(A/N: Short chapter.)

Chapter 16

‘LIsA??!’ cried Rose, upon realising the person who’s arms were wrapped tightly around her. ‘What are you doing here??’

Lisa didn’t get a chance to reply because standing behind her were the two instructors. They cleared their throats, as if to hint to Lisa to politely move out of the way.

‘She asked to come up with us, presumably to see you, so we allowed it since we were also coming up here,’ explained the instructor who had a mop of dark hair on his head.

‘We came up here to ask if you’d seen Jennie, by any chance. If you haven’t, then I’m afraid we’ll have to notify higher personnel’s,’ said the instructor who looked like the replica of the other instructor, only taller.

‘Oh, it’s okay,’ said Rose. ‘I found Jennie, and everything is alright.’

‘Oh, okay, that’s good,’ the instructors both said in unison.

‘Chaeyoung, could you please tell her that we would like a word with her tomorrow morning?’ mop-haired instructor asked.

Rose nodded, and bowed as they left.

When they had gone, her full attention turned to the girl who was now standing in front of her. The girl who she had always felt this attraction towards ever since they met. The girl who had so causally confessed to her a few hours ago.

‘Lisa, what are you doing here?’ asked Rose, in a hushed whisper.

‘I was worried about you,’ Lisa replied in a whisper as well. ‘Um, why are we whispering?’

Rose strained her ears to hear the sound of Jennie’s whereabouts. She heard the sound of water flowing in the shower, and concluded to herself that she wouldn’t come out for at least another hour.

Lisa followed Rose gaze, before Rose’s attention snapped back to Lisa, and their eye’s met.

‘Are you hiding someone in here or something?’ asked Lisa, continuing to maintain eye-contact.

‘N-no, what makes you say that?’ stuttered Rose, her stomach tied up in a knot of worry.

Lisa let out a little laugh, and smiled at Rose. ‘Don’t worry, I’m not going to get mad or offended or whatever. I know you’re room-mates with Jennie, aren’t you?’

Rose nodded.

‘Yeah, so it’s no big deal. And besides, it’s not like we’re official yet,’ said Lisa.

‘Huh? Official?’

‘Yeah, official. Officially a couple,’ said Lisa smiling. ‘Wanna go out, Rose?’

‘Go out?? Oh, okay. Where do you want to go?’ asked Rose, confused why Lisa wanted to suddenly to out.

‘No, not that “go out”,’ laughed Lisa. ‘God, you’re so pure, I swear. Ok, I’ll re-word that: Will you be my girlfriend?’

Just like that, the blanket of silence was thrown over the two. Rose coughed twice and cleared .

‘Y-your girlfriend?? Oh … well, I –‘

‘What’s the matter?’ asked Lisa. ‘Do you suddenly not like me anymore?’

‘No! No! That’s not it,’ said Rose, waving her hands in denial. ‘I do want to be your girlfriend.  It’s just … well, I never imagined … I never imagined I’d actually hear those words from you.’

‘What do you mean?’ asked Lisa.

‘Well, y’know, I was told that you weren’t a very good person, and that I should maintain my distance from you. Don’t get offended by that, though! That person didn’t mean any harm. Anyways, the thing was that I haven’t been able to stop thinking about you ever since I saw you in the cafeteria. Despite that, I still never thought there would be a day where you would ask me out’ said Rose.

Lisa took hold of Rose’s hands in hers.

‘Wow,’ she said, after a lengthy pause. ‘I can’t believe you just said all that.’

‘Yeah, neither can I. Sorry,’ admitted Rose, her cheeks turning the colour of Lisa’s red lips.

Lisa grinned and ran her hand lightly through Rose’s hair. ‘You don’t need to apologise. That was a sweet little thing for you to say.’

Her face was so close to Rose’s, that Rose didn’t even realise that she had backed-up into the door. Her heart was thumping hard, thumping wildly against her rib-cage; she wondered if Lisa could also hear the sound of her heart beating much higher than its normal pace.

Lisa’s right-hand slowly went up to meet Rose’s left cheek; not taking her eyes of Rose’s.

Whoa, her skin is so warm … Lisa thought, as her hand made contact with Rose’s cheek.

‘Am I burning up?’ Rose asked suddenly.

‘Huh? Are you burning up?’ repeated Lisa. ‘No … I don’t think so. Why do you ask?’

Before Lisa could get a chance to make another move, Rose leaned in and their lips touched ever so gently. It was like a fairy-tale kiss, minus all the ball-gowns, butterflies, flowers, and pumpkins.

Rose broke away quickly after, her face all flushed up. ‘“A kiss is a lovely trick designed by nature to stop speech when words become superfluous.”,’ she quoted quietly.

