so, do we like each other or not? // JENLISA

Chapter 27

Jennie’s frustration with Soohan began to grow into something that gave her a permanent twitch beneath her right eye, and eventually Lisa had to put a stop to it.

"Jennie," she said, watching as she whipped her cell phone against the couch cushions for the eighth time that evening. "What did he do now?"

"He's cancelled Monday's meeting," Jennie spat, picking up her glass of wine and throwing its contents down her throat without so much as a shudder. "That took weeks. Weeks. I nearly got Jisoo to stake out his studio."

"He's being a douchebag – why don't you just drop him?" Lisa asked.

"Because I want him."

"There are plenty of other artists out there, and most of them would kill to get close to you. Why not just—"

"No," Jennie said flatly, rubbing at the marks that her glasses had left on the bridge of her nose. "I want him."

Lisa really didn't see the appeal. She never had. But she supposed she was looking at the whole thing from a very different perspective, and Jennie probably wasn't interested in how low Soohan insisted on wearing his jeans if he was still capable of producing good art while doing so.

The problem, though, was that Lisa wasn't convinced he was producing good art. She knew guys like Soohan, and she knew what a showboat he was. If he was hiding away, refusing to let Jennie step foot inside his workshop, then there must be a reason for that. It was unbearable that Jennie simply hadn't realised it yet.

"Jennie," Lisa said softly, shifting towards her and cupping her cheek. "Can you let me try and help?"

It had been a long week, one where they'd spent nearly every evening at some gala or another. Now that Lisa had gotten the hang of not punching people whenever they sneered at her over their wine glasses, she found most of the events kind of boring. The only perk was Jennie, who right then was leaning into her touch like Lisa was the sole reason she was still awake.

"How?" she asked miserably. Lisa stroked her thumb over her cheekbone.

"I'll go and talk to him myself," she said. When Jennie raised her eyebrows, she added, "Alone."

"The whole problem here is that we can't schedule a meeting with him."

"I know that. I'm not talking about a formal appointment with you and me and too much power dressing. I'm talking about me going to see him by myself and finding out what the hell his problem is."

She tried not to wince as she thought about the way Soohan always watched her, always tried to touch her, always joked about how he'd steal her away from Jennie if only she gave him the chance. She didn't want to go there alone. But she knew that there was no way he'd turn down a meeting with her, and if this was the one thing she could do to help Jennie, then she would do it.

Jennie was eyeing her dubiously. "I'm not sure that's going to work."

"Can you at least let me try? I'll ask him if he wants to grab a drink and I guarantee you he'll say yes. If he doesn't, then it's no problem, right? We're just in the same place as before."

Jennie sighed, pulling away from Lisa's hand to rub at her eyes once more.

"I suppose."