The weekend finally came along with the party hosted by Jimin in his house. Lisa made sure to stay as far away as possible, spending all the time exercising in the gym at the academy late into the night.

The girl she’d encountered at one smoke break peaked her interest a little bit, being the first person to do so at that school. It resulted in Lisa kind of looking out for her in the crowd, though she hadn’t had to try hard most of the times since Jimin had been quick to befriend her and talk to her and her friend as often as possible.

Lisa didn’t know why, but it stirred something within her, causing her to leave the side of her brother to go and smoke with Chaeyoung more than usual.

Not having brought warm enough spare clothes, Lisa changed into her military uniform with its boots echoing heavy on the asphalt as she walked home into the peaceful night.

When she left the grounds of the academy, she lit a cigarette and wandered through the deserted streets.

Lisa, unlike other cadets, had the privilege to live in her own home instead of the dormitory the academy offered. Living there was actually deemed mandatory as it was meant to deepen the bond between comrades, but her parents were very influential and had allowed Lisa and Jimin to live on their own without a hitch.

Needless to say they lived alone without their parents. Both were scattered around the world – their expertise had been very sought of ever since Lisa could remember.

She could mope around and be depressed about the fact that she never had a real family and that all she’d known throughout her whole life was the repetitious sound of shots being fired from machine guns, strategies and how to behave properly – to be a worthy child of her parents.

She could feel sorrow about the fact that the path her life led had been never her own choice.

But she didn’t.

Lisa took a long drag of the cigarette, the tobacco lighting up in a bright orange. The quietness of the night was interrupted by loud noises coming from her house, muting the light sizzle from the cigarette.

She hadn’t noticed that she already arrived, but something or rather someone was quick to catch her eye.

There was someone on the ground in front of the house, trying to pick up broken pieces of what seemed to have been her handy. The girl, whose dark hair veiled her face, must’ve been drunk, judging by the difficulty she faced not to fall over from her sitting position.

Lisa really wanted to ignore her and just get a good, long sleep but she served normal people after all – even some idiots like that person.

Lisa determinedly stepped up to her who didn’t even look up at the intimidating sound caused by her military boots. When she was closer she could inspect the scene. Lisa flicked her cigarette away and kneeled down on one knee and began to pick up bigger pieces of glass.

“Someone has bad luck, huh?” She asked with a hint of sarcasm, because she knew it wasn’t caused by bad luck but by drunkenness.

It was only after she said it that the girl finally lifted her gaze from her drunken mishap. Lisa’s indifferent and nonchalant behavior changed in the matter of a mere second when she was up close to the face of the girl Jimin liked so much.

“I stumbled…,” the unknown girl’s hair was slightly out of place, her clothes much too revealing for that kind of cold weather. She wore black skinny jeans and a dark, short crop top of much too thin fabric. Her eyes were unfocused as they looked momentarily into Liza’s eyes, obviously not really registering with whom she was talking at the moment.

Without much regard for possible injuries on her hand, Lisa picked up the last big piece of glass and the handy which laid all the while on the cold paved way leading to her house and to the party.
She put the broken pieces of glass in one pocket of her uniform and the handy in another, not trusting the girl to not shatter it any further. The girl was seemingly so slow to react, that she didn’t notice at first that she had no further reason to stay on the ground.

Lisa reached out her hand, “Come on, get up,”

Her hand hovered for some seconds in the air before the drunken girl took it timidly and stood up on wobbly feet. Lisa could immediately feel the coldness of her hands and saw some minor scratches which bled though.

“Take this,” she quickly took of her coat and offered it to her.

“I’m not cold,” was her only response as she couldn’t help but giggle a bit.

Lisa rolled her eyes; she certainly didn’t anticipate dealing with something like this deep into the night.

“Wait here,” she demanded in a firm tone while she threw her coat over the shoulders of the girl.

She quickly dashed into Jimin’s party and was welcomed by loud music and cheering, a lot of drunk people and the smell of sweat.

“Lisaaaaa, you here?” a comrade shouted over the music, approaching her with a bottle of beer. He was obviously drunk and she didn’t really like him that much, but he might know where Jimin was.

“Obviously. Where is Jimin?” Lisa asked him in her ever demanding tone.

“Uhh, dunno. I saw him earlier on the couch,” his words were slurred and he leaned forward a bit too close. She pushed him out of the way without hesitation and went into the living room to find her passed out brother.

“Well, ain’t that great?” she hissed to no one in particular as she tried to shake Jimin out of his drunken state to no avail.

After several tries she stopped wasting her time on him and sighed when she realized that she couldn’t pass on the responsibility to care for the also drunken girl.

When she went out into the cold night again, the image of the nameless girl trying to light a cigarette greeted her.

Too focused on the task of achieving it, she didn’t notice that Lisa had returned.

Lisa raised her brows slightly as she saw that not only was the girl incapable of lightning her cigarette but she also had the wrong end between her lips.

She was about to smoke the cigarette filter.

Without missing a beat, she pulled the cigarette out of and placed her hand lightly at her covered back, guiding her to Lisa’s part of the house.

“Hey, I wanted to smoke!” She exclaimed but let herself nonetheless be led to an unknown place. Lisa ignored her whining and concentrated on not letting the girl fall off the stairs.

