it's always ourselves that we find in the sea || jensoo

Chapter 3

"It's like he's blacklisted me," Jennie grumbled into the phone as she put a load of washing into the machine, clamping the phone between her ear and shoulder as she carefully measured out a cap full of the cherry blossom fabric softener that Minzy liked. Closing the tray with a little more force than necessary, Jennie turned the dial and pressed the button, listening to the sound of water running. Picking the phone up with her hand, she pressed it to her ear as she walked through the hallway, the wooden floor creaking beneath her footsteps. "I've applied to three other newspapers in Seoul and none of them have gotten back to me. I even applied as a columnist for a fashion magazine!"

"You, in fashion?" Chaeyoung snorted, "I don't think advising people to wear a belt with everything would make for a good column."

"What's wrong with my belts?" Jennie indignantly replied, flicking the switch for the kettle and pulling a clean cup out of the cupboard. Jumping onto the counter, she stole a slice of banana bread that she'd baked earlier, grimacing at the slightly sticky centre where she hadn't cooked it all the way through. Sighing, she put it back down on the pile and waited for the hot water to boil; she could get a cup of tea right, if nothing else.

Chaeyoung laughed on the other end of the phone, not deigning her sister with a reply, and the conversation moved on. "When are you coming home? You know living with me wouldn't be a bother. I already have all of your shit in here anyway. Honestly, Jennie, you need to stop buying books. Winn almost threw his back out when he tried lifting one of them."

"How is he?" Jennie asked, feeling slightly guilty about blowing off his concerned texts with short, half-hearted replies.

"Pretty upset that he lost his gaming buddy," Chaeyoung said, "he'll get over it though. James even volunteered to get an Xbox to keep him company."

Jennie tried to ignore the barely concealed happiness in Chaeyoung's tone, knowing her sister had never been overly fond of Taehyung, and had only made the effort to talk to him for Jennie's sake. It turned out Chaeyoung's judgement had been right though, and Jennie felt slightly bitter at the fact that she had been. After losing her job, it would've been nice to just have one thing, but instead, she had nothing of her own. Brooding over her failures, Jennie couldn't help but feel disheartened, and almost as if she could head her sister's thoughts, Chaeyoung's voice softened.

"Hey, it's okay. You'll find something. This isn't permanent," she soothingly told her.

Rubbing her forehead, Jennie sighed, her shoulders dropping in defeat. "Yeah. I'll be back in no time. I've started writing a book in the meantime."

Chaeyoung made a small exclamation of surprise, "That's great! You've been saying you were going to write one for years. What's it about?"

Perking up slightly at Chaeyoung's encouraging tone - not that she'd expect anything less from her supportive sister - Jennie smiled slightly, biting her lip. "I'm not really sure yet. I've only been working on it for a few days."

"Well it's good that you've got something to do for now," Chaeyoung said.

"Yeah," Jennie murmured, the sound of bubbling water reaching her ears, shortly followed by a quiet click as the switch flicked, and she jumped down off the counter, sweeping her ruined banana bread into the bin. "Well, I, uh, I should get going. I'm trying to make a soup for dinner tonight so I need to go to the store."

"Good luck," Chaeyoung laughed, "I'll speak to you soon. Let me know if I can help with anything."

Knowing that she wouldn't bother her sister, who already had her own life to worry about, including a stressful job as a police detective as well as recovering from her own break up, she Jennie agreed anyway. "Yeah, sure. Bye."