Sonnet seventeen - JENLISA

Part 1

It's not love at first sight.

When Lalisa Manoban first lays eyes on Jennie Kim, they're six, and Lisa is too busy fighting with Rosé over who gets to be Princess Peach in Mario Kart to even really notice Jennie being ushered into the Song's recreation room by her parents. Jennie is shy, and closed off, and her older sister seems to run the show most of the time. So no, Lisa doesn't look at Jennie and fall head over heels the moment their eyes meet.

Actually, if she recalls correctly, Jennie kind of hates her at first, and it's that fact that gets Lisa's attention. Because Lisa is not used to not being liked. So, at six years old she decides to change Jennie's mind. She learns Jennie likes magic, demands her dad buy her a magician's kit, and masters how to make a coin disappear all in order to get Jennie to talk to her. And while her trick fails, and Jennie ends up having to teach Lisa what to do, her mission succeeds; and they're inseparable from that day forward.

But anyway, falling in love with Jennie Kim isn't something that just 'happens' to Lisa. Actually, it's kind of forced into existence all because of Mino Song.

-

"I need you to be my girlfriend." Jennie is red-faced and out of breath as she stands at the door to Lisa's dorm room, and it takes a moment for Lisa to realize she hasn't misheard her best friend.

She doesn't say anything at first. Can't really say anything, because she's promptly choking on the vegan pizza she'd been shoving down her throat seconds before Jennie decided to turn their friendship upside down. And like, really? Jennie knows how much of a struggle Lisa has finding good vegan anything on this campus. She could at least let her enjoy it.

Lisa splutters over her mouthful, reaching for her water bottle to wash it down her throat, and she hears Jennie let out a sigh before shutting the door behind her and approaching.

"Come again?" Lisa manages out, eyes watering as she looks up at Jennie while her friend pats her back gently.

"I need you to be my girlfriend." Jennie repeats, more sure of herself this time round.

"Right. Are you feeling okay?"

The thing is, Lisa is gay. Like, so fucking gay that she wouldn't be surprised if she started glowing the fucking colors of the rainbow any day now.

But Jennie isn't. So having her here, apparently asking her out, is kind out of the realm of things that should realistically be happening in Lisa's dorm room.

"Jennie... I don't really know what-"

"Oh. Sorry. Fake girlfriend. Probably should've started with that." Jennie mumbles, apparently too caught up in whatever has her so stressed to consider that Lisa can't read her mind and get answers herself.

That, at least, takes the crushing weight off Lisa's chest. But it still doesn't explain much.

"What are you going on about? Did you get high without me? I told you I'd try it with you next time!"

"I'm not high." Jennie rolls her eyes, falling down next to Lisa on the bed, "I just... we have Pride vacation coming up."

Ah. Vacation. In the midst of finals, Lisa had almost forgotten about the annual Pride family trip. It had begun after the kids (all but Yeri) had left for college, scattered across the world and separated for the better part of the year. The Pride's great solution to the splitting of the almost obsessive bond between their families had been a compulsory vacation every summer. This year, it's Hawaii.