Book 2: Don't you know its dangerous to ignite a fire in space [Jenlisa]

Chapter 2: Ember

"Kai! What are you doing here?" Though Jennie was evidently surprised, her voice held pleasure and she let out a happy laugh as she stepped forward to give Jongin a hug while the rest of the crew watched their apparent familiarity with some confusion. "It's been ages."

"Back at you!"

Lisa blinked at the interaction. She was definitely not fond of the way Lord Kim's hand was conveniently left on Jennie's shoulder but she was curious to know Jennie's connection to a high-standing Lord.

"Are you going to introduce your friend, Jennie?" She gave their guest a welcoming smile despite her reservations. After all, a friend of Jennie's was a friend of hers as well.

"Oh yes! Kai, this is Lisa, one of my best friends onboard!" Lisa's smile became forced as she watched the introductions take place. Best friend. She was starting to get sick of that phrase. She reminded herself that she had agreed to this - this hiding and secrecy - so she had no right to get mad. Still, she felt the start of the familiar burning in her chest.

She tuned back into the conversation to hear Jennie explaining her connection with Jongin..or Kai, as Jennie had so happily referred to him. "We go way back, attended school at Prescott International together. Our parents were.. are tight." She corrected.

"There's no need to hold back Jennie." Kai smiled down at her, tugged her to his side. "We were each other's firsts. I was Jennie's first boyfriend, and she was my first girlfriend. I guess you could say we had our first everything together. We were great as a pair, weren't we?"

Lisa's smile dropped and her attention snapped to Jennie. Though Jennie laughed, there was a strain beneath the cheery sound. She sent Lisa a subtle look of apology. "That was a long time ago Kai but I can't deny we had fun while it lasted." She patted his chest, made to push her way out of his arms but to her surprise and to Lisa's silent fury, he held firm.

A few of the more obvious crewmembers stared blatantly at Lisa to gauge her reaction at the exchange, Rosé and Jisoo in particular but she forced herself to remain cool, to relax the tension in her jaw, to breathe normally. The last thing she wanted was to create a scene. Every one had their past. She had her past too, her flings, her strings of relationships, and she'll be damned if she got mad at Jennie just because she was unfortunate enough to cross path with an ex-lover, who was apparently, her first "everything".

Luckily for everyone, Joohwang stepped in before Kai could notice the creeping tension in the hall. "Sorry to interrupt but introductions can wait till after I brief you lot. Lord Kim will be a guest onboard this ship for a month. He has a shipment to carry to Phelphia for work and it is our job to make sure he and his shipment get there in one piece."

Jisoo let out a long whistle. "Phelphia is in Galaxy XVI. That's a long way."

"Hence the one month."

Lisa's eyes narrowed suspiciously at Kai but she schooled her expressions before she stepped forward and raised her hand. To her embarrassment, Kai gave a loud chortle.

"What's this? Grade school?"

Lisa ignored him, determined to ask her question even if she did so while being pink in the cheek. "Captain, what's the shipment? No offence but when you say that we are to get Lord Kim and his goods to Phelphia in one piece, that sounds a little suspicious. Are we expecting someone to be coming after us?"

Before Joohwang could speak, Kai cut in with bright smile, something that to Lisa's opinion was extremely rude and insubordinate. She had met younger Lords with better manners. "To answer your question, Lena," he paused and stared Lisa dead in the eye. There was no question that he had deliberately misspoken her name, even had the gall to flash his pearlie whites at her.