“You what?” Jisoo asked incredulously as she covered while she was still eating.

“We’ve just drunk a coffee together, so what?” Jennie shrugged her shoulders as she continued munching on her fries.

“You didn’t make any fuss when I went to Jimin’s party and he is her brother after all,” she remembered, cutting Jisoo off before she could’ve said something.

“But that’s different! She’s very scary in comparison to him and I’ve heard that she’s a very high horse while he slacks off,” she pointed her half eaten chicken at her at which Jennie with a small smile shove it out of her face.

“I have to admit she is quite intimidating,”

“Hah!” Jisoo’s eyes widened significantly, screaming ‘busted’ and her hand was ready to point at the brunette with her food again, but the younger one stopped her in her tracks.

“But she is cool, I think – different,”

“Of course she’s different – she’s from the elite academy of the army. I know you’re new here, but I’ve grown up here and let me tell you: between a grown soldier and them, there’s no difference except for the ,”

After a moment of silence on Jennie’s part, Jisoo added, “But you can just see for yourself next week,”

“Why? What is next week?” Jennie’s eyes curiously searched for Jisoo’s while her hand tensed and she accidentally let the fry she wanted to devour fall down on the table.

“You didn- oh, you weren’t there. Next Friday we’ll visit the academy and get the ‘military experience’”, she emphasized the last word with her fingers, reciting what had been said at the boring assembly at the start of the new school year.

“We’re required to wear sport clothes. I’m already afraid of what we’ll have to do! I’m bad at sport, I trip over my own feet without even moving!”

Jennie had to laugh out loud at her antics, remembering the way the both of them got to know each other. Jisoo had in fact tripped over her own feet while passing the new student and fell right into her. She’s very glad that she’d encountered her at her very first day.

School would’ve without her.

“Just like my first day here! I’m glad you’re so clumsy,” a gentle smile settled on Jennie’s face for a moment until she took a quick glance at the clock.

“Oh, shhh-, I gotta go! I have to hurry if I want to smoke one before classes start again, see you later,” She stood up quickly and took the tray.

“Yeah sure, ditch your best friend for cancer, no problem!” Jisoo scoffed but her words were met with deaf ears as she was already out of the door of the cafeteria. She would never listen to her anyways.

Outside the sun shone but it was delusional to think it would gift warmth. The rays of the sun hit Jennie’s eyes, though except for blinding her, the coldness was prevalent. The girl was sure that it would snow soon and she was looking forward to it.
 

The sun barely showed its face to the world at this time of the year.

Most of the times, no matter where you looked to, gray colored the picture. Monotonous and dull.

 
With snow, however, everything would come alive for Jennie. It always emitted such a peaceful vibe.

She was just about to round the corner to the secret smoking spot when she’d heard a familiar voice. Not knowing why she stopped in her tracks, she thought about turning around and go somewhere else even though that would take too long.

“Did you know that the can opener was only invented 40 years after cans?” An unfamiliar voice stated with humor and a hearty laughter erupted from the both of them. It was barely imaginable that beneath the stoic and cold façade of Lisa was bubbling such sounds.

She wanted to go away, already feeling as if she invaded someone else’s privacy, when she stepped on a frozen branch. The loud crack startled Rosé and she threw her cigarette away in panic of being caught by a teacher while Lisa stood up without hurry and went over to the corner with her cigarette placed between her two, long fingers.

“Oh, it’s you,” Jennie scolded herself internally for feeling like a deer being caught in the headlights without a particular reason.

“Yeah, it’s me,” the smaller girl replied with a small wave and a sheepish smile and Lisa could see right away that she felt uncomfortable and as if she were bothering them. That’s why without a second thought she offered to smoke one together to which Jennie happily agreed to.

 All the while Lisa had to suppress the urge to guide her by the small back of hers. Weird.

“Chaeyoung, Jennie. Jennie, Chaeyoung,” she introduced them swiftly.

 
“Hey, it’s nice to meet you! You can just call me Rosé though,” Jennie gave her a bright smile, she was infected with the friendliness the girl embodied.

 
They all sat down at the bench which was dry for a change with Lisa being in the middle of the new acquaintances. Lisa offered both of them a cigarette, Jennie first and then Rosé, though the latter rejected it.

She couldn’t smoke several cigarettes in a row unlike Lisa.

