"I hate Park Chaeyoung." Jennie announced, barging into her apartment and throwing her purse on a couch, only to miss and have it land on the floor. Kuma who was sleeping on a pillow nearby winced and barked softly.

"Ms Park? Your friend?" Hyelim, her maid, asked. At the mention of the word friend, Jennie gave her a piercing look.

"She is not my friend." Jennie corrected her. She darted over to the kitchen counter while Hyelim was picking up her purse.

"But Ms Jennie, you two used to be inseparable, like sisters. Ms Park was all you used to talk about."

Jennie could feel her cheeks getting red as the apples in the fruit basket on the kitchen counter. She picked one up and started peeling it with a knife, trying to chase away the thoughts of the feelings she used to have for Chaeyoung. Slight nervousness started bubbling up inside her - was her crush that obvious?

"As if!" She scoffed, lying. "You should see her Hyelim, she thinks she rules the school."

Her maid looked like she was unsure of what to say, wanting to agree with Jennie but trying not to disrespect Chaeyoung. But Jennie didn't need her to say anything, what she did need was someone to listen to her ramble.

"Sometimes I wish I could just take that smug look off her face myself."

"Ms Jennie, let me do that for you." Hyelim offered, eyeing the apple that Jennie was slicing with such haste, as if it was the girl she was complaining about herself.

"I'll do it, it's fine." Jennie declined her offer, looking like she enjoyed cutting the apple up way too much.

Hyelim took a breath to say something, then let it out, looking like she had second thoughts. Jennie noticed her maid's hesitation and burrowed her eyebrows.

"What is it?" She demanded.

"Ms Jennie, I hope you're not forgetting about Ms Chaeyoung's party."

"Oh, I haven't forgotten, but I'm afraid I won't be able to make it." Jennie said. She might've considered Chaeyoung's invitation at first, but soon after today's encounter at the Drama Club, Jennie has decided to replace the party with... literally anything else.

"But Ms Jennie your aunt-"

"My aunt doesn't have to know how I spent my night. And if she cares about that party so much she can go herse- Ouch!"

Jennie dropped the apple and the knife from her hands. A stream of warm blood was running down her pointer finger where she cut herself.

"Ms Jennie!" Hyelim gasped.

"It's okay." Jennie said and put her hand under the cold water in the sink. The corners of her eyes were stinging at the sensation of her cut meeting the water.

"I'll go get you a band-aid." Hyelim said, pacing toward another room.

Jennie sighed and stared at her finger that still had tap water running over it, which didn't seem to slow down the bleeding at all.

The anger she felt for Chaeyoung less than two minutes ago suddenly vanished. Instead, it was replaced with sort of an empty feeling, something Jennie hated to face herself. She was angry. Angry at the fact she felt like an outsider looking in. She tried to imagine what her life would be like if the accident never happened, and she never had to move to New York. Together with Jisoo and Lisa, they would help Chaeyoung organize her party and make the invitations together for the handpicked guests. Jisoo and Chaeyoung would probably argue over the color of the balloons, but in the end they'd settle for pink - Chaeyoung's favorite. They would let Lisa drag them to the dancefloor again, without finishing their drinks, even after they'd spent hours dancing already. Chaeyoung's party would turn into a sleepover, like it often did, and they'd spend the night in her bedroom, raving about the it. They would have another memory together, as if they needed any more, they'd have a whole book of them.

The truth is, Jennie didn't want to hate Chaeyoung or run from Jisoo. Together with Lisa, they were home to her, but she felt like she'd been gone for far too long.

*

Tomorrow afternoon, Jennie was leaving her last class of the day when someone threw their hands over her eyes. Jennie jumped, startled.

"Whoa, relax. It's just me."

Jennie turned around and felt even more petrified when she saw it was Jisoo.

Ever since the Drama Club fiasco, she has been trying her best to avoid Jisoo, which turned out to be quite easy. Apart from being paranoid the entire day at school and taking a sharp U-turn whenever she saw a girl with long brown hair and a figure similar to Jisoo's in hallways, Jennie thought she was doing a pretty good job. But what she didn't count on is that Jisoo might try and hunt her down herself.

"Why'd you run off like that the other day?" Jisoo grabbed Jennie's sleeve and the latter's skin prickled at the proximity of their hands.

"Sorry. Something came up and I had to go home..." Jennie said, realizing how obvious her lie was as the words rolled off her tongue. Fortunately, Jisoo didn't think the same, or she pretended not to, because she smiled and nodded. Jennie felt heat rush to her face at the sight of Jisoo's smile so she decided to study a sheet of paper someone had dropped on the floor instead of making eye contact. It was a flyer for the daycare center that was close to their university.

Jisoo glanced at Jennie.

"Can we talk for a second?"

"Um sure." Jennie nodded.

Before she allowed Jisoo to lead her into an empty classroom she had just left, she glanced around the school hallway which was practically vacant. Everyone who had afternoon classes that day bolted out of the school as soon as the final class ended. Jennie swallowed loudly, without meaning to.

The sun was setting and coloring the classroom in an orangish tint and revealing the dust particles floating around in the air.

"So, how have you been?" Jisoo asked and leaned against the wall.

Confused about how everyone has changed so much. Upset at the fact my aunt is still trying to control my life. Kinda freaked out that I'm standing so close to you.

