lessons in love || chaennie

chapter thirty

"Yay! It's bouncy!" Chaeyoung said excitedly as she jumped up and down on the queen-sized bed in their hotel room.

In the end, it had only taken a couple of days for Chaeyoung to settle on an acceptable hotel, Jennie not caring as long as they had a bed and there wasn't any cockroaches and the blonde had chosen quite a nice hotel, ten minutes drive from the UCLA campus that she would be speaking at tomorrow. Mr. Park, who although seemed uncomfortable with the idea of the two girls sharing a hotel room, wasn't in denial any longer of the actual nature of their relationship and had paid for the room in an attempt of an apology that he couldn't be there for the actual event.

Mrs. Park, who since Chaeyoung had come out had become even colder, if that was possible, to her daughter, had said a forced 'good luck' before they had left and ignored Jennie's presence. Absent relationship with her mother aside, because, quite frankly, Chaeyoung was so used to it that she didn't really care anymore, the blonde was both dreading and looking forward to her debate tomorrow. Her speech was done, she had her laptop to re-check her facts if the panic took her and she had her girl, who would be in the stands the whole time, supporting her as always.

Jennie looked on, smiling as Chaeyoung bounced on the bed; she'd been reading over her speech the entire car trip down and it didn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that she was nervous as hell for the next day. She dropped their two overnight bags and went to the bed as well, checking the bounciness.

"Very bouncy," Jennie confirmed, pulling Chaeyoung down into a sitting position.

Chaeyoung settled and put her hand on the brunette's knee. She brought her hand up to her mouth and bit at the skin around her nails for a minute.

"I'm just gonna make sure all my quotes are right and stuff, is that okay?"

"Of course it is," Jennie said with a smile, "I brought a book. I'll be right here if you need anything."

"You're the best," Chaeyoung replied and leaned over for a chaste kiss, "We can order, like, really expensive room service, since Dad's paying and everything."

"Whatever you want, love."

Chaeyoung smiled shyly and gave her another quick kiss before jumping off the bed and going over to her bag, getting her laptop out and booting it up while she held the copy of her speech in one hand. Jennie rummaged through her own bag, finding the book she had brought and flopped back onto the bed, the room in silence apart from the keystrokes of Chaeyoung's laptop until the blonde let out a horrified squeal about twenty minutes later.

"Babe, what is it?" Jennie asked, moving to sit at the end of the bed.

"I..I...this quote... it's supposed to say 'hallmark of an authoritarian regime' but I have 'characteristic of an authoritarian regime'. I must have mixed up my analysis of it with the actual quote itself."

"Well, that's okay, you've spotted it, you can just change it."

"But if I did it on this, I could've done it on all of them. And, oh god, what if I hadn't noticed. And then I'd be known as the girl who can't even get her quotes right. I mean, if I mess up someone else's words, how could mine ever be taken seriously?!"

Chaeyoung had jumped up from her seat and was pacing back and forth in a somewhat maniacal manner at this stage, gesturing wildly with her hands.

"Sweetheart, just relax for a second and-"

"Relax? Jennie, how the hell am I supposed to relax!?"

Jennie watched her girlfriend start to go slightly red as she continued to rant about not being able to relax and did the only thing she could think of to help. She took her top off. Chaeyoung paced for a few more moments until on her next turn she caught sight of the brunette.