“Why Rosé? That’s quite a unique nickname,” Jennie’s eyes glistened with curiosity as she leaned toward the girl, showing her attention to the girl with the light pink her. She didn’t notice, however, that that action made her sit very close to Lisa.

“I’m originally Korean but grew up in Australia. I’ve called myself Rosé, short for Roseanne,” Rosé happily talked about it and was delighted by Jennie’s interest. She immediately took a liking to her.

At that Jennie squealed, “Oh my god! I’ve been living in New Zealand for some years!”

“Really? That’s so amazing!” Her enthusiasm was so genuine and it reminded Jennie right away of Jisoo. Do they know each other?

Rosé wanted to continue their conversation but she knew that she still had to do extra work for the next class so she had to go back earlier.

“I’ve got to go now, but we’ll talk later, yes? It was really so nice to meet you!” With a big grin she waved at Jennie, while she squeezed Lisa’s shoulder affectionately as a sign of goodbye.

“That would be nice! See you,” Jennie waved at her as well and her smile was still there when the girl was already gone.

The brunette never thought of herself to be a social butterfly and couldn’t stand ingenuine people. She felt as if in each and every school there were only a handful of people who were truly good hearted and not involved in teeny dramas. Rosé seemed to be one of the good sort and that made her happy.

 
“How did you got to know her? I’ve never noticed her before even though her hair shines brighter than my grades,” she asked with a straight face and the soldier would’ve laughed audibly, if she wouldn’t feel kind of down. Everything was fine and this weird feeling only started after both of them got along so well.
 

“I met her when I was smoking here and she immediately approached me. I was really surprised since most of the people are too afraid of us here,” Lisa told her while she took continuous drags.

 
“Smoking connects,” the brunette chuckled lightly and pondered loud, “I wonder why I haven’t seen her before though,”

“She’s a coward and only smokes here seldomly,” Jennie nodded and could imagine how such a soft girl would be afraid of authorities in that regard.

After a short silence, Jennie revved up their conversation again, looking really at Lisa for the first time today, “I haven’t seen you around all week long,”

Her statement made the soldier smirk and Jennie expected a teasing remark of some sort, but Lisa just answered plainly, “I had a lot to prepare,”

“For what exactly?”
 

Lisa mustered her for a moment and reckoned that she asked the question with the same curiosity as she had asked Rosé just minutes ago. She had yet to realize that this was dangerous. Boys surely fell one after another for the girl, if not for her looks, then for her cute personality.

“Giving you the whole military experience,” she said with a smug smile, not letting her behavior be dictated by her weird, uncontrollable thoughts.

“I’ve just heard about it. What will it be like?” Jennie tried to probe while nuzzling repeatedly in her scarf in between taking drags.

“I won’t tell you, but that much I can say: No excuses will be accepted, especially not from you,” She shot her a stern look but it was quickly replaced by a light smile. Despite the smile, Jennie always felt a certain distance and reservation coming from the soldier.

“Why? I think I’ve always been nice to you,” Lisa didn’t need to see her whole face, she saw it in her eyes that the girl was cutely pouting and she hated to admit it, but it affected her.

“I have high expectations,”

The only answer she got was a long, stretched groan.

“Besides, you look very fit to me, you shouldn’t worry that much,” when the brunette turned her gaze to the soldier at what she said, her eyes already met the ones of Lisa and she caught how she had scanned her without a worry.

It was quite a weak compliment, but a compliment after all.

Within her life she’d often gotten compliments – mostly about her looks. They ranged from cute to gorgeous to y and hot. Sometimes the compliments had an effect on her, but most of the time she’d simply thanked them politely and shrugged them off.

This weak compliment, however, meant something to the brunette. She actually felt accomplished even though that didn’t make much sense.

 
Despite feeling the effect, her impulse was to shrug it off anyways, “Looks can be deceiving, Lisa,”

Jennie had turned her body into the direction of the blonde and supported it with one hand which was very close to touching Lisa’s. The smaller girl was now a little bit closer to her than before and the unreadable glint within Jennie’s eyes peaked Lisa’s interest and gave her a slight rush of adrenaline.

The tone of her voice, the look of her eyes and the way she leaned in with her body inclined her to think that the girl was actually making a flirty remark.

