Second Overtime | JENSOO & CHAELISA

Chapter LVII

The sedan's headlights cut through the rain as Rosé guided the car along the narrow, winding road that curved around the reservoir. The water was a dark, shimmering expanse to their left, visible in fragments through the dripping trees. The windshield wipers swept back and forth in a frantic rhythm, barely keeping up with the downpour that had started as a drizzle and was now a steady, punishing sheet of water.

Jisoo sat in the backseat, her phone clutched in her hand, the tracking app still open on the screen. The last known location marker hadn't moved in nearly half an hour. A small, frozen dot at the end of a road that didn't appear on any map they'd checked. A road that led nowhere, except, apparently, to a house hidden among the cedar trees.

"There," Nayeon said suddenly, pointing through the rain-streaked window. "Lights. Up ahead, through the trees."

Rosé slowed the car immediately, pulling onto the muddy shoulder and killing the headlights. The sudden darkness was disorienting, the only illumination coming from the faint glow of the house visible through the dense stand of trees. 

It was a low, sprawling structure built from dark timber and gray stone, its roof pitched low against the rain. The windows glowed with warm, golden light, deceptively welcoming. A single black sedan was parked in the gravel driveway, its engine off, its windows dark.

And near the front door, half-visible in the rain, a man stood guard.

He was young, mid-twenties, maybe, with the kind of blank, professional expression that suggested he'd been paid well and didn't intend to ask questions. 

His hands were shoved in his pockets against the cold. His posture was alert but not tense. He didn't look like someone expecting trouble. He looked like someone who'd been told to stand outside for a few hours and was already bored.

"Oh no," Nayeon whispered. "What do we do? Should we just head on there anyway?"

"We don't know if he's armed," Rosé said, her voice low and controlled. "We don't know how many people are inside. We need to be smart about this."

"We need to get Jennie out," Jisoo said. Her voice was flat, almost unnaturally calm, the way she got when she was holding back something enormous. "That's the only thing that matters."

Lisa was already unclipping her seatbelt, her face set in the grim, determined expression that usually preceded with either a truly heroic act or a spectacularly ill-advised one. Sometimes both. "I'll distract the guard. Get him away from the door. Give you three a chance to circle around to the back."

The silence that followed was heavy. Rosé turned in her seat to look at Lisa, and the expression on her face was one Jisoo had never seen before. Something that looked like the terror of losing someone you couldn't bear to lose.

"Lisa, no. We can think of something else."

"I'm not arguing about this." Lisa's voice was gentler than usual, but no less firm. "I can do this. I'm good at distractions and talking my way out of things. He's one guy, and I just need to keep him occupied for a few minutes."

"He could be armed and dangerous. If something goes wrong, I don't know what I'll do."

"Then you'll be there." Lisa reached over and took Rosé's hand, her fingers intertwining with Rosé's, her grip fierce and steady. "You'll be right there, in the trees. If something goes wrong, you'll come get me. I trust you."

"Lisa." Rosé's voice cracked on the name. "Please. Let's think of another way."

"There isn't another way. We're running out of time. Every minute we sit here is another minute Chaerin could be taking Jennie somewhere we can't follow." Lisa lifted Rosé's hand to her lips and pressed a kiss to her knuckles, soft, lingering, full of everything she didn't have time to say. "I love you. I'll be careful. I promise."