flowers.

“Good morning.”

Chaeyoung opens the door to her apartment with a disarming smile. “Hey Jennie unnie- what’s this?”

Jennie holds out the bouquet of roses with a smile. “These are for you.”

“Oh.” Chaeyoung blinks at the bouquet before her. “Thank you.”

The confused look on her face says it all. Jennie sighs, appraising the other half-exasperated, half-affectionate. “You know, for someone so easily swayed by the telemarketers on TV, you’re a tough one to figure out.”

Chaeyoung looks up, confused and slightly miffed. “What’s that supposed to mean???”

“I mean that even now, I’m still trying to figure out how to impress you.”

“Why are you trying to impress me?”

Jennie appraises her like she’s trying not to make her confusion too obvious. “Well, why do you think sweetheart?” She drawls, leaning back in her seat to stare affectionately at Chaeyoung.

“Because of the telemarketers?”

“… not quite. Try again?”

Chaeyoung shrugs, moving to put the flowers in a vase. “I really don’t know, Jen. Why are you asking weird questions all of a sudden?”

Jennie just sighs. Another day, another oblivious Chaeyoung. “Well, just think about it- why would I want to impress you?”

“You already impress me, Jen.” Chaeyoung smiles easily as she moves past Jennie, vase in hand. “So I really don’t know why you’re trying so hard.”

Jennie watches her every movement, from the filling the vase to the careful t of the flower stems. There’s something about Chaeyoung that just paws at her otherwise frozen and unwilling heart. She still can’t quite figure out what it is.

“Keep guessing.”

Chaeyoung apparently ignores her in favor of carefully arranging the flowers in the vase, taking extra care to ensure none of them fall over. “Are you hungry, unnie?”

Jennie glances at the unwashed dishes still in Chaeyoung’s sink. “Didn’t you just eat?”

“Yes, but I didn’t ask me if I was hungry.”

“Don’t tell me you’re hungry again??”

Chaeyoung just smiles sheepishly. “I didn’t say that!”

“Just answer the question, Chae.”

“Yes.”

Jennie just sighs at the girl’s seemingly insatiable appetite. “Alright. What do you want to eat then? On me.”

“Pizza!” Chaeyoung leaps up happily, shrieking as she runs to grab her coat.

Jennie sighs but gets up to follow her anyway. Chaeyoung is already waiting for her at the door with a large grin plastered across her face. She all but drags Jennie out the apartment door, and if it’d been anyone else Jennie probably would’ve smacked them upside the head twice, but it’s Rosie- sweet, beautiful Rosie- so Jennie just gives in and lets her.

The things she’d do for Park Chaeyoung.

Jennie decides to try again the next day. “Chaeyoung?”

“Yes unnie?” The younger girl looks up from the floor of Jennie and Jisoo’s shared suite where she’s comfortably sprawled out with her anatomy homework.

Jennie fiddles with the corners of her own textbooks. “Do you want to go out with me sometime?”

Chaeyoung beams. “Of course!”

That was… easy? Jennie gapes at the smily girl. “Really?”

“Yeah, of course! Where are we going? It’s been so long since we’ve all hung out!”

Jennie stares. “We?”

Chaeyoung nods enthusiastically. “Yeah! You, me, Jisoo unnie and Lalisa! Did you ask them yet?” She’s looking back at Jennie with a smile full of sunshine.

Ah. That’s more like it, Jennie relents. Of course it wouldn’t have been so simple. Especially for someone as… dense, as Park Chaeyoung.

“Oh. I, um. Not yet.” Jennie murmurs disappointedly, gaze dropping back down to the textbook on her lap.

“Want me to ask them?” Chaeyoung asks, holding up her phone which is conveniently right by her hip. “I know Lisa isn’t busy this weekend- it should work out!”

“Ah, yeah.” Jennie replies distantly. “I’m sure Jisoo can spare some hours from her papers too.”

The smile on Chaeyoung’s face would be so much sweeter to Jennie had she been the cause. But, it’s sweet nonetheless. “Great! I’m so excited- this is going to be so much fun!”

Jennie can’t help the swell of defeat that expands in her chest.

“Right.”

She tries. She really does.

But everyday that passes is another day that she could be spending dating Chaeyoung and everyday that passes is another day that she is not.

She sighs over her latte, glaring out the café window. It’s kind of a gloomy day. It’s an early spring rain, chilly and grey. It does nothing to help Jennie’s depressed mood.

She wishes Chaeyoung were here.

“Hey there.”

Jennie looks up, startled, at the girl who’s just slid into the chair across from her. She vaguely recognizes her as one of the members on Lisa’s dance troupe- talented, that bunch. The girl is tall, with a nice smile. Jennie doesn’t know why she’s talking to her.

The girl just smiles at Jennie’s stare, sliding a cup of coffee towards her. “You look like you could use some cheering up.”

Jennie’s gaze flits back and forth between the girl and the coffee before her. “Oh. Thank you.”

The girl just smiles. “The name’s Sooyoung. It’s nice to finally get to talk to you, Jennie Kim.”

Jennie looks at her curiously. “How do you know me?”

“I’ve seen you around. Plus, I always remember the pretty ones.” Sooyoung smiles at her flirtatiously, swinging one lithe leg over the other as she calmly appraises Jennie over her own coffee cup.

Jennie has never been good at spontaneous conversation, nor has she ever really gotten accustomed to the flocks of people that attempt to flirt with her- when it happens, she has this tendency to be super awkward and super weird. Lisa thinks it’s cute. Jisoo thinks she’s stupid.

