girl group is already out to the rest of the trainees. Jennie’s pretty sure with all the chatter, there’s already some leaks outside of the company as well. However, she doesn’t find herself excited at the prospect of finally debuting. Jisoo can sense it. The older girl has been trying to lift her mood, even if Jennie thinks that she should be the one comforting Jisoo and not the other way around.

Frustrated, Jennie sighs, recalling what the management had told her.

She would be the leader of the group Pink Punk alongside a few other members. They didn’t give her an exact number yet as to how many, but they did tell her that they weren’t done choosing members yet. 

“Hey unnie,” Lisa says as she plops down beside Jennie on the floor. The three of them have been practicing separately from the rest of the trainees for a dance practice teaser. They’ve decided to take a break while Chaeyoung decided to get some air outside of the stuffy studio.

“What’s up?” Jennie asks as she hands the tall girl a bottle of water who receives it gratefully as she downs the bottle in one go.

“It that Jisoo isn’t gonna be with us,” Lisa says bluntly, and Jennie winces. She knows that Lisa gets like this when she’s tired, but Jennie can’t help but feel hurt.

“She’s so talented… and she’ll definitely be leading all the interviews and variety shows and like, are they blind?” The tall girl asks, sighing tiredly.

“I ask myself that too, Lisa,” Jennie huffs tiredly as she averts her gaze to the ground.

“Why can’t we just tell them that we won’t debut without Jisoo unnie?” Lisa wonders out loud, frustrated.

“It doesn’t work like that, Lisa,” Jennie says dismissively, “They’ve got a ton of trainees to replace us if we all quit anyway.”

“Replace?” Lisa raises a brow, glaring right at Jennie. The smaller girl can already feel her patience thinning, “They could replace me or Chaeyoung-ah, but they’d never replace you, YG princess. I bet if you walked up there and told them you wanted Jisoo in, then—”

“And then what?!” Jennie gets up and snarls, “I get kicked out for saying something so cocky? I didn’t stay here for so long only to get kicked out the moment I got in, Lisa!”

Lisa stands up to her full height, glaring right at Jennie as they continue to yell at each other. In the middle of their heated argument, Chaeyoung bursts into the room with wide eyes.

“You guys—” Chaeyoung tries to stop them, but is quickly overpowered by Lisa’s booming voice.

“Please if anyone can be cocky here, it’s you, little miss perfect! If you really wanted Jisoo to be here, you would’ve done so by now! Or are you actually her best fr—”

Jennie cuts her off, absolutely furious at the accusation, “Do you think I like being the center of attention all the time, the “perfect” one for YG? The one everyone gets to pick apart on a microscope when I’m trying to just live my life?! I— I moved back here for Jisoo! I— I just want to debut with her!”

“Then why aren’t you doing anything about it?!” Lisa yells and stomps towards Jennie, pushing her towards the mirrored wall. It’s at that moment Chaeyoung decides to dash out of the room. Her presence goes unnoticed by the duo who are busy with their shouting match.

“Do I look like I make the rules?!” Jennie practically growls out, sizing Lisa up despite being cornered.

“Yes you do, leader-nim,” Lisa mocks, making sure to look down on the shorter girl.

“You—”

“JENNIE! LISA!” A low voice booms, and both of them flinch at the sound. Jisoo storms into the room with a frown and a worried Chaeyoung following not so far behind. Her sharp steps are what cause the pair to step away from each other.

“The both of you,” Jisoo says calmly, yet her words pierce through the sudden silence, commanding everyone to focus on her, “Everyone can hear you outside this practice room, and I know that you both don’t care about that… But we promised to never fight like this,” She gestures towards both Jennie and Lisa, trying to hide the hurt written across her face.

“But Jisoo unnie—” Lisa tries to defend herself.

“I don’t want to hear it,” Jisoo says bluntly, her shoulders squared. The eldest takes deep breaths and holds onto both Lisa and Jennie’s hands, clutching them tightly. Chaeyoung moves to the opposite side of the trio, holding Lisa and Jennie’s free hands as well to form a small circle amongst themselves.

“I know you all want to debut with me, because I’m amazing. I can’t deny that,” Jisoo suddenly jokes despite her stern demeanor earlier, making everyone cool down and let out a small laugh, “But sometimes, things don’t go the way we want it to, even if it seems unfair. I may not be onstage to perform with you, but I’ll be supporting you guys all the way. Okay?” Jisoo squeezes their hands. Chaeyoung is the first to let go to wipe her tears that begin to well from her eyes.

“You guys made Chaeyoung-ah cry,” Jisoo says like they’ve done a grave sin (which they have, really, Jennie won’t deny that) and lets go of their joint hands. The eldest reaches for Chaeyoung to pull her into a strong embrace. 

Looking at both Lisa and Jennie with a small frown on her face as she rubs Chaeyoung’s back in comforting circles, she continues, “If anyone has any issues with each other, it’s time to admit everything now. You guys should debut on a