Sunday.

Lisa fought hard not to fall asleep in a café in the middle of winter. She felt the faint buzzing of her phone and stared for a few seconds at the caller ID. “Jennie Unnie, yo.”

“Hey, Lisa. What’re you up to?”

 “Uh, I’m just here at Banana Tree, waiting for Rosie.”

“Okay. Hang on, I’m kinda near. Should be there in ‘bout 5 mins.”

“I…uh, okay?”

“Why Lisa, if I didn’t know any better, I’d say you don’t want me there.”

“Woah, woah, woah. Of course not, Jennie Unnie,” Lisa quickly countered, visibly gulping at her bandmate’s offended tone.

“Are you sure?”

“Of course! Do you want me to order for your drink already?”

“No need, I can see you now.”

Lisa closed her eyes and cursed under her breath as she heard the door of the café open. She slowly turned around and smiled at Jennie, throwing a small wave as well, hoping to make up for her obvious hesitation earlier. Jennie waved back before heading to the counter for her order and gave the opportunity for Lisa to send Rosie a text message that wrote, “your girlfriend is stalking us”.

“Why is she out and about? She’s supposed to be keeping a low profile.”

Lisa pursed her lips to stop herself from laughing at Rosie’s response. “I see no denial over the label girlfriend,” was Lisa’s reply. She followed it up with “She knows I’m waiting for you, so please don’t try to escape. Whatever weird tango the two of you are dancing, you gotta deal with it. I’m really scared of scary Jennie.”

“I’ll be there as soon as I’m done.”

“Please make it fast.”

“You know I can’t promise that.”

Lisa puffed out air in frustration. The past week had been odd. Very odd. Right after the dating scandal broke out, she, Rosie, and Jisoo were given the go signal to continue posting on social media. Well, Jisoo had many contractual obligations so it’s not that she had a choice. She and Rosie on the other hand decided to post photos of them with her cats. Usual, neutral, and cute.

What she didn’t expect was a barrage of messages from Jennie.

“Is Rosie still there?” “Are you guys hanging out the whole day?” “Are you gonna go live?” “Is Rosie still there?” “Are you having dinner now?”

“Rosie, I know Jennie feels isolated right now, but what in the world is going on?”, Lisa threw her phone next to Rosie who was busy playing with Lego on the couch. “Read. I don’t know how to answer anymore. When I do, she asks more questions like we’re hiding something from her. And why can’t she just message you?”

Rosie shrugged. “Maybe because she knows I barely reply.” She picked up Lisa’s phone and went through Jennie’s messages with a worried expression. “Huh. Yeah, okay. I get what you mean.” Lisa raised her eyebrows, “And?”

“What do you mean ‘And”?”

“And what do you mean by I get what you mean? Do you have any idea why she’s being like that?”

Rosie picked up Lego and placed the kitten on her lap while she mulled over Lisa’s question. “I guess you’re right. She probably feels isolated.”

Lisa’s mood turned more somber. “Then what are you doing here instead of being there? She needs you.”

“I was, just right after news broke out.”

“I know. That’s…not my question, Rosie,” Lisa chuckled lightly. “Did anything happen that makes you more determined to fuse with my cat than to be her knight in shining YSL armor?” She snorted at the sight of Rosie lying flat on her sofa with Lego happily using the Australian’s face as bed. “Rosie.”

“Mffm”

Lisa groaned loudly upon hearing her phone’s notification. “I’m gonna kick you out if you don’t explain. This is stressing me out so much.”

The other girl sighed deeply before gently putting Lego on the floor. “Okay, I’ll see you when I see you then.”

Lisa’s eyes widened and flailed on the floor. “HOLD UP. I’m not really kicking you out. Geez. But holy…crap. That bad?”

Rosie tucked her legs and aggressively scratched her neck, a tell-tale sign of distress. “Not bad,” she sighed again. “Just…weird.”

“Everything is weird these days. On a scale of 1 to—”

“We had a moment.”

Lisa tilted her head and frowned. “A…moment?”

The blonde girl scratched her neck again that made Lisa get up and swat her friend’s hand, seeing red marks violently making themselves visible. “Stop. People might think my cats attacked you.” Sitting down next to Rosie, Lisa picked up her phone and let out an exasperated sound. “SEVEN new messages from Jennie. Come on. We know she can be clingy but not THIS clingy.”

“She, uh, she. I,” Rosie held her face and squished it. “I don’t know if I was just imagining things. I could’ve been hallucinating cos I didn’t finish my breakfast and just took off to her place, so you know I was really, really hungry and—”

“Park Chaeyoung!” Lisa laughed. “What. Happened.”

