Present

Jennie had long given up on seeking comfort from alcohol. The temporary numbness could only ease her aching heart so much, yet she could not help but gulp her third glass of Hennessy XO. Maybe I should’ve picked a quieter bar instead of a famous club. Her eyes aimlessly scanned through the young millennials that had flocked the dance floor as she tries to remember the last time she was in a club. Jennie swears she is not old, perhaps just a homebody who refuses to hang out on Friday nights. The girl had even caught Sara mumble “ahjumma” when the boss would politely decline her employees’ offer to join. Alcohol, parties, and clubs brought back memories that she’d like to put behind, but fate just had to lay a different set of cards and present Irene out of nowhere. Just like that, years of effort to get over the incident and erase the memories of her beloved sublimed in thin air.

Past

Friday nights were certified techno nights at Solstice in Cheongdam-dong. The group had already registered the Jiwon’s family-owned club as their regular hangout spot. Even though the boisterous group of high schoolers would occasionally create cause commotion, the manager could not find it in herself to stop them from entering the place and ordering bottle service on the house. After all, the number of newer patrons that flocked the club due to Seulgi, Jiwon, and Jennie’s presence was jaw-dropping, and the manager intended to boost the profits of the club with the free recurring publicity.

Jennie chuckled a little as she looked across the dance floor to see her friends enjoying bottle service at their regular private table. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary. The basketball team, cheerleaders, and some other close friends all huddled up in the cabin as Jiwon poured the alcohol into their glasses. Jiwon - their certified bartender. Jennie wanted to let out a hearty laugh, cross over the dance floor, pick up a glass and nudge Jiwon to pour her a shot as well but her legs seemed to have rooted tonight. These Friday nights at Solstice that were initiated to celebrate the Basketball team’s growing popularity had been slowly morphing into alcohol getaways to relieve stress.

She wondered how long until one of them cracks and these parties crumble, and their group undergoes a much-needed reset. The stress and some of these secrets were starting to suffocate her. Her roommate was becoming agitated by the gray area in her relationship with Bae Irene. Jiwon was beginning to feel the heat from his family business and his impending fate of taking over as an heir and Jennie’s distress to continue delivering stellar results.

Everything was going great. It was mid-December, and St. Lawrence’s basketball team was crushing their opponents left and right in the qualifiers. Coach Seo was stricter than ever. Players’ diet was carefully monitored, practice schedules were meticulously set up, notable exceptions in classes were made to accommodate even longer hours of practice and whatnot. Coach Seo had decided to play Jennie as small forward in the team based on her physical stature and agility; and, the decision had proved to be great so far.

Jennie was having a stellar time. Her per-game stats were 18.2 points, 6.9 rebounds, 2.0 assists, 0.7 steals, and 0.3 blocks—the best in her team and fourth-best in the nation-wide competition. Anyone would agree that this was pretty impressive for a new team member. She had assimilated entirely with the St. Lawrence crowd, defended her school’s honor (and, of course, her scholarship).

Jiwon was following close behind along with Seulgi. He continued to play as the Center and was fifteenth best nation-wide. His fans were raving over his basketball skills; the debut album was more successful than predicted. His manager and label owner were more than satisfied with the profits his debut album had raked in. Even Jiwon’s dad enjoyed his son’s improved public image. Stocks were soaring as word got around that the talented young man was set to follow his father’s footsteps and handle the conglomerate. All of this inflated substantially inflated his ego, and what’s worse than having fangirls who were ready to throw themselves at him? Caving in to the temptation.

It was probably a couple of weeks ago when the basketball team had won their last qualifier match, allowing them to compete in the real tournament. Jennie had led the team to victory again, and Jiwon decided to throw a party for his best friend to celebrate her spectacular performance. The St. Lawrence crew was huddled up in their cabin on the second floor, which overlooked the dance floor. They circled the table with a shot glass of Fireball in their hands.

“This one is to our dear Nini, who has scored not only a ton of hoops this season but also a position in all of our hearts,” Jiwon toasted to his best friend. His sappy words earned tipsy awws and cooes from everyone, followed by a loud “cheers!”

The two out of three musketeers had particularly become closer over the last four months of friendship. Jiwon had always wished to have a sister, someone he could joke with or candidly share his emotions without being judged. Jennie was the perfect embodiment of everything he was looking for in a sibling - smart, dorky, and loyal. She didn’t have to prove her loyalty. Jiwon had realized that he had found that sibling in Jennie the day she silently accepted Coach Seo’s punishment without ratting him out. He even felt grateful when he saw her putting up his lame dad-jokes, rants about how hard his dance routine or the diet or something as simple as explaining to him a concept that he didn’t understand in class.

“Thank you, buddy. It means a lot.” Jennie’s eyes were slightly wet as she hugged her best friend. They were her family. Jiwon ruffled her hair, downed another shot, and disappeared into the dance floor. Jennie did not pay much heed to the situation, but when Jiwon did not return 30 minutes later, she decided to search for him.

