A Girl From High Society

Chapter 17

 

Rosé opened the door almost immediately, and although there was no smile on her face, Jisoo felt that the younger Park was glad to see her. It was felt in the curve of her full lips, in the instantly warming look and in the tone of her low voice when Rosé said, leaning her hand on the jamb:

-Good evening.

-Hi.- Feeling her heart beating wildly, Jisoo responded and, before entering, looked back warily at the trees with cameras. For some reason, they made her nervous, reminding her of what she didn't want to think about—that there was Mr. Park in this house, and he was invisibly present everywhere she went.

Rosé, however, did not notice anything. She stepped aside slightly to let Jisoo into the hallway, and stopped, crossing her arms over her chest and watching the girl take off her jacket.

-Mary didn't spot you?- Rosé asked with a chuckle, taking the jacket from the girl and hanging it on a hook. She laughed with relief.

-No, but I was walking across the lawn with such a look that if anyone saw me, they would think that I had robbed the Parks.

Rosé let out a light laugh that roused Jisoo's already strained nerves.

-Yes, if she spotted you, it would be awkward. Mary can be very intrusive.

-I noticed.

Jisoo smiled shyly, looking around. The hallway looked exactly as she remembered it: wooden walls with lots of carved lamps, warm parquet underfoot, the smell of pine and something floral, fresh. Everything was exactly the same, except that the sensations had changed — now Jisoo felt even more insecure than the last time, and the reason for this was here — she was standing, looking at her, against the wall, slender, fragile and somehow dangerously soft.

-Therefore, my best weapon against her is to pretend that I have depression, turning into neurosis.- Rosé said, making big eyes.- When she's too intrusive, I pretend like I'm going to go off the rails, and Mary immediately falls behind.

Jisoo looked in surprise at Rosé, who leaned her shoulder against the wall and stood with a sly smile on her face, as if silently asking "tricky, right, Jisoo?".

-Yes? Do you really do that?

-Yeah.- Rosé nodded.- Sometimes the reputation of being abnormal is very useful.

She was joking and not joking at the same time, and Jisoo suddenly thought about what Charlie had said to her that Christmas. She sometimes recalled his words, trying to ignore the dreary feeling that appeared at the same time, but Rosé during these four months of correspondence did not show that she was at least a little sick, on the contrary, communication with her was almost the most adequate in the life of Jisoo, one of whose friends loved to break bottles on the heads of drunk guys, and the second fucked everything that moves and threw cigarette butts out the window. Rosé was reserved, well-mannered, could support any topic and had a wonderful sense of humor. In fact, all her oddities boiled down to the fact that she had not left Park House for five years and was hiding something behind the closed door of her house. Yes, there was also some kind of nervous breakdown, but it happened many years ago, and only Charlie spoke about the breakdown, and Edward, for example, knew about it from his father's words, but he himself had never seen Rosé in this state.

Besides, as Jisoo understood, real psychos do not realize that they are psychos, and Rosé just said that "a reputation for being abnormal can be useful." Isn't this evidence that she is very healthy?

And she wonder if psychos can be so attractive?

-Jisoo?

She realized that Rosé was talking to her, woke up from her thoughts and looked into surprised green eyes.