“Jennie unnie!”

It’s like Jennie’s body reacts to the familiar voice before her conscious can. She all but jolts to turn her body sideways, looking towards the counter.

Chaeyoung waves at her with her characteristic beam, but something’s a little off about it today. Jennie raises a hand to wave back, although her brow is already slightly furrowed by her attempts to figure out why Chaeyoung looks a little sad.

“I thought I’d find you here.” Chaeyoung smiles and mouths a polite, silent greeting to Sooyoung. For some reason, her steps are a little unsure today and her demeanor a little more reserved. Like the sunshine she usually emits is muted. Like the tympani tensor pulling on the tympanic membrane, to mute the loud sounds rattling in her head.

Jennie shakes herself out of it. “Oh, Chaeyoung- were you looking for me?”

Chaeyoung’s laugh is tinged with something akin to disappointment and it tugs at all the strings in Jennie’s heart chambers. “I- I thought we could grab lunch together later but that’s alright. I should work on my assignments anyway.” The last part comes out closer to a mumble than anything, as Chaeyoung looks like she’s about to go.

Jennie blinks. “Huh? No, I-“

“I’m sorry to interrupt you two. Have fun, unnie. See you around, Sooyoung.” Chaeyoung is polite to the end, bowing slightly to the seated girls before turning to tail it out of the café.

The implications finally register in Jennie’s mind, but it’s too late and Chaeyoung is already running out into the rain. Jennie can only slump back in her chair, defeated, as she watches Chaeyoung’s form run further and further away.

Sooyoung arches a brow at Jennie’s obvious distress. “You know, I was actually going to ask you on a real date but I think I know what you’re going to say.”

Jennie looks helplessly out at the rain, then back at Sooyoung. “I’m sorry.”

Sooyoung grins wryly as she gets up. “Don’t be. I feel like you’re really bad at this whole ‘love’ thing anyway.”

It doesn’t really get better.

Jisoo sighs for what must be the fourteenth time today as she sympathetically appraises Jennie’s slumped-over form.

“Just tell her how you feel, Jen. Straightforward and clear.”

Jennie doesn’t move, but Jisoo knows she’s been heard. She pats the girl’s still shoulder twice before rising to her feet.

“Trust me- things will be easier that way.”

Jennie swears she feels her heart physically break in two.

Chaeyoung looks up from her salad, startled. “Jennie unnie! Hey!”

Jennie looks down at her hands. “Hey.” It’s all she can bring herself to say.

The woman across the table looks back and forth between the two of them. “Chaeyoung, who’s this?”

Chaeyoung clasps her hands together. “Oh! Right, this is Jennie. Jennie, this is Irene unnie.”

Chaeyoung’s date smiles politely up at Jennie. “Nice to meet you. I’ve heard a lot about you.”

Jennie reaches deep into her inner basket of will and musters what she hopes is a convincing smile. “Likewise.”

Maybe another day. Just maybe

“Chaeyoung?”

“Hm?” The girls hums from her end of the couch, where she’s curled up with a novel and a mug of tea. She blinks at Jennie through her glasses.

Jennie swallows the lump and doubt crawling up in . She remembers Jisoo’s voice in the back of her mind, remembers Sooyoung’s parting words on a rainy day in a café. She remembers the stars in Chaeyoung’s eyes that shine even on the darkest days, the tension in her chest seeing Chaeyoung with someone who isn’t her, and then it’s finally enough.

“Would you go on a date with me?”

Chaeyoung stares at her over her novel. “Date?”

Jennie nods, stiffer than she thinks she’s ever been. “Yeah. I- I really like you.”

Chaeyoung is still just sitting there in her pajama pants and t-shirt. Jennie’s heart feels like it’s literally going to thump out of her thoracic cavity because why isn’t Chaeyoung saying anything and why is she just staring at Jennie like that-

“Sure.”

Jennie blinks, shaken from her frenzied daydream. “Huh?”

“I said sure.”

It’s Jennie’s turn to stare blankly at her. “I- you know I meant like a real date, right? Like one that couples go on together-“

“I know what you meant, unnie.” Chaeyoung’s cheeks are colored a light pink as she drops her gaze to the pages of her novel. “I just- just needed a minute to process it.”

Jennie can’t believe her luck. “You’re not joking, right?”

Chaeyoung looks a little startled. “Wh- why would I joke about that?”

Jennie still can’t really believe it but the shock’s slowly starting to wear off and she’s sure there’s a stupidly large grin starting to spread over her features. “I- okay then.”

“Okay.” Chaeyoung hums back neutrally, although her blushing cheeks say otherwise. She pulls the novel a little closer to her face takes a gulp of her tea, and then that’s that.

Jennie can’t stop her adoring staring. “I can’t wait.” She says with heartfelt sincerity.

Chaeyoung glances up a little before returning her gaze back to her book. The small smile at the corners of her lips says it all. “Me too.”

She might be bad at love, but there’s always room to get better.

(Later, she overhears a hushed conversation between Jisoo and Chaeyoung in Chaeyoung’s closed room where Jisoo screams “I KNEW IT!” very very loudly, while Chaeyoung does her best to make Jisoo keep her voice down. Jennie smiles for what must be the ten thousandth time that day. It’s not much, but it’s definitely a start and Jennie knows she’s not the best at the whole love thing- but she swears she’s going to get it right this time.)