chasing girl wonder

refire

A/N: Happy ChaeLisa on TikTok! So, we are firing another update!!! Third update this weekend because the story's a few chapters ahead in my mind already so I gotta keep up. Another long chapter because my characters are the most talkative, like, for real... I can't with them.

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Lisa quietly slid the door to Jisoo's tattoo shop open just a tiny bit to peek first to check if her friends were not setting her up with random girls again. She would not fall victim again to their stupid acts like many years ago when they called her for an 'emergency,' Hyunjin crying over the phone that he lost his ability to taste, only for Lisa to end up on a blind date with four women. Or that one time Jisoo bragged about scoring free tickets to the Cookin' NANTA musical in Myeongdong. She did score the tickets but made Lisa sit in between four strangers instead of with her friends.

It was strange. Her usually noisy buddies were very quiet, but the smell of spliff fogged the entire room mixing with Jisoo's new superior slut, the Tobacco and Oud candle, and sage burning.

Lisa breathed out. There were no random girls in sight, so it was safe to proceed. Her appearance cut Jisoo's oddly thin voice blabbering something about Jennie. God, if someone threw in a dollar with every sentence Jisoo said that had Jennie's name in it, they would be millionaires by then. "Where's the yapping turd? Who diz?"

Moonbyul expelled smoke and raised a hand in greeting. "Yo, dawg!"

Hyunjin, sitting cross-legged on the tattoo bed squealed, "Lisa-baybehhhh! Let's run through the tasting menu options I prepared before you go back to Jukdo!"

"Shush!" Jisoo annoyingly hit Hyunjin's knee and lit up a spliff. She would not turn her head to look at Lisa, but she excitedly called Love and gave him belly rubs.

Seulgi nodded in Lisa's direction and patted the stool beside her for Lisa to sit on. The moment Lisa sat on it, she leaned closer and whispered, "For her to shut up, we made her recount her random date with Jennie. This is the fifth time we're hearing it so please bear with her if you don't want her picking on you again."

"Fucker," Lisa muttered, pulling her smoking device. "Here, just get one each, y'all, or I'll punch your guts." She put the box of egg tarts from Roseanne on the tattoo bed beside Hyunjin and took one to eat. Moonbyul, Hyunjin, and Seulgi took one each, but Jisoo did not.

Upon seeing the box, Jisoo scoffed. "Of course. Of course, you'll hang out with Rosie first before you—I bet your new woman knows more about you than us—"

"Dawg, you have to tell Love your love story! Won't miss it for the world!" Moonbyul said, winking at Lisa and then feeding Jisoo an egg tart to make her stop talking for a moment.

"She's not my new woman. We're... just friends." Lisa sat down again, feeling a little bitter about it but decided to shrug off the thought and not mull over it. When she took a hit on her heat stick, it was only then did she realize that she had only smoked once after lunch. Hanging out with Roseanne and talking gave her lips something else to do. Her lungs had a refreshing intake of air that smelled of bergamot, neroli, and petitgrain. And daisies. Fucking daisies. Roseanne was a different kind of drug that boosted her levels of dopamine and adrenaline rush more than any nicotine could.

Moonbyul said, "Well," crossing her ankles as she stood there against the tattoo bed with one hand holding the beer and spliff and the other a piece of egg tart, "it's worst dating someone after a breakup. She's not completely going to be herself yet, know what I mean, dawg? She's technically not yet emotionally available at this point."

"I—I don't date to marry, man. And we're just..." Lisa's voice quieted down in the end. She did not even want to acknowledge that maybe Roseanne would only, always, see her as a friend. Just that.