~UPDATE AFTER A REALLY LONG TIME~

Chapter 17

They mucked around for a bit, throwing pillows at each other, until a whole hour had passed.

‘Hey, what’s the time?’ asked Rose, lying defeated on her bed,, and out of breath.

‘6:59,’ replied Jennie, switching on her phone.

‘Oh crap!’ cried Rose, jumping up and scaring the skin out of Jennie.

‘Oh crap what?! You scared the crap out of me! Don’t do that,’ said Jennie.

‘Sorry unnie,’ said Rose. ‘It’s just that, I’m late.’

‘Late for what? A date with your lover-dover?’

‘No, not a date. It’s a broadcast session,’ explained Rose.

Say wHat?? What broadcast sessions?? Be patient, please. See, recently, Rose had been getting into this famous Instagramer’s weekly live broadcast sessions. To be exact, they were dance sessions, where this girl - who wore a mask and a bucket hat to conceal her identity - would make her own dance choreography to popular songs, and dance to it.

‘She’s really good,’ said Rose.

‘Is she? What’s her name?’ asked Jennie.

‘Well, she doesn’t show her name anywhere, and she doesn’t say her name either in her broadcasts, unlike some other influencers who introduce themselves when they film a video. And … now that I think about it, she doesn’t even talk in her broadcasts. She just plays the music and dances to it, and us viewers don’t even realise that she’s never said a single word in any of her broadcasts! Wow. She really is good though. She should become an idol or something!’

‘Well, what’s her profile name? She’s gotta have that!’ said Jennie.

‘Lalaland@banban. That’s her profile name,’ said Rose. ‘She’s got more than three million subscribers!’

Jennie nodded, but not looking the slightest bit impressed. ‘Huh, Lalaland@banban is it? Sounds familiar.’

For some reason, she sounded like she knew the mystery Instagram dancer.

Rose took out her phone and clicked on the notification that had popped up on her phone, taking her straight to the broadcast room.

‘Ooh! She just started!’ exclaimed Rose, snuggling into her bed to watch the broadcast.

Jennie raised an eyebrow. ‘You seem to really that dancer …’

‘Yeah, I love her! She’s my idol for sure. I love her creativity and the way she can always manage to move to the beat, no matter what genre the song is,’ was Rose’s energetic reply.

‘Don’t you think you’re cheating on Lisa?’ joked Jennie.

Rose looked up from her phone, a deep-thought look on her face.

‘No,’ she said after a long pause. ‘I like Lalaland@banban a lot, but I’m probably never going to meet her, so it’d be pointless selling my heart to her. Unlike Lisa, who’s a great, beautiful person, and someone I can actually talk face-to-face to.’

Jennie was slightly surprised by the very honest response given to her, when the question she had posed her was just a light question. She slid off her bed and onto Rose’s bed, to take a glance at the broadcast as well.

‘So what do you think?’ asked Rose eagerly, when the dancer had finished the first song.

Jennie shrugged her shoulders and gave a slight nod. ‘Hm … yeah, she’s pretty good.’

‘Oh, yeah. You’re a famous influencer too, aren’t you?’ said Rose.

‘Well I wouldn’t say I’m that famous …’ said Jennie humbly.

‘Well you’re more famous than me, anyway,’ said Rose. ‘Anyway, what I meant to say was, wouldn’t you guys know each other?’

‘Huh? How would we know each other?’ said Jennie, her voice suddenly taking on a slightly higher tone.

‘Oh, I thought that all famous people on Instagram knew each other, in some way or another. Don’t you guys have those big events, where you go and have meet and greets with fans, and also talk with the other popular influencers?

‘No we don’t,’ said Jennie. ‘I don’t know her, and that’s that.’

‘Oh, ok. That’s a pity,’ muttered Rose. ‘I thought I might be able to get some information on her. I just want to know what she’s like off screen. I wonder what she sounds like when she talks. I wonder if she would want to be friends with me if we ever met.’

