In Love Since Forever

Chapter 2

They hadn't talked about it, not since last week when Rosé had offered to be her date for the wedding, and now they were driving to Seoul and running out of time.

She'd called her mom back that next day, told her she had a date, told her that she was bringing Rosé and that it wasn't just for the day, but that Rosé was her girlfriend. Her mother had been ecstatic, and just for a moment, Lisa had been happy too, until she remembered that it was fake.

But that didn't matter, because the wedding was still going to go the exact same way it would be, whether Rosé was just there as another guest or as her date. Lisa would get to stand there next to her sister and Jennie as they get married and she'd no doubt cry.

Then there'd be music and dancing and food and Lisa would get to spend time with her sister as well as her best friend-slash-date for the evening.

"Do we need to talk about anything?" Rosé asked.

Lisa kept her eyes on the road ahead of them but she could feel Rosé watching her.

"About what?"

"About the fact that your mom thinks we're dating, that everyone at the wedding is going to think we're dating?"

"Oh yeah," Lisa snorted. Not even Jisoo knew that.

She'd received a phone call from her sister not long after she'd spoken to her mom, where Jisoo had been incredibly excited to hear that Rosé was her date to the wedding.

Lisa had almost told her the truth then because she didn't want to give her sister false hope, or herself, about her relationship with Rosé.

They were friends and that was all they'd ever be.

But she didn't, because Jisoo was so excited and this was her big day and she could always tell her the truth afterward.

Plus, Jisoo was a terrible liar.

"Um..." Lisa started. "Do we need to make some rules or something? I'm not really sure how this works."

Rosé shrugged. "Neither am I, but I don't want to make you uncomfortable so I think we should have some ground rules, or a safe word or something so we know how the other is feeling. We want your mom to believe us."

Lisa nodded, even though she was way out of her depth. But they needed to figure it out soon because they were nearly there.

"Of course, that's a good idea."

"Are you comfortable with hugging?"

"Yes."

They did that anyway.

"Holding hands?"

"Yes."

They'd done that once, Lisa still thought about how nicely Rosé's hand had fit in hers, how right it had felt.

There was a pause and Lisa glanced over to Rosé. Her cheeks definitely looked pink but Lisa wasn't entirely sure as she had to look back at the road.

"What about kissing?" Rosé finally asked, and now the pause made sense.

Lisa knew what she wanted, she'd quite happily pull the car over right now and kiss Rosé until she forgot everything besides the mouth pressed against hers. But she knew that was not what Rosé meant.

"Sorry," Rosé laughed before Lisa could reply.

"This feels so awkward, it shouldn't, you're my best friend."

Rosé was right, they were best friends, and best friends could kiss, and it didn't have to mean anything.

Lisa knew that if they ever kissed, it would mean everything to her.

"Cheek kisses are okay but we should draw the line there, I don't want you to do anything that would make you uncomfortable."

"I... Okay, yes, only kisses on the cheek," Rosé agreed.

They drove in silence for a while, Lisa started to think this was a bad idea. She'd only thought about how this would help her with mom, she hadn't really thought about how hard it was going to be pretending to date Rosé when all she wanted was for it to be real.

The thought of kissing Rosé was now in her mind and that was not helping at all.

"Relax," Rosé said.

Lisa glanced to the side again and Rosé nodded at her hands, her knuckles were white on the steering wheel with how tight she was gripping it.

"Oh, "Lisa let out a breath, loosened her hold, and forced herself to relax. It'll be fine, it's just one weekend.

"We don't have to do this, you know?"

"I know."

Lisa shot her a smile.

"But like I'm going to say no to an excuse to spend time with you, and to getting my mom to leave me alone for the weekend."

Rosé smiled, chubby cheeks on full display as Lisa parked the car. It was cute. "We have to promise to be honest with each other okay if anything makes us uncomfortable?"

Lisa nodded. "Okay."

"Our safe word should be rice."

Lisa laughed, despite other images that pop into her mind at the suggestion of a 'safe word', images that are not strictly platonic.

"Rice? How is that going to come up in conversation?"

"Exactly, it'll be something that won't come up so if it's said, we'll know what it means."

Lisa rolled her eyes. She'd never admit it out loud, but she thought it was cute that Rosé liked rice so much.

"Rice it is, then."

"I have one more rule," Rosé said.

Lisa saw the front door open and her mom stepped out, they were running out of time.

"What?"

"You're not allowed to fall in love with me," Rosé grinned, teasing.

Lisa rolled her eyes. "I don't think that's going to be a problem."

It was not going to be a problem because she was already so in love with Rosé that it'd hurt sometimes.

"I don't know, Manoban, I'm pretty irresistible," Rosé winked, and just like that, everything fell into place, everything felt normal despite what they were about to do.

This was her best friend, and they could do anything together.

Lisa laughed. "Sure, you are."

°°°°°

Now it's getting interesting.