Title from: No One Wants It to Happen to You (Bayonne Remix) - Small Black 

~*~

This damned train wasn’t going to stop anytime soon, Jisoo thought miserably.

Jisoo, who had been watching the myriad of trees and mountains dashing away from the view of her window, sighed and leaned her elbow on the warm glass, cushioning her chin with her upper arm. The actress had been sitting in this VIP lounge for nearly six hours and it didn’t seem like their destination was getting any closer.

(Well, her CEO did mention that it’s going to be somewhere far, safe from public eyes and nosy media.)

Her midnight of black, overgrown fringe tickled her eyes as she shifted to glance at her manager, Jennie, who was fast asleep beside her with her puppy neck pillow, ash khaki hair disheveled and yet worriless and less frantic than she was last night, barging inside her apartment, stricken face contorted with urgency and shoving the many of her phones toward her who was freshly out of the bathroom.

She sighed once again, more irked than in defeat this time, as she recalled last night’s event.

A picture of her kissing a girl got leaked on the internet somehow, causing chaos and uproar not only in the community but the whole nation. She had zero clue on which bastard dared to ambush her like this, but then again, the suspects were more than what she could count with fingers considering her state of rising careers and the number of exclusive deals she had signed with these brands within the span of two years since her debut.

It didn’t surprise her to be honest. This industry functioned like a snake and Jisoo had been geared up for it. She just didn’t expect those ers to stoop that low, attacking her past and uality that her and her company thought had erased every trace of it until they were proven wrong last night.

This journey itself was supposed to be some sort of a damage control done by her company’s part and she couldn’t reject the idea of solitude, not when journalists had been bombarding her apartment complex like a group of hyenas hunting for a lamb. It’s sickening.

(And saddening, perhaps, how unwelcoming and unaccepting a major part of South Korea population was.

All she could do was to pretend the girl in the picture wasn’t her, as if it really wasn’t a part of her to be different.)

Jisoo closed her eyes, listening closely to the light snore coming from her manager and entertained the idea of sleep. The sunlight filtering through the window caressed the top of her head comfortingly and, before she realized, guided her to the land of dream.

~*~

Jisoo descended the train with a silver luggage in tow. Jennie, on the other hand, was struggling with hers as she simultaneously pinned her wide hat down to prevent it from flying away as the train left the station without so much of a goodbye but a mere two whistles.

“I really wish Yang Sajangnim would at least let us have a bodyguard.” Jennie trotted forward with a grunt as she hauled her luggage like it weighted a ton (it probably was).

“It will attract-“

“Attention, yeah, yeah I know.” Jennie huffed and dug a hand to the pocket of her checkered skirt while Jisoo scanned the vicinity.

There weren’t many passengers disembarking from the train in this station it seemed. She wasn’t sure about those who had exited the station but currently there was only her, Jennie, an old lady with red cardigan and no bag in her possession, waiting below the overhead clock, and a bearded man with neat clothes rushing out from the station mechanically.

“It’s pretty hot in here.” Jisoo frowned and fanned herself with her palm. She wondered briefly if there was a beach nearby the station because she could just faintly differentiate the scent of the ocean wafting through the air.

“I know, my make-up’s about to melt soon.” Jennie commented off-handedly as she furiously typed in a set of number in her phone from the piece of paper she had gotten from her pocket. Jisoo held back a grin. Props to Jennie for being funny without even trying.

“Stay here. I’m gonna call our driver.” Jisoo nodded and made sure Jennie hadn’t strayed too far away from her before she idly stood on her toes and scanned her surrounding once again.

She caught a flash of brunette zooming through the entrance from the corner of her vision; a tall, lean girl who approached the same lady from before with a bicycle. She couldn’t get a hold of her face though, with the way the girl had her back on her, but she must have said something stupid that the lady chastised her and smacked her across the head with a purse. Jisoo winced at her loud yelp.

“Our ride is here unnie.” Jennie came back. There’s a look of frustration as she fiddled with her phone and lifted the device high in the air, mumbling, “The signal is so bad in here what the heck…”

“Well, we’re in a remote area in the middle of nowhere Jen.” She reminded her, as though the lack of crowd and the empty floor weren’t more of a blaring sign of their whereabout. “I hope the van’s cool at least.”

“Well, yeah, about that.” Jennie smiled sheepishly.

Jisoo didn’t like where this was going.

