Chapter 7

Ice and all things nice

Jennie didn’t go to dave’s funeral. She couldn’t go and watch as the only person who treated her as his own child is in a rectangular box, not breathing nor heart is beating. 

“Why does everybody around me leaves me? The world just likes to see me suffer.” Jennie sobbed against Alex’s shoulder. They sat at Jennie’s room on the floor, trying to get through sadness and grief. 

“That’s not true. You still have your friends.” and me. Alex gently the other girl’s hair, continuously doing so. They stayed like that for a while until Alex felt Jennie’s heavy breathing and sobs become steady.

Alex didn’t need to experience the loss of someone in order to feel what Jennie was feeling. The mere cry of Jennie made her wish that nobody would leave her the same way dave left Jennie. It was unbearable to watch, but she knew she had to stay by her side and assure her that she wasn’t going anywhere.

Fortunately, Jennie was able to go through the grief and misery over a week. She didn’t have her friends to comfort her, but she had someone who almost never left her, even within the school grounds. This then became a hot topic to the students as they witness Alex and Jennie eating together, laughing and playing around. It was then that they didn’t really care about the eyes watching them. For once, they only want to think about themselves, not the judging looks of others, nor the curious ones as well.

The school was holding a basketball game that friday. Being a fan of the sport, Alex wanted to watch even though jisoo and Lisa wasn’t interested in going. Although Rosé actually wanted to come, she had something urgent to attend to.

“Are you sure? I haven’t seen you watch any of our school’s basketball game before.” Alex raised an eyebrow when Jennie said she was going to watch it with her. Alex had been talking about it since Monday and at some point Jennie had already tuned her out.

Jennie crossed her arms and smirked. “I have watched one before.”

“But you said before that basketball is stupid and that they’re just a bunch of losers running around throwing a ball into a basket.”

Jennie almost choked at her own saliva but being herself, she kept it in and remained calm. Sort of. “What? When did I say that? I never said that.” She did remember saying those, but she isn’t going to say that.

“You did. I remember.”

A huff came out of Jennie. “If you don’t want me to come with you, fine.” She then turned around, but was stopped by Alex, who was giggling at how Jennie’s acting. “I was just kidding! Let’s go.” She grabbed the other girl’s hand unconsciously, pulling her to the gym.

After getting flustered and all, Jennie was able to calm herself and her burning face. “I knew you liked holding my hand.” She joked, but immediately regret it when Alex let go of her hold. I definitely shouldn’t have pointed that out.

The game started and the crowd started cheering, even Alex did, which garnered quite a lot of attention from the students around them since, Jennie, was watching the game, not just watching, even cheering.

“That’s supposed to be a foul right? He was travelling. Why isn’t the referee doing his thing? Should I do his job for him?” Jennie commented when she noticed the guy talking to the referee about the foul. 

Alex’s head snapped to look at Jennie with her eyes wide. “Oohh you do know something about basketball.” She thought it was cool that Jennie knew something about the game and she wasn’t just faking her enthusiasm just to accompany her. Although the latter would be quite cute too.

“I told you.” She shrugged, but Jennie thought that Alex didn’t need to know how many videos, tutorials, blogs, and every other resources she read and watch in order to appear well versed in basketball. The moment she saw the twinkle in Alex’s eyes, she knew that it was worth it. 

By lunch time on Monday, Jisoo and the other two cannot be seen anywhere. They didn’t attend class as far as Alex knows. She was getting worried that the three might’ve skipped classes again like before, however she felt a flash of relief when she passed by the storage room. Guitars were lined outside the room, and the door was open. Alex peeked inside and saw a tall figure picking up a guitar.

“Hey Rosé.” 

The owner of the name turned around immediately, almost losing her balance. “Unnie, what are you doing here?” 

“Where’s Jisoo and Lisa?” She looked around but didn’t see anyone other than Rosé. “Do you need help?”

“No, it’s okay.” Rosé flashed her sweet smile and carried the guitar out of the room, placing it outside where the other ones were.

By the looks of it, Rosé was taking out all the guitars from the room to outside the hallway. The storage room had at least 15 more. “I think you do need my help.” She then walked inside the room full of boxes and musical instruments.

“Okay, but be careful of the boxes and things on the floor, you might trip.”

Alex took one of the guitars and placed it outside just like what Rosé have been doing. “W