Our Old Manager.

The first kiss she'll regret later.

The room felt smaller for four people who all wanted the same thing and refused to say it out loud.

Lisa was pacing. Not anxious pacing but measured, almost rhythmic, like she was counting steps in her head. Rosé sat on the arm of the couch, knee bouncing, fingers twisting the ring she always wore when she was thinking too hard. Jisoo had claimed the center, calm in that unsettling way where calm felt louder than panic. Jennie stood by the window, phone face-down in her hand, city lights cutting sharp lines across her face.

No one said Y/N's name at first.

None of them had to.

"Do you girls remembered years ago when I showed up at her apartment? Unannounced?" Jennie reminded, suddenly. "She did not even hesitate to still help me get out of there safely."

Lisa stopped pacing and Rosé looked up. "You never told us what that was like." Jennie exhaled through her nose, almost a laugh. "Messy. Quiet. She looked tired. Defensive, but still, she still let me in."

"That is the one thing I love about her," Lisa said, softly. "She always lets us in."

Jisoo's eyes flicked to Jennie. "Did she look surprised? I remembered her asking you what the hell you were doing there."

"No," Jennie shot back. "She trusts us. Even when she should not." Lisa leaned against the wall now, arms crossed. "Or she thinks we're safe."

The word safe lingered in the air, heavy and fucking ironic.

Jisoo tilted her head, studying the younger girls like a scientist observing a reaction. "You know," she said, tone gentle, "normal people do not track someone they care about. Or rearrange lawyers. Or plan isolation like it's
a chess move."

Rosé let out a quiet laugh. "So, what the hell are you saying?"

Jisoo met their eyes, one by one. "Maybe we are crazy about her."

Silence.

Then, Lisa grinned. "Yeah, that checks out." Jennie did not smile. Her gaze drifted back to the windows. "We won't be 'crazy'," she said with air quotes. "if she keeps choosing Daniela."

Rosé's expression darkened. "Even after everything." Jisoo said calmly next, "Which means, we don't compete directly." Lisa nodded slowly. "We wait and we guide. We let other pieces knock her around."

"And when she finally looks back," Rosé added, eyes bright with something sharp. "we're the only ones still standing."

Jennie turned away from the windows at last. "She does not know it yet," she said. "She just needs to keep needing us."

No one disagreed.

Somewhere across the city, Y/N was living her life, unaware that she wasn't just being talked about. She was being studied, remembered, kept.

And the scariest part? None of them thought they were doing anything wrong.

Time stopped behaving normally after this.

Days blurred into a strange rhythm where Y/N was constantly going somewhere which meant quiet lunches that turned into long meetings. Some late afternoons spent in sleek rooms with tinted windows, conversations that sounded legal enough on the surface.

Contracts.
Statements.
Strategy.

Words that felt clean. Words that felt controlled. Words that felt safe.

Y/N told herself that if Blackpink were helping, it had to be aboveboard. People like them did not need to get their hands dirty.

And the girls never corrected her.