.

On a dark Sunday, after having finished another cursed series of study sessions, Jennie was in the kitchen with an apron tied to her waist.

Baekhyun, Lisa, Bam Bam, Rose, and Taeyeon were back at her house, and she had never wanted to be alone more in her life.

Maid Wu was very nonplussed with the extra mess that the guests created, and had to spend extra hours in the day cleaning. This made Jennie worry. Just one maid wasn’t enough for such an enormous mansion.

Jennie stormed around the kitchen. Her plastered head still singing with light waves.

Though she'd changed into some comfortable clothes (Velvet top, jean shorts) and applied some fresh makeup (Peach lip tint, sparkly eyeliner) she still felt hideous.

She kicked the door of the hollow alcohol cupboard. The glass cracked. There was nothing in there. Her only escape to peace and serenity had been taken away from her.

This was absolutely outrageous having to follow Kyungsoo’s orders like a maid. He wasn’t just supervising her, he was turning her life upside down. She could either throw a hissy fit or in all the frustrations with tight lips.

Footsteps came behind her and she turned to see her friend Lisa had appeared. Just when Jennie was desperate for a hug.

Lisa placed a palm on Jennie's shoulder, "I'm terribly sorry JenJen," she said quietly. "Here, let me help..."

Jennie gratefully smiled….

AN hour later the kitchen was smoking.
"What do the numbers mean?!" whined Jennie, twisting and turning oven dials at random.

"Oh my god! Are you really as stupid as they say?!" bellowed Lisa in disbelief. 

"Don't call me stupid!" bickered Jennie.

"I'm calling you stupid because that's how you present yourself!"

"I AIN'T STUPID!" screamed Jennie, tossing unpeeled onions in the oven and winding up the grill.

An hour passed and kitchen alarms were screaming. The suffocating smoke of burning tangerine chicken and Miso soup soared up Jennie's nose and made her eyes water. She backed into the pantry. Hyperventilating while Lisa hurried around the kitchen, trying to save the toxic meal before her.

Baekhyun, Taeyeon, and Bam Bam rushed into the kitchen. After in the toxicity, they hurried out choking and calling for kyungsoo. He arrived a moment later and rushed for the windows, latching them open.

"USELESS!" he shouted, turning around in circles, voice echoing, "Jennie! Where are you?!"

Jennie cowered in the dark aired pantry, hands feeling around for stable standing support. 

Within a minute, the pantry door was open, and Kyungsoo was holding a wet tea towel in his hand. He snatched Jennie by the arm and threw her out of the pantry, colliding into a wall. “Ow!”

His teeth clamped together and his eyes shaded, his face red from smoke that soared around them.

"You threw a whole, unpeeled onion in the grill?!" he growled, voice husky.

Jennie nodded, puppy-eyed, "What do you expect? Usually, it’s the maid c-c-cooking for me!"

She choked and concealed her embarrassment with a tiny, weak smile.

“Has your mother ever cooked for you?” asked Kyungsoo suddenly, staring down at her.

Jennie blinked and shook her head, “No. Why?”

They stared at each other, blinking away the smoke.

“Then maybe she’s not your real mother,” said kyungsoo coldly.

Jennie huffed, genuinely disturbed that Kyungsoo could jump to such a hysterical conclusion, “Just because she can’t cook she’s not my mom?”

“If she’s never tried, then yeah, she probably isn’t. It’s a parents instincts to want to feed their children. Look at the lions and how they feed their cubs. Look at the birds and how they preserve worms for their chicks..”

Jennie frowned, mind floating.

And then he grasped her arms, making her flinch, “It’s either that, or you inherited all your stupidity from her!”

By this point, the smog began to clear up. There was silence then he quickly released her.

Then, came the sound of trickling water. Kyungsoo paused and glanced around the kitchen. From the ceiling to the marble floor.

The trickling water seemed to come from above. It was a moment before they heard a crack! And then came a burst of water sprouting from the ceiling.

Immediately, Jennie seized hold of both his arms and waltzed him with her into the pantry.

“Don’t touch me!” snapped Kyungsoo.

She swung the pantry door shut, vanishing them into a box of darkness. Her breathing heavy, heart squealing.

"What are you doing?!" he yelled while she guarded the door.

"You won’t get wet in here!" panicked Jennie, extending her arms so that he couldn’t pass her. Though, he couldn’t see her, only a shadow.

"I'm not listening to you!" snapped Kyungsoo. "You are under my authority! Don't tell me what to do!"

Jennie tensed up, “Seriously! You can’t go out there!”

She stopped and tears choked before she could speak any further, “I-I wanted t-to cook a nice meal, b-but it’s hard to even try when I know I’m cooking for Taeyeon too!”

Kyungsoo’s breathing stopped and water began to seep in from beneath the pantry door.

"Is his opinion of you really that significant?" he asked in a low voice, water soaking his shoes.

Jennie didn't respond. 

"Listen to me," he said coldly. "...As long as Kim Taeyeon breathes the same air, he will never notice you."

There was nothing Jennie could have said to defend the pain his words caused. It was as though Kyungsoo had taken every breathing moment she had spent with Baekhyun, and crushed it with his snarling breathe.

It was a long moment before he left the pantry to dry up the kitchen, but Jennie remained behind. Having crawled onto a shelf to bring up her legs and hug her knee’s. She felt like a child,  incapable of doing anything right. A princess without a kingdom.

There was only one door in her life's path. And it opened to the devilish face of a cold, bitter, insensitive, fierce animal... "Evil..." she whispered. 

When the fire brigade left, Jennie remained sitting in the Kitchen pantry. Simply wondering. The smells of processed foods and raw vegetables fueling her hunger.

Laughter traveled from the sitting room, like fire to her ice. Rising her discomfort.

She waited a further ten minutes until finally making for the sitting room.

Baekhyuns singing fired up her insides and she turned to see his face on the television. Everybody watching: Lisa and Rose huddled together, suppressing giggles. Kyungsoo cold faced. Bam Bam staring with wide eyes. And Taeyeon and Baekhyun pretending not to see it.

A ray of flashing lights, switches of scenery: from the club to the outdoors, Baekhyuns voice,.It was a music video.

Baekhyun had created his own beaty, and meaningful romantic song, and used Taeyeon as his model.

“What is this?” thought Jennie. “Why didn’t Baekhyun say the music video was his?”

She remembered the sparkles in his eyes the night he mentioned filming a music video. But not even for one second did Jennie assume that the song would be his.

He was only a music student.

Jennie cleared , as to make her presence known.

Slowly, heads turned and she said in an over-enthusiastic voice, “W-What a-are youwatching?”

There was a slow rhythm as Taeyeon came