It's been a week since Jennie talked to her posse—the same people she considered as her so-called friends. It dawned on her now that they treated her as an asset and not an actual human being. After "breaking up" with Jisoo, they all either turned their backs on her or they protruded an indifferent and ingenuine attitude towards her like she was just one of their other classmates. The only reason they bothered talking to her was because of her relationship—or whatever was left of it—with Nayeon. Yes, she's gone on casual dates with people but that was only because she received no responses from the latter, she took this lack of communication as a break-up and now here she was, stuck on meaningless dates with brainless Brent.

He lacked everything that either Jisoo or Nayeon gave her, she wondered why she even agreed to continue seeing him. He was cute, she could give him that but beyond all of his physical attributes he lacked personality; Brent tried too hard with his "bad-boy-macho" persona that it just came off as rude and annoying, sometimes even misogynistic. He was beyond disgusting, his car always reeked alcohol or cigarettes and some days it was somewhere in between. Jennie wanted to break up with him but she was beyond desperate; she was clinging onto the tiniest thread of saving her reputation before facing her predestined social downfall. She wished that she could go back in time and retract all the rude comments she bestowed on her peers, maybe then they would take it easier on her when she meets her demise. The demise that would take place now, the exact moment that Brent decided to be an utter , that pushed her patience over the edge.

They pulled in to the pizzeria that commonly situated her fellow peers, her former clique to be exact.

"Back to nursery school," he uttered in annoyance.

Jennie looked over at the driver's seat, a scowl on her face. "Look these are my friends, okay?"

Brent tightly gripped his steering wheel, apathy written all over his face. "Well, say hello to your friends when you get me a chocolate milkshake, extra thick."

"What?" Jennie asked, not as a request to repeat himself but more rhetorical because never has anyone bossed the Jennie Kim around, not her mom, not Nayeon, heck not even Jisoo.

"Read my lips," he said finally turning to face her. "Chocolate milkshake, extra thick," he repeated, mockingly enunciating each syllable.

The brunette scoffed and quickly got out of the vehicle. 'He'll get his milkshake, alright." she thought as she stormed inside the pizzeria to order his beverage.

Within minutes, she was outside of the building, hand clenching the thick blended beverage as she watched him polish the hood of his car with his sleeve.

She marched over to him and pushed the drink in his hands, "Here's your shake."

With one sip of the drink, he spat out the liquid. "I said thick! This isn't thick!"

Jennie grinned. "Oh well, let me check the consistency." She took the drink from his hands and raised it above his head, pouring it slowly as she watched his face drown in the chocolate. "Looks thick to me," she let out before walking back to the pizzeria.

After the disaster that was her date, she took a taxi back to her apartment to enjoy a relaxing bath to herself. It didn't help that some of the milkshake spilled on her jeans and now the sticky sugar contents etched itself on her skin, so a nice warm bath should cool off the rest of her evening.

She twisted the doorknob and dropped her jacket on the armrest of the couch. She made her way to the bathroom before bumping into her mom who seemed to be in a dispirited state. Surprisingly, Jennie found herself being worried about her mother's unhappy expression.

"What are you doing home?" they simultaneously let out, following it with hearty laughter.

"I thought you had a date with Rock," Jennie asked.

Her mother smiled, but Jennie knew it was just a facade. "I figured I had enough turkey for one day," the older lady responded.

Jennie knew not to pry any further. Sometimes it was better to keep their problems to themselves and distract each other instead.

"Me too," the brunette added.

Her mother brought a hand to her shoulder, "There's a new good movie on Netflix."

"Yeah?"

"Mhm."

The brunette postponed her tranquil bath and opted to have some mother-daughter time instead. It was better to be with each other than alone by themselves with a lot of time to think.

"Alright, let's make it a date!"

Her mother sincerely smiled at her suggestion, "I love you."

Jennie rarely hears any endearment from her mother but when she did, she knew that the words were always honest and wholehearted.

"I love you too mom!" she replied, slinging her arm over her mother's shoulders as they made their way to the living room.

-----

Ring!

"Chaeng! Let me explain," Jisoo hurried out of her seat to catch the red-haired who was quickly escaping her grasp.

Rosé did not once turn around to look at her best friend and she had every reason not to succumb to the brunette.

It's been weeks since Jisoo was able to hang out with her best friend and just recently she missed their thirteenth friends-iversary which left a certain redhead fuming. And just now, Jisoo realized what mistake she made: she skipped—forgot their anniversary and instead went to some downtown party with Yugyeom and Jackson.