‘Wow, I didn’t think anyone would ever kiss me than blurt out a love quote,’ said Lisa with a grin.

This time, both of them were prepared, and they kissed for a good few minutes, with tongues and all. The whole time, maybe it was Lisa’s sweet honey smell messing up Rose’s brain, but Rose felt like she could feel Lisa’s strong feelings for her through her lips.

When the both came up for breath, they both stared at each other, a sudden awkward feeling coming over them.

‘So …’ started Lisa, racking her brain for something to say to get rid of the awkwardness. ‘So what does “superfluous” mean anyway?’ she asked, placing her cold palm on the back of her neck to try and cool down the heat rushing up her neck and to her cheeks.

Rose shrugged. ‘Good question … I dunno. It’s just some random quote I remembered from a book …’

‘Oh … okay …’ said Lisa, stretching out her syllables slowly, as if to buy some time for Rose to say something else to lessen the awkwardness.

‘This feels damn awkward, doesn’t it?’ said Rose suddenly, laughing hesitantly.

‘Wow. Have you always been someone who just says what’s on their mind?’ said Lisa, surprised at what Rose had just said.

‘Well, no … I don’t think so. I’m just honest, I guess. It’s good to be honest, y’know?’ replied Rose. ‘Should I have not said that or something?’

‘No, no, it’s not that. I just find it amusing and cute, how you say everything that’s on your mind,’ smiled Lisa.

Her smile seemed to pull Rose closer to her. Rose felt like she was being drawn to Lisa, because there was just something about the look in her eyes that she felt so attracted to. Or maybe it was because Lisa had put her hands around Rose’s waist and had pulled her closer to her.

Rose felt like she had opened the door to what people call love; she felt a bubbly feeling of having someone she liked talk to her with such affection, of having someone look at her with such affection.

It was like a dream – a surreal dream. One that you might wake up from and think, “Dammit! That was all just a dream …”.

At that moment, the door to the bathroom opened and Jennie came out, a towel draped around her head. It took less than a second for her to see Rose and Lisa, both of them a finger distance away from each other, with Lisa’s hands on Rose’s waist.

Rose’s eyes widened in surprise, and instinctively, she gently brushed Lisa’s hands off her waist and walked over to Jennie, acting like she had been doing anything but kissing Lisa before.

Jennie didn’t bat an eye. ‘Hi Rose’s friend,’ she said, quite bluntly, and sounding like it wasn’t directed to anyone in particular.

Lisa gave a slightly forced smile and waved her hand. ‘Um … hello. Er, I’ll head off now. See you later Rose,’ she said, taking hold of Rose’s hand and giving it a quick, light squeeze.

After she left the room, Rose sat onto her bed, and faced Jennie, who was filing her nails.

‘Um, about Lisa … I –‘ Rose started.

‘Yeah, yeah. I already know the whole deal,’ said Jennie, twirling a stray hair behind her ear. ‘But you shouldn’t need to feel awkward about being in a relationship with her, y’know.’

‘Huh? What do you mean?’

‘You clearly seemed uncomfortable when I came out of the bathroom and saw you and her entangled up with each other,’ explained Jennie. ‘I’m your best friend, so you shouldn’t have to feel uncomfortable over that kind of thing with me. Got it?’ she asked, looking Rose in the eye.

Rose nodded. ‘Y-yeah, I guess.’

‘Of course, if it’s cause you’re seriously uncomfortable with it, then by all means, keep it to yourselves. I don’t want to be of any nuisance to you guys,’ said Jennie, placing her nail filer inside her make-up bag.

Jennie’s eyes widened suddenly, as Rose had wrapped her up in a warm hug.

‘What’s this for?’ she asked hesitantly.

‘Thank you, unnie,’ said Rose.

‘For what?’

‘For not being angry when you know that me and Lisa like each other,’ replied Rose.

Jennie promptly rolled her eyes. ‘Why on earth would you think I’d be angry about something like that?’

Rose shrugged. ‘Well, I dunno. I mean, you always seemed a bit edgy with Lisa, and then there was the whole thing about you liking me …’

‘Ok, yeah, I get how you’d think that,’ said Jennie. ‘Sorry for making you feel like that. But I’ve moved on, now. Don’t ever worry or think about anything like that, Rose. You guys go on making out with each other.’

‘Hey, we weren’t “making out”, unnie!’ protested Rose. ‘We were just kissing, that’s all.’

‘Same thing …’ said Jennie, laughing when Rose promptly gave her a light shove.

(A/N: I dunno why, but I always feel so awkward when writing kiss scenes. Personally, I think it’s so much more easier to draw them.)

(Sorry, that was really random.)

(And, yes, the title of this chapter is a bit weird, I understand.)

(But I hope you guys stll enjoyed it)

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