There are only a few days left before the play and there is still so much to do that everyone is going crazy.

The theatre club has been having nearly non-stop rehearsals, doing it in batches so that anyone not rehearsing at any point in time can go help with stage, props, or logistics. It only belatedly sunk into Jisoo that the novel they’re adapting into a play is humongous, and perhaps she bit more than she can chew.

But luckily enough, the novel itself is cut up from  different points of view and it’s only really at the end where all the characters intersect, so this allows them room to maneuver and adjust and get creative in how they’re going to make it work.

Rosie quite enjoys the managing and logistics part, despite its challenges and difficulty, and gladly takes over whenever Jisoo needs a moment to catch her breath. Lisa’s crew and her general popularity on campus ensured a steady stream of volunteers – bodies willing to do mechanical work. If Jisoo wasn’t thankful for her two friends before, she definitely is now.

Besides logistics and management, Jisoo has her hands quite full with rewrites and stage directions. The literary club has constantly been doing revisions, trying to adjust little things here and there –from dialogues to blockings to scenes – depending on what works better for the actors playing the parts.

It has been continuously like this for two weeks, Jisoo in overall boss mode, Rosie working her magic in people-management, and Lisa providing much needed support and manpower.

They have all been working closely together for the past two weeks. Which is fine given that they’re all really close friends, anyway.

But this also means that everyone else helping has been working closely with them for the part two weeks.

Which means Lisa has been a constant witness to Rosie working closely with Jaehyun and is left no choice but to also work closely with him, by extension, much to her chagrin.

For the sake of her sanity, Lisa’s just taken to either pretending he doesn’t exist or picking up tasks which would keep her away from him. So she finds herself doing most of the legwork, usually running back and forth between buildings, picking up things that need to be picked up, instead of working on props and stage design because that’s where Jaehyun is.

Of course, it’s not entirely effective because the large brunt of the work and assistance needed from them are in the stage and props department. So, at the end of the day, there’s really no escaping him and Lisa comes back to work with everyone else in one space.

It's a late afternoon with less than 72 hours before opening night, and the auditorium is buzzing with activity. Lisa has barely had to make any effort to pretend that Jaehyun doesn't exist because she is too wrapped in painting the river in the background of one set – the river where Nayimathun supposedly falls into after an encounter with the Sisters of the Priory, thats she's actually forgotten that Jaehyun exists. It's only when a light, fluttery laugh floats over to her that she looks up and gets distracted out of her focus.

Lisa easily spots the owner of that laugh – she'd be able to recognize it anywhere, swear up to the heavens and down straight to hell that it's the most beautiful laugh to ever escape any human being's lips – sees Rosie with her hand held up as if to catch the mirth stumblin out of her, head tilted back, and eyes crinkling in a smile. But before Lisa could feel the usual adoration spread warmth over her chest, she sees Jaehyun standing in front of her best friend, the one she's hopelessly crushing on, laughing with her.

Her mood sours in an instant and she stands abruptly, drawing eyes to her including Rosie and the serial mood-ruiner with her. Even Jisoo, who literally couldn't be bothered, looks up from her serious discussion with Sejeong - the lead actress playing Ead.

It's probably the physical exhaustion from the play preparations, or the emotional exhaustion from stupidly having feelings for your best friend, or a good combination of both that makes Lisa kind of snap at the moment.

"I'm gonna go get some air," she announces to everyone and no one in particular, then sets her paintbrush down and stomps out of the auditorium.

Rosie quirks an eyebrow in confusion and concern and watches her leave. Jaehyun watches, too, head moving to follow Lisa.

"Lisa!" Jisoo shouts after her. Lisa turns around in response, feeling irrationally annoyed at Jisoo interrupting her little dramatic walkout.

Jisoo jogs up to her and takes her hand. The play's mastermind slaps a credit card into her hand with a grin.

"I think it's dinner time and everyone's hungry. Mind picking up some pizzas on the way back after your walk?"

Lisa looks down at the card then sighs. She was hoping she could get a quiet moment but of course her friend turns it into an errand. Under any other circumstance, she would’ve stuck her tongue out at Jisoo and pushed the card back into her hands and told her delivery service exists for a reason, but she knows that out of all the people here it’s Jisoo who is under the most stress and pressure.

“Same orders as last time?” she asks. “Two pepperoni pizzas, two vegan pizzas, two toppings overloads, and two cheese pizzas?”

“Yup!” Jisoo agrees, happy that Lisa has got the order memorized.

To be fair to Lisa, she does have an amazing memory. That's why she only ever needs to watch a choreography in full once to be able to pick up all the steps and dance moves.

"And don't forget to ask for official receipts!" Jisoo reminds her. " I need those for the reimbursements!"

Jisoo is rich and can afford to shoulder a few boxes of pizza but Lisa knows her friend is also stingy. The dancer rolls her eyes.

"Yuuuuup!" Lisa answers back, already exiting through the big double doors. "I won't forget the receipts!"

A loud thud rings throughout the auditorium when it closes behind her and just like that, everyone resumes their tasks.

Rosie turns back to Jaehyun after watching the exchange. But instead of her earlier carefree expression, there's a worried crease in her brow and she bites her bottom lip.

Jaehyun notices the change immediately and he looks from the girl in front of her to the double doors where her best friend left.

Then suddenly he gets an idea.

Jaehyun perks up and turns around, calling to Jisoo and Rosie gets a little startled.

"Hey boss!" Jisoo looks up at Jaehyun, now jogging a little towards her. "I'll just go help Lisa carry those pizzas, okay? I promise I'll go back to prop-making right after!" He says with a dazzling smile that Jisoo can't help but return.