“We almost kinda…kissed?”

Lisa’s mouth opened slowly in shock. “Whaddya mean, kinda?”

The other girl squirmed in her seat and started rubbing her face in frustration. “I- she did actually—”

“Oh…my—”

“NO, I mean not kiss, kiss. Just. Lisaaaaa.”

“Don’t,” Lisa pulled Rosie’s arm, “Lisa me. Tell me what happened!”

“She…uhhh…kissedmyneckthenmyjawlineandthenshewasaboutto—”

“She what a what and what? Slow dooown. Breathe.”

Rosie nodded and inhaled deeply. “Okay, okay.” The other girl also nodded breathed in and out as guide but kept an eagle eye focus on her friend who looked about to spontaneously combust. Rosie’s gaze was distant but Lisa could see the inner turmoil and confusion that she has never seen after that incident in Osaka.

“So, we were uh, I was holding her. And we were just like that for, I don’t know,” Rosie gestured wildly before hugging her legs, “like an eternity. I mean she was really, really feeling low. Then I cried. Ugh,” she added in embarrassment. “I was so angry at some of the—calling her a…a…anyway.”

Lisa sighed and squeezed Rosie’s shoulder in understanding. She needed no further elaboration as she was also no stranger to being degraded. “So yeah,” Rosie continued. “Anyway.”

Lisa chuckled, “Anyway. I heard kiss and kiss. That’s more important,” she teased, much to Rosie’s dismay. “I can’t believe just days ago, you just admitted to liking her. And here we are. Park Chaeyoung, you work fast.”

“Nooooer, that’s now what happened, tsk,” Rosie shut her eyes tightly in frustration. “I didn’t—I just sat there.”

“Okay, you know what,” Lisa held both her hands up, “let’s go back to the start. You were holding her, and then?”

“We were just sitting on the floor. And theeen…she scooted closer to me, I mean she was already very close…like I was almost cradling her, so I just kind of…held her tighter cos I really didn’t know what else to do and her perfume smelled really nice. Her hair, too.”

“Rosie. Focus.”

“Right. She, uhm. Okay, this feels like I’m kissing and telling, and…okay…I mean…nothing happened, so no, I guess this isn’t—”

“Rosie.”

“Riiight, okay. I felt something soft on my neck, really, really, soft, it was super—”

“Okay, no, I don’t need that kind of detail,” Lisa groaned. “I work with the both of you. No, okay, I do not want images in my head.”

Rosie fought off a smile at the memory, then immediately sobered up and turned red. “sorry, yeah, uhm, so there. I felt it. Then uhhh she repeated it several times—OKAY, no details, my god, Lisa I can’t explain what happened without some details.”

“Just a minute ago you were sooo guilty of kissing and telling, and now you’re imagining it FONDLY.”

“YOU are begging me to explain!”

“Geez, okay,” Lisa grumbled. “I’m moving to another group after this. I can’t look at the two of you without remembering—"

“This is a serious matter,” Rosie whined then slightly kicked her friend when Lisa retorted “necking is a serious matter, indeed.”

“That was not—I mean, no one has ever—“

“No one?”

Rosie nodded slightly and smiled shyly.

“But…I mean, you’ve kissed people before.”

“Well, yeah. But nothing more than that. Certainly not my…neck. Which felt really nice. Right,” Rosie laughed when Lisa snapped her fingers to keep her focused. “Two. Well, three if you count a schoolmate of mine, uhm, Alicia. But that was just a smack and we were very young and now looking back...”

“Oh wow,” Lisa chuckled and poked Rosie’s arm, “player.” Lisa was, of course, aware that Rosie dated before, though short-lived. Both from her church circle of friends—nice boys, safe, and respectful. She’s met them. Jennie always asked about them. Rosie always evaded the opportunity to introduce them. Years later, everything just made more sense. “She’s counted. So three, then.”

“Okay, yeah. Three. But there you go. My neck was untouchable until Jennie,” Rosie sighed. “I mean the moment I felt it I…held her tighter.”

“Well that’s one hell of an encouragement,” the other girl snorted.

“Well, yeah. It felt—”

“Nice. I get it, Rosie,” Lisa buried her face on her hands. “My god, you’re hopeless. Okay, she kissed your neck several times and you enjoyed it. Very much. And then?”

“Then uhh, she moved to kiss my jawline which…was…”

“Nice.”

Rosie rolled her eyes. “I’m trying to be PG here.”

“I appreciate. Nice is a nice word.”

“So yes, there. I just…sat there. While she did all