Precious Things || Jensoo

Chapter 29

Chapter Twenty-Nine

We don't get to sleep until about one in the end.

I shuffle into my bed on the floor and under the blankets, watching Jennie climb into her bed. She's back in her beater and shorts and I can't stop thinking about the way she looked in the bathroom.

Or the way she looked at me.

The fact is I can easily enough understand that this is probably all in my head.

She wasn't going to kiss me; I just thought she was. She's dating Jongin for Christ's sake! She likes boys. She likes him.

I have no reason to think she'd cheat on the guy; and, even if she would, why on earth would she do it with me?

No, I'm Jisoo, the friend who isn't fake.

Don't get me wrong: that's a fantastic thing to be, but it's also not the person she wants to kiss.

Doesn't mean I can stop thinking about how those few seconds made me feel.

Nothing happened. And she starts talking to me in a normal way because that's the truth. I ask her about her father, her sister, her step-mother. When we get to the topic of Jennie's actual mother we skip past it, fast. I get the message very quickly that Chaerin Lee is not up for discussion.

When we finally fall asleep it's because she gets tired and stops talking. For a while I lay awake listening to the sound of her breathing, and then I finally roll over and get some shut-eye myself.

The next morning – miracle of all miracles! – I actually sleep until eight a.m. It's a novel experience, just one of the few that I'm getting this weekend.

Jennie, of course, is still asleep. She's snoring gently and it's cute. Everything she does is cute. I don't know how heavily she sleeps so I try not to move and just watch her. After an hour, I'm getting stiff from lying here so I decide, tentatively, to get up and get dressed.

I sneak out of the room and into the bathroom where I shower and dress. I sigh sadly as I pull my skirt and blouse on. I really liked wearing Jennie's clothes. Somehow they felt freer. Like I could be more Jisoo and less 'Grandpa's lil' girl'.

When I tiptoe back into the room, she's still asleep, so I quietly back out again. Now I'm stuck in Jennie's house and I don't know what to do with myself. Silently, I wander down stairs and into the kitchen.

Hyorin is sitting there, sipping her coffee and reading the paper. I must make more noise than I think because she looks up and gives me a smile.

"You're up early."

"Actually this is kinda late for me," I admit shyly, still standing in the doorway.

She chuckles. "Pull up a chair. Coffee?"

I shake my head. "Er, do you have any tea?"

"Of course, let me make you one."

I'm torn between not wanting her to do something for me and offering to do it myself, which would involve becoming familiar with her kitchen. That feels awkward, too.

But she's up and making me tea, so I let her keep doing so without protest.

It's a little awkward for me, sitting here cupping my tea at the table with Hyorin. And then she does something unexpected: she offers me a section of the paper.

And slowly but surely it becomes comfortable. I read the travel section, flipping through all the amazing places I'll probably never go and imagining touring them. I can't help myself imagining doing so with Jennie.