Jennie
"So we're going to start, obviously, with where you disappeared to this afternoon." Chahee said, separating a twizzler and piling the thin red rope into her mouth. Despite myself, I giggled like a schoolgirl at both the question and the memory it brought. My cheeks heated to a burning sensation and I stared down at the brightly coloured candy in my hand to avoid answering.
"You're not getting out of this, Jennie, don't you dare..."
But it was too late. I shoved all of the candy in my mouth at once and grinned up at her like a chipmunk before we both fell to giggles and collapsed onto our backs next to each other on the bed.
"Was that to avoid talking?" She asked once the laughter subsided. "Or were you demonstrating?"
I snorted.
"The latter." I answered and she gave me a shove so hard that I nearly fell off the bed.
"Shut up!" She squealed, excitedly. "You harlot!"
My door opened then and Jimin entered, carrying a pillow with him. "If you're going to be this damn loud, you might as well share the candy while you keep me up." he grumbled, shutting the door behind him and lying down at the foot of the bed. It wasn't unlike him to join us on these nights, grumbling about how tired he was and complaining the whole time even though we knew he loved the gossip just as much as we did. "Pass the Swedish fish."
I obeyed, tossing him the bright yellow bag and watching him root around in it.
"Jennie was just telling me about her afternoon delight." Chahee said with a grin. I pulled my pillow from behind me and smacked her with it but she only giggled and sat upright again.
"Oh yeah?" Jimin asked, still rustling around in the bag. "What'd you get into, Mrs. Manoban?" He raised a brow as he looked up at me. I rolled my eyes.
"You thought I was gonna let that go, didn't you?" He said.
"A blow job." Chahee blurted and he looked over at her and blinked.
"Excuse me?"
"She gave Lisa a blow job. That's where they were."
Jimin pursed his lips and gave me a nod of approval. "That's our girl." he muttered, stuffing a handful of Swedish fish in his mouth. I smiled, holding back a laugh.
"So... how big?" Chahee asked. Jimin's eyes snapped up at that, the exact question he had asked earlier, the one I had narrowly avoided then. It appeared that I wasn't getting off so easily now.
"Guys, don't make me..." I started.
"Oh, come on. This is what girls' night is all about. It's tradition!"
"Yeah, it's tradition!" Jimin echoed. Chahee looked at him and he shrugged. "I really just want to know."
"It's... she's..." I struggled but then faltered, blushing furiously.
"Okay. I'm gonna hold my hands out at different intervals. You tell me when it's right." Jimin said and then began with his hands less than an inch apart.
"Are you kidding me?" Chahee snapped. "That's where you start? You think she'd even still be here if..."
"Guys, I'm not doing this." I interrupted. "I know it's tradition but this... isn't like the others. This is Lisa. She was friend first. Before I even knew you guys. She's not just some random person and I can't talk about her like that."
Chahee and Jimin exchanged a look.
"You love her." she said then and I blinked at her for a moment before a bubble of nervous laughter escaped me.
"No." I denied.
"Oh good Lord, she does!" Jimin gasped, throwing down the candy and sitting upright. "You love her. You actually love her."
"I've always loved Lisa!" I burst out. "I mean, not like that. Not romantically. But I wouldn't have done what I did for her if I didn't at least love her in some way, right? I mean, she always understood me. She was always there for me. When my parents got divorced, when my first real boyfriend dumped me, when I failed my calculus exam and had to take a summer semester to retake the class..."
"Damn, that Lisa was hard in the friend zone." Chahee interrupted. Jimin nodded in agreement.
"It wasn't a zone!" I exploded. "It was just... us. It was who we were together. She was my rock and I was her biggest supporter. So yes, I loved her. I love her. But not like what you're thinking."
Chahee and Jimin hesitated, a glance passing between them. I sighed. "What?" I asked.
"It's just... I mean, how is that different from love?" Chahee responded. "Like, you loved her before, as a friend, and now you guys are having sex and..."
"Sex isn't love." I said, annoyed that I had to explain such a concept to her of all people.
"No." Jimin agreed with a nod. "So you're saying, like, you love her but you aren't in love with her."
"Yes!" I replied, excitedly, holding out a hand in Jimin's direction. "Thank you, Jimin! See, he gets it."
"I don't." he said, shaking his head. "Not at all. I mean, it sounds like love to me. But you do you, you know? You know better than us what you're feeling."
"What are you guys going to do?" Chahee asked. "Like... stay married?"
I shrugged, picking out some candy from our stash.
"I don't know." I answered, honestly. "I mean, for now we're seeing how things go, you know? Just getting to know each other again and having fun. I guess, at some point, we'll have to make the decision of what to do about our marriage. Maybe we stay married and together, maybe we stay married and apart, maybe we get divorced. I don't know. I think it depends on the investigation and on how things go between us."
"Oh shit, the investigation." Jimin gasped. "I completely forgot about the Feds."
I chuckled. "Honestly? Me too." I admitted and we all fell to laughter again before Jimin changed the subject to some swanky gallery opening that he and Sungwoon had attended back in NYC where they'd run into Meryl Streep. Chahee called him a liar and he spent the next twenty minutes trying to find the photo on his phone to prove himself.
In the end, we stayed up well into the early morning hours just talking and catching up, eating ungodly amounts of candy, and laughing so loud we were afraid we might wake up the whole house. It was fun, comfortable, nostalgic, and I found myself feeling more grateful than I thought I would that they had determined to come and visit, even if it was to attempt to save my life from some champagne-fuelled dream of my murder.
