Second Overtime | JENSOO & CHAELISA

Chapter XXV

Jennie couldn't sleep.

Every time she closed her eyes, she was back in Lisa's living room.The television cast its blue glow across the walls.Jisoo's face was close, so close that Jennie could still feel the phantom warmth of her body lingering in the dark.

She remembered how Jisoo's eyes carried something Jennie had spent years teaching herself not to acknowledge. For so long she had denied the truth, refusing to admit that she felt the same way. And when Jisoo looked at her, Jennie's whole body moved before her mind could stop it. Then fear caught up, as it always did.

Now she lay on her side, staring at her phone. The screen cast pale light across her face, illuminating the conversation still open from the night before.

Jennie: Jisoo, I just need you to know you didn't do anything wrong. What happened wasn't a mistake. I wanted it. I wanted to kiss you. But some things are hard to explain right now, in time, when I'm ready, I will tell you the whole story.

Jisoo: Me too. Don't worry about it, I'm just here whenever you're ready.

Me too.

Jennie read the words again. And again. And again.

She had spent years teaching herself not to look too closely at anything that resembled hope. Hope was dangerous; it made people careless. She could not risk her mother finding out, turning cold, and sending her away to another place that broke people down in quiet, cruel ways. Yet Jisoo had said me too as if Jennie had not almost destroyed everything beyond repair.

She could still leave it there, let the messages fade into another unfinished thing between them. She could do what she had done years ago: run, stay silent, and let Jisoo carry the worst parts alone.

Her chest ached at the thought, the feeling rising until it reached her throat.

No. Not again. Jisoo deserved to hear her out. Even if Jennie could not say everything, even if all she could offer were the smallest and safest pieces of the truth, she owed Jisoo at least that much.

By morning, Jennie felt like she hadn't slept at all.

Her mother noticed immediately. "You look tired."

Jennie stood in front of the hallway mirror, fastening the tiny pearl earrings her mother preferred. Her white blouse was perfectly pressed, her skirt falling neatly above her knees. Her hair was brushed smooth and pinned back from her face. She looked like the daughter she was expected to be: proper, quiet, unquestionable.

"I didn't sleep well," she said.

Her mother's gaze narrowed in the mirror. "Why?"

For half a second, Jisoo's name almost rose to her tongue. She swallowed it. "I was just thinking about school."

Her mother's expression softened only slightly. "You think too much."

"That's what I need to do to be the best."

Her mother held her gaze for a long moment, then nodded once. "I see. Come. We're leaving."

Church mornings were something Jennie never looked forward to. They brought no peace, only the reminder that the people around her pretended to be kind, pretended to be good, yet would not hesitate to destroy anyone who was different. She sat in the back seat with her hands folded in her lap, watching the city slide past the window. Her father drove. Her mother spoke now and then about people Jennie barely knew, events she was expected to remember, families whose daughters were doing exactly what daughters were supposed to do.

Jennie nodded when needed. Answered when asked. Smiled when her mother glanced back at her.

Inside her purse, her phone felt heavy. She had typed the message before getting dressed but hadn't sent it yet.