behind the scenes

and cut

and cut

chapter five

***

"I'm getting my money back..."

It's the first thing that Rosé sputters out of her mouth.

Unintentionally, of course.

But her eyes are practically bulging out of their sockets and her nostrils are flaring at the jaw-dropping revelation, and again, holy shit she's going to have Jisoo be on bathroom duty for two months (doubling it because Rosé had scrubbed the hell out of that bathroom for a month when the clear winner here is her and she freakin' fucking knew it!), and most importantly, she's getting back her 50,000 won—

No, no.

Focus here, Rosé.

Focus.

"What?" Jennie looks up to her, eyes bloodshot red. She wipes her sticky cheeks, gently this time, from the dried up tears with her soaked sleeve. Rosé unlocks her arms as Jennie breaks from the embrace, her hands gripping the edge of her mattress.

Rosé shakes her head. "I'm sorry, go on."

Jennie brushes her hair with her hand, parting it to the other side, exemplifying a beautiful hot mess and Rosé curses at how life can be so unfair when a person can manage to be so naturally gorgeous even after bawling their eyes out. If it were her, she would have snot dripping from her nose, face and eyelids bloating from the hoarse ugly crying that she would wound up resembling a humanized Joohwang.

Not the most attractive sight.

"Um," Jennie starts, exhaling loudly, sitting upright and face-to-face with Rosé. "So she's told you about how she came to my hotel in Thailand right?"

Rosé nods. "Uhuh."

"Well, she got drunk on wine pretty fast and it was barely half a bottle—"

"Weak ass."

"—then she begins saying these things and confessed she had a thing for this trainee before, can't remember the name but she was an okay dancer but Lisa would go nuts whenever she danced. Anyway, I tell her that it's fine, I'm cool with it, and she hugs me and thanks me for countless of times. I don't know how we got to, uh, this point. I was tipsy, though I was still conscious. We were both laughing at something stupid she said, like she couldn't pronounce this English word, until we locked eyes and...and, yeah."

Jennie brings her legs up to the bed, drawing her knees close to her chest. It's a tactical move, Rosé realizes, as Jennie hides her beet-red face, head bent with her hair cascading the sides of her profile preventing Rosé from getting a glimpse.

"God, I can't believe I'm telling you this, b-but I...but I liked it! There! I said it! and—" Jennie peeks from the strands of her hair. "Rosie! Stop looking at me like that!" She wails and gesticulates wildly at Rosé's mischievous grin.

"Like what?" Rosé switches up a faux expression.

"Like...like..." Jennie snaps her fingers repeatedly to no avail. "Ugh!"

It's refreshing to have Jennie panicked and jittery. Under usual circumstances, Jennie is poised and self-confident, although her nerves can affect her sometimes, she still emanates a strong presence. Intimidating even. So the wary and anxious girl next to Rosé is almost a stranger to her.