But Lisa was quick to dismiss it, because that was just straight out absurd and to top it off they were both girls, though it was worrisome that she’d made this connection in the first place. That was proof again that she just didn’t seem to function properly when Jennie was close and she could smell her sweet, feminine perfume.

“Surely I’m a lovely person who is as soft as a marshmallow in your head, right?”

And there was this moment again where both just looked into each other’s eyes, trying each to figure the other out. The dark orbs of the soldier were veiled and closed off to the outer world. No one was supposed to look past the wall Lisa herself sometimes wasn’t aware of.

Jennie’s eyes in contrast were much softer and brighter despite the mystery lurking directly beneath the surface.

The smaller girl broke the eye contact and took a long drag. Lisa was good at this, but Jennie didn’t want to admit defeat.

So instead of going into her initial position, she snarked her arm around Lisa’s and bravely leaned her head on her shoulder.

“As soft as the softest teddy bear in town,” to emphasize her stunt she cuddled into her arm and closed her eyes with a smile. She felt how Lisa tensed beneath her and was frozen for a second which signaled her that she’d won this round.

The fabric of Jennie’s coat rubbing against the leather of Lisa’s black coat were the only sounds for a moment since Lisa’s circuits in her brain had to restart.

This was the first time they had been this physically close and it felt so very different to all the other times Rosé forced her hugs unto her.

The soldier actually was amused by her antics and enjoyed it against her expectations, being unable to stop the smile from forming on her face. She’d tried to recover her neutral expression by occupying her lips with in smoke but the cigarette was at its limits.

Jennie stopped snuggling into Lisa and looked at her with a smug smile and a raised brow, challenging her.

Lisa saw it and within a swift motion she threw her own cigarette away and leaned close, very close, to Jennie as if she was about to kiss her.

Their faces were just a few centimeters apart and Lisa saw with full clarity how stunned Jennie was. She took her sweet time and relished the feeling of power flooding the gates.

Without looking, Lisa placed her hands on Jennie’s, which was idly at the edge of the bench, holding her almost burned down cigarette.

 
With a big, smug smile she looked first into her widened and anticipating eyes and then openly at her slightly parted lips.

 
From the distance and from certain angels it looked like as if the two were in fact kissing because of the position and closeness of their bodies.

 
A jolt of anxiety shot through Jennie’s system as she thought that Lisa was really about to kiss her, seemingly convinced by Lisa’s bold move to flicker her gaze from her eyes to her lips with that never fainting smirk.

She wanted to push her away because that had gotten too heated in a way too short amount of time but was rendered powerless as she felt Lisa’s warm fingers drawing over the top of her hand until she reached her fingers holding the cigarette.

 
“You’re in for a big disappointment,” with that sentence she stole the cigarette out of Jennie’s hand and stood up, brashly smoking it till the last drag. She felt prickling from the damp filter, knowing exactly that it’s caused by Jennie’s lips.

 
Even if Jennie were to retort something in this situation, the faint sound of the second bell interrupted her. They were late and Lisa was never one to be late but she wanted to bask in that stunned version of the brunette a little while longer, even though she knew she couldn’t.

“I’ll see you, Jennie,” it was short and after she blinked again the soldier was gone and out of her sight. She felt like she could breathe again and took two consecutive, deep breaths – she was in dire need for some oxygen.

 
She finally lifted herself off of the bench and walked to her respective class.

All day long Lisa would stay on her mind until she’d arrived at home and noticed the car of her mother.

Normally she wouldn’t be home at this time and a heavy feeling of dread started to settle in the pit of her stomach.

All of her fears were confirmed when she saw a hunched figure asleep while sitting at the counter with uncomfortably splayed out arms. On closer inspection Jennie could see streaks of dried and smudged mascara running down her cheeks like rivers. Next to her an empty bottle of wine littered the counter and a fallen glass with its remaining contents partly forming a small, red pool on the surface and partly dripping to the ground.

Them moving into a new town far away from their old life was supposed to be a brand new start, but until now it felt as if the past had its claws firmly stuck in their life, not leaving them alone.

