I Think I Love You •Chaennie•

Chapter 28

Rosie's POV

I walk from the Corner Hotel to Tae's place, a goofy smile plastered on my lips the whole time. The look on Jennie's face while she was talking to her parents told me everything I needed to know. I did the right thing, giving her my plus-one spot.

Nighttime in New York is the best time to deal with emotions. The sky is pitch dark, but the city is lit up with a thousand streetlights and car headlights and office light pouring out from windows. I match the pace of my fellow New Yorkers clipping down the sidewalk. We get a bad rap for this, but I think it's nice. I like to think that, whatever place we're all in a rush to get to, there are loved ones waiting there for us.

That's certainly the case for me, I think as I reach Tae's corner of the East Village. If our friendship could survive these rocky few weeks, it can survive anything.

My weird euphoria fades when I buzz Tae's apartment. Even if Jennie has sorted out her situation with her parents, things between us remain unsettled. What Kai told her ruined any possibility of an "us." But then Tae beams when I reach his bedroom, and I can't help but smile again.

"How was the screening?"

"It was good," I say with a shrug. "We lost."

"Jisoo must be disappointed," Tae says.

I plop down at his desk chair and spin it around. "You miss her, huh?"

"I want her back," Tae says, his voice cracking.

"I know how you feel."

"What do you mean?"

I sigh, parsing through my thoughts as I struggle to translate the turmoil in my heart into words. "I don't know. It's...Well, that trick you guys played on me and Jennie threw me for a loop."

"Sorry," Tae says, wincing. His glasses tilt at the movement, and I resist the urge to straighten them for him.

I force a laugh. I didn't come here to fight, and I don't want to.

"It's okay," I say. "It helped me realize how I feel about her. But she thinks it means I never loved her, and that anything I say now is fake."

If only there were some way to show her that wasn't true. How can I make her understand what I've come to realize myself-that our arguing has always been a front for something more?

I bolt upright in my chair. If there's one thing that's always meant the world to Jennie, it's Jisoo. Specifically, a certain plan I refused to be a part of when I first got back.

I turn to Tae, grinning. "We have to come up with a way to get you back with Jisoo."

"How?" Tae asks. "I was so horrible to her."

I think for a moment, my lips twisting, until the perfect idea comes to me. A chance to go back. A chance to redo it all. To tell Jennie the truth this time. To make her see. "I wasn't part of the first matchmaking plan, but I think we can still use it."

Tae squints at me. "Huh?"

I jump up and grab his hand. "We need to go buy some poster board."

He follows me, bemused, as I take the stairs two at a time all the way down. We'll need glitter too.

Once we reach Duane Reade, I stock up on poster board and glitter pens. Tae makes me stop at the bodega on our way home to pick out flowers. We stay up until way too late, circles forming under our eyes as we perfect the drawings on the poster and argue about what songs to add to the playlist, and dig up his mask from the dance. I have to find mine when I get home.

By the time I'm heading home, I'm smiling the whole way. Maybe Jisoo and Tae have a shot at this love thing after all. And maybe, if this works, and if I turn out to be the luckiest girl in the world, maybe I do too.

__________________________________________________________________________

When I get home, Dad is still out on his date, the first second date he's been on since the divorce. I take a deep breath as I close the door behind me, letting the silence fall over the apartment. It doesn't feel as heavy on my shoulders as it used to. Sometimes you have to be the loved one that other people rush home to, and I guess that means being okay with sitting in an empty apartment for a while.

I kick my shoes off into the closet and drop down onto the couch. I swing my legs up over the side, which Mom never lets me do, and hook my phone up to the speakers so I can play all the songs Dad doesn't like. I slide my phone onto the coffee table and stare at the ceiling, bouncing my foot along to the rhythm and trying not to think about Jennie.

I fail miserably. She's all I can think about. Her laugh, high-pitched in a way that would be kind of melodic if it weren't so loud. The way her lips felt against mine, soft and urgent at the same time. Even the insults she threw at me when I got back are pretty funny, thinking about them now.

After a moment, I grab my phone again, and I pound out a text to Tae. Just because romance didn't work out for my parents doesn't mean it won't work out for me.

ROSIE: you guys were right. I really like Jennie. A lot.

I hit send and wait until my phone says it's been delivered to Tae, then fall onto the couch, taking up all the room, and wait for it to buzz. I have no idea if something with Jennie is still possible, but all I can do now is hope it is.