“Aish! I hope that guy hasn’t out somewhere”, she muttered while swimming through the crowd of sweaty party-goers. Jennie felt something felt was off when she saw Jiwon’s private security leaving an isolated booth. I didn’t even know there was a booth here. Maybe Jiwon is passed out in there. The blonde twisted the doorknob and almost recoiled in surprise as she saw a young woman straddling Jiwon on the couch. The duo hadn’t even noticed Jennie’s presence as they continued to lock lips aggressively while pulling at each other’s clothes. The girl’s chest was almost bare as her black bra loosely hung around her shoulders, leaving not much to the imagination. Jennie felt bile rising in . Just thirty minutes ago, she felt Jiwon was everything she looked for in a brother, and this incident was like a whiplash.

She rushed to the duo and peeled the girl off of Jiwon, connecting her fist square in his face. , I need to get out of here, Jennie thought as she gave one final look of disappointment and made her to the club’s entrance. The seemed to have knocked some sense of reality in the guy as she squabbled to get his blazer and rush after the other musketeer.

“Jennie! Jennie! Stop!” the boy said as he finally managed to get a grip on the younger’s wrist.

“Jiwon, I suggest you leave me alone at the moment,” the girl said as she shook out from his hold but not meeting his eyes.

“Nini, please listen to me.”

“WHAT! ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR ING MIND!”

“Nini, it is not what it looks like”

Jennie looked at the guy incredulously, almost about to throw her fists again.

“I don’t want to make a scene here, let’s go inside your car.”

The silence was palpable. Jiwon was fidgeting with his fingers under Jennie’s watchful eyes.

“Spill.”

“Honestly, I don’t know what got over me. I-I didn’t mean to-”

“Cheat? Are you serious, Jiwon?” Jennie’s voice raised a decibel. “You know your ing girlfriend is right there with the rest of our friends.”

“I’ll fix it.”

“You better.”

Another beat of silence.

“Forgive me. I didn’t mean to-”

“It’s not my forgiveness that you should be seeking, Jiwon,” Jennie said with finality as she left the young man alone in the car.

--

The tension between Jiwon and Jennie was temporary and did not affect their games. The girl had entrusted him to come clean to Jisoo and fix the mess he had created. It had been two weeks since then, and Jiwon had yet to act on his words. Guilt had been eating up Jennie, which had resulted in her avoiding the cheerleader like the plague. If Jisoo took notice, she did not make it obvious, and the blonde silently thanked her for it.

She saw Jisoo and Irene dragging everyone to the dance floor from a distance, leaving only Jiwon in the cabin. Jennie gulped the shot in her hand, preparing to join her friends to join the dance floor when she saw a girl in wine red up a very short, form-fitting dress saunter towards Jiwon and plop herself on his lap. Jennie had expected that the boy would immediately push the stranger off his lap but nearly choked on air when she saw him looping his arms around her tiny waist.

! Not again. I need to stop him before Jisoo comes back, and that asshat loses his opportunity to repent, Jennie hissed. The blonde was about to step in and prevent him from going any further, but the fate her to it.

Jisoo’s usual soft face hardened to an unreadable cold one, the instant she saw the sight of her boyfriend’s body pressed against a stranger. Her boyfriend, who had finally noticed the additional presence, jumped from the couch, nearly sending the stranger flying. The red dress girl looked shocked but took this as her cue to leave. Jennie saw there was a long pregnant pause before Jisoo picked up her cell phone from the table and turned her heels, leaving Jiwon alone. No confrontations, no physical blows, nothing. The blonde saw the guilty chase after Jisoo only to be stopped by one stiff glare from his girlfriend.

Jennie saw the disappointed girlfriend pierce her way through the crowd and sit on a barstool. Luckily, the spot next to her was open, and the younger girl plopped herself on the seat as she yelled for two tequila shots over the deafening club music.

She slid one of the shot glasses in front of Jisoo and thanked the bartender before handing him a tip. The older girl did not bother waiting for the blonde and hastily gulped her shot. She grimaced at the burning sensation down . However, she stayed silent.

The latter just took the shot by herself and patiently waited for the cheerleader to open up. But what she didn’t expect was for Jisoo to scoff loudly. Her brown orbs were still not meeting Jennie.

“He couldn’t come by himself, so he sent his minion. Tch”

Ouch! Now that hurts.

Jennie wanted to reprimand Jisoo for addressing her that way, but angry words died on her lips when she saw the traces of pain on the girl’s face when they finally faced each other.

The blonde pulled her chair closer to the older to gently wrap her arm around the latter’s petite frame. Jisoo slowly brought her head to rest on the younger’s shoulder, and the latter made sure to rub the side of the brunette’s arm in a soft circular motion to relax her anger. In seconds the basketball player