The perks of having wealthy and absent parents was that each of the siblings had their own apartment in their house. Jimin had the complete ground floor to himself, while Lisa had the upper floor. Both floors weren’t connected and each had their own entrance. To access Lisa’s apartment, one had to climb the stairs next to the house.

Fortunately, they arrived upstairs without any more injuries and halted in front of the entrance. Lisa unlocked the door and opened it wide, gesturing for the girl to step into the still dark apartment.

Surprisingly, she hesitated and didn’t step in. Until now her thoughts had been swimming in alcohol but being in front of a dark apartment with a stranger, away from the streets, sobered her up a little bit.

Lisa saw the moment the unfocused glance of her eyes grew more concentrated.

“I shouldn’t go into the apartment of a stranger, even if you’re a girl,” her voice was a bit strained, maybe from talking over the music all evening long.

“I’m Lisa, the sister of Jimin,” she wanted to stretch out her hand but remembered that she wasn’t introducing herself to an official but only to a student of her school.

“Oh, okay,” She didn’t seem very convinced but stepped into the apartment anyways and added, “I’m Jennie by the way,” Now Lisa could finally attach a name to that face.

She the lights and guided her to sit at the kitchen counter.

Lisa pulled out a first aid kit and returned to the counter, asking her to stretch out her hands. Confused at first, she only noticed what Lisa wanted to do when she saw blood staining her palms.

“When did that happen?” she asked with a rather high-pitched voice as she squinted her eyes at the wounds, not remembering anything since she didn’t feel any real pain.

“Probably when you thought you’re picking up flowers and not sharp glass,” Lisa answered while concentrating on her palms, taking Jennie’s hand into her own.

“This will sting now,” Lisa commented absentmindedly while she applied a disinfecting tincture. A hissing sound escaped Jennie’s lips as she watched Lisa’s working hands with great interest. She noted how big they were and how carefully her slender fingers were wrapped around hers.

Her gaze lifted slowly, really seeing Lisa’s face and her uniform for the first time.
Jennie was amazed by the fact how competent the girl in front of her was, despite her treating only a minor wound. Back in her old hometown, her friends wouldn’t have known what to do except for joking about it.

Her uniform was intimidating just like her whole demeanor but the alcohol had impaired Jennie to notice it until now.

“Thank you and sorry for bothering you,” Jennie shot her a sheepish grin and an apologetic look as Lisa finished patching her up.  

“Next time take a babysitter with you when you go out to drink,” Lisa answered dryly as she stood up to put away the kit.

Even though alcohol still cursed through her veins and made her more immune to feel embarrassment, a slight pink hue began to creep up on her cheeks.

“I’m not normally like this,” Jennie countered with no traces of her former sheepishness.

“And I’m actually not a soldier,” Lisa turned back to Jennie with a glass which she placed in front of her, pouring water and something else into it. A smirk formed on Lisa’s lips – she started to enjoy this conversation a little bit with the gradually sobering girl.

Jennie wanted to roll her eyes in response but the crawling dizziness refrained her from doing so. She supported her head to stop it from spinning.

“Drink this, you will feel better,” Lisa slid over the glass, noticing the change of Jennie’s body language.

Jennie slightly scrunched her nose as she eyed the suspicious, murky content.

“What is this?” The question hung in the air for some seconds as Lisa watched her with an amused twinkle in her eyes.

“Makes you able to drink all night long and complete successfully an obstacle course in the morning,”

Jennie hesitated for a moment but found this subliminal light side of that girl in front of her encouraging.

Before she brought the rim of the glass to her lips to chug the content in one go, she spoke out an incomplete warning, “If you mixed some weird drugs into it …”

Lisa only looked at her with feigned cluelessness and shrugged her shoulders demonstratively. She vanished out of Jennie’s sight, who started to temporarily close her eyes. She slowly began to feel awfully tired and exhausted.

Without another regard of her environment and the fact that she was with a girl she barely knew she placed her head onto her arms and quickly dozed off into a deep slumber.

Lisa was momentarily dumbfounded when she returned after a short while and saw Jennie fast asleep. She actually had a fitting spare display for her broken smartphone and replaced it. After breaking her own display several times while being on duty, she learned to always keep a spare set.

Deciding it would be best to just wake her up and send her off, she shook her shoulder.

“Jennie?” The name rolled off Lisa’s tongue effortlessly and the soldier found it to be a pretty name.

The sleeping girl stirred slightly but didn’t wake up. Lisa was amazed by the quickness Jennie’s slumber came upon her, even though the deepness of it probably derived from the alcohol, leaving Lisa clueless about what to do with the sleeping beauty.

After pondering her possibilities – there was no way she would carry that girl anywhere – she decided to simply let her sleep the intoxication away while Lisa continued to watch over her. Whenever she would wake up, Lisa would be ready to bring her back home and get at least some sleep herself.

Reclining back into the chair at the counter, Lisa mustered Jennie since there wasn’t anything else to do but to wait for her to come back to life.

After minutes ticked off and turned into hours, Lisa started to wonder why exactly she was caring for that stranger.

She couldn’t ponder that strange development of the evening since her heavy eyelids fell down and refused to open again.

She fell asleep at last, sitting in front of the girl who would’ve soon woken up.

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A/N: Please tell me if you like this story so far or if you find some parts too detailed. I really wanna know!