Count Your Lucky Stars •CHAENNIE•

Chapter 2

Contract signed and deposit placed, Roseanne quickly updated the Google Sheet itemizing Jungkook and Taehyung's wedding budget-hello-filling in the field beside venue. The rest of the column auto-adjusted, doing the math for her. Roseanne saved then toggled over to her calendar, blocking out a time slot for a cake tasting with a local bakery ECE and Lori had worked with many times and who was willing to accommodate the tighter timeline. Immediate tasks accomplished, Roseanne cast a quick glance around the venue's courtyard. Jungkook and Taehyung had wandered off a few minutes ago, hand in hand, stating their desire to get the lay of the land for the photos. Across the courtyard, Taehyung's sister blushed when her girlfriend whispered in her ear, both of them lost in their own little world. Roseanne made another sweep, craning her neck to peer past the fountain and through the glass-paned door. She frowned.

Jennie was missing.

Jennie Kim.

Roseanne fought the urge to shiver, fingers curling into fists at her sides as a flush inched its way up her jaw without her permission.

She'd call this fate, if she weren't unsure whether she still believed in that sort of thing. Four million people in this city and J. Kim and her Jennie turned out to be one and the same. Roseanne swallowed hard. Not her Jennie. Not anymore.

Roseanne puffed out her cheeks, her exhale measured. Now was not the time to lose herself in the past, in old hurts that should've healed. She had a wedding to plan. Lori was counting on her to pull this off. Roseanne's future was riding on the success of this wedding, on her ability to put her skills to task and pull this off. Screwing up was not an option.

Flipping the cover over the screen of her tablet, Roseanne tucked it away inside her purse and left the courtyard in search of Taehyung and Jungkook.

They weren't in the dining room or the ballroom, either. Roseanne hiked her purse higher on her shoulder and made a left down the winding hall, which more closely resembled a maze, what with the sheer number of intersections and doors to choose from. It was a place she could easily get lost in if she wasn't careful, her memory of the exact layout a little hazy from the anniversary party she'd assisted Lori with months ago.

From the outside, the venue was unassuming, plain brick like any other warehouse in the area, not a place anyone would look at twice. Stepping inside was like falling through a looking glass, like entering a whole new world, a wonderland of glitzy chandeliers, ornate murals, creeping vines, and old-world exposed brick. It was achingly romantic, like something out of a fairy tale, the sort of place where Roseanne had dreamed of getting married when she was little.

Roseanne's thumb brushed the bare skin beneath the knuckle of her third finger as she ducked her head through an open door. She drew up short, heart rate ratcheting, and cleared her throat. "Hi."

Jennie spun toward her, dark eyes wide behind the lenses of her cat-eye glasses. "There's an elephant in this room."

A laugh bubbled up inside Roseanne's throat. "You think?"

Jennie's face turned red, matching the color of the plaid shirt she wore unbuttoned over a black crop top so tight it might as well have been a second skin. The bare strip of her stomach was pale and flat, and Roseanne's own skin pebbled with goose bumps.

"Funny." Jennie gestured toward the life-sized and lifelike elephant, wrinkly and gray with huge ivory tusks, stationed in the corner of the room. "Who the fuck puts a fake elephant in a dining room?"

Roseanne stepped inside the room, leaving a healthy distance between her and Jennie as she lifted a hand, curling her fingers around the elephant's right tusk. "It was built in 1931 for the Paris Colonial Exhibition."