Jennie got off Rose’s bed, took an over-sized hoodie jumper off the rack, and put it on.

‘I’ll leave you to watch you’re mysterious dancer. I’m going out to get some dinner,’ she said, as she turned the handle to the entrance door.

‘Ok,’ replied Rose, not looking up from her phone.

And just like that, it was the end of another day

---

Morning came quickly; the sunlight peeped through the gaps of the blinds, and shone onto Rose’s face. She opened her eyes wearily, rubbed them, and rolled over in her bed.

‘Ugrh … another school day …’ she mumbled sleepily. Suddenly, the cogs in her brain ticked, and she bolted upright. ‘Hang on! We don’t have school today! It’s a weekend!’

Before she could get out of bed, a pillow flew across the room and clogged her nicely in the head.

Rose cried out in surprise, rubbing her head.

‘Do you mind?! I’m trying to sleep!’ muttered an angry-sounding Jennie from under her blanket.

‘Sorry,’ whispered Rose. She got out of her bed and tiptoed over to the small kitchen table to put the kettle on.

While she waited for the kettle to boil, she took out her phone to see if Lalaland@banban had posted anything on her story page after last night’s broadcast. She had in fact posted a small text on her page the night before, wishing everyone a good night.

Rose stared at the small text for a long time. Why does she always only ever post the shortest, subtlest sentences?  I never realised … but … she does seem really conservative. Maybe she doesn’t want anyone to know what she’s like? Maybe she wants her identity to remain secret … wow, I wonder why she doesn’t want anyone to know who she is …

She tapped into her profile picture, and zoomed in on the anonymous girl’s face. Majority of her face was concealed behind the black bucket hat. Her light brown hair draped over her squared shoulders like the curtains after the ending of a theatre play. Rose noted her plump, red lips. They, for some reason, seemed strangely familiar. She felt liked she’d seen those lips before, but she couldn’t pinpoint where. Her thoughts were jolted when she became aware of the breathing sounds of a person looking over her shoulder.

‘Jennie!’ cried Rose, jumping up as if she’d been shot with a thousand volts.

Jennie responded by raising an eyebrow and gesturing towards Rose’s phone. ‘Why’re you looking at someone’s lips so intently?’

‘Er – n-no reason,’ spluttered Rose, turning her phone’s screen off and throwing it onto her bed like it was a hot potato.

A smirk glided across Jennie’s face. ‘If it’s nothing, then why’re you acting like it’s anything but nothing?’

Rose felt internally defeated.

‘Come on, you can trust me Rose,’ said Jennie. ‘I won’t say anything. Please let me have a peak.’

When Rose didn’t reply, Jennie took to her heels and jumped onto Rose’s bed where Rose’s phone lay. She eagerly switched on the phone, and much to her luck, Rose had still forgotten to put a password in. She swiped across the main screen and was met by Lalaland@banban’s profile picture.

‘Is this your mystery dancer’s profile?’ Jennie asked.

Rose nodded, feeling embarrassed. ‘Yeah, that’s her.’

‘You checking her out now, are you?’ joked Jennie, swiping down on the screen.

‘Of course not!’ cried Rose. ‘How could you say that? I’m already in a relationship with someone; it would definitely not be right for me to check someone else out!’

Jennie was taken aback by Rose’s sincere reaction, and she was about to remind her that it was just a joke, when their doorbell rang.

When Rose opened the door, she was hit by a sudden scent of flowers, honey, and the light scent of baked goods. Then she was hit by something else; something a bit more solid.

‘Lisa!’ Rose cried. ‘Why are you here? It’s so early in the morning – shouldn’t you be lying in bed and thinking how great it is that you don’t have to go to school?’

Lisa shook her head. ‘No, I think it was worth coming here this early. I get to see your beautiful face. Besides, I couldn’t stop thinking about you last night, so the moment the sun got up, I got up to and came here straight away.’

