chasing girl wonder

dying on the pass

Lisa walked upstairs to Jisoo's tattoo shop, feeling a pounding pain on the left side of her brain. More than the slices of three different versions of Opera cake that Roseanne asked her to taste before she left, the cause of it was perhaps the burning desire to see her again. The elation of that possibility ran through her veins strappingly, the pulsing sensation was accompanied by nausea and extreme sensitivity to light and sound.

All the way to Jisoo's, her mind was occupied with too much brightness of the image of Roseanne's perfect blonde hair, milky skin, and goddamn white post-workout outfit that made her a sinner in her all-black wardrobe.

Her brain was not used to seeing too much light. Though she appreciated women's beauty and femininity that she validated in the sheets, none of them were that happy. In one way or another, what bonded her to those other women was loneliness. She had never met someone who carried herself with such effervescence as Roseanne—simply effortless at being herself. She never thought it possible—happiness looking so good on someone, it would be a crime to make her sad.

Instead of thinking about Amara's death, she was thinking about Roseanne's life. How her hair would be done the next day. How she would look in a dress. If she finished that plate of Pad Kra Pao she left for her and talked about it with her friends. And how her face would look like The Garden of Morning Calm if she finally mastered cracking, singlehandedly, those two eggs.

"At last!" Jisoo, who was seated on a wheelie stool, slid herself toward the door, lifting both feet in the air.

Lisa stopped the stool from hitting her with her foot. She lifted her nose and caught the faint smell of pot, overpowered by the smell of Bath & Body Works' Tobacco and Oud 3-wick candle and sage that her dad was burning in an ashtray. "How the hell are you able to smoke here?"

Before answering, Jisoo wrapped her arms around Lisa's hips and rested her cheek on the latter's stomach. "My homie, that's my superior slut you're smelling."

"You call pot your superior slut now? Thought that'd be Jennie." Lisa closed the door behind her and then released Love who ran toward her dad. Love's nub wagged excitedly and his entire back did too when he was completely enveloped in her dad's arms.

Jisoo released the hug and pinched Lisa's groin, eliciting a loud—

"Oww—Fuck you!" The dirty chai latte spilled on her hand, and Lisa pushed the stool hard, sending a guffawing Jisoo away, hitting the foldable tattoo beds that were set up in the middle of the room. "You're losing—ugh—one customer today, fucker," she hissed while rubbing the area that was pinched.

Placing both hands behind her head, Jisoo leaned against the crooked tattoo bed and brought her right ankle over her left knee. "Where's my coffee?!"

"You didn't tell me what you want, and I don't want to waste coffee if I get you the wrong one," Lisa said, unaffected by the middle finger pointed at her like a gun. She walked right up to the beverage cooler that was full of OB Beer cans. "I'm pretty sure I'll find a coffee here." And she did. She threw the Cold Americano can toward Jisoo. "Expires in three days."

Jisoo caught it with her hands. "If this kills me, you're going to have to fulfill the rest of my promises, fucker."

Lisa sighed. She walked toward where Jisoo, her dad, and Love were, one hand on her waist while she sipped her coffee. "I don't get your useless pining for a very 300% straight woman. Save some of your dignity."

Jisoo pointed at the concrete wall to their left where a list of one hundred promises was written in chalk. "You're the only one who'd do that for me because," she pulled her hair out of frustration, "Moon will get lost on her way there even if we've been there multiple times! Seulgi's going to be too honest and might even confess my feelings for me! And then stupid ass Jinnie will just complain!"