chasing girl wonder

confectionery confession

On Friday afternoon, Lisa stepped out to the back of the old warehouse for a smoke break. Her fever subsided but she still felt a bit woozy—coughing and sneezing here and there—not just from all the pills Roseanne made her take or her constant reminders since yesterday. She was dazed from all the moments she had with Roseanne in the past two days. Talking with her. Touching her. Kissing her. Falling asleep with her, cuddling. It felt like it was always New Year's Day.

With one hand jammed inside her pants, she stood near their makeshift trash can—a cardboard box they got from the Korean BBQ restaurant next door—with a plastic inside it. Getting those RFID bins was a pain in the ass, and she spent quite a moment back there when they were going through their Gantt Chart, complaining to her friends about the cost of the sheet of food waste stickers and certified trash bags from the government that should have already improved the tech system and made the whole goddamn process more efficient and seamless. Pay-as-you-throw system her ass. So, until then, they had no trash can, and no other choice but to keep hiding the cardboard box between her Kogata and Jisoo's Ford Ranger. It would not be long before the back parking area would turn into a dumpster and Winter was going to pull another Sorn-like attitude,

"No, no. That cardboard isn't going to work," Winter said when they were all gathered at the back days ago. "Can't fit boss and Jisoo in there."

and imply that she and Jisoo were trash for coming up with that idea.

Her eyes darted toward the bricked wall that would soon get painted black. She could see the construction inside their future kitchen through the single-hung windows across the entire wall. In less than three months, the once sleepy old warehouse would be her house. Before she knew it, she would be living and breathing inside it more than at home. She would have that day or any day, but the Back of House was nowhere near operational at that point. And because she was looking forward to coming home that night.

Just as her mind started drifting to the previous night with Roseanne, Jisoo came out of the backdoor, walking toward her direction, nodding briefly without lifting her gaze.

Jisoo threw the empty vape pod straight inside the cardboard box and plugged the new one into her device. The air around her was glum, and she was sure her friends caught on when instead of exchanging a joking repartee with all of them, she only kept her mouth shut, sounding and looking resigned.

Lisa thought of asking Jisoo what was up, like the real shit, but she remembered Seulgi already asked that earlier and Jisoo's response was she did not get any sleep. Moonbyul reprimanded Jisoo that she should start reducing her playtime if she did not want her HP to run out once they started running the restaurant. Hyunjin sarcastically commented on her losing interest in playing games when her sole reason for playing them became Jennie. The mention of Jennie's name made Jisoo stiffen and she added a rule in the house not to mention her name when their tongues should perfect the pronunciation of 'mise en place' and not act like cool kids shortening it to 'miz.' That slight display of Jisoo-ness made everybody exchange a smile.

On the other hand, she felt it was rich to come from her when she was not one to talk about what she was going through with her friends. When Jisoo smoked in silence, she did the same, sensing the former was not in the mood to talk. So, her mind drifted back to yesterday. Nothing maudlin and melodramatic about it. Just sheer calm and joy in having Roseanne at home with her.

After their heavy brunch yesterday at Tiger JK's home, she and Roseanne cleaned up after themselves. For the life of Roseanne, she could not stop Lisa from still helping with the scraping of the plates, throwing the trash, and loading everything into the dishwasher. Every time she muttered a complaint, Lisa would steal a kiss on her cheek, shoulder, or arm, just anything her lips could reach until eventually, Roseanne shut up about it.