long story short (chaennie)

coffee and doodles

It's an early morning in September when Jisoo drags Jennie into a cafe on campus, insisting that if she doesn't get a soy latte right that minute, she'll literally die. Jennie acquiesces with the condition that Jisoo's paying for drinks for the two of them. After all, Jisoo doesn't tend to be awake this early, so this might be Jennie's last chance for a while to get a free beverage out of their friendship. Jennie just got lucky that she ran into Jisoo at seven AM, post morning run for Jennie and post walk-of-shame for Jisoo.

"Oh, hey, Jisoo," a girl says from her spot at the counter as the two of them walk in. She's got a strong Aussie accent, and she's very pretty but decidedly not Jennie's type.

"Hey, Rosie," Jisoo, who inexplicably knows everyone on campus, says. "Two soy lattes, please."

Jennie isn't really sure what a soy latte is or whether she wants one, but the rest of the beverages in the cafe all have names like macchiato and ristretto and she neither knows what those are, nor wants to mispronounce them in front of Jisoo. So a soy latte it is.

"Who's your friend?" The girl at the counter, Rosie, asks, nodding at Jennie.

Rosie already has Jisoo's name for the order, so Jennie isn't sure why she needs to know that, but she answers anyway. "I'm Jennie." Under Rosie's piercing gaze, Jennie is suddenly conscious of how sweaty and nasty she is, and wishes for a moment that she had gone home and taken a shower after her morning run.

"You know her?" Jennie says to Jisoo as their drinks are being prepared.

"We're Instagram mutuals," Jisoo answers, not looking up from her phone, acrylic nails tapping away on her screen. "She's like, a huge Jesus freak or whatever, but she's pretty nice."

Jennie's mouth twists. She knows they're not all like that, but she's had some rough experiences with ultra-religious people, and that makes it hard for her to feel any warmth towards the girl. Still, when she gets her drink from Rosie, she smiles at how the blonde took the time to draw doodles of flowers all around Jennie's name on the cup.

Turns out that soy lattes actually kinda slap, so Jennie starts going back to the cafe occasionally, without Jisoo's company. Occasionally turns into a couple days a week, which turns into every day.

Rosie is always there, perpetually working. She remembered Jennie's name after meeting her once, which was kind of sweet. She knows Jennie's coffee order by heart, now, and she sometimes gives Jennie a muffin or croissant on the house. She always doodles little pictures on Jennie's coffee cup. There's no real artistic merit to them, but they're sometimes incredibly detailed, a whole meadow of flowers and trees and birds around the scrawl of Jennie's name.

After a while, Jennie notices a pattern: Rosie spends more time on the drawings whenever Jennie seems like she's in a bad mood. She tests this out one day by marching in with a deliberate frown and her arms crossed; the coffee cup Rosie decorates in response is a veritable masterpiece. Jennie almost wishes she could keep it.

But as smiley and friendly as Rosie perpetually seems to be, Jennie's wary around her. Rosie, from her whole pretty, tall, blonde girl look to her relentless cheeriness, reminds Jennie far too much of her high school bullies. The kind of girl who'd preach positivity and love one minute and whisper about her in the halls to her friends the next. The kind who'd joke about making out with another girl at a party for attention from guys then stand idly by as their boyfriends called Jennie a dyke.

She doesn't know that Rosie's that kind of girl, of course. Rosie's actually pretty nice on the outside, and Jennie would prefer to assume that she isn't that person on the inside. But in Jennie's experience, it's safer not to take any chances.