This is, without a doubt, the most painfully awkward situation Jennie has ever been in, and she and Jisoo had once gotten caught by one of Jennie's dance instructors, pressed against a wall in an empty studio classroom with their hands literally down each other's pants. Still, this dinner—it's worse, much worse.

Patrons of the restaurant murmur to one another around them, having quiet conversations that seem to go on seamlessly, while at their table, there is nothing. Silence endures, interrupted only by the scraping, squeaking sounds of forks against plates and teeth, and Jennie's skin is crawling. She is already on her third glass of wine, and she is desperate for this dinner to be over, just so that she can run home, bury her head in her pillow, and scream until her voice gives out.

Why, why, had she agreed to this?

Oh right—because she felt guilty about the awkward situation at the mall; well, that, and because Kai had accepted the offer before Jennie had even had the chance to open to answer.

Jennie can't help glancing over at Jisoo. It happens nearly every ten seconds like clockwork. She glances up, and as if the other woman can feel her gaze, Jisoo looks up, too. Their eyes meet for a brief second before they both go back to staring at their plates, back to the tense silence that has turned this dinner into the exact opposite of what it was meant to be.

"We can get to know one another," Soojoo had said that night, and yet here they are, eating in the same silence that has persisted since they were shown to their table and the server took their orders.

Kai clears his throat, pulling Jennie from her thoughts. She closes her eyes at the sound, silently praying that Kai that sound right back down his throat and decides that attempting conversation isn't something he wants to do. She wants this awful silence to send them flying straight toward the end of this disaster as quickly as possible, and any interruption is only going to slow the process.

"Food's good," he says, receiving nothing more than two courtesy smiles from Jisoo and Soojoo and a barely contained groan from Jennie.

"So, Jisoo," he tries again, "you and Jennie used to date, huh?"

The urge to slip off her chair and hide under the table has never been stronger, and Jennie has to physically force herself not to. She is partway to convincing herself that no one would notice if she scurried out from under the table like a rat and made a break for it. Then again, she can already feel Jisoo's glare boring into her face as if the other woman can read her thoughts and is silently screaming something along the lines of 'Don't you ing dare, Jennie!'

Jisoo swallows down a painfully large gulp of wine and plasters on a smile for Kai that almost makes Jennie laugh. "Yes," she answers, and that's all she gives—one short, clipped word that, to anyone other than Kai, would have read loud and clear as the warning it was.

Kai, though, merely nods and asks, "How long were you two together?"

"Three years."

Kai chokes on the piece of shrimp he had only just popped into his mouth, and Jisoo's voice drones when she arches a brow and asks, "Are you all right?"

Jennie practically guzzles her wine as she gives Kai one good, hard smack on the back. "Yeah, sorry," he says, clearing his throat, "I just wasn't expecting that. That's a long time."

"It surprised me as well," Soojoo tells him, and Kai releases a soft laugh.

"Well, I guess it's nice that we can all be friends," he says, and Jennie snorts into her now empty glass of wine. When Jisoo looks up at her at the sound, Jennie can only shrug her shoulders and try not to burst into laughter. This dinner is so awkward that it is bordering on painful, and Jennie can feel the heat of her buzz flushing her cheeks and steadily sapping away her ability to give a .

"Hopefully we can, yes," Soojoo replies, and Jennie snorts again, louder this time. She feels a hard kick to her shin under the table, a kick she knows came from Jisoo, but she really can't bring herself to care. This is a goddamned train wreck.
Kai reaches over and squeezes her knee, but he doesn't otherwise acknowledge her behavior. In fact, no one does. They simply carry on with their dinner and their stilted conversation as if Jennie isn't there at all, but when Kai asks his next question, Jennie can no longer keep quiet.

"So, how did you two meet?"

"Oh, let me tell this!" Jennie chimes, reaching for her wine glass but then remembering that it is empty. She shrugs and reaches for Kai's instead, taking one big gulp before launching into her story.

Jennie is cutting it close. She only has ten minutes to get parked and find her way to the right building before her orientation are set to begin. She would have gotten here sooner, but traffic had been awful, which she might have avoided had she not had to drive, but then all of her stuff is in her car. She is set to move into her dorm room after orientation.

She sighs in relief when she notices a cherry red Camaro pulling out of a space in the already packed parking lot, and this is the first fortunate thing that has happened to her this morning. Her midnight black Porsche roars as Jennie whips quickly into the parking lot and slides into the free space as soon as the Camaro clears it, and she smiles. She may just make it on time after