B L O O D W / R

C H A P T E R V

"Hi, Jennie."

And the Jennie blushes.

Nobody has ever quite addressed her so anymore; at least nobody other than Jisoo, because nobody is supposed to know that name even exists. She is stunned in the embrace of a stranger as she lets herself be engulfed in an unnecessary feeling of sentiment that is making its way into her heart, creating such a fuss and warming her heart up. Jennie is never one to give into melancholy or sentiment—or at least Ruby Jane is not, but she cannot help it this time because this time, the name makes her feel visible.

Jennie feels visible.

To the world, she is the sole heir of The Kims and even if she did almost throw that one part of her that makes her whole, she cannot refute that to her favourite cousin and herself, she will always be just the little Kim Jennie; the scaredy-cat who cowers under her duvet once the lights go out, the little girl who only knew how to cry whenever she felt overwhelmed, and although her pride does not let her admit it out loud, she knows she is happy hearing the name voiced out by this someone she completely has no idea about, pinching her heart.

"H-Hi, Kang-San, is it?"

"Lisa will do. Let's go?" She says as she puts Jennie down on the ground and then proceeds to look at Jennie from head to toe, studying the almost bride.

"Ah you don't have your shoes on," Lisa pauses before continuing, "That's good. Bride shoes are inconvenient as they come," to which comment Jennie cocks her left eyebrow. The way Lisa refers to her supposed-to-be-heels as 'bride shoes' is simply amusing.

"Your veil needs to go-go," Lisa says as she reaches out for Jennie's hair holding the veil. She has her focus solely on getting rid of the thing that she misses the stiffened muscles on Jennie's face out of surprise as she towers the shorter lady up close, "There, you're free now," Lisa adds as she helps Jennie take her veil off and just throws it away.

Jennie can only watch the taller woman with a pounding heart. The relief, the adrenaline, and the excitement for the freedom that used to be so out of reach in her mind now seem to be within her grasp.

"Let's go," Lisa says quite hurriedly—as if something is chasing their backs, which as a matter of fact, is true because they do only have a fifteen-minute window to do whatever they have to do before the security cameras around the building start to capture the realtime scene caught in their lenses. It was written on the note Jisoo left her almost five hours ago; something about the cameras that would shut down for fifteen minutes from seven-thirty to seven forty-five—exactly from seven-thirty to seven forty-five. So between convincing Rapunzel to get down from her tower, and then making their run to and over the massive wall separating them from the outside world, fifteen-minute is just a matter of a blink.

The urgency in Lisa's voice seems to be reaching Jennie's adrenaline pump that the woman automatically leaps her steps following Lisa who already has her back facing her. There is no second-guessing, Jennie is all in for her escape but then she immediately stops at the realisation of the tight long gown she has wrapping her body. Jennie stands stuck on her feet as she struggles to rip the lower part of her dress. It is the only thing she can think of to get rid of the rest of the dress that will definitely get in her escape.

Lisa who is approaching the massive wall stops and glances back at Jennie. She heaves a sigh and walks back to the helpless lady and casually helps the woman ripping off the dress like it is just a piece of paper. Lisa eyes Jennie who is bathing in her helplessness; nothing about the escape is smooth-sailing.

Jennie was stunned in surprise at the late realisation of the price of the wedding dress itself which is probably worth half a billion won. Another thing that bothers her mind next is the wonder whether it is she who possesses the weakest grip in the history of humankind or this Lisa just happens to possess the strength of The Hulk, but none of those matters because all she knows now is she is free at last.