Rose gave Lisa a light shove. ‘Aw really? That was sweet of you … a bit cringey, but sweet all the same.’

A voice being cleared rang across the room, and Rose remembered that Jennie was still in the room.

‘If you guys don’t mind, could you carry your lovey dovey stuff outside?’ she asked, a touch of annoyance in her voice.

‘Oh sorry about that,’ said Lisa. She held up a large paper bag, and the smell of yummy croissants, and other baked goods, filled the room. ‘I bought some baked goods for breakfast, and thought it might be nice if we all have it together.’

‘That’s a great idea!’ said Rose, bouncing over to the small makeshift table in front of the window. She pulled out two chairs and found a cushiony leg rest. ‘There we go! Now we have enough seats for all three of us.’

Lisa spread out the food she had bought across the table.

Rose was worried that the atmosphere may be a bit tight, with Jennie and Lisa in the same room, but the atmosphere seemed looser than she’d expected.

‘That’s a lot of food … you must’ve spent a lot, huh?’ asked Jennie, glancing up at Lisa, who was still lining the food in a way so it wouldn’t fall off the tiny table.

‘Not really …’ was Lisa’s response, suddenly sounding slightly timid than her usual self. She tucked a stray hair behind her ear and sat on the cushion seat. ‘Eat up!’ she said cheerfully.

Rose took a Bungeoppang (it’s a fish-shaped waffle filled with sweet red bean paste. Yum) and was about to indulge into it like a lion does when it has it’s paws on prey, when she remembered that Lisa was also there. Afraid of seeming like an impolite person, she nibbled the bread bit by bit. The process, however, was so slow, and Rose ended up ripping off a chunk and stuffing . She realised Lisa was watching her, but she didn’t care about looking polite when she ate anymore; she was hungry.

Lisa suddenly reached her hand out in Rose’s direction, with a chunk of gyeran bbang (egg bread). ‘Ah …’ she said, opening and motioning Rose to eat it.

Rose eagerly swooped in and ate the piece of bread in Lisa’s hand. ‘Mm! That was really good!’ she said with a satisfied smile.

Meanwhile, Jennie, who sat on the other side of the table, watched on quietly as Rose and Lisa fussed over on the amount of food they were eating, and Lisa insisting that Rose eat more (which Rose gladly obeyed). She tried to focus on the Kkulppang (honey bread) that she held in her hands and had taken two bites out of. But a thought kept creeping into her mind. A thought she would rather keep out of her mind, and store it away somewhere for future times.

The thought that bothered her was a thought that I reckon some of us have sometimes. You know when you’re single, and you have that one friend who’s a total human magnet, and attracts all these other people, and you just can’t help but feel slightly envious because no-one’s attracted to you and you can’t figure out why? Maybe it’s just me … sorry, that was a bit off topic. Anyways, Jennie’s thought was a bit different, in that, she wasn’t feeling envious because no-one was attracted to her, rather, she felt like she had something missing in her. She felt like she was missing a part of her soul.

As weird as it sounded, watching Lisa and Rose act all “lovey-dovey” over each other made her brain find it more and more difficult to stay on the ground and not go flying out into space to think all these strange thoughts. Am I feeling like this cause I like someone? She thought. No, that’s unlikely. I haven’t felt an attraction to anyone since I landed here … that’s excluding Rose, but I no longer feel like that towards her. Gosh, this is so annoying! Then who is it? Who is that person who I’ve somehow developed feelings for? Surely I have, otherwise I wouldn’t be feeling like this.

Just as the thought passed, a knock came to the door.

All three heads looked up, as none of them expected a visitor.

‘Maybe it’s the instructors?’ whispered Jennie.

‘Perhaps … why are we whispering??’ whispered back Rose.

‘I don’t know if we’re actually allowed to invite people into our rooms without their permission … so if it is them and they find Lisa here, they might, y’know, blow up,’ explained Jennie in a hushed tone.

