“I never got to go to prom.”

It’s only meant to sound like an off-handed comment when Jennie says it, but Lisa can clearly hear the undercurrent of disappointment in Jennie’s voice as if were being spelled out for her, letter by letter.

“What’s prom?” She blurts out without much thought.

Jennie turns to her in surprise at Lisa’s sudden interest in the conversation, she had assumed Lisa wasn’t listening considering her eyes had been practically glued to her phone the entire time.

“It’s,” she motions in mid-air, “like…a dance.”

“A dance?” The red-head questions. Chaeyoung chooses that exact moment to jump in and help the elder girl who clearly doesn’t know how to explain things.

“Yea, it’s this big event that all high school seniors aspire to attend with their dream date while wearing an amazing, super expensive dress that they’ll probably never wear again. It’s almost like a rite of passage in certain countries.”

Lisa glances back at Jennie who only nods in approval at Chaeyoung’s description. A small glint in her eyes giving away just how much she truly wishes she had gotten a chance to attend hers. In that instant, the cogs in Lisa’s mind start turning, a simple idea quickly forming into a plan.

Dancing…

I can do that.

She smirks and turns to Chaeyoung, because the girl seems to know exactly what she’s talking about and Lisa couldn’t have been more clueless.

I’ll definitely be needing her help.

 

**

 

Chaeyoung couldn’t be happier to help Lisa, after all, she saw the way her fellow maknae longingly stared after Jennie whenever the older girl so much as breathed.

She also saw the way Jennie teased Lisa almost constantly but always made sure that the maknae knew it was only teasing afterwards, all soft eyes and sweet smiles.

They were both so blind to each other’s affections, yet it couldn’t be more obvious.

She takes a quick look at her right side, where Lisa is supposed to be standing, and is unsurprised to see Jennie instead, arms wrapped around Lisa’s waist like a small koala wrapped around a tree.

What is it with these two, honestly…

Lisa is making kissy faces at the brunette while Jennie is pretending to frown and shoving her away in front of the camera. Chaeyoung laughs and shakes her head.

Blind, indeed.

 

**

 

“Unnie, please, please, please come shopping with me.”

“Alright, alright, I’m coming, Jesus. Can’t even sleep in this house,” the shorter girl grumbles as she trudges into the restroom to change and get ready.

“It’s eleven in the morning,” Lisa shouts over the closed restroom door.

“I need my beauty sleep!”

“But, you’re already so beautiful…”

“What?”

“Nothing, hurry up.”

 

Jennie takes a meager twenty minutes to prepare. By the time she steps out of her room, only wearing a simple shirt and denim shorts, her hair loose and face still bare of makeup, Lisa can’t help but smile because of how young and effortlessly good she looks when dressed down.

“What?”

“Nothing,” the red-head turns away in order to hide the smile that refuses to leave her face, “you ready?”

“Yea, just let me get my bag,” Jennie quickly steps back into her room and snatches said item before joining Lisa back in the living room, a small smile on her face, “Ready.”

Lisa easily slips her hand into the older girl’s and merrily pulls her along, out of the dorm and into the car where the manager is awaiting their arrival.

“You actually managed to wake her up from her beauty sleep?” The manager stares at Jennie as if she’s seeing an apparition.

“I did!” Lisa proudly exclaims, “See, she can’t resist my charm,” she drapes an arm over the older girl and pulls her closer against her side, Jennie protesting all the while. The manager takes a sparing glance at the rearview mirror, sees Lisa side hugging Jennie while the brunette pouts, and chuckles at their interactions.

 

 

“What are we shopping for exactly?”

“Dresses.”

Jennie stops dead in her tracks, yanking Lisa back due to their interlocked arms, “Dresses?”

Lisa simply nods and attempts to keep walking only to be pulled back by the shorter girl.

“Yea, dresses, why?”

“You don’t just go shopping for dresses, that’s not your style unless we’re onstage.”

“Never too late to try something new, right?”

Jennie gives her a dubious look but plays along anyway, “Yea…right.”

 

They spend countless hours strolling through shops while waving and smiling for random fans that bump into them.

“Are you planning something?” Jennie asks as Lisa hands her another dress that she’d mentioned liking as they looked through the racks in the current store they were in.

“Why do you ask?” Lisa shifts nervously outside of the fitting room.

“You’re the one that wanted to come shopping but you’re making me try on everything I so much as look at for longer than four seconds.”

Lisa laughs, “That’s because you don’t look at things you don’t like for longer than four seconds.”

Jennie’s arm swings out to smack her from behind the divider and Lisa swiftly dodges the flimsy hit.

The younger girl shifts her weight from one foot to the other while she silently waits for the brunette to try on the next dress.

.

.

.

.

“Lisa?”

“Yea?”

“Um…”

“What’s wrong?”

“I think the zipper’s stuck.”

“Oh,” Lisa freezes up for a second because her brain most definitely went straight to the gutter at the thought of Jennie standing there, exposed, all because of a stuck zipper, “d-do you want me to help you?”

“Please?”

