Second Overtime | JENSOO & CHAELISA

Chapter XXIX

Jisoo didn't sleep.

She lay in her bed for hours after the call ended, staring at the ceiling with eyes that burned and refused to close. Every time she closed her eyes, she saw Jennie's face,  and then her tears, the broken smile, the fingers pressed to her lips and then to the camera. I love you. I love you so much. Please remember that.

When her alarm went off at six-thirty, Jisoo hadn't slept a wink. She dragged herself out of bed like a corpse rising from the grave, moving through her morning routine on autopilot. Shower. Uniform. Hair. She didn't even bother making sure she looked good, what was the point? It wasn't like anyone was going to look at her. It wasn't like the one person she wanted to look at her would even glance in her direction.

Irene was already in the kitchen when Jisoo came downstairs. She took one look at her sister's face; the puffy eyes, the tangled hair, the hollow expression of someone who had cried until there was nothing left; and opened her mouth to speak.

"Please don't say anything unnie," Jisoo said, her voice flat and lifeless. "Just... don't."

Irene closed her mouth. For once, she didn't push. She just slid a plate of bacon and eggs across the counter and watched Jisoo ignore it completely.

"You have to eat," Irene said quietly.

"I'm not hungry."

"Jisoo, you need your strength."

"I said I'm not hungry."

The words came out harsher than Jisoo intended. She didn't apologize. She couldn't summon the energy. She just grabbed her bag and headed for the door.

"Jisoo." Irene's voice stopped her at the threshold. "Whatever happened... you can talk to me. You know that, right?"

Jisoo stood there for a moment, her hand on the doorknob, her back to her sister. She could feel the tears threatening to rise again, the sob building in her chest, the desperate, aching need to collapse into Irene's arms and cry until she couldn't breathe.

But she didn't. She couldn't. If she started crying now, she might never stop.

"I'm fine," she said.

She left before Irene could call her on the lie.

School was a nightmare.

Every hallway felt too long. Every classroom felt too small. Every face in the crowd was the wrong face, because the only face Jisoo wanted to see was the one that refused to look at her.

She spotted Jennie between second and third period, standing at her locker with Nayeon beside her. Jennie's eyes were red. Her shoulders were hunched. She looked like she hadn't slept any more than Jisoo had.

But she didn't look at Jisoo. Not once. Not even a glance.

Jisoo stood there, frozen in the middle of the hallway, willing Jennie to turn her head. Just a little. Just enough to acknowledge that she existed, that they had existed, that the past few months hadn't been some beautiful, impossible dream.

Jennie closed her locker and walked away. Nayeon followed, her hand resting protectively on Jennie's back. She glanced at Jisoo as she passed, just long enough for Jisoo to see the apology in her eyes, and then she was gone too.

Jisoo's hands curled into fists at her sides.

"Unnie?" Lisa's voice came from somewhere behind her. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine."

"You don't look fine."

"I said I'm fine, Lisa."