Catch The Stars

Chapter 16

There's something wrong in the village:

Since Jennie doesn’t know where Seulgi’s house is, she sends Nayeon and Seokmin to the bus stop to wait for her.

Both of them are holding bouquets in their hands when Jennie arrives there.

“Are you fucking kidding me?” Jennie groans, watching both their expressions shift into ones of annoyance.

“Oh, shut up.” Seokmin lifts the bouquet up in a threatening way, like he’s going to hit Jennie with it. “Do you see a gift shop around here somewhere? It’s not like we can get her anything else.”

“Yeah, but even the flowers are the same.” Nayeon frowns down at the bouquet. “Let’s just put all three together and give her one massive one.”

“That’s a really dumb idea,” Jennie says.

They show up at her place with a giant bouquet.

It makes Seulgi laugh and eyes light up with happiness, so maybe the present wasn’t all that stupid, but Jennie is pretty sure Seulgi is simply too kind for her own good.

Seulgi’s grandparents’ house only has one story and is quite cramped, but it looks warm and inviting, completely made out of wood and creaking at each step Jennie takes. The couches in the living room have been pushed aside to make room for the low tables that are pushed together to form one big square in the middle, colorful cushions spread all around them.

There’s a grill in the middle and plates with meat that are covered with saran wrap placed next to it. Taehyung walks in a moment later, carrying a tray with a bunch of side dishes, and he shoots Jennie a bright, toothy smile which turns into a glare as soon as his eyes fall on Nayeon.

Nayeon rolls her eyes and moves to sit down on one of the cushions on the ground.

Jennie snickers at their interaction and asks if she can help with anything, but Seulgi tells her to sit down and just be merry.

“Is Y/n still at work?” Seokmin asks.

Seulgi nods her head from where she’s fiddling to turn on the grill, hovering her palm above it to check if it warms up. “I dropped by at auntie’s house before to get a tong and she said she has a car that’s going to get picked up tonight, so she can’t come until she’s done with it.”

Wait, auntie?

“Are you and Y/n related?” Jennie asks, eyebrows knitted together. She has seriously lost track of who’s related to whom in this village.

Seulgi chuckles in amusement. “Our mom’s are sisters. Which makes us cousins.”

Jennie’s mouth forms a big O at the revelation. It actually makes kind of sense; her first thought when she met Seulgi was that her and Y/n had resembling facial features. “Since when do you live in the city?”

Seulgi’s knees crack when she gets up, making them laugh. “My parents moved there when I turned six, so… about eighteen years?”

“Why didn’t Y/n and her family move?”

She sighs and sits down on the other side of the table. “Y/n’s dad had just opened a business down in Cheumsan back then. They had to stay until he started to make profit, which never happened, because that asshole had no idea on how to operate a business.”

Jennie knows she should stop asking. It’s none of her business but Joohyun was right; Y/n is like a clam, it’s impossible to find out more about her.

And she figures if Seulgi thought she wasn’t allowed to know any of this, she wouldn’t tell her, right?

“Is that why he left?”