"Alright, and maybe make sure Lisa doesn't run off with the pizzas… or my credit card." Jissoo jokes. Jaehyun laughs, full and very much amused. He gives Jisoo a fake salute and Jisoo chuckles too.

“Aye, aye!”

The then runs off to catch up after the dancer.

Rosie watches it all with mixed emotions - partly pleased that Jae is a nice guy, but also worried about her best friend and the fact that said best friend isn’t his biggest fan.

But before she could do anything, Doyeon, the girl in charge of selling tickets, comes up to her for questions. Rosie forgets whatever she was worried about that instant, going back to full work-mode.

--

Lisa is walking leisurely, hands lazily stuck in the pockets of her sweat pants, trying to enjoy how the dark blues and indigos of the night start to bleed into the oranges of the late afternoon as the sun slowly begins its descent. She tries to breathe in and out calmly, tries to loosen up the muscles in her shoulders that she wasn't aware were tense.

Until she hears her name being called.

"Lisa!"

She stops in her tracks with a mental, oh no, not him. Then she hears the thud of footsteps growing closer and she sighs.

Because, of course, of course he would follow her when she was actually trying to get away from him.

She tries to wear a small smile, hoping it looks genuine enough and doesn't betray any feeling of annoyance that she might have at that moment for him. She turns around and sees him just a few steps behind her, walking now and panting a little from exertion.

"Yo," she greets, trying for cool and nonchalant, but coming off a little dorky.

Jaehyun smiles at her, standing beside her finally. Lisa eyes him. He's tall and charming and dreamy. He has those kind eyes and the handsome face of a man you bring home to introduce to your mother.

Mrs. Park would love him, is a bitter thought that coils barbed wires around her heart. She tries not to physically grimace and shake the thought off, but it stays there at the back of her mind, a dark little menace.

"I just thought that it would be better if there were two of us carrying all those pizzas," he explains smoothly, still smiling.

Lisa raises an eyebrow.

"I've carried more pizzas before. It's fine. I'm actually really strong."

Jaehyun nods.

"I know, Rosie told me once that you both were weirdly physically strong." He shrugs. "Still wanted to offer extra hands, just to make it easier."

Lisa turns away and starts walking, annoyed at the mention of Rosie and the reminder that her best friend talks to this man who clearly likes her too often than what she's comfortable with.

Of course, Rosie isn't hers and she tries to snub out the misplaced jealousy creeping into her chest.

"Sure. Okay." Lisa just says. Jaehyun starts walking after her.

The two of them walk in silence, just the sounds of their feet scraping against gravel and asphalt at the side of the road. Before long, it becomes obvious that it's painfully awkward for the both of them.

They reach the pizza place and Lisa places her order and swipes Jisoo's card. It takes only 10 minutes for all of their orders to be boxed and ready. But the awkwardness made time feel like it was crawling. Jaehyun spends that time fidgeting, looking like he already regrets following Lisa out and offering to help because of the awkwardness and Lisa spends the whole time trying to school her features out of annoyance.

When the orders are finally done, they both take four pizza boxes each, holding two boxes tied together in each hand, and start their trek back. Lisa walks faster, a few paces ahead of Jaehyun, despite him being taller and having longer strides. They both feel the warmth of the food wafting over to their hands, the heat clasping a fist around it. But it's not so unpleasant as to make the walk back uncomfortable.

It's when they're right in front of the building that Jaehyun seems to finally explode from the awkward tension.

"I know you don't like me," he blurts out, all of a sudden.

Lisa stops dead in her tracks at the outburst, whipping around to face him. A denial prepares itself at the tip of her tongue, a "what are you talking about?"

But Jaehyun speaks again before she can say anything.

"Look, I know you don't like me hanging around your best friend." He smiles sadly, a tone of knowing and awareness in his voice. "You probably don't trust me because I'm just some guy who you both didn't know and randomly walked up to her and asked for her number."

Lisa just stares at him, not knowing how to respond. At this, Jaehyun feels pressed to continue.

"I know how close you two are and how much you love each other. I know you're probably the most important person to her, and I actually think you're completely valid in your distrust of me." Jaehyun chuckles. "I know you're overprotective of her and frankly, Rosie deserves to have someone like that for her." He smiles, soft and genuine. Lisa raises her eyebrow, not happy where this is going. Jaehyun continues his monologue.

"But I think Rosie is a really sweet, funny, intelligent, and beautiful girl and I really like her. I would like to get to know her better and I want her to get to know me. I can't really ask you to trust me right away but I can try proving to you that you have no reason to be wary of me and I have nothing but good intentions for your best friend." Jaehyun tilts his head slightly, an earnest gesture. "But maybe you can give me a chance to show you that you can trust me? Because I really feel like there could be something good between me and Rosie."

Lisa looks down, feeling tears prick the corner of her eyes. She detects no insincerity in his voice, no ulterior motives in his body language. She finds no reason to hate him, no real reason to say no.

Because Rosie is really just her best friend and she was never her keeper. Lisa never had any right to keep Rosie to herself just because she was stupid enough to develop a stupid little crush on her best friend.

So she does the only thing she can do at that moment, the right thing to do. She swallows the lump in and looks up at Jaehyun with a smile she hopes doesn't look as pained as she feels, then says, "sure, but the moment you hurt her, I'll have your head," and hopes the words come out as playful as she intended them too.

It seems like it works because Jaehyun laughs and says, "of course."

Lisa nods once, composes herself again and gestures towards the building entrance.

"Let's go before the pizza gets cold."

Jaehyun beams.

"Aye, aye!"

Lisa steps into the auditorium, heart in tatters being dragged at her feet.