Chapter 18

‘Rose! Rose!’

A groan escaped Rose’s lips as her eyes opened groggily. She expected to see her room, but instead, she saw tables and chairs and students all looking at her and a man standing at the front, arms crossed. Her eyes glanced to the side and she saw the blurry outline of Jisoo looking rather distraught. Huh? What’s Jisoo and all these things doing in my room? She thought.

She straightened her back and wiped away the drool that had trailed out of the side of with her sleeve. She stretched her arms out and gave a great yawn.

Wait a sec … the cogs in Rose’s brain turned and her eyes grew wide in alarm as her consciousness fell back to earth.

‘Good morning, Miss Chaeyoung. I hope you had a pleasant sleep and I am glad you have joined us again,’ the teacher said sarcastically.

This was followed by a collective giggle from the class.

Rose’s cheeks went bright red, as she bowed repeatedly, apologising profusely.

The teacher shook his head with a sigh, and tapped his hand with his lecture stick. He’d been told not to scold too harshly at the exchange students, so instead of punishing Rose the way he would normally punish his students for falling asleep in class, he told Rose to get better sleep at the correct time (A/N: something I also have to do).

After that lesson, Rose bolted out of the classroom like her skirt was on fire. The embarrassment did not sink in the moment, but now that she had had time to reflect on what had happened, the wave of embarrassment had crashed down on her, and she just wanted to get away from all those laughing students.

Her quick exit didn’t last very long though, as the moment she ran out of the class doorway, she slipped and fell to the floor, her books sprawled over the ground.

‘Aish, dammit!’ she muttered under her breath, as she got up and brushed her skirt. She saw that her shoelace was undone, and cursed the stupid thing for tripping her.

A hand on Rose’s shoulder jolted her from her silent scolding at the shoelace.

‘You okay?’ It was Jisoo; a look of concern crossed her perfect facial features. She bent down to gather up the fallen books.

Rose nodded wearily. ‘Mm, yeah. I’m fine.’

Jisoo handed the books to Rose, her eyes locked with Rose’s.

‘I know I’ve only known you for a few weeks, but I know you well enough to know when you’re not being honest with me. And just now, I heard an untruth,’ said Jisoo.

Rose looked down at her feet.

‘What’s wrong? It’s not like you to fall asleep in class. Did something happen last night?’ asked Jisoo, her eyes searching Rose’s eyes for an answer.

Yeah, thought Rose. Something horrible happened last night. I dreamt a horrid dream.

It was so horrid, I woke up from it sweating like a pig.

It was the end of a normal school day; I had just finished a super boring study session in the library, and was off to see Lisa, as she’d asked to meet up after I’d finished the study session. I was making my way through the corridor that led to the main entrance of the school when my phone vibrated. I took my phone out to see that Lisa had sent a message. She’d said that something had come up and she couldn’t hang out with me today. I was disappointed because she’d said that we could go watch a movie together, but I didn’t think too much about it.

I was just passing the few classrooms in the corridor that led to the school’s front entrance, when I heard it. That sound. It was like a moan of some sort.

It was coming from the classroom to my right. Curious, I glanced through the window and was met with the sight of two people sitting on a desk. One had her back turned to Rose so she couldn’t see who it was, and the other was blocked by the person in front of her. But then they moved slightly and Rose caught a good glimpse of the person.

Lisa?? What was Lisa doing with this other chic? And what were they doing? My question got answered almost instantaneously as I saw Lisa’s hand cup the other’s face, and their mouths met in the middle.

What’s this though? Why is Lisa kissing someone else? What happened to our relationship? And what is this pain creeping inside me? It feels awful, like my heart is literally aching!

What happened after, I’d not idea, cause I woke up, panting heavily and reminding myself that it was a mere dream and nothing more. But, I couldn’t sleep afterwards. I kept thinking the moment I shut off to sleep, I’d see Lisa making out with someone else.

And that’s why I had a horrible night last night and I fell asleep in class because of how tired I was, Jisoo. But you can’t hear all this, can you? Right, cause I’m just thinking this all in my head.

‘Hello? Hello, Rose?’ asked Jisoo. ‘Are you in there? I asked you a question …’

Rose blinked and snapped to attention. It feels wrong telling her about my dream though. Especially considering the fact that she doesn’t know that Lisa and I are dating now. And what if she gets all weirded out about it, considering that she only recently broke up with Lisa. Maybe I shouldn’t tell her.

‘N-nothing happened last night. Just a bad dream, that’s all,’ said Rose, forcing a smile and putting a palm to the back of her neck to cool it down.

Jisoo raised an eyebrow. ‘Really? What was the dream about?’

They had now started walking and were heading in the direction of the cafeteria.

‘Uh, s-something … I’d rather not talk about it cause I don’t want to be reminded of it again,’ replied Rose.

