in every universe (one shot-s) | JENLISA

long short story

"Jennie, are you with me?"

She blinked, shaking her head a bit and gave Jisoo a slightly guilty frown. "Sorry," she said, biting her bottom lip. "I'm listening, I promise." Her manager simply rolled her eyes, but gave her an affectionate smile.

"Like I was saying, after you're done with ADR you have the rest of the day off," Jisoo finished. "We'll go over the start of the press tour tomorrow."

Her head snapped up at that, her eyes meeting Jisoo's warm, brown ones. "Jen, you'll be fine," she assured her friend. "You and Vivi are way in the past, and the only thing anyone will want to talk about is the movie."

"It's just-" Jennie began, but Jisoo cut her off with a shake of her head.

"I know," her manager replied. "And if they bring her up, you have my full permission to reply however you like. No holding back."

That made Jennie chuckle, and she raised her eyebrow. "No holding back?" she repeated wryly. "I thought I wasn't allowed to after I made that reporter from Fox turn so red he passed out in his chair."

Jisoo let out a full laugh then, before putting her hand on Jennie's. She gave her friend's hand a comforting squeeze. "Vivi is a bitch," she said, bluntly. "And she didn't deserve you. I'm sorry the breakup was so public—"

"That's not your fault and you know it," Jennie cut in, this a familiar topic between the two. She added dryly, "You didn't know she was going to cheat on me in a very public way."

"I'm still sorry," Jisoo replied. "But how about we stop talking about that soggy old piece of bread and get some coffee on the way to the studio?"

Jennie let out a startled laugh, standing up as Jisoo followed. "Soggy old piece of bread?" she asked, holding the door of her office open.

Jisoo shrugged, the two of them walking down the hallway. "I'm trying to use more gender neutral insults," she replied. "I have a thirteen-year-old daughter who is entirely too woke and gender as a social construction is the topic of the week. Also, my swear jar was getting kind of full after the Warriors game last night so I'm trying something new. I realize I could just stop insulting people, but I don't really see that happening either."

"You know that we're all going to be working for Alma someday, right?" Jennie asked. "She's the best. And this is coming from her totally unbiased godmother."

Jisoo rolled her eyes, but the smile she always had on her face when it involved Alma spoke volumes.

* *

Jennie stretched with a groan, before removing the headphones and giving the girl behind the glass a smile. "Thanks, Eve!" she said with a wave, before she exited the booth and met Jisoo in the hallway. As soon as she saw her friend, she sighed.

"Can we please go get some food?" she asked. "I feel like I might die if I don't eat a salad right now."

Jisoo rolled her eyes but nodded, gesturing for her to lead the way. Jennie took exactly five steps down the hallway, and immediately slammed into a brick wall.

(She knows its five steps because that's how far she has to walk to get to the next door in the hall, and she'll insist she's correct, and Lisa will tease her about it but write a song about Jennie anyways titled "Five steps to forever" that rockets to number one on the day of its release. And she will tease Lisa that she should have called it "Took my breath away" because that's what happened when the two of them had run into each other, but really Jennie wouldn't change a thing and she definitely cried when Lisa played it to her for the first time.)

"— need a cheeseburger, stat, otherwise I may perish— ooph!"

That was what Jennie heard before the wind was knocked out of her, and she closed her eyes to brace for the inevitable impact of her ass on the ground, before she realized there were arms wrapped around her waist, and someone was holding her up, preventing her from falling.