A Thousand Purple Stars (JinJi)

Opening Up

The Spring issue publication party was taking place at a venue further downtown, and it was less formal than the Scholars' Gala, so Jisoo couldn't just reuse her lilac dress. She borrowed a little black one from Jennie that was comfortable and stylish, but it had a low neckline. Every now and then, Jisoo had to grab the front of her dress and pull it up to cover more of her chest.

Beside her on the subway, Jinyoung was wearing the exact same navy suit and black shirt outfit he'd worn to the meeting with Julie Kiyoko. Only this time he had taken the jacket off and laid it on his lap since it was too warm in the underground car, and Jisoo finally had visual confirmation that there was muscle on his arms.

He was bent over and staring at his phone screen, which was open to an app that was flashing microbiology vocabulary words at him. Jisoo felt just a little bad that she had to force him out in the middle of studying for exams. But this was her first company event for Embrace, and she needed him.

"Say it to me again," Jisoo said as she moved her hair away from her neck, trying to get some air on it. It really was way too warm inside the subway. Jinyoung didn't look up as her continued to flip through electronic flash cards.

"I got it," he said.

"Then say it to me again," she said, searching her purse for a hair tie.

"Jisoo, seriously," he said, still not looking up. "Stop worrying, I got it."

"I just need to be sure," Jisoo snapped. "We don't want a repeat of the last time, remember?"

"It was fine last time, too," Jinyoung said, finally looking up at her just as she was tying her hair into a ponytail. He didn't notice earlier, but now that her hair was up, he realized just how much skin her dress showed. It really was warm in that carriage.

"Just say it again, Jinyoung," Jisoo snapped. "From the top. We're doing this, what's our plan?"

Jinyoung shut his phone off and leaned back in his seat as he repeated what he read from their updated script.

"We met at school when we were twelve," he said in bored tone. "I had a crush on you but you didn't like me back, so we became friends. I never brought my feelings back up because there was too much to lose if things didn't go well. We lost touch in college until about two, three months ago. We met at a party, I called you the next day and asked you out. And now I am your fake boyfriend."

That was a condensed version of the extremely long and detailed account of their fake relationship that Jisoo had drafted. But if he was as diligent in studying it as he was in studying those flash cards, Jisoo trusted that he could come up with the details if needed. Still, she wanted to be sure. She quizzed him:

"Where was our first date?" she asked.

"At the river."

"What did we do?"

Jinyoung sighed. "We rode bikes and played badminton and had a picnic," he said, trying to remember what she wrote. "You were wearing a white and red dress, and there was a guitarist busking at the park."

"Good. And my favorite color is?"

Jinyoung didn't answer right away. He took the opportunity to look at Jisoo, and he had an amused look on his face.

"Do you know what my favorite color is?" he asked. Jisoo was caught off guard.

"Uh. No," she said.

"And you don't think they're going to be asking you those questions about me, too?" Jinyoung said, crossing his arms in a way that made it impossible not to notice that he did indeed put some muscle on his arms. Jisoo thought about his question and realized, begrudgingly, that he was right.