From where we left off in the last chapter....

In the midst of their second first kiss (the drunken one technically doesn’t count), Lisa burst out of her room, causing Jennie and Chaeyoung to immediately jump up off the couch. 

“Jennie unnie, are you feeling better? I noticed that it had gotten quiet out here and thought it was okay to—“ As Lisa came down the hallway and into the living room, she noticed the weird vibes mid-sentence and stopped in her tracks. “What was going on here?” she said, squinting and pointing back and forth between them.

Jennie cleared and walked quickly towards the kitchen, “Water. I need water,” she said with determination.

Chaeyoung grabbed her phone off the couch, “I need to call Sooyoung unnie and tell her I can’t make it.” And with that she made a beeline for her room.

“OKAYY I know you guys are hiding something from me! You might as well just come out and say it or else I’m gonna just keep bothering you two about it!” she yelled as Chaeyoung closed the door to her room in her face. 

And she really did stick to their word. 

The whole night, she continued to follow Chaeyounf and Jennie around pestering them to tell her what she walked in on. As they ate dinner, as they watched TV, as they got ready for bed, all they heard was “Telllll meeee~~~ Why can’t you tellll meeeee~~~ Pweeeaaaseeee~~~ What happenneddddd??”

And finally when Jisoo unnie came home from her table read, Lisa didn’t hesitate to share the events of the past few hours with her as they all sat around her on her bed.

“So what do you thinks they were doing?” Lisa inquired.

“Probably kissing,” Jisoo said sarcastically.

But as she said that, Jennie started coughing out of no where and Chaeyoung’s face turned bright red.

“Wow, from this reaction, you would think I was actually right,” Jisoo teased.

Chaeyoung turned away from Jisoo, trying to hide her embarrassment.

“WAIT AM I ACTUALLY RIGHT?!” Jisoo yelled out in excitement.

“Pshh, no Unnie... That’s absurd...” Jennie said flustered, after she finally stopped coughing.

“UNNIE I THINK YOU YOU WERE RIGHT,” Lisa exclaimed, “LOOK AT THEIR REACTIONS!”

“Nononono,” Chaeyoung shook her head in denial, “Who wouldn’t be flustered after someone accuses them of kissing another person?? That’s a big accusation.”

“Ye-yeAH! Chaeyoung’s rigHT! You guys would act the same way if we accused you two of kissing!!” Jennie retorted, jumping on Chaeyoung’s defense.

“Yeah, okay. They definitely kissed,” Jisoo whispered loudly to Lisa. 

Jennie started to panic: “Unnie!! I’m telling y—“

“OkAY, OKAY FINE. WE KISSED,. HAPPY NOW?!” Chaeyoung yelled out, giving in to Lisa and Jisoo’s teasing.

“WAIT NO WAY?” Jisoo exclaimed, actually surprised, “I WAS JUST MESSING AROUND! YOU GUYS ACTUALLY KISSED?!?”

“Psh, noooo....” Chaeyoung said half-heartedly, knowing she just messed up.

“REALLY?!” Lisa screamed as she leaned over and pulled Chaeyoung into a bear hug, “WAAA, CHAENG YOU DID IT!!! YOU FINALLY GOT OUT OF THE FRIEND ZONE!!!” 

In the meantime, Jisoo extended a hand out to Jennie, “Wow Jennie-yah... I have mad respect for you... I always thought Chaeyoung and I would get together some day, but I guess you beat me to the punch this time,” she joked.

Jennie nudged Jisoo’s shoulder with her own, “Hey, don’t be too sad. You can still have Lisa.”

They looked behind them to see Lisa still clinging onto Chaeyoung, puckering up and trying her absolute hardest to plant her lips on her cheek as Chaeyoung squealed and struggled to free herself from Lisa’s tight embrace. 

“I think I’m good,” Jisoo responded, causing the two of them to both chuckle as they watched the two best friends fight over a cheek kiss.

—————

Later that night... 

Chaeyoung and Jennie finally had some time to themselves after escaping the bombardment of questions from Jisoo and Lisa about the details of the kiss and all the happenings leading up to it. 

