black ribbons (jensoo)

chapter six

9am on a warm, September Saturday morning was the best time to be in the city. It was too early for the real heat, too early for the crowds, too early for the bakery on the corner of Chaeyoung's street to have sold out, or the fresh flowers to be gone from the huge metal buckets that appeared outside the neighboring convenience store at weekends. It was a time to pause, to take stock, to enjoy being alive.

'Jesus fucking Christ,' groaned Jennie as they stepped out onto the sidewalk, shielding her eyes and fumbling in her bag for her sunglasses. 'Why is it so bright? It's like God is personally trying to police my drinking.'

Jisoo looked more sober than Jennie felt, but Jennie noticed how carefully she put on her own sunglasses before they headed off into the sunshine. 'The last time I drank, I did the splits on the bar, hit Lisa in the face and fell over my own head trying to do a penché, so I'd say we're doing pretty well.'

'What's a penché?'

'It's a fancy balance that should only ever, ever be attempted sober.'

'Don't drink and dance?'

'You read my mind.'

Jennie would happily have called an Uber or collapsed on the nearest subway, but the ballerina insisted they walk, with a martyred determination that Jennie found half infuriating and half endearing. 'If I don't use my legs they'll seize up.'

'I really don't think that's a thing.'

'It is. I just slept on a fire escape , Jennie. It is not what the physiotherapists recommend.'

'How far is it?'

'Ten minutes.'

'Fine,' sighed Jennie, feeling delicate. 'But I demand an extra shot of espresso for every minute over.'

It wasn't ten minutes, or even fifteen, but Jennie barely pouted and couldn't find it in herself to grumble, because even hungover she could see that Jisoo was losing her worn-out look from the night before. The sunglasses might have been deceptive, not to mention the residual haze of the alcohol, but it looked suspiciously as though the ballerina was physically glowing. She jaywalked recklessly, smiled at nothing in particular, and when she thought Jennie wasn't looking she hopped off sidewalks with a little flourish that was almost a skip. It also didn't hurt, if Jennie was totally honest, that her cutoffs were very short and her legs were unsurprisingly goddess-like.

It wasn't until the third sidewalk that she caught Jennie watching. 'What?'

'Nothing.'

'No, come on. You smiled. Don't tell me Lisa drew on my face again.'

'Now I'm curious.'

'Let's just say she has a surprisingly simple sense of humor for someone so creative.'

'Really, it's nothing.' I mean, Chaeyoung has amazing legs too. Occupational hazard. Doesn't mean anything. 'It's just...you seem happier. Way perkier than you have any right to be, based on what Lisa was giving you to drink.'

Jisoo shrugged one shoulder and gestured expressively around the very ordinary intersection they were waiting to cross. 'I like mornings. Yesterday was shitty, at least most of it, and today is the kind of morning that makes you want to dance.' She looked sidelong at Jennie, half-defensive. 'That's important, when you dance for a living. Sometimes you have to remind yourself that you started off dancing because it made you happy, and that it still does, even when you want to lie down in the middle of the studio and wait for death.' She sighed and traced a pattern mechanically on the sidewalk with the toe of her sneaker. 'And now I sound like that guy from Footloose . Or like I should be knitting my own halloumi at Kimtock. Dance is the answer, or whatever.'