Fire Lodge ( jenlisa )

Part 12

Jisoo watched everyone at the table as she quietly ate her soup. G-Dragon was as boisterous as he'd been the first time she saw him. Right now he was telling a story about his first time out on a search and rescue with the ski patrol. Jihyo and Tzuyu were listening to him, in between feeding each other bites of soup. Chaeyoung had obviously heard the story before, because she was interjecting at all the appropriate times. Jennie, Dahyun, and Lisa, on the other hand, seemed to be listening to the story with only half their attention, as if the main part of their mind was elsewhere. If it had been just Dahyun and Lisa acting this way, she would have chalked it up to them being tired from their recent adventure. But the fact that Jennie was acting the same way made the whole thing strange. Jisoo suspected it was related to the exciting news that Lisa wanted to tell her when they could get some time and privacy, but since that wouldn't be until after the guests checked out tomorrow, there was nothing she could do about it now.

She turned her attention back to her rapidly cooling bowl of shrimp bisque. She stirred it with the end of her breadstick and then took a bite. The process of cooking never ceased to amaze her. Somehow when a handful of simple ingredients were combined in a certain way, they made something far greater than the sum of its parts. She didn't have too much time to ponder the mysteries of cooking, though: She was ravenous after all their snowshoeing today, so she quickly finished her soup and got up for another bowl. While she was up, she refilled the bowls of anyone else who wanted more, which turned out to be everyone but Jennie, Dahyun, and Lisa, who were still halfway through their first bowls. Curiouser and curiouser.

One by one - or in the case of Jihyo and Tzuyu, two at once - everyone finished eating, said their goodnights, and drifted off to their rooms. Jennie tried to get G-Dragon to stay the night and then drive back to town tomorrow, but he refused, saying his shop had already been closed one day, he couldn't afford a second one without a good reason. Even the promise of Chaeyoung's French toast in the morning wasn't enough to get him to stay. He said his good-byes and left, but not before Jennie had extracted a promise from him that he would text her when he got back to town.

After everyone else was gone, Jisoo and Chaeyoung gathered up the dishes and the leftovers and sent them down the dumbwaiter. When they got down to the kitchen, Jisoo put the soup in the refrigerator and the breadsticks in the breadbox while Chaeyoung got started on the dishes. Chaeyoung tried to shoo Jisoo out, saying she'd take care of the dishes, but Jisoo wouldn't hear of it.

"If you won't let me help you with the dishes," Jisoo said, "the least I can do is stay down here and keep you company."

"I've got an idea," Chaeyoung said. "You make us some cocoa and after I finish the dishes we'll go sit out on the back porch, watch the stars and talk."

"Yes, Chef!" Jisoo said with a wink as she went off to gather the ingredients for cocoa.''

* * * * * *

Jennie went to Dahyun's room, totally unsure of what she was going to say, but aware that she had to have this conversation, and she had to have it now. She knocked on the door and Dahyun answered in her nightgown.

"Oh, hi!" said Dahyun. "I'm glad you stopped by. Come in." Her eyes, though, said to Jennie "I wish you were somebody else" so clearly that the words were unnecessary.

"I was just waiting until everyone was out of the way before I came to talk to you about this," Jennie said as she shut the door behind herself.

Dahyun sat down on the bed, then patted the bed to indicate that Jennie should sit on the bed next to her. "I hope you're bringing me good news," she said.

Jennie took a deep breath, not entirely sure what to say. "I'm not sure," she began. "I've been turning it over in my head since we got back to the lodge and I'm not sure what to say."