Jisoo nodded. ‘Hm, okay. I see how it is. That’s fine if you don’t want to share, but if something’s bothering you, don’t feel afraid to talk to me about it. Usually people have bad dreams when something’s on their mind. So, yeah, you can trust me. Don’t keep all your emotions bottled up inside, okay?’

The comforting words of Jisoo seemed to urge Rose to spill the beans on everything, but Rose clamped tightly shut and just nodded at what Jisoo said.

She knew that Jisoo was trustworthy. She was a good friend. But Rose thought it’d be best if she brought up her relationship with Lisa a bit slower and gradual, so as to not overwhelm Jisoo with all that information.

‘Come on, I’ll treat you to something yummy at the cafeteria,’ said Jisoo, smiling and taking Rose’s hand in hers.

Damn, now I feel bad not telling her… Rose thought later, as she munched on a crunchy snack that Jisoo had bought.

What if I imagined myself in her position …? Thought Rose, scrunching up her eyes and thinking deeply. Let’s see … ok, so I’ve recently broken up with this person. Right, so I hate this person. I really do. And now I’ve met this person who I’m now friends with … then after a while, my friend comes up to me and happily tells me that she’s dating my ex.

Hm … okay, that would be kinda weird, concluded Rose. But I do so want to tell Jisoo about my dream. She seems so knowledgeable, I’m sure she’d know the meaning behind me having that dream. I’m worried; I don’t know why I suddenly dreamed about Lisa making out with someone else.

‘You okay?’ a voice broke in.

Rose opened her eyes and saw Jisoo staring at her from across the table, a concerned look across her face.

‘You looked like you were in pain.’

Rose felt a wave of embarrassment crash over her, as she must’ve looked pretty silly with her eyes scrunched up tightly like that, with her thinking face on.

‘It must’ve been her constipated face,’ said another voice.

Surprised at that comment, Rose turned to see Jennie slip into the seat next to her.

‘Yah!’ cried Rose, cheeks turning pink. ‘You’re the one who’s constipated!’

‘No, you are. That’s why you were making that face, and why Jisoo-unnie thought you were in pain,’ said Jennie, a rather solemn look on her face.

‘What happened to you two?’ asked Jisoo.

‘Please don’t mind Jennie here, Jisoo-unnie,’ said Rose, glaring at Jennie for embarrassing her in front of Jisoo. ‘And what do you mean by what happened to us both?’

Jisoo wriggled in her seat for a sec, almost like she felt a bit uncomfortable with what she was about to say. ‘Well, I’ve never seen you two act so … close to each other.’

‘Is that your way of saying that you think we’re dating?!’ joked Jennie. ‘Cause we’re not. But Rose here is actually in a relationship with Li – ‘

She was stopped midsentence by a swift blow to the shin from Rose, who was rather good at covering up the fact she’d blown a hard kick to Jennie’s shin.

‘Huh? Rose? You’re in a relationship?’ exclaimed Jisoo. ‘Wow, who’s the lucky person?’

‘Er – n-no one … haha, Jennie here likes to joke about stupid stuff like this, don’t you?’ laughed Rose awkwardly, giving Jennie a light shove on the shoulder but giving her a solid, deathly glare.

Jennie responded to Rose’s glare with a supressed laugh that made her sound like she was choking. Rose responded to this with a raised eyebrow.

‘What’s so amusing?’ she asked, sounding quite serious.

Jennie tried to hide her smile. ‘Sorry Rose. It’s just … your death glare is the funniest thing I’ve seen in a while; it’s so cute!’

My death glare is CUTE?? Thought Rose, a jolt of pain shooting through her heart. Damn, I thought that glare came off as menacing as ever. I don’t get it: how come Jennie- and Jisoo-unnie can do the deathliest death glares, and here I am looking like a cuddly teddy when I glare. No fair!

Jennie seemed to regain her normal self, as she apologised for her sudden rowdy behaviour.

‘Sorry guys. I don’t know why, but I’ve just been feeling rather giddy lately,’ she explained.

‘Giddy?’ repeated Jisoo. ‘That sounds kinda like what one would say when they’re in love …’

‘In love??’ cried Rose, facing Jennie with eyes wide open. ‘Wow, really? Who’s the unlucky person?’

‘Eh!’ said Jennie, shoving Rose for what she had just asked. ‘Yeah, I guess maybe you’re right, Jisoo-unnie’ said Jennie after a moment of thought.

‘Wait, really??’ said Rose. ‘You actually like someone??’

Jennie nodded, looking rather sheepish. Her cheeks flushed a light shade of red, and her eyes glanced down at the table.

Rose noticed that as Jennie became quieter at the thought of her lover, Jisoo also looked sort of … fidgety and uncomfortable in a way. Both had a tinge of red in their cheeks, which caused Rose’s eyebrow to raise. She was a bit more knowledgeable in this field now, after seeing Lisa’s cheeks occasionally flare up whenever they went in for a kiss. Her suspicions felt up. She was just about to call out her sudden realisation, when a loud clatter silenced the chattery room.

