ephemeral | Jenlisa [COMPLETED]

Chapter 4

By the time her plane landed, Jennie was feeling marginally calmer. Generally.

She'd always been great at rationalizing and compartmentalizing. Which was great in helping her rationalize the night before... and the early morning... because – screw it; Lisa was a physical goddess, at least to Jennie. She always had been. Much like she was always a temptation.

It was slightly more difficult to compartmentalize, she admitted, because the flashes of the night before were so fresh in her mind. Seeing Lisa, hearing her. Jennie coughed to clear her throat, clenching her jaw.

It would be fine, she reminded herself as she hitched her bag tighter over her shoulder and rubbed at her temples. She hadn't seen Lisa in years. Which meant that the next time she saw her would likely be in a couple of years, if she played it smart.

And a couple of years from now, things wouldn't be so... fresh. She'd have to endure a teasing comment from Lisa or two – it would be inescapable – but at that point, it would be easy to deal with. Just more of the same.

Not that last night had been the same as anything they'd ever had, but... compartmentalize. When she was back in the swing of things, especially dealing with work, she knew Lisa would fall back to where she belonged; right to the back of her mind.

With a determined nod, she headed toward baggage claim. And then paused and froze in surprise at what she saw: Sehun, already having retrieved her suitcase, standing with a cardboard sign in hand that read: J. Kim (unless she was kidnapped)

And she could only snort, shaking her head at him, which grabbed his attention. He grinned the same, silly grin he'd had since they'd become friends in kindergarten, holding the sign up higher, at attention.

"So glad to see you made it," he drawled as she got closer.

Close enough to slap his shoulder, feeling herself blush as some of the people who hustled by them shot them weird looks. "Now imagine the egg on your face if I hadn't shown up after being kidnapped."

He adopted a look of horror. "What would we have done? Sacheon would crumble."

Jennie rolled her eyes, even as she grinned, already feeling more settled. This was normal. Normal was good. "See, I know you're joking, but there's a little voice in the back of my mind that says think of Kevin running Sacheon..."

They exchanged shudders at the mention of the mayor of their city, ending in Sehun taking her suitcase by the handle and leading the way out to his car. "The only thing that did crumble, really, was our undefeated trivia night record," he reported.

Jennie's mouth dropped open, appalled. "How! The Dolly Part-ners haven't lost a trivia night in almost two years!" She and Sehun were nearly unbeatable at Grady's Tavern's Friday night trivia. "You said you had it covered."

He heaved a heavy sigh. "I was supposed to get Wendy," the nurse practitioner who worked at Sehun's clinic, "To fill in, but that fell through and... Somi, begrudgingly, took your spot instead."

Jennie groaned, momentarily covering her eyes. "You're kidding." "Sadly, no. We're going to have to start our record all over again." Sehun sighed wistfully, spinning the sign he'd made in his hands as he bumped his shoulder into hers.

Jennie mirrored the sigh. "I guess it'll make our second winning record even more impressive when we break that first one."

They shared a grin and she adjusted her bag, as they made their way across the parking lot.

Toward Sehun's car. Which would bring her back home. And just the knowledge that she was heading home, that the conference was over and Busan was over with even without taking into account the previous night, made her breathe out a relieved br–