Miss J | Jensoo

Ch32. Baby Steps

The first thing Jennie noticed when the three of them returned to Jisoo's ward was the absence of Joohee, but she kept the observation to herself as she placed her purse and the bag of food on the table.

"Yo Jisoooooperstar, you had us so worried!" Lisa squeezed next to Jisoo on the left side of the bed, careful to avoid the right arm with a nasty wound. "Glad to have you back!" She patted Jisoo's back lightly.

Jisoo chuckled and ruffled Lisa's hair, "Thanks for having my back, guys."

"While my back had the couch," Rosé groaned as she stretched herself out on the end of the bed.

Leaning casually next to the window, furthest away from Jisoo, Jennie chimed in with a half-smile, "I'm backing out of this one," referring to the random word play going on.

"No, come back!" Lisa dramatically exclaimed, and Jennie rolled her eyes. Laughter erupted amongst them for a while, before Lisa nudged shoulders with Jisoo and asked, "Seriously though, why don't you like my best friend back?"

At that, Jennie face-palmed, Jisoo emitted an 'umm' sound, and Rosé sat upright and whacked Lisa's thigh. "Oww!" Lisa yelped and rubbed her leg.

"Lisa...," Jennie screwed her eyes shut and covered her burning face with her hand, muffling her mumbles, "I thought we agreed not to go there..." Can things get any more awkward?

"But –"

"Okay, honey, time to go!" Patting Lisa's thigh vigorously, Rosé hopped off the bed and explained to the other two, "We've got a test later, and we stink, so." She pointed a thumb towards the door and yanked a whining Lisa up, before they started gathering their belongings.

"Why can't I ask Jisoo?" "But why?" "She obviously likes her..." "But Jen's my best friend!"

"Shhh!!"

Thank goodness Rosé ended all that with a hush, because Lisa thought she was whispering and being all discreet when really everyone could hear her, making Jennie sigh inwardly and look down at her shuffling feet – she was still in her nice shoes that matched her blue summer dress from the disastrous date she wished never happened.

Somehow, she could feel Jisoo's gaze boring into her and silently willing her to look, then she realized she had not made eye contact with Jisoo at all since entering the ward. And now that the damage was done, with Lisa's blurted question hanging around like a big white elephant in the room, all the more Jennie wanted to escape. She suddenly felt flustered at the prospect of being alone with Jisoo, or worse, Jisoo and Joohee. Just the thought of it was making her stomach churn.

"I'll go with you girls," Jennie hastily added, already going for her purse on the table.

"Hmm? But then, who's gonna be here for Jisoo?" Lisa and her forgetfulness were forcing Jennie to answer aloud a painful fact that she had been avoiding.

Inhaling quietly, Jennie then exhaled as indifferently as she could, "Joohee."

There, loud and clear. She kept her eyes down and continued stuffing her phone into her purse as if her heart was not the least bit rattled.

Like Lisa, Rosé mouthed an 'o'. Both of them seemed to be abruptly reminded of a fifth person.

There was a clearing of throat from Jisoo before she spoke, the hoarseness making her husky voice huskier, "She has left, but doctors and nurses are here though, so it's okay." That grabbed Jennie's attention and her eyes finally lifted to meet Jisoo, who wagged a playful finger and swept her narrowed eyes over the three of them, "Don't try to use me as an excuse to skip any more classes."