Jennie watches from the kitchen as her newest customers chat quietly, their shoulders flushed against one another. They lean in close when speaking and sway together like wild flowers in the wind, as if one’s movement were completely dependent on the other.

After careful observation Jennie has learned to tell them apart, a feat several meetings in the making. The taller of the pair, by maybe a centimeter or two, is Rose. (Jennie had unconsciously paid extra attention to her ever since Joy had casually mentioned she was Namjoon’s type.) Rose is timid and lovely with shiny brown hair, which makes Lisa the leggy and doll-like redhead.  

Trying to get information out of Suga and Taehyung has become increasingly futile. If she wants to get anywhere, Jennie decides that she has to talk to the girls.

“Can I sit with you?” Jennie asks, a sweet smile carefully poised on her lips.

The girls seem shy at first, a swift glance exchanged between them before Lisa slowly nods. Maybe Rose and Lisa don’t seem as open as Joy, but she has to take her chances where she can.

“I never thought that you would speak to us.” Rose says after a dragging silence.

“What do you mean?” Jennie asks, smile still in place.

“Because you look down on us, right?” Lisa takes a sip of her tea without looking up.

The smile falls.

“I don’t…” Jennie starts to defend herself, but it’s not that she hadn’t ever felt like that. She knows if she wants honest information, she also needs to be honest. “I don’t look down on you, it’s more like I didn’t understand you.”

“And you understand us now?”

Lisa is, unexpectedly, the battle ram. Jennie lets out an awkward cough as she looks down at her hands.

“No, but I know you have your own reasons.”

A customer signals to Jennie and she politely excuses herself to close out his tab. When she returns the mood has subtly changed.

“Jisoo trusts you?” Lisa asks once Jennie has sat back down.

Jennie nods. She isn’t completely sure, but she’d like to hope so.

“Then we trust you.”

“I’m sorry if I haven’t been treating you well,” Jennie quickly bows her head, biting her lip to stifle a smile.

Rose studies her with scrutinizing chocolate brown eyes and a strange expression.

“It feels strange to be apologized to.” Rose admits softly. “I feel like no one has once told me they were sorry these past few months.”

Jennie feels her heart ache, if only for a moment. Rose, the new girl who hadn’t quite built up her alcohol tolerance. Rose, who she had heard from a bragging drunk would do anything to pay off her dad’s gambling debt.

They eat in silence for a while, but it’s not the awkward kind. Jennie regrets not sitting with them before, and for secretly being an in her head. Though she doubted it was much of a secret, based off of Jisoo and Lisa’s words. Jennie had looked down on the girls, she had compared herself to them.

“You’re dating Suga, right?” The redhead’s question catches her off guard, and Jennie nearly chokes on a pickled radish.

“I’m not dating him.” Jennie waves her hand defensively, her cheeks turning bright red. (Because she was choking, not because she was embarrassed.)

Rose giggles. It’s the first time Jennie has seen her smile.

“Joy says she likes him but don’t worry about that, her sights are really set on the Big Boss.”

“It’s really not like that.” Jennie nearly whines. “I have a boyfriend.”

The disappointment on the two girls’ faces is hard to miss.

“Is he nice to you?” Rose questions, her eyes soft and sad. Jennie prays that Joon had been nothing but compassionate and kind to these girls, but a part of her doesn’t want to know. (She’s slowly starting to hate that part of herself.)

“He is.” Jennie grins, shooting them a wink and a dorky thumbs up.

The bell above the door chimes and Jennie tries not to notice that both Lisa and Rose flinch. Jennie’s smile fades, her poker face back in position. The two girls turn, their expressions lightening as they look at the boy coming toward the table.

“Jungkook,” Lisa calls out to him, her tone deepened. “You owe me a meal!”

The boy sits beside Rose, her face turning a pretty shade of pink to match her name.

“Oh yeah?” Jungkook regards Jennie from across the table with a small glance. She still remembers their meeting that night in the kitchen when Jisoo had sewn up a bullet hole in his arm.

“Yup.” Lisa sing-songs. “Jennie and Suga aren’t dating.”

Wait… what? Jennie stares in wide-eyed astonishment.

“Oh, damn. Really?” The boy lets out a sigh, his pink tongue darting out to wet his lips.

Jennie tries not to look offended as she tilts her head toward the kitchen.

“I think I hear my phone ringing.” Jennie lies obviously, standing up to leave. Jungkook stops her before she’s completely turned away, gesturing for her attention. “What?”

She bites her bottom lip, realizing her tone had been snappier than she intended.

Jungkook gives her a boyishly crooked smile, the kind that probably made Rose fall for him. His eyes all but twinkle.

“He’s a really good guy, though?”

Jennie leaves with an exaggerated exhale and a roll of her eyes.

. . .

She’s crouched in front of Namjoon’s bedside drawer, revisiting a nightly ritual.

She pours over a collection of receipts and business cards, ink worn from paper in some places where her fingers had repeatedly passed over in search of answers. Jennie double checks the receipts against a notebook she began keeping in order to retrace Joon’s year without her.

A satisfied hum vibrates in as she realizes one of the ni