"I'm alright." She said finally.

Jisoo snorted . "Why does that sound so unconvincing?"

Jennie paused. "Yeah, I guess not."

"Well, what's going on?"

But suddenly, Jennie didn't want to talk about her aunt or how different everyone was compared to how they used to be. She wanted to talk about something else completely.

She took a deep breath.

"Jisoo, did you know it was me?" Jennie demanded, finally daring to look into the other girl's eyes. "That night at the party, did you know it was me you kissed?"

A surprised look washed over Jisoo's face like a wave, but then it went away as quickly as it came.

"Yeah."

Her simple answer irritated Jennie.

"Why did you do that?"

"I guess I was just curious." She proclaimed, her eyes not once looking away from Jennie's.

"Curious?" Jennie repeated like she didn't know the meaning of the word. "Jisoo you-"

The rest went unfinished as she felt Jisoo grab her hand.

"Jennie, you're bleeding."

Jennie looked at the hand Jisoo was holding in her own and saw that the cut on her finger has started bleeding. Once again, a small stream of blood was rolling down her finger, meeting Jisoo's palm. She could basically hear Hyelim's voice in her head, scolding her for not wearing a band-aid.

"Do you have a tissue?" Jennie asked.

"You won't need it."

Jisoo didn't give her an opportunity to say something back, as she lifted Jennie's hand towards and slowly off the blood from her finger. She started lightly on the cut, not breaking eye contact, which made Jennie's chest clench up. She almost winced and made a painful grimace when Jisoo continued harder, but before she did, the girl stopped and dropped her finger.

"There, the bleeding stopped." She said, looking at Jennie intensely. The temptation to reach for Jisoo was rising in Jennie. They stared at each other in desire and just when Jennie felt like she can't hold back anymore Jisoo's phone started ringing obnoxiously loud and Jennie knew the spell was immediately broken.

"I have to answer." She told Jennie, leaving her suddenly very cold.

"Hey mom." She said, wiping her palm that still had Jennie's blood on it with her thumb. "Yeah, I'm still at school.. No, I don't have any more classes."

Jisoo was pacing around the classroom, trying to control her breathing. Then she came to halt and burrowed her eyebrows.

"Yuna? What happened now?"

Jennie could hear the muffled voice of Jisoo's mom on the other line but she couldn't make out the words. Jisoo sighed and ran her free hand through her hair.

"Alright... Sure... No, it's fine." She gazed at Jennie and smiled warmly. "It's okay, I have a friend going along."

*

At the same time, on the other side of the city, Chaeyoung was standing with her arms crossed and scanning the huge room of the newly opened restaurant where her party will be held in a few hours.

Sooyoung thumbed across the list of people invited to the party on a huge tablet screen. There were one hundred and sixteen all together.

"Rosé, I mailed the invitations to everyone this morning." She said, looking pleased with herself for being so efficient. Chaeyoung has decided to take a more traditional and formal approach to this party and mail everyone handwritten invitations, which were necessary to enter. "But there was one failed delivery."

When Chaeyoung took the tablet her eyes were automatically drawn to a name toward the bottom of the list: Kim Jennie. The address given was the old mansion where Jennie lived with her parents before she moved to America. Chaeyoung knew that Jennie had gotten an apartment of her own when she moved back to Seoul, but it was just a little too easy to make it look like a genuine mistake. She handed the tablet back to Sooyoung without correcting Jennie's address.

"How strange."

A devious look came over Sooyoung's face.

"How strange indeed!"

A waiter walked past with a tray of champagne. Chaeyoung whisked a glass off his tray and downed it in a matter of seconds.

"The peacock feathers around the rims of the vases were a nice touch Rosé. It looks fabulous!" Yerim chirped.

Chaeyoung crossed her arms again, looking skeptical.

"No, it looks tacky, get someone to fix that."

"Oh." Yerim exhaled. "Yeah, you're right, the colors are clashing." She chuckled awkwardly and ran off to find someone to collect the feathers.

As soon as they were finished with their classes today, the organizing committee as Chaeyoung called them, had gathered here to deal with the last-minute preparations for the party.

The organizing was smooth sailing so far but Chaeyoung couldn't bring herself to relax. She needed everything to be perfect. She searched her purse for a hand mirror and her hand grazed against her phone. She fought against the masochistic urge to pull it out and look at it. She called Chanyeol three times and left him five messages already but he was still nowhere to be found. Instead of her annoyingly silent phone, Chaeyoung took out her mirror and looked at her reflection. Her skin was clear and glowing and her freshly touched up blonde hair brightened her face.

However, not even looking glamorous could help brighten Chaeyoung's mood when the party started a bit later. Sooyoung and Yerim were chattering excitedly about the gift bags Chaeyoung has prepared for the guests and the place was quickly filling up with familiar faces. Chaeyoung's eyes darted around the huge room which was throbbing with music and people, but she still couldn't spot the one she was hoping to see.

After saying hello and welcoming a few guests, Chaeyoung took a seat by the bar, only to hear her zipper make an ominous sound and feel her dress loosen around her waist. She looked down at the silver satin dress she was wearing. It made her look sparkly and elegant, but the problem she had with the zipper before the party made her nervous. She reached for her back and sure enough, the dress had ped and she had to hold it together with her hand.

"I'll be right bac