"Will you talk to me, dammit?!" the brunette angrily whispered as she chased the aggravated female.

Jisoo stopped and backpedalled when she saw Jackson and Jaebum headed her way.

"Have it your way psycho! You ain't invited," she yelled as they walked up to her.

They laughed with her and exchanged handshakes. "Invited to what? What are you talking about?" Jaebum asked.

The brunette forced a grin. "My house. New Year's Day. A party!" She mentally cursed herself for coming up with such a troublesome lie.

They playfully pushed her to a locker nearby. "Seriously?! Sick, I'm down for that," Jackson gleefully exclaimed. The two stopped their excitement, mischievously grinning and leaning closer as they eyed someone behind her.

"Somebody wants your bad," Jaebum teased, nodding his head towards the girl behind Jisoo.

The brunette glanced behind her to reveal an attractive blonde biting her lip and batting her eyelashes at her direction. She hid behind the door of the locker in attempts to subtly flirt with Jisoo and it clearly worked since said brunette was deeply intrigued.

"I bet you won't score her number," Jaebum joked, nudging the shorter figure.

Jisoo scoffed. "Twenty bucks says I can."

"Bet."

"Now go get it!" Jackson whispered as he pushed her towards the female.

Jisoo rolled her eyes at them before turning back to her target who was now blocked by a familiar dark-haired female, Jennie. The brunette turned around to request some guidance from her friends when she realized they'd sauntered over to the other wall of lockers, intentionally avoiding eye contact. Jisoo shook her head and faced Jennie, her eyes still locked onto her target.

Jennie leaned against the locker, her eyes fixated on Jisoo. "Long time no talk, huh?"

Jisoo didn't meet the girl's gaze. "Yeah, I've been kind of busy."

"Well, that's popularity. It's real time-consuming," Jennie commented.

The brunette didn't respond, she was preoccupied with the sudden appearance of Yugyeom behind Jennie. Jisoo's heart sped up. Could he hear what they were talking about?

Jennie bobbed her head, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear and stepping closer. "Um...I was thinking that maybe sometime you and I could go to the river, have another picnic maybe?"

Jisoo finally locked eyes with her but displayed scrutiny and confusion. "You're not under any contractual obligation to me anymore."

The dark-haired stepped back and bit her lip, nodding. It was true, the only reason they ever did any of those things is that she needed to repay her debt. Now that they've completed both ends of their promises, they had no reason to meet each other. It just surprised Jennie that Jisoo wouldn't even consider her as a person to hang out with anymore. Admittedly, she was hurt but she wasn't gonna let Jisoo know that.

"I wrote a new poem. It's called 'Broken Moon,'" she let out, trying to change the subject. "Um, it starts—"

"Why don't you save it for your dancer girlfriend?" the brunette commented, making playful faces at Yugyeom who was making dirty gestures at Jennie. Jisoo forced herself to smile at the disgusting sight. She didn't like how they treated her like an object but hey, she had to play along.

"I wrote it for you," she managed to utter.

Jisoo scoffed, not as a means to hurt her but as an act to present to Yugyeom. "You ignored 'Jaesoo' Kim, the dork, for seventeen years. Now you wanna ride on the Jisoo express?" she said loud enough to earn a thumbs up from Yugyeom.

The dark-haired furrowed her eyebrows, refusing to believe that Jisoo said that. "I don't wanna ride on anything," her tone crumbling.

Jisoo smirked, turning back to her target. "Looks like you're the only one," she said, winking at the girl, finally allowing Jennie to catch on.

The dark-haired glanced behind her and shook her head. "Who? Seulgi?"

The brunette didn't respond and only smiled back at the girl who she now knew as Seulgi.

"Yeah, she's a big conquest. She's given more rides than a horse," Jennie hissed, earning sardonic laughter from Jisoo.

"At least her ticket won't cost me a thousand bucks."

Crack! At this moment, Jennie's heart collapsed and shattered into pieces. She stepped back with mouth agape and she felt the liquid b her eyes. To save her pride, she turned around and walked away.

"!" Jisoo mumbled, going after Jennie before being stopped by the blonde she was eye-ing.

"Hey Jisoo," the blonde greeted, her tone seductive as she gripped on to the brim of Jisoo's jacket.

She mentally cursed herself, her eyes never leaving the retreating figure but otherwise remained in Seulgi's grasp. She knew she messed up big time but the quiet hollers from the three boys behind her snapped her into popularity mode, completely distracting her about the cat-eyed female.

Unknowingly, she lost her best friend and the girl she's been fawning over for seven years. All because she wanted a taste of popularity.