The door to the small, cozy dorm slowly creaked open. Hoping that she wouldn’t wake up her roommates, Rosé planned to tip-toe her way to her room. But before she could put her plan in motion, all the lights in the dorm . Rosé squinted her eyes in pain from the sudden brightness. 

When she could actually see again, she slightly jumped back from her two roommates who were standing less than a foot away from her. The eldest of the trio, Jisoo, gave her a disappointed glare and crossed her arms across her chest. The youngest was her best friend, Lisa, and she looked slightly betrayed that Rosé snuck out without her again.

Jisoo gently placed her hand onto Rosé’s shoulder and softly asked, “Are you a druggie?” 

To say Rosé was confused by the question would be an understatement. Of all the things she thought she would be asked for sneaking into her own home at 2 in the morning, this wasn’t one of them. But Jisoo has never done anything expected. In fact, the only thing she does that is expected is the unexpected. 

She opened to respond but her best friend cut her off by smacking Jisoo on the shoulder and shouted, “My best friend is not a crackhead. I thought we’ve been over this.” 

Jisoo started gesturing wildly towards Rosé and ‘whispered’ back, “She’s been super irresponsible lately, suddenly doesn’t have any money to spend, and sneaks out and doesn’t come back until the middle of the night.” 

Lisa slapped Jisoo again and the two continued bickering as if Rosé wasn’t even there. Rosé rolled her eyes, “The biggest crackhead in this room right now is you, Jisoo. Where on earth would I even get drugs from? We’re literally in a heavily guarded private school. The only dangerous drug we have here is Red Bull.” 

“Then what have you been doing all these nights?” Jisoo fought back. Lisa stayed silent this time. She was curious, too.

“That’s for me to know and for you to not care about.” Rosé glared down at Jisoo. Even though Rosé was younger, she easily had a few inches over Jisoo. 

Jisoo got onto her tippy toes and shouted right into her face, “I deserve to know if I’m living with a crackhead.” Rosé wanted to strangle her. But she knew better than that. So, she just walked away back to her room without uttering another word and slammed her door shut.

-----

The next day was a bit more normal. A little too normal if you asked Rosé. Jisoo acted as if last night’s confrontation never even happened. Even Lisa found Jisoo’s behavior unsettling, which is saying something since they’re both usually on the same level of weird. It turns out Rosé and Lisa were right to suspect that something was odd because two hours later, Lisa found herself wearing a suit with a wig, a hat, and a fake moustache to spy on her best friend with Jisoo sporting an outfit not too dissimilar to her own. 

“She’s walking into a store. Do you think this is where she gets her drugs?” Lisa heard Jisoo’s voice through her bluetooth earpiece.

Rolling her eyes, Lisa groaned back, “This is where she works, idiot. Why are we doing this, really? I know you don’t actually believe our Rosé is a junkie. And why did you dress us up like this?”

“It’s our disguise,” Jisoo said as if it was the most obvious thing in the universe.

“It’s 80 degrees outside and we’re wearing a full black suit with hats. This is the opposite of a disguise. You know, we probably stand out even more than we usually would.”

Jisoo turned off her own bluetooth earpiece. She couldn’t be bothered to listen to any of Lisa’s blabbering, partially because Lisa was right and Jisoo wasn’t one to ever admit defeat.

“Turning off your earpiece won’t make you stop listening to me. We’re literally standing right next to each other. What was the point of buying these if they weren’t needed?” Lisa wasn’t done telling Jisoo off for her weirdness. 

“Oh my god. Will you quit complaining? I’m trying to concentrate.”

“On what?” Lisa was beyond irritated at this point. She skipped not one but TWO of her classes just to go outside in the heat to wear all black and stalk her best friend. Amidst all her grumbling, she didn’t realize Jisoo was moving into the store. By the time she could stop her, it was too late and they both ended up having to hide behind the mannequins to stay hidden from their unsuspecting friend.

It turns out they actually had no reason to hide. Rosé couldn’t be seen anywhere inside the store. Lisa thought this was a bit strange. Rosé was the cashier, which meant she was supposed to be the first person they saw when entering. She could be putting on her work uniform in the bathroom but it’s been too long. 

The two, now confused, girls slowly stood up and made their way out of the store. Where had Rosé disappeared to?

Meanwhile… 

Rosé wasn’t an idiot. She knew her roommates were trailing her. It’s not like they weren’t obvious with their not-so-subtle arguing. It seems like Jisoo still hasn’t let go of her suspicions, which, for the record, were completely. 

Slowly, after making sure the two girls were nowhere in sight, Rosé walked out of the employee changing room. She didn’t actually have work today. She smiled as she thought about the girl she’d be meeting in a few moments: Jennie. 

Jisoo had a point when she mentioned that Rosé was being suspicious recently. But it’s not because she’s a druggie or anything. It’s because she’s seeing someone. And that someone just happened to be Jisoo’s little sister. 

When Rosé found out they were sisters, she tried to distance herself from Jennie. Lisa once joked about taking out ‘Jisoo’s baby sister’ and Jisoo seriously considered murder for a good 30 minutes. Rosé wished for many things but death was simply not one of them. But Jennie wasn’t about to let her older sister dictate her love life. As she was walking out the back of the store, Rosé let out a laugh while she remembered Jennie’s angry red face and puffed cheeks during their argument over Jisoo. 

“What are you laughing at?” Someone came up to Rosé and hugged her from the back.

“You.”

Jennie frowned at that. “Hey, I’m not that much smaller than you… right?”

Rosé turned around in Jennie’s arms and pondered over what to say for a moment. Jennie has always been insecure about her height. “You’re the perfect height, Jennie.”

Jennie gave a small (no pun intended) smile as she pulled away from their hug and wrapped her arm around Rosé’s waist so they could walk together. But the sight in front of her made her stop everything she was doing. Rosé was too busy staring at Jennie’s side profile to look in front of them, but she noticed Jennie’s face suddenly pale. “Jennie? What’s wro-” She couldn’t even finish her inquiry. The person in front of her made the words die in before they even came out of .

Jisoo.