As Chaeyoung closed the door, Jennie walked around the room, as if she had never been in Chaeyoung’s room before. Suddenly she found herself staring down at the guitar on the guitar stand. 

“You know, the more that I think about it, the more I think it’s a shame...” Jennie said, inquisitively.

“What’s a shame?” Chaeyoung asked as she plopped onto her bed.

“That you didn’t get to properly confess to me that one night...” Jennie responded slyly, “Hmmm, what was it that you sang again?Was it...” she started snapping, as if she was trying to remember something on the tip of her tongue, “...Can’t Help Falling in Love?”

Chaeyoung nodded, unsure at what Jennie was getting at.

“Ohhhh yesss,” Jennie snapped, as if she just remembered, “That’s the one.”

Jennie paused for a little bit, then continued as she paced back and forth within Chaeyoung’s room, her hands held behind her back. “You know it’s super sad actually, I completely forgot how that song goes, completely... It’s crazy. I know you’ve sung it to me before, but I can’t remember... How does it go again?” she said slyly.

Chaeyoung just chuckled, now understanding what was happening, “Hand me the guitar,” she said casually and confidently, “I guess I have to this play it again!”. However, on the inside she was quite the opposite. To be frank, she hadn’t played the song once since that fateful day and kind of forced herself to forget everything about that confession, even the song she spent such a long time learning.

Jennie jumped onto the bed and sat criss-cross-apple sauce. She looked just like a little kid in kindergarten waiting eagerly to be handed their snack.

Chaeyoung chuckled at the sight and sat in front of Jennie, her guitar in her lap.

She started strumming hesitantly, constantly looking up from the frets to look at a mesmerized Jennie. And as she got lost in the whimsical beauty of the girl in front of her, her fingers magically started playing the chords to the song as if Jennie had put her in a musical trance. 

And as she got used to the rhythm again, she closed her eyes, nervous she would mess up in front of her crush of 8 years because although she’s messed up plenty of times in front of Jennie in the past, this time it was different. This time it meant something. She started out singing in a low whisper but as she thought about the complex meaning behind the simple lyrics and about all the times she fell even harder for Jennie, she couldn’t help but sing louder and with more soul. And although she had already confessed earlier that day, it felt like she was confessing her feelings for Jennie all over again. As she held the last note, she opened her eyes to see Jennie wiping a tear out of her eye.

“I understand why you chose that song out of the million love songs out there,” she chuckled as she proceeded to wipe another tear. 

“Why are you crying?” Chaeyoung asked as she set aside her guitar and scooched to Jennie’s side. 

“I just feel so stupid... I mean—how did I not get the message when that was literally how I felt as well?! I could’ve saved us from so much heartbreak and struggle if I just wasn’t so dull!”

“You aren’t dull. It wasn’t our time yet. I’m just grateful that our time came and that we didn’t let it slip past us without doing anything...” Chaeyoung retorted as she held Jennie’s hand and rubbed her hand with her thumb in reassurance.

Jennie squeezed Chaeyoung’s hand gently in response.“Thanks for waiting Chaeyoung-ah.”

“I would’ve waited a thousand years if it meant I got to be with you,” Chaeyoung remarked.

Jennie giggled and gave Chaeyoung a quick peck on the cheek, causing Chaeyoung’s eyes to grow wide and her face to turn red.

“Geez, is it hot in here? It’s kinda hot in here, let me open a window,” she panicked, jumping up from the bed.

—————

Meanwhile, in Jisoo’s room, Lisa and Jisoo were still gossiping about the two lovebirds next door. 

“I’m so happy for them… It took them long enough!” Lisa remarked.

“Seriously, I mean, the tension between them for the past 8 years was unrelenting! At first I thought it was that they didn’t like each other, but then I realized it was actually that they liked each other too much,” Jisoo agreed.

“Yeah, when Chaeyoung first told me she liked Jennie unnie, I wasn’t surprised at all. I was more surprised that she wasn’t planning on acting on her feelings than anything else. I felt so sad for her that I did everything I could to push them together. Like remember when we filmed for Blackpink Diaries in Thailand and I made you stay with me? I only did that because I knew Chaeyoung-ie was feeling uncomfortable around Jennie unnie and I wanted to help... I was hoping that by being locked in a room for a whole night, they could talk it out or better yet, spend a special night together...” 