‘Agreed,’ said Rose. ‘Lisa, go inside the bathroom and don’t come out till we knock on the door, okay?’

Lisa nodded. She went into the bathroom and closed the door behind her.

Rose walked over to the door and opened it slowly. Behind the door stood the instructor with the mop of hair, his arms crossed and his eyebrows furrowed together so every frown wrinkle on his forehead was visible. Rose was taken aback by the angry look upon his face, and she jolted back slightly.

‘Oh, uh, good morning sir,’ she stuttered, and bowed politely.

‘Some morning, young lady,’ the instructor replied, his voice sounding like he’d had a bowl of annoyance porridge. ‘I told you to tell Jennie to come down and see us because we wanted to have a talk with her. Do you know how long we have been waiting for her?’

Rose timidly shrugged her shoulders. ‘No, I don’t …’ she muttered quietly, with her head down.

‘Well …’ the instructor said with a sigh. ‘Where is Jennie know?’

At the mention of her name, Jennie popped up from behind Rose. But unlike Rose, who carried a sense of timidness with the strict instructors, Jennie seemed to carry a much more dominant sense when with the instructors.

‘Yeah, here I am,’ she said, the “this-is-such-a-waste-of-time” tone evident in her voice.

The instructor nodded and told her follow him downstairs.

‘I’ll see you later Rose,’ said Jennie over her shoulder. She jerked her thumb back at the instructor who had his back turned and promptly rolled her eyes.

Rose closed the door and went back inside the room. ‘You can come out now Lisa,’ said Rose, knocking on the bathroom door.

The door slowly opened, and Lisa’s head popped round the side. ‘Are they gone?’ she asked quietly.

‘Yeah,’ said Rose. ‘It was the instructors: they gave me a bit of a telling off because I forgot to tell Jennie to go see them this morning, and as a result, made them wait a long time.’

‘Damn, they’re a bit uptight, aren’t they?’ grumbled Lisa. ‘Why did they give my little Rosey bosey a telling off for a stupid reason like that …’ As she said that, her hands reached out and cupped Rose’s cheeks.

‘Yah, what’s with that nickname?? Did you just spontaneously make that up?’ asked Rose, her cheeks burning up again at the close distance between her and Lisa.

Then suddenly, without warning, Lisa leaned in and pecked Rose on the lips. Rose, taken aback, drew herself back slightly, eyes wide in surprise and her hand covered . Lisa giggled at Rose’s reaction, and wrapped her up in a warm hug.

‘What was that for?’ she asked after a pause.

Lisa shrugged. ‘Meh, it was just a sudden impulsive feeling. And cause I don’t like how those instructors of yours treat you.’

‘What has that got anything to with you wanting to kiss me?’ asked Rose smiling.

‘Do you not like me kissing you or something?’ asked Lisa suddenly, drawing back, her eyes large and innocent looking.

‘What? No, I didn’t mean that …’ stammered Rose.

‘I see how you feel,’ sniffed Lisa. ‘I guess I’ll just go and leave … hope you enjoyed the breakfast …’

She let go of Rose and started to the door.

‘Hey! Wait, Lisa! Come back!’ Rose cried, jogging up to Lisa. She reached out and grabbed her hand, and swung Lisa around to face her.

To Rose’s disbelief, Lisa’s eyes looked rather glassy.

‘Yo, are you crying?’ asked Rose.

‘No,’ sniffed Lisa, pouted.

Whoa, I’ve never seen this side of Lisa before … thought Rose. I always thought she was this baddass kind of girl. But now she’s doing puppy eyes at me and all this ayego?? WHHATT??

‘H-hey, Lisa, listen: I never said I don’t like it when you kiss me.’

Rose took hold of both of Lisa’s hands and held them tightly. ‘It’s the opposite for that matter,’ she added quietly. And on that note, she kissed Lisa sort of awkwardly at first, but eased it out after and they both had a kiss-fest going on for the next few minutes or so.

Side Note: Hope everyone's doing well! :)