Everyone’s heads turned to the direction of the sound.

A small group of girls were surrounding a girl who looked like she’d had an unlucky time when dumping pig’s food into their troughs. She had a considerable slab of someone’s uneaten lunch on her skirt, and all the surrounding girls were fussing over her, trying to wipe off the mess. A timid looking guy stood to the side of the frantic situation, holding a tray with a third of its content gone. He kept bowing and apologising profusely, but no-one was listening. Rose guessed he’s accidentally tipped food onto the girl.

She must be damn popular to have that many people fuss over her like that, thought Rose.

Rose didn’t get a good glimpse of the girl’s face, until the girl sort of pushed away her friends, as she tried to reassure her friends that it was just a bit of kimchi and stuff, and not the end of the world.

And at that moment, Rose was blown away by the ethereal beauty that the girl radiated. Pretty much everyone in the cafeteria felt the same way. They all watched this beautiful, main-lead actress worthy, girl make her way to the door. Rose wouldn’t have been surprised if suddenly, beautiful wings sprouted from the girl’s back. She was such an angelic looking person, that Rose felt positive that she was someone from the heavens.

Suddenly, from beside Rose, Jennie jumped up and ran over to the angel-like girl. They exchanged a few inaudible words, and Jennie led her out of the room, paving a way for the girl, as a large group of people had gathered round to spectate. After the two left, everyone returned to what they were doing before, and the cafeteria was once more, a chattery room.

‘Who was that?’ asked Rose. ‘She’s absolutely gorgeous!’

Jisoo poked her food with her chopsticks, looking sullen all of a sudden. ‘That’s Bae Joohyun. She’s really popular, as you could probably tell. She’s got contracts with a bunch of big-name companies, mostly modelling ones. She’s also an MC for some shows. She’s well-known by her stage name, “Irene”,’ explained Jisoo, her voice sounding very monotone.

‘I’m guessing she’s friends with Jennie?’ asked Rose.

Jisoo nodded, but made no comment.

Rose couldn’t help but think that Jisoo looked like a certain thought was bothering her very much. A look of thunder rested on her perfect features, and she was attacking her food with her chopsticks.

‘You okay, Jisoo-unnie?’ she asked.

Jisoo glanced up from the silent war she was having with her food on the tray. ‘Oh, yeah. I’m fine.’

She didn’t look like she was going to elaborate on that statement, and she didn’t look like she wanted to elaborate on that statement. So, Rose decided not to ask any more.

The bell went for the end of lunch, and everyone bustled out of the cafeteria, the talk about the little incident with Joohyun on everyone’s lips.

Jisoo seemed to be in a sullen, grumpy mood for the rest of the day. Even at the end of the school day, when Rose and Jennie waved bye to her from inside their coach, Jisoo looked as thunderous as ever.

‘Is she good?’ asked Jennie, as the coach pulled away from the curb, and began to rumble down the road.

Rose shrugged. ‘I don’t know. I asked her at lunch, and she said she was fine. I think someone’s up, but if she doesn’t feel comfortable discussing her feelings, I won’t push her to.’

The coach continued on, and the two were silent for a while.

‘But, y’know what? Jisoo-unnie was actually fine before lunch. She was fine up until that little incident with that Joohyun girl. And then she turned into some dark, storm cloud.’

‘Oh, you know her?’ said Jennie, from out of the blue.

‘Huh? Joohyun, you mean? Well, Jisoo gave me a brief intel on her. I know that she’s really popular, has contracts with multiple modelling agencies, and is an MC.’

Jennie giggled. Rose noticed how her cheeks were flushed slightly.

The cogs were turning in Rose’s mind, and she was putting the puzzle pieces together.

Jennie and Jisoo both looked sort of awkward at lunch, like two people who have a crush on one another and are told to sit together. But then Joohyun comes along, and Jennie rushes over to aid her. Jisoo is mad afterwards, for some reason that is not apparent. Or is it? Maybe Jisoo got mad because … she’s JEALOUS! Of course! That would make sense … maybe Jennie and Joohyun are hitting it out, while Jisoo has a crush on Jennie, and is jealous how Jennie doesn’t like her, but likes Joohyun instead! And maybe that’s why she sounded pissed when she was telling me who Joohyun is. Because Jisoo doesn’t like Joohyun, as she is in a relationship with the girl Jisoo likes! Damn, when did I get so good at this? Thought Rose.

‘Are you friends with her?’ asked Rose, her eyebrow raised again, as that thought formed inside her mind.

Jennie nodded. Then she added in the most chill-as way:

‘She’s also my girlfriend.’

(A/N: Sorry that this story is so long and unprogressive.)