"Unnie" 

Jennie's eyes parted ways with the rice that had been barely eaten even though she started eating 10 minutes ago. She looked at Chaeyoung who was sitting across her. 

"First, Jisoo unnie fell out of love with chicken and now you seem to lose interest in rice with seaweed"

"Who said so? I still love this!" The brunette's hand then dilligently moved the chopsticks, pinching within them a plentiful of rice and shoving the food to .

"You looked like your mind was on a trip just now" Rosé continued. The third oldest then was occupied with placing more side-dishes on the top of Jennie's rice. "Eat some more, unnie"

Feeling much obliged for having the Australian girl that night to sit down with her during dinner, her lips turned up. Lisa was out for some dance practice, while Jisoo - the girl behind all her lost appetite and blank stares - was back to her residence for a family gathering. 

Jennie had finally settled with a decision, and it was a dangersome one. It would take sooner or later for Jisoo to deal with her own feelings, so in fact, there was no real demand for Jennie to horn in. The thing was, however, it was her own curiosity that almost killed her. She was thirsty to know whether Jisoo would do it; whether what Jisoo felt for Seulgi was actually profound enough to bring the dark-haired girl to a confession. 

Opening a Pandora box is a formidable thing, legend says. It was dreadful to the point that you would even regret ever considering to open it, but Jennie loved to live her life dangerously. She would rather die knowing what was inside, rather than otherwise. 

With that as a mental support, she made up her mind, ping herself from a bag full of dark clouds that had trapped her for days. It would be done as immediate as Jisoo made her return to the dorm. Once again, Jennie took a minuscule bite of her food without actually giving any apprecation to its taste. Just the mere thought of Jisoo's response rushed her pulse.

She waited in her room for the older girl to come home. It killed her to have the anticipation piling up, like a time-bomb was planted inside and was ticking towards its explosion time. Hours passed, and it began distressing her to hear no sound of the door creaking, let alone Jisoo's voice. She took her phone which was being charged to see if Jisoo sent a message to let her know that she would come home late or any news, but there was no such thing. With a grunt, Jennie pulled the charging cable off the gadget. Fingers began dancing on the screen furiously. 

'Unnie where are you?' She sent.

Much to her delight, Jisoo was online right away. 'Still in my house. Anything happened?'

'What time are you coming home?'

'I'm not going back tonight' 

The reply elicited a delirious sigh from the brunette. 

'Why didn't you let us know?'

'I told Lisa. Didn't she tell you?'

'Well even Lisa is still out somewhere now' 

'Then it's not my fault' 

'When will you be back then?'

'Tomorrow, quite late, probably' 

Jennie's eyes were glued to the last reply on the screen for a few seconds. She chose not to reply anymore, then, and plugged the charger back to the phone. It seemed like she could not spawn her resolution that night, after all. To top all these, she could not help but to mourn over how insipid Jisoo sounded in her text messages. She missed her, but Jisoo probably did not feel the same way. 

The moment she had been awaiting finally started when Jisoo finally made her way back to their apartment the following night, finding Jennie waiting for her on the sofa. 

"I am back" Jisoo said after the younger welcomed her with silence. The older was without make-ups and her face was rather sweaty, but as always Jennie was captivated by her beauty. 

"How was the family visit?" Was all Jennie could come up with to initiate the dialogue. 

"It went alright. I had to take care of my nephew since my older sister did all the talks though" The older went on as she slipped into her dorm slippers. "How's Dalgomie?"

"I fed him well" She gave her a short reply. It was more of an automatic reply that she did not think of, because her brain was working on how to start the conversation, and she was talking about 'that' conversation. 

She cleared for some reasons. "Unnie, are you tired?"

The other girl was showing Jennie her back. She was looking for Dalgom, maybe. "Quite tired, like I said"

"Can I have a short talk before bed time?" 

"Huh? Uh..." Jisoo unexpectedly looked rather taken aback. The dark-haired girl then turned to meet Jennie's eyes. "Can't it be tomorrow? I am rather worn-out, really"

Jennie went stoic upon the reply. She had waited since 24 hours in advance. She could hardly wait another day. 

"What is it about? If it's not urgent, it can wait, right?"

Jisoo continued. Jennie felt like something was wrong again with the girl, but she could not really put her finger on it. Jisoo was somehow... avoiding her? Trying to cut further communication? 

