‘I’ll see you soon’ is a promise. You don’t think much about it, but as oblivious and empty as your brain is, your heart drags around longing days and nights for soon to come. No expiration date, no break time, just a fast-forwarding clock that ticks along with your pulse as you wait. ‘I’ll see you soon’ is a bandage over an open wound that makes ‘Goodbye’ sound less bittersweet than it actually is. The last day of the trip to my parent’s house, with their demand and Jisoo’s constant need to please them, it was decided to prolong my stay until next week. Ripping the last thread of dignity I had in me, puppy eyes and puffed cheeks, I stuffed Mr. Fluffers inside Jisoo’s luggage and said my goodbye, holding back my tears and clinging a bit too tightly on her arms when hugging. Back then, I didn’t know that too tightly wasn’t tight enough to remember her scent and warmth pressed against my loose soul. “Here,” she said, taking out of her pocket a yellow sticky note, plastering it on my forehead with a grin that added diamond dazzles on her face. “Since you’re my sticky note admirer, I thought I’d write you one this time around.” For a person with one and a half brain cell, Jisoo is quite the tease, tinting my cheeks in pink as she looks at me with angels dancing in her eyes. If I were as attentive at that exact moment as I am now while replaying that day in my head, I would’ve realized the faint sadness lurking in shadows behind her eyes. Mine were already filled with tears. “I packed Mr. Fluffers for you,” I mumble, kicking air in embarrassment as Lisa and Rosé held back laughs. “For you to hug when I’m not around, hm?!” “Sure thing, babe! I’ll see you soon, okay?!” she grins again, eyes twinkling with sun stolen light and my heart sets an alarm to tick off once soon comes. Life on the other hand, has its own agenda of bittersweet events, and it broke me along with Jisoo’s naïve promise. The struggles of being quarantined without your girlfriend (is the post office even working?!) Quarantine day 0: “The sky isn’t pretty when you’re not around.” “Oh my God, I thought I wouldn’t catch you two sleeping together ever again,” Lisa screams as soon as she enters Jisoo’s room, Rosé following with muffled chuckles, munching on what seemed to be homemade cookies. “Why are you all there?!” Jennie runs a hand through her hair, yawning half of the words as she fixes her phone to stand. “And when did we fall asleep?!” Jisoo shrugs in response. “Sometime after I started playing music you drifted off, and I didn’t want to close the video call out of the blue, so I just left it open.” Jennie blushes at the words, hiding her face with her pajama sleeves. “Don’t say it like it’s an okay thing to do. It’s borderline obsessive,” Rosé rolled her eyes, exaggerating her words as she waved the cookie she was holding left and right in an excessive manner. “Anyway, we obviously came to visit your girlfriend to make sure she wasn’t going insane,” Lisa picks the phone and brings it too close to her face, whispering her next words. “Did you know she’s started to talk to Mr. Fluffers?! Like he’s lovely, but he’s not real Jennie, that’s a sign of insanity.” “Ew Lis, get your face away from the camera, or I’ll start thinking I woke up in a nightmare.” Jennie squeezes her eyes shut and Lisa mumbles incomprehensible words under her breath (which sound quite almost like curses), but nobody addresses them as Rosé picks the phone and grins to her friend. “Maybe Mr. Fluffers told Jisoo all your darkest secrets Jenjen. You used to talk to him a lot too.” Jennie wished she never woke up. “Ohmygod, an adopted son,” Lisa squeals, making room for herself in the camera radius, fighting Rosé’s cookies. “Does it hurt to not see your family for so long?! Your dumpling cheeks have literally fallen from pouting so much. You look like you’ve been starved and tortured.” “Gee, you all are so dramatic and it’s way too early.” “Plus,” Jisoo emphasizes, her face glowing in a sugar melted smile as she squeezes even more among Lisa’s bangs and Rosé’s cookies, “Jennie’s coming back tomorrow.” “Of course I am my love, and I can’t wait to wrap you in my arms.” “Please, get a room!” Lisa is the first one to leave the frame, faking annoyance. “Please, leave my room,” Jisoo rolls her eyes as a reply, snatching the phone and grinning to her girlfriend. “Gladly will,” Rosé chuckles. “I’ll be getting some of your mom’s cookies while we wait for you to wake up, or whatever. Please don’t sleep with Jennie again, it’s disgusting even if you’re not in the same room.” “Just go get stuffed in cookies woman,” Jennie yells through a cracked line. “Sorry Jen, bad WiFi won’t let you bully us,” Lisa waves off. “Mwah,” and maybe trips over air as Rosé ‘accidentally’ closes the door in her face. “Your friends are such brats,” Jisoo sighs as the girls leave the room, pulling Mr. Fluffers in a hug as she looked at Jennie. “Hey, they’re yours too now,” Jennie pouts. “You’re the one hanging out with them even when I’m not around, huh?!” she grins, teasing Jisoo’s expression into an internal panic. “I-I didn’t even know they were coming, like, the weather isn’t even that nice here,” she awkwardly laughs and Jennie chokes in delight. “I’m joking love,” she giggles playfully. “And I can totally see the blue sky behind you.” “Stupid curtains that don’t do a thing,” Jisoo mumbles under her breath. “Stupid Jisoo that worries over nothing,” Jennie smiles, shifts her eyes to look at the yellow sticky note plastered on her wall. ‘Some skies and some you. Complete paradise.’ When she looks back at the camera Jisoo is strangling the plushie tighter around her arms. “I want you more than any blue sky, anyway,” she says. Quarantine day 1: “We’ll abandon all that has caused us pain and runaway together.” Jennie fidgets with her phone, passing and scrolling through contacts to avoid Jisoo’s name that somehow, was the only one popping up. (Mostly due to the difference between the usual name-surname dynamic each of her contacts had and Jisoo’s heart-emoji filled one.) While her head was screaming all sorts of scenarios, much to Jennie’s annoyance, her parents wouldn’t turn down the TV that kept on talking about this hazardous virus and an immediate lockdown, neither would they shut up about how Jennie was now forced to prolong her stay. Really, it’s not half as selfish as it sounds, but once you start living on your own, you’re a guest back home. You feel the need to help out, to integrate into conversations you don’t want to have, to smile and nod and Jennie’s already sick of it, so she doesn’t really understand what’s so exciting about prolonging her stay. Especially with Jisoo a town away. She shifts her eyes from the TV to her phone screen, the forsaken name staring back at her, itching at the back of her mind the promise of ‘soon’. Amid the haziness and this lingering feeling of fear that she couldn’t pinpoint where was coming from, she gets startled when her phone starts ringing, the same name that has been torturing her just with looks suddenly having a voice. “JenJen! Your friends actually cursed us,” Jisoo is loud, bright, angry, red and yellow and all things that are sunshine. “What?!” Jennie’s confused. “Ugh, I can’t believe we went on lockdown exactly the same day you’re supposed to come back home. I’m actually so stressed. All those animes I was going to force you to watch as payback for your terrible Netflix shows. All those cuddles. All those kisses. A curse has fallen upon us. If we had already adopted a goat as I suggested and ran away to a village, we wouldn’t be dealing with this now. If you just listened to me-” Jisoo is definitely loud and Jennie arches a brow, because even the TV seems so quiet compared to the voice on the phone. She allows the voice to hug her being and drowns in the melody of it, ignoring the words that her girlfriend was stumbling upon. “C’mon