You Never Said Goodbye

The news is out

Irene POV

‘Jendeuk! You can’t crash at our place this weekend cause Seulgi and I are going on a road trip.’ I tell Jennie as I pop by her desk in the morning. Already I see the boxes of chocolates, the bouquets of flowers and little stuffed toys that is the daily offering from her collective hoard of admirers.

I can’t help but roll my eyes at their desperation and blatant cheesiness. Seriously, do they not have any creativity? Jennie isn’t a typical girl. Such ordinary gifts that reflect little understanding of her personality isn’t gonna get them anywhere. Don’t these guys do any research? I feel sad for them. But that doesn’t mean I’m not gonna take advantage of them. I reach to grab the box of chocolates nearest to me and proceed to enjoy. Mmhn chocolates… Yummy..

‘Eh? Road trip? Where? Why? Can I come?’ she starts bombarding me with questions. I should’ve have known this wasn’t gonna be easy.

‘Nope you can’t come.. er.. Seulgi and I want some couple time, to er.. see the trees and the birds! Yea.. that’s it.. nature is a precious gift from God and we should all take time to observe it and to er… enjoy it. Other than when its on the plate as food. Yea.. food too.. we’re going to eat.. heard the food there is fantastic..’ I ramble on and on.. darn I should’ve stop. I can’t! I’m so dead.

‘Bae Juhyun. What are you not telling me. Spill it. Now! N.O.W! Right now!’ she glares at me and I resist.

‘No I’m not hiding anything.. why would I? why can’t I go and enjoy birds and trees? I love nature you know.’ I reply with obvious discomfort. Being under Jennie’s glare does cause one to tremble with pure fear. I wonder how Lisa takes it. But then again, she’s different with Lisa.

‘Are you seriously expecting me to believe that?’ She raises her single right eyebrow at me with obvious disbelief. ‘you’re really great at anything to do with your mouth. Like eating and talking. But that’s your flaw too.. you’re talking too much. I’m not gonna say anything other than, TELL ME NOW BAE JUHYUN, or suffer my wrath.’ She proceeds to stare me down as she cracks her knuckles.

How can I not tell her? Seulgi would kill me and I would have to bear her wrath. But Seulgi’s not as scary as Jennie. And if I tell her at least I can have a few more meals before I die. Right? I reason.

‘er.. we’re going to visit Lisa at the place she’s hiding at this weekend with Joy and Yeri. Please don’t kill me. Please don’t tell Seulgi or anyone else I told you. Please please please..’

I plead with my eyes closed as I prepare for violent contact.

I wait for Jennie to yell at me for keeping this from her but I don’t her anything for awhile. As I open my eyes to check the situation. I see Jennie looking off into space, completely pensive and sad.

‘Hey, you ok?’ I ask.

‘Juhyun-ah, give me the address.’ She says

Somehow the way she asks, its not a command, she’s not pleading she just stated it. Jennie sounds so broken; so tired; so un-Jennie. I sigh as I reach into my pocket to remove my phone.

I know I’m going to regret this. I grab a post-it and a pen from her desk and proceed to write the address down.

‘I hope you know what you’re doing. Seulgi and I will be leaving at 9 on Saturday morning and will reach there at about lunch time.’ I stick the address onto her computer screen and walk off.

I don’t know how things will turn out but I gotta be a friend to Jennie too. I introduced her to Lisa knowing full well how damaged Lisa was. I have to bear that part of the consequence for my part of the deal.

Joy POV

‘Babe, go find yourself some entertainment over the weekend alright? My fiancé and I are going on a short trip. Man I love saying that, my fiancé. Kyaa!’ I tell Chaeng as we meet for lunch.

‘Gawd can you be any less annoying. I love you babe and you know that. But you’ve been engage for about 2 months now. I can’t imagine what would you be like when you’re married.’ Chaeyoung replies, she can’t help but roll her eyes at me.

I know she’s right but the one I’ve loved since forever has agreed to be my wife. I don’t care how long its been. If I’m still happy I’m gonna be happy. Who cares!

‘Whatever Chaeng. I’m happy, deal with it.’ I reply.

‘So, another trip with Yeri huh. Where are you guys going?’ she asks.

‘Jeonrado, Jeonju.’ I answer and all at once I realize my mistake. I try to pretend nothing happened hoping she didn’t catch on.

But as I sneak a glace over to her I know I just screw myself over. Park Sooyoung what did you just do?

‘That’s where Lisa grew up.’ Chaeyoung replies clearly subdued from the news.

‘Hurhurhur… what a coincidence. We’re not there to visit her at all. Its just that Yeri wants to er.. visit a farm! Hurhurhur.. I’m going to the toilet. Excuse me.’ I rush off. I need to bail before I make more mistakes.

Chaeyoung POV

Not there to visit Lisa? We’ll see Park Sooyoung. You’re so obviously lying. After all these years as your friend you think I can’t see through you?

I hurriedly grab her bag and dig for her handphone. When I finally get it, I look at it to find a dorky photo of JoyRi I can’t help but roll my eyes again. I press a couple of buttons as I search through her handphone messages and there I see it.

It’s a message from Lisa with an address on it saying she’ll be expecting them for lunch. I knew it.

This is my chance to find out what’s going on with Lisa. Another chance to convince her that I’m the one for her. And I miss her too. I quickly type in the address into my handphone and replace everything before Joy returns.