“Lalisa Manoban! You’re such a ert!” Jisoo was horrified. 

“Hey, I was just rooting for their love, okay?!”

“I was rooting for their love too, but I didn’t try to get them to SLEEP together! That's overboard. You should learn a few lessons from the wise like a turtle, quick like a rabbit, Jisoo Turtle-Rabbit Kim,” Jisoo boasted. 

“What are you talking about?? I was the one who convinced you to go shopping in Japan so they could go on a date together!!! I still have screenshots of their Insta stories of them looking like a couple on my phone because I was so proud of myself that night!”

“Whatever, I was the one who made them do Really together on our tour. Did you know I was the one that suggested to our stage managers that we pair off during the kiss part in Really and that I was the one that suggested who the pairs should be too?”

“And you are calling ME a ert?! That routine forces us to have skinship! How is that any different from my Thailand room thingy?!” Lisa pouted, feeling wronged.

“I wanted them to hug and give each other cheek kisses at the most, not do the nasty, you nasty!” Jisoo retorted, still disgusted.

“Well, who cares about the details anyways! They are together and that's all that matters!” Lisa celebrated, trying to change the subject.

“Okay, we are going to go back to that Thailand thing later, but for now, I just want to celebrate that all our hard work finally paid off.”

“Yes! Now that I think about it, they owe us so much. We practically brought them together,” Lisa contested.

“Yeah. We better get a special shout-out at their wedding or something,” Jisoo agreed.

“Hey so now that those two are paired up, when are we going to finally get together, huh?” Lisa flirted as she wiggled her eyebrows at Jisoo.

“In your wildest dreams, Mano-foot,” Jisoo sneered.

“C’mon you know you want a piece of this,” Lisa relented, posing as if she was at a photo shoot.

Jisoo just laughed, “And there you go! Back to your erted self.... You know, you are posed exactly how you did in that meme of your legs.”

“I will never live that down will I?” Lisa lamented as she quickly sat back up.

“Nope!” Jisoo chuckled.

—————

The following week, they had their final performance for Inkigayo. Because it was their last week of promotions, they had been visited by tons of different groups and artists. And to this day, Jennie swears that at least 5 different boys from four different groups offered Chaeyoung a “sandwich from the cafeteria that they happened to just swing by.” But Jennie had heard the rumors about guys sticking in their phone numbers in these sandwiches or something like that and she was not having it. Each time a guy approached Chaeyoung, Jennie was there to intercept it as they tried to pass the sandwich over to Chaeyoung. And each time, Jennie gave a different excuse as to why Chaeyoung couldn’t have it.

For one guy it was “she’s allergic to sandwiches,” for another it was “she doesn’t like food”, and by far, Chaeyoung’s favorite was when Jennie just grabbed the sandwich, took a bite, and proceeded to say, with food in , “sorry I’m Chaeyoung’s food tester, you know like in historical dramas, that person who would take a bite out of everything to make sure there wasn’t any poison in the Queen’s food.” 

For Jennie, it felt like there was another boy knocking on the door to their waiting room and asking for Rosé-ssi every 5 minutes. And every time, it felt like Chaeyoung was happy to let them in and give them her time of day. 

For Chaeyoung, she was just appreciative to be offered so much food for free, and it was cute to see cool Jennie get all worked up over nothing. But she did feel bad for those poor guys who had to be on the receiving end of Jennie’s cold, sassy attitude.

For Lisa and Jisoo, it was free entertainment. They had never seen so many dudes get rejected so savagely in one day. Of course, Jennie had her own share of guys chasing after her and she at least showed a little bit of sympathy when rejecting them, but when it came to Chaeyoung, she had no chill. And to them, it was the funniest thing in the world. They sat there, trying to predict what sassy comment Jennie would use next or trying to come up with ways to warn all the guys that Jennie was not her sweet kitten-like self today, but that they were knocking on what they called “The Lion’s Den.”

But really, they couldn’t predict or plan for what happened next. 

After their live encore stage, back in their dressing room, Chaeyoung received an unexpected text message that made her squeal of happiness. 

It was Bae Suzy, the idol-turned-famous actress, other