Lisa pulls the dividing curtain aside, just enough to slip through, and closes it behind her so no prying eyes see Jennie in such a state. Jennie is facing away but their eyes meet through the mirror and Lisa can see a light blush covering her cheeks at her current predicament. Lisa cracks a smile and attempts to make light of the situation, “Leave it to The Great Jennie Kim to get stuck with the only dress with a broken zipper in the entire store.”

Jennie glares at her through the mirror, “You’re the one that picked it out.”

“You’re the one that was looking at it like it was one of the seven wonders.”

Jennie rolls her eyes and uncomfortably tugs the strap of the dress back onto her shoulder, “Just shut up and help me.”

The younger girl chuckles in an attempt to hide her nervousness because not once, in all the years she has known Jennie, has she been in a situation where she’s seen her half- and had to help her like this. Her trembling fingers clumsily reach for the zipper but somehow she manages to miss, by a scant centimeter, and brushes against the smooth skin of Jennie’s back. The older girl in a breath, goosebumps erupting over her arms and across her back.

“Sorry,” Lisa mumbles automatically.

“It’s fine.”

Jennie’s eyes meet hers through the mirror again and Lisa wants to melt right then and there. She fumbles with the zipper for a couple more minutes, her hands and fingers brushing against the latter’s hot skin more than once, before she finally gets it to snap into place and work properly.

Jennie shifts, every brush of Lisa’s hand against her burning skin slowly driving her insane.

Lisa starts to zip it up then stops to gently move Jennie’s hair out of the way, her fingers lingering on the smooth expanse of the shorter girl’s neck. Jennie’s hand snaps up to stop Lisa’s agonizing touches, her body already hot from the sensation. She turns, with burning eyes, to face the younger girl.

 “Do you even know what you’re doing to me?”

“Sorry, I was just-,”

“Shut up,” Jennie tugs the red-head closer, their bodies crashing together and their lips meeting with more force than she intended. Lisa is frozen in shock for a split second but then her hands automatically fall on Jennie’s waist and the brunette feels like she can finally breathe again because Lisa is kissing her back. She sighs into the rough-turned-soft kiss and cups the nape of Lisa’s neck, her thumb playing with the baby hairs there. She feels Lisa smile against her lips and can’t help but give her a smile of her own, maybe they’d both been waiting for this moment just a bit too long. She distantly hears the clicking of heels against the marble floor getting closer and closer until they stop.

Someone clears their throat just outside her fitting room, “Miss Kim, are you finding everything alright?”

Jennie instantly pulls away from Lisa when she registers that the sales associate is standing right there, just outside the curtain, while she and Lisa were well on their way to making out.

The sales associate continues, “Can I get you a different size in anything?”

“N-,” she stops and clears , “no, everything’s fine, thanks.”

“Let me know if you need anything.”

“Of course, thank you,” she says through the thick curtain and eyes it warily before hearing the click-clack of heels walking farther away.

She sighs and buries her face in the crook of Lisa’s neck out of embarrassment. The younger girl holds her, the smile on her face getting broader by the second until a small chuckle builds up from within.

“That would have been one hell of a way to get caught.”

Jennie smiles and her head snaps up when a thought makes itself known, “Did retail courtesy just ruin our first kiss?”

Lisa looks at her, her eyes shining with adoration, “I wouldn’t say it was ruined, just…cut short.”

Jennie’s smile morphs into a smirk as she starts to lean in again, “I think I can fix that.”

Her pink lips barely grace Lisa’s plump ones before another voice is interrupting them.

“Jennie?” their manager questions, both Jennie and Lisa’s eyes widen and they instantly pull away from one another.

“Are you okay in there? Where’d Lisa go?”

“We’re- I’m-,”

“We’re good,” Lisa jumps in when she sees Jennie panic and stumble over her own words, “I was just helping her with the zipper, we’ll be done in a minute.”

“Okay, I’ll be just outside when you girls are done.”

“Thanks, unnie.”

Several long seconds pass before Jennie slumps against Lisa’s body, drained from that one single moment of absolute panic at being found out. She rests her forehead against Lisa’s shoulder and sighs.

“That was close,” Lisa soothingly runs her hands over the older girl’s back, her voice low, just above a whisper.

“I swear, my soul just left my body for a second there.”

Lisa giggles, “I’m glad it’s back, I would miss it too much.”

“Has anyone ever told you how cheesy you are, Lalisa Manoban?”

“Hmm, maybe once or twice,” Lisa trails off, one of her hands gently cupping Jennie’s chin and running a thumb over her bottom lip, “but you like it.”

“What makes you say that?”

“This,” Lisa captures her lips in a soft, tender kiss before releasing them. Jennie keeps leaning forward, following Lisa’s retreating lips before the younger girl stops her.

“If we don’t get out of here soon the next person to interrupt us might think something’s actually wrong and open that curtain without asking. Now, I don’t know about you, but I’d rather not end our careers because we were caught making out in a fitting room,” Lisa says, a teasing smile gracing her features. It’s then that Jennie wonders how she has ever managed to function around the red-head because all she wants to do in that moment is say “screw it” and make the best of the little time they’ve got.

 

**

 

“Don’t you