~*~

Turned out it wasn’t a Mercedes van she’s used to that fetch them.

It was a sedan, old and marked with years, with no functioning aircon that they had to roll the window down, and a driver that couldn’t keep his mouth shut for a minute. Jisoo made Jennie sat in the front seat because Jisoo needed her peace and she was glad she did it because Jennie looked like she was about to cut her ears anytime soon if the driver wouldn’t leave her alone.

“You ladies are going to love it here! We are famous for our seafood, although me myself couldn’t eat it. I’ve got this horrible allergic whenever I eat seafood. One time I didn’t listen to my mother and ate a prawn that I caught secretly and the next day my lips were bloated they were as big as my fist!” He chortled boisterously, banging her palm against the wheel repeatedly, in which his bulging tummy was pressed painfully against it.

(Jennie faked a half-hearted laugh before she sent a glare down Jisoo’s way through the rearview mirror. Jisoo felt sorry that she wasn’t even the least bit sorry.)

She rested her head on the seat and let it lolled to the side, following the coast with her gaze.

Her guess had been right. The station was located by the ocean and in fact, judging by the sparkles of the bed of blue they had been driving along for the past twenty minutes, they were most likely to be surrounded by it. If Jennie hadn’t confiscated her phone away, she would be blaring music with her earphones on and the ride would be more bearable.

She muted the one-sided conversation Jennie and the driver were having and let her mind wandered a bit. Now that she thought about it, it’s been a while since she had seen the ocean, let alone swim on it. She might as well make a full use of this… short gateway, to put it nicely.

“Alright ladies! We are here!” He announced happily and went out of the car to grab their luggage from the trunk.

“We can hear you just fine.” Jennie muttered out of annoyance as she wrenched the door open.

The man approached Jisoo’s side of the door and opened it for her, almost sending her tumbling out if her fast reflex didn’t put her leg out to the gravelly soil to maintain her balance. The man, seemingly unaware of his action, was grinning widely and Jisoo could only return it with an awkward one as she gingerly stepped outside, jumping when the man slammed the door with a bang.

“Alright, enjoy your stay ladies!”

“Wait!” Jennie scrambled toward him, pausing the man from entering his car. “Are you seriously dropping us here?!” Jennie spread her arms, trying to emphasize how a rope bridge with a shallow bottom was definitely wasn’t the promised destination.

“The car can’t pass the bridge.” He said the obvious. Well, he seemed apologetic though, so there’s that. “I can only take you here. But don’t worry! The cottage is right across the bridge! You just need to walk for a few minutes and you will reach your destination!”

Jisoo tugged on Jennie’s elbow, signaling for her to shut up and mustered out a smile. “Don’t worry we will manage.”

When the driver bid them goodbye and sent dusts flying their way as he drove back to the town, Jennie coughed into her fists and groaned.

“We so can’t manage unnie!”

“Well, would you rather have him blow your ears off or we let him go?” Jisoo scolded lightly with her hands on her hips. She nodded in satisfaction when Jennie pouted at her point.

“Fine. But is this bridge even safe? It’s not that deep but I’d rather not dirtied my new Channel sneakers.”

“You’ll be the first to know.” Jisoo shrugged, stepping before she stared at Jennie innocently. “After you.”

~*~

Jisoo wandered alone the neighborhood (not like there were many cottages or houses around here) and kicked a rock that was perched on the sand. Jennie was talking with the owner of the cottage they were going to stay in for two weeks (even that’s not definite) when she told her she would like to go for a walk and she had given Jisoo the permission to stroll around as long as she didn’t go too far because ‘you’re still our biggest asset unnie, don’t make me get fired’.

Jisoo laughed quietly remembering the younger girl’ remark. Jennie may seem brash and aloof to some but Jisoo had known her long enough to understand that it was just part of her personality. If anything, she’s the type who cared in silence, worrying about Jisoo and making sure she’s well taken care off even if it meant losing sleep.

That’s why she had let Jennie slept the journey off on the train earlier, because, as much as Jennie tried to conceal those dark circles under her eyes, Jisoo had heard the hushed phone calls she made during the night when she stayed in Jisoo’s apartment after the scandal and not even a wink of sleep she got until they had to go to the station to catch their train at dawn.

(Jisoo wouldn’t admit it, especially to the younger girl, but Jisoo was sure she wouldn’t be where she was now without Jennie by he