"The success at the fashion week was amazing Jennie." The woman applauded, giving her a firm nod.
"Thank you, it was such a pleasure." Jennie proudly beamed, following her boss right behind her heal.
The woman sipped on her coffee, eyeing Jennie in satisfaction. "I'd like to extend an offer out to you to join my team out here in London."
Jennie smiled from ear to ear, thanking her a couple of times as her humble self would. "Would that require me to move and relocate?"
"Yes, but it's an opportunity I'm willing to give because I see the ideas you have. You can start networking and I'll introduce you to my colleagues." Dara handed her another business card with someone else's phone number.
'You'll make it big.' Her idol said right to her face.
Jennie shook her new boss's hand, telling her she'd call back to give her answer.
She almost skipped out of the office, pocketing the business card tightly.
Out of habit she pulled her phone out, tapping the first name that came up.
Jisoo.
But she decided against it after looking at her name for quite some time.
It didn't feel right, she didn't want want to share this happy thing, not when she might have to move away.
The feeling of telling someone this opportunity almost made her call Jisoo, because that's who she always fell back on, her rock.
She didn't.
She settled on a quiet day at her workroom, ordering takeout and spending the day with whoever managed to come and stick by.
"Ji Young oppa, what if I left the face of earth?" The brunette tilted her beer bottle at him, laughing when he had a couple of chicken bones sticking out of his mouth.
"Chaeyoung wouldn't let you do it, Joohyun would come with you and I'd just scream constantly till you came back." He mumbled, wiping his fingers with a napkin he offered her a bowl of mashed potatoes.
Jennie got off the chair to sit with him on the table, grabbing the mashed potatoes. "What if I left California and let's say, moved to Europe?"
Jiyoung shrugged, fixing his hair messily he bumped into Jennie playfully. "I mean you're very calculated, you wouldn't do this out spontaneously. You would've went for a reason."
Jennie pressed on her lip. "Oppa? My boss that we worked with on Fashion week asked me to move to London. She's practically elevating my career."
"Oh." Jiyoung hummed. "What about.. Lieutenant?"
Jennie shrugged, remaining indifferent. "I don't think I can do long distance, if we keep the relationship."
"Of course, you can't exactly trust her after what she did, can you?"
Jennie shook her head, resting her chin on his shoulder. "The thing is, I don't know how to tell her. I don't know if I want to tell her."
The man disagreed, hand reaching for more chips. "It's good news, I think you should."
"But I don't want to share good news with her, it's like I don't want to do anything with her anymore. Everything feels so wrong."
Jiyoung furrowed his brows, he knew they weren't exactly on good terms. He didn't like the fact that Jennie stayed with her, but he wasn't as vocal as Joohyun and Chaeyoung were.
"What do you mean?"
"I sleep as far away as I can from her these days. I come home and kind of avoid her. When we eat dinner or whatever at the table we don't say anything and I find myself rushing out of the room. That isn't normal. I feel myself starting to not.. care. But I still love her."
Jennie teared up, leaning against Jiyoung's shoulder trying to hide her face from him.
"I promised myself I'd be better, at least for her. That I would do better." She whispered.
Jiyoung patted her leg, sighing. "You shouldn't have to say that when it wasn't your fault."
"We haven't been normal ever since I told her I'd stay. Yeah I knew it wasn't going to be the same, but still."
"What is she like?" He asked out of curiosity, pulling out his pocket square for her.
"She's quiet, she drinks a lot. She doesn't say anything, every time she tries to talk to me I don't feel like I want or need to respond. It's so bad, but I feel like she doesn't want it as much as I do."
"Right now you don't seem like you want it." He said honestly.
Jennie shrugged. "Maybe I don't seem like it right now, but at night before bed I always cry myself to sleep and that's when I really want it."
"You know, Lieutenant could want it bad. You never know, she always did show love differently. You need to talk to her."
"I know, we haven't really communicated after I caught her cheating on me. I kind of want answers."
"Why didn't you ask before."
"I don't know." Maybe it was because I was afraid of the truth and reality of it. "Ji Young Oppa?"
"Yeah?"
"You know I believe in second chances."
He nodded, he agreed to it fully. Jennie, the all encompassing chance giver.
"Do you think I made the right decision by giving her one?" She asked delicately but was met with a few doubtful stares by him. "Because I'm really thinking of going to Europe. Maybe giving her a chance wasn't the right decision. At least the timing wasn't."
"Sometimes people do deserve second chances. Sometimes they don't." The man muttered. "Sometimes it's worth it, sometimes it's worth fighting for."
Jennie held onto his hand, squeezing it gently. "They say I should've walked away and dump her. But I wasn't strong enough. I question myself as to why I'm not strong enough and—"
He held her hand, putting their clasped hands back onto her lap. "You wish you were strong enough to walk away. What is holding you back?"
Jennie took a second to think, reaching deep inside to answer truthfully. "I like to think I'm strong, it's what a lot of people say. But when it comes to Jisoo, I don't have a lot of self control. She was the last person who I thought would break me. I was so blindsided by it."
"She's like my weakness, and I wish I was a bit guarded but I didn't have a reason to be guarded when she treated me so well till.. it happened." She said continued quietly, playing with their laced fingers she kept pulling it out of habit.
"What was I missing? Was I not enough, what didn't I give her enough of? I-I kept questioning myself for hours on Joohyun unnie's bed, you saw how I was, I could barely get up—" The brunette started to hiccup, cutting her own words off.
"When it gets to the point where you doubt yourself and your confidence, trust and ability to function without feeling some sort of negative emotion, it's time to leave. It wasn't your fault, you need to know that." Jiyoung pulled the now sobbing girl into a hug, comforting her sincerely. "She's broken you, you've lost yourself you need a break Jennie."
It's so hard.