With slow, powerless moves she cleaned up the mess her mother had caused and draped a light blanket over her when she was done with everything. Loosing appetite, she went into her room and began to silently cry.

~~~

It had been over a week since Jennie had last seen Lisa. She’d gotten to know from Jimin that she’d been exempted from classes in favor for preparing the event she was about to attend with her classmates.

It seemed like Jisoo had been right with her assumptions about the siblings; apparently Jimin wasn’t as involved in administrative and authoritative issues as Lisa was.

Jennie sighed inaudibly; she couldn’t help but compare the two.
 

Jimin was outgoing, tall, well-built and friendly. He’d made some advances on his party and never left out an opportunity to flirt with her, but she wouldn’t have none of it out of reasons she herself couldn’t understand.

He was more than handsome and not willed to get into a serious relationship. All of his actions screamed non-attachment which was more than welcomed by the brunette.

But she somehow didn’t want him to distract her the way she needed to. Jisoo, for example, was always great at cheering Jennie unconsciously up even though she knew nothing about Jennie’s issues.

But Jisoo couldn’t offer that kind of distraction. Her bonding with Rosé and winning her as a friend was nice but then again not enough.

And then there was the soldier who vanished from the scene for a week.

Lisa always attracted her whole attention with her unpredictability. Their last meeting had shown just how dynamic she could be.

The scene sometimes replayed within her head and that was odd because she was more affected by being close to Lisa than by being close to Jimin. Though she’d already dismissed Jimin as such an option for she would never want her release from a sibling of her friends.

That was simply a no-go for her. She knew that on the outside she looked cute and innocent at times, but that wasn’t the case, but she was never a bad friend – she thought at least.

 
“Out of all the days it had to snow tonight,” Jisoo whispered to Jennie, pulling her out of her thoughts.

Indeed the whole country was covered by thick blanket of snow, much to Jennie’s rejoice.

Only the timing was off. It would a lot to exercise intensively with temperatures hitting below zero degrees and snow everywhere.

“At least we will have a nice view while we get tortured,” Jennie joked lightly but nothing could cheer Jisoo up in the early morning, even more so when they were clueless about what would happen next.

The director shot a glare into their direction and both knew that they couldn’t talk further without getting scolded in front of their whole year, so Jennie zoned out the boring words and was only brought back to reality 10 minutes later.

She hadn’t really noticed that the director of their school stepped off the stage and that seconds later the entrance door opened with a bang.

A wave of shock and surprise went through the room as many uniformed people with rifles stormed the building. They lined up next to the rows of chairs and stood completely still until loud steps echoed from the corridor and stepped into the large room.

The crowd was stunned and Jennie clutched instinctively Jisoo’s arm as the question of what was happening here was on her tongue. But then Lisa stepped into the room, followed by three other higher ranked comrades and her whole attention shifted to her.

The murmur intensified in awe and fear, but it died down immediately when Lisa raised her voice, “I don’t want to hear another sound!”

She didn’t shout but her voice was powerful and intimidating. The whole room was ‘captured’ by soldiers who stood still with their weapons under the seemingly command of the one and only Lisa. The situation didn’t get less intimidating by the fact that the rifles were without ammunition.

 
“Row by row you’ll be escorted out to two trucks. Each one of you will line up for one of the trucks,” Lisa scanned the whole room without any expression until her eyes met with the ones of Jennie.

Lisa saw fear even though there was nothing that could happen to them. She wanted to smirk and smile because she was glad to see her again, but she held her cold expression and broke free from her characteristic cat eyes.

“Go!” with that simple command the soldiers who stood at ease before now tensed and did according to their orders.

 
She watched as the first rows went outside with order and soon positioned herself at the trucks outside to observe how the soldiers did their job. Each group would get either a black or a pink bandage.

She saw from the distance that Jennie was lined up under her troop and smirked inwardly at her when it was her turn to get a bandage.

Lisa took the tape out of the hands of another comrade and personally draped it around Jennie’s right arm. Without speaking at first, Jennie watched attentively as Lisa took her arm and put the black bandage around it. She searched her face for a sign of friendliness or smugness or whatever, but her face remained cold, lifeless and dull.

 
Only when Lisa said that Jennie will be under her command did a small smirk decorate her facial features at last.

There was not enough time to answer or to think really for she was immediately guided into the military troop transporter where her classmates were exchanging looks. None of them had expected anything like that.
 

After everyone was placed in their respective seats, two loud knocks on the truck could be heard and the engines started with the order to bring them to the military academy.

Jennie smiled into her jacket despite neither Jisoo nor Rosé being in her troop.

Now that was a distraction.