Second Overtime | JENSOO & CHAELISA

Chapter XX

Jennie woke to sunlight and the weight of something soft against her cheek. She blinked, disoriented, and found herself staring into the familiar glass eyes of a well-worn teddy bear.

Nini.

She must have pulled him from the shelf in her sleep. His fur was matted in places, one ear slightly frayed from years of being clutched too tightly. She hadn't held him like this in a long time, not since she was a child, crying into his fur because she wasn't allowed to see Jisoo anymore.

Nini and Gaji, she thought, and the memory rose unbidden: two little girls on a bedroom floor, pushing their stuffed animals together and making them talk in silly voices. Jisoo's rabbit and Jennie's bear. Best friends, just like them.

She pressed her face into Nini's soft stomach and let herself remember. Then she reached for her phone.

The thread was still there. The last message Jisoo had sent her.

Goodnight, Jendeuk.

It had been hours, and Jennie still didn't know what to do with the feeling that rose in her chest every time she read it. Relief? Fear? Something closer to hope?

She didn't text back. What would she even say? Thank you for calling me by the nickname you used when we were kids and everything was simple? Thank you for worrying about me even though I gave you every reason not to?

Instead, she put the phone down and got ready for school.

At breakfast, her mother was already seated at the table, scrolling through her phone. Chaerin looked up as Jennie sat down, her sharp eyes sweeping over her daughter's face.

"You look tired."

"I didn't sleep well," Jennie said. It was true enough.

"Were you up late studying?"

"Nayeon and I were working on a project." Also true, technically. They had been at the diner. There had been a project. Chaerin didn't need to know the rest.

Chaerin nodded, apparently satisfied. "Make sure you eat. You have a long day."

You have a long day. Such an ordinary sentence. Jennie almost laughed at the absurdity of it. Her mother had no idea what Jennie had confessed last night. What she'd remembered and what she was beginning, finally, to admit to herself.

She ate her toast and said nothing.

The school hallway was the same as always: loud, crowded and full of students who didn't know and didn't care that Jennie's entire world had cracked open the night before.

She spotted Jisoo almost immediately. She was at her locker, crutches tucked under one arm while she fumbled with her combination. Lisa was beside her, saying something that made Jisoo roll her eyes, but she was smiling.

Jennie's heart did something weird. She looked away before Jisoo could catch her staring.

She made it to her own locker without incident. Their shoulders nearly brushed as she worked her combination. Adjacent lockers meant they were always in each other's orbit, whether they liked it or not. Jisoo glanced at her, a brief flicker of acknowledgment, then went back to digging through her things.

No words but no hostility either. Just the quiet, tentative truce they'd been building over weeks of tutoring sessions and random conversations.

Jennie was pulling out her books, trying to convince herself this was just a normal day, when she heard the voice behind her.

"Jennie."

Jihyo.

She turned slowly. Jihyo was standing a few feet away, Tzuyu beside her as always. Her expression wasn't openly hostile; it rarely was. That was what made her so dangerous. She always looked like she was just making conversation.