The Clandestine Us

Forty-seven

───── ❝ Jennie's POV ❞ ─────

I woke up late the next day after staying up too long the night before, replaying everything in my head.

The quiet hotel room gave me too much space to think, and my thoughts kept circling back to the same thing. How on earth Jungkook ended up here, with his only explanation being that he came because he wanted to see me.

Just as I started thinking about it again, the doorbell rang.

It took me a few minutes before I finally got out of bed and walked toward the door. My hair was still messy, and I had barely opened my eyes properly. At this point, I wasn't even surprised anymore when I saw Lisa standing there the moment I opened it.

She leaned against the doorframe casually, a few shopping bags hanging from her wrist, looking completely awake and full of energy.

"Aren't you going out? It's almost lunch," she said. "I just came back from a stroll and did a bit of shopping, and you're still asleep."

"You're way too energetic for me today, Lisa," I replied, rubbing my eyes as I stepped aside to let her see the state I was in.

"Ouch, unnie," she said, clutching her chest dramatically as if she had been deeply wounded. "That hurts."

I rolled my eyes.

"But seriously," she continued, peeking inside the room for a second before looking back at me, "you should enjoy the place. Jungkook's also waiting for you before Jisoo and Rosé dragged him somewhere. God knows where."

"Ah... about that..."

She raised an eyebrow immediately, clearly sensing the hesitation in my voice.

"He already explained, unnie."

"Explained what?"

"That he came here just to see you. That you two are friends again but not together. Also, he messaged us first before he came."

"What about it?" I asked again, still trying to understand where this conversation was going.

Lisa tilted her head slightly, studying my face like she was trying to read my reaction.

"Eyy, you were expecting something, weren't you?" she teased.

"Will you just tell me?"

"Yes, yes. You're so impatient," she whispered jokingly before breaking into a grin.

She shifted the bags in her hand and leaned closer, lowering her voice as if she were about to reveal a secret.

"Anyway, he actually planned to watch our concert... way before. I mean, he really did. That's why he's here. Everything was settled beforehand. His tickets, the hotel, all of it. We just didn't know where he was seated."

I blinked, surprised.

"When he arrived," she continued, "he contacted Jisoo-unnie to ask where we were staying. Then he said he wanted to see you."

I could already imagine how that conversation must have gone.

"Of course, being the dramatic people we are, we cursed and scolded him first. Especially Rosé. You know how she gets," Lisa added, shaking her head with a small laugh. "But in the end, we still told him."

She paused for a moment, then shrugged lightly.

"He may have been a bad boyfriend," she said honestly, "but he was never a bad friend."

"Oh..." I said quietly, absorbing everything she had just told me. "I didn't know it was like that."

Lisa watched me carefully, waiting for some kind of reaction.