“Jisoo-unnie! You’re finally here, what took you so long?”

“Omo, did you guys miss me that much already?”

“Nah, we're just hungry, so very hungryyyy.”

“Sorry, we got held back by some things,” Jisoo apologized to the girls who were approaching her, more for the food than to actually welcome her back. She grinned at them lifted up the bag carrying their food proudly, “But I got the chicken! Let’s eat, let’s eat.”

“What about the ice cream?” Lisa pouted as she got one of the bags from Jisoo to help her with the load, rummaging through its contents.

“Don’t worry, I got it here as well. Milk for Jennie, strawberry for Rosie, and chocolate for Lisa.”

“Yaaaaaaas.”

“God, you girls get so loud when food is here. No one was talking at all before Jisoo arrived with food,” one of their mangers commented as he cleared the table for them to have space to eat, laughing at them.

“When we’re hungry we either get super quiet or don’t stop complaining about it, there is no in-between,” Jennie commented as she started taking out the food that they ordered. “Thank you for the food!”

Their teacher, who was sitting in one corner, shook her head and chuckled at the girls’ excitement about the simplest things. “Eat well, kids. We’ll resume practice in about an hour. We’ll do the vocals before the dance so we don’t risk you guys throwing up. Drink lots of water if you’re eating ice cream so it doesn’t irritate your throats too much, especially you, Chaeyoung-ah. Let’s do this! Comeback’s in four days.”

“Yesssss.” All the girls answered, but all attention was focused on their food, and their teacher just shook her head with an amused smile before leaving them to their food.

The girls ate their meals happily, and chatted away as they ate.

Jisoo, however, was surprisingly quiet and distracted, still thinking about what happened in the dressing room with Jinyoung while picking at her food. His words echoed through her head– Don’t worry me like this, it’s not fair. Then she would try to get it out of her mind by shaking her head, and the others, knowing how random she is and her tendency to get lost in her own world sometimes, just shrugged it off.

Before long all their food was gone, and Chaeyoung started rummaging through the plastic bag to get her strawberry ice cream.

“Unnie,” she poked Jisoo, getting her out of her daze, “Where’s yours?”

“Huh?”

“Your ice cream! There’s only 3 in this bag–strawberry, milk, chocolate. Your usual cookies and cream-flavored one isn’t here.”

“Oh. I didn’t really feel like eating ice cream today, so I didn’t get one for myself.”

The girls stopped eating, and three pairs of eyes widened and simultaneously turned towards Jisoo.

“What’s wrong?” Chayoung asked her.

“Are you sick?” That was Jennie.

“Did you just forget to get one for yourself?” Lisa chimed in.

Jisoo was a bit overwhelmed at all of them asking her at the same time, looking from one member to another. She shook her hands in front of them, telling them to calm down. They looked genuinely concerned about her, when all she had said was that she did not feel like eating ice cream. It was actually really funny– as well as scary– how well they each knew each other’s idiosyncrasies, how they can tell something was off with the simplest of clues. “What if I just don’t want to eat ice cream today? That doesn’t necessarily mean something is wrong.”

Jisoo started picking at the edge of her oversized black t-shirt, avoiding their gazes. The three looked at each other.

“Now that I think about it, you’ve been acting distracted since you got here,” Jennie raised an eyebrow at Jisoo as she grabbed her own ice cream from the bag Chaeyoung passed to her. “Did something happen?”

“No! Nothing did. You can ask manager-unnie. I’m probably just tired, and I have a lot on my mind.”

“About what?”

“Nothing important.”

“You can tell us anything, you know,” Chaeyoung told her reassuringly, “We’re here for you if you need to talk.”

“I know, and I appreciate that. But it’s really nothing. Not. a. thing.” Jisoo smiled at them to convince them, although she knows they probably can see right through her.

“Ooh, if it’s not a thing, is it a someone?” Lisa teased Jisoo, trying to lighten the mood.

“…no?”

“Omo, she hesitated!”

“I did not!”

“Is this about Jin–”

Clap, clap.

The girls jumped at the sound of two loud claps their teacher made as she re-entered their training room. “Everyone, finish your desserts! We’ll start rehearsals in 10. No more stalling, we’re running a bit late already.”

“Let’s talk later in the dorm,” Jennie told Jisoo quietly while she finished her ice cream. Jisoo didn’t really want to, but she nodded anyway just because she couldn’t hide anything from Jennie.

They spent the rest of the day rehearsing, getting back to the dorm a little over 12 hours later, around 1:30 am. Because they were all so t