Second Overtime | JENSOO & CHAELISA

Chapter LV

The morning began softly, the way mornings in the condo often did now, with pale sunlight filtering through the curtains and the distant hum of the city waking up beyond the windows. 

Jennie surfaced from sleep in slow increments, aware first of the warmth pressed against her back, then of the arm draped loosely over her waist, then of the slow, steady rhythm of Jisoo's breathing against the nape of her neck.

She didn't move. She didn't want to. This had become something she hoarded like a secret, a small, precious thing that belonged only to her. Jisoo's presence in her bed had started as a necessity, a way to ward off the nightmares that came with sleeping in an unfamiliar place. But somewhere along the way, it had become something else. Something that made Jennie's chest ache with a tenderness she didn't have words for.

Behind her, Jisoo stirred. Her arm tightened around Jennie's waist, pulling her closer, and her voice came out rough with sleep. "You're awake."

"How can you tell?"

"Your breathing changes. It gets shallower when you're thinking too hard." Jisoo pressed a kiss to the back of Jennie's shoulder, soft and absentminded, as if it were the most natural thing in the world. "What are you thinking about?"

"You."

"Good things?"

"Always." Jennie turned in her arms so they were face to face. Jisoo's eyes were still puffy with sleep, her cheek creased with pillow lines, her lips slightly chapped. She was the most beautiful thing Jennie had ever seen. "I was thinking about how different this feels. Waking up here instead of that house."

"It feels different because it is different." Jisoo's hand came up to cup Jennie's cheek, her thumb brushing gently across her cheekbone. "You're not trapped anymore. You're not being watched. You're just here. With me. In a bed that's technically yours, though I've been hogging most of it."

"You have been hogging it. You're a blanket thief."

"I'm a heat-seeking missile. It's not my fault you're warm."

Jennie laughed, and the sound felt easy, unforced. She reached up and traced the line of Jisoo's jaw, the curve of her cheek, the small scar near her eyebrow that she'd gotten when they were children falling out of a tree, Jisoo had said, though Jennie had always suspected the story was more interesting than she'd been told. "Jisoo?"

"Mm?"

"I want to be with you. Really with you. Not just sleeping beside you. Not just holding hands." The words came out steadier than she expected, though her heart was hammering against her chest. "I've been thinking about it for a while. I just...I didn't know how to say it."

Jisoo's expression shifted, the playfulness fading into something more serious, more attentive. She propped herself up on one elbow, her dark hair falling around her face. "Are you sure?"

"I've never been more sure of anything." Jennie let her fingers trail down Jisoo's cheek, her neck, coming to rest at the collar of her shirt. "I've spent years being afraid of what I wanted. Afraid of what my mother would say, what the school would say, what everyone would think. I'm not afraid anymore. Not of this. Not of you."

Jisoo leaned down and kissed her, soft at first, then deeper, her hand sliding into Jennie's hair, her body shifting to hover above her. When she pulled back, her eyes were bright with something that looked almost like wonder. "Tell me if you want to stop. At any point. Tell me and I'll stop immediately."

"I won't want to stop."

"Promise me anyway."

"I promise."