"But we have not talked for almost two days" 

"That's why I asked you what the matter is" Dalgom finally lurked around and Jisoo knelt closer to his level. 

Jennie sighed. She just had enough of it already. Beating around the bush would make this end up to nothing but another delay. "Fine, it's about you" 

"Me? Is it about my lack of practice time these days?"

"No, it has nothing to do with work. You can wash up first, unnie, I will be waiting in the bedroom" She left the pet with its owner behind. She opened the door and, although she did not mean to, closed it with a thud. 

Minutes later the sound of the water running in the bathroom reached her ears, letting her know that Jisoo was following her instruction. It did not take long after that for the said girl to enter the room, filling it with the fresh aroma of her body-butter soap. Jennie eventually took a peek and found Jisoo in her loose t-shirt and short pajama pants. Those clothings were not what startled her, though, but her roommate's glum expression. 

She let Jisoo sit on her own bed without a single sillable uttered. She had never intended for the talk to go as tense as this, or should she say, as awkward as this. She imagined that Jisoo would just mindlessly follow the discussion along while throwing her nonchalant, playful jokes as usual, but this was the exact opposite. That fact alone had made the task of speaking the issue aloud even more difficult. 

"So...?" Probably confused (or annoyed) that Jennie stayed silent, Jisoo prompted at last. 

"Like I said, this is about you" Jennie hemmed. "...and her"

"Her?" Jennie did not turn, but she could hear Jisoo clearly.

"Yes, and don't even pretend to be clueless as of who this 'her' is. Lisa confirmed it"

She permitted silence to follow. She heard nothing from Jisoo, so she took that as a sign to proceed. "I know what you have been contemplating over recently. Of course, there is a part of me that thinks that it is better if each of us puts all our mind into nothing but Blackpink. But there is even a stronger side of me that wants to see us happy, including you"

By the time she completed her sentence, the younger had finally compiled enough courage to meet Jisoo's eyes. The expression which was present on Jisoo's face, however, was unreadable for her. The dark-haired girl was staring right back at her, almost deadlocking Jennie with those eyes. Those orbs were pregnant of bemusement. Under the light of their bedroom lamp she could cleanly see Jisoo's parted lips. 

Those pinkish lips had finally begun to move. "What are you talking about, Jendeukie?" 

"I am talking about how you should not hesitate to claim your own happiness, even if it will perhaps sacrifice one or two things. True, you might not know how Seulgi feels but if I were you, I would rather die trying than not knowing at all. As for us, you don't have to worry. We will eventually help each other find a way to cover up stuffs like this. Sooner or later, we'll do it in the future"

There, she said it. She could almost hear her own heart tearing. Her eyes had probably gained their crimson shade, too, so she quickly broke the eye-contact.

"Seulgi?" Jisoo asked, to which Jennie nodded. 

The brunette felt her bed motioning and Jisoo was next to her by a few inches then. Jennie's knees had unconsciously been drawn near to her chest and her arms were lingered around it. , she cursed herself. She was supposed to be saying this with head up and mature mannerisms, not with all tears like a child whose toy had been forever taken away. 

"Jendeukie just where did you get all this idea from?" Jisoo had shot her another question. 

"You told me yourself, didn't you?" Jennie knew her lips were still obviously sulking, but she turned to face Jisoo anyway. "Back then when you just came home from Inkigayo, you told me how glad you were that you and Seulgi conversed again after a while at last. Even your face displayed it"

"And the thing with Lisa?" 

"It was the day we went out for shopping. She asked me to talk to you about it"

"Gosh, Lalisa!" Jisoo's palms met the two sides of her head; a sign that she was frustrated. 

"So, it is true, isn't it? Why don't you go for it, unnie? I mean, Seulgi seems to be good-natured, at least from what I have seen so far. She is not exactly a 4-D like you, but she is queer in her own way. She will be able to keep up with you and be a good partner" Where she got the sudden knowledge to state all those things she just did was beyond the younger's comprehension, but she said them anyway. 

"I swear, Jendeukie cut it off already!" Jisoo's hands were frozen still in their position. She would look like a dead statue if not for her moving lips. "You're totally getting the wrong idea! Totally wrong!"

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I somehow feel obliged to say thank you to soojngah for her words regarding Seulgi that I use in this chapter :p