The Final Rose - JenLisa

Chapter Eight: Don't Know What To Do

The house was awake earlier than usual the next morning. Over the past two weeks, Rosé and I had fallen into an easy routine of her making breakfast and me watching her cook, but instead of the sleepy calm that preceded the other women waking up, the morning hours had been filled with panicked contestants rushing from one room to the next. It appeared as though no one had been able to sleep through the night with the knowledge that in the morning we'd be boarding a plane to parts unknown. No one, that is, except Jennie.

I stood over my suitcase, carefully returning everything that had once been unpacked back into its original location. I was going to be one t-shirt lighter on this trip, however. I lamented the loss of my favorite old t-shirt—a grey heather shirt with the name of my high school's mascot screen-printed on the front—but at this point I preferred losing the shirt over confronting Jennie about her topless sleepwalking.

"You almost ready?" Jisoo's voice lulled me out of my thoughts.

I nodded. "Just have to brush my teeth."

"Don't take too long. I want my pick of vans. There's no way I'm getting stuck with the MTV Spring Break crew all the way to the airport. It's bad enough we'll be on the same plane."

Jisoo had recently assigned a charming new nickname to the youngest remaining contestants. A handful of the barely-twenty-one crowd routinely glommed together. And wherever they roamed, high-pitched giggling and an abundance of alcohol seemed to follow.

I grabbed my toothbrush and left the bedroom in search of a vacant bathroom. The door to the bathroom I typically used was closed, but I still knocked.

"Occupied!" came a muffled voice.

"I just have to brush my teeth," I pled.

"Occupied!" the voice repeated, this time louder.

I sighed, resigned to brush my teeth over the kitchen sink like I did most mornings anyway. I considered it a miracle to get bathroom time in the early hours or in the moments before a Group Date.

I never made it to the kitchen. I froze in the hallway when I heard laughter. My instinct was to be suspicious of the sound and to assume that someone was laughing at me. It had been that way since I was very young and I hadn't yet been able to shake my insecurities.

Disembodied voices floated out of one of the bedrooms to where I stood in the hallway.

"Looks like Hwasa forgot something."

I peered through the partially open door. Innae stood in the center of the bedroom, twirling a light blue bra like the propeller of a helicopter.

"Why do you think Kai picked Jennie over the other girls?" I didn't recognize the voice.

Suhyun—one of the women with whom I shared a room—chimed in next. "Yeah, it's not like she's the prettiest one in the house."

"One guess." Innae made a rude gesture with her hands that had me seeing red.

The other women in the room giggled ferociously. Their juvenile pettiness made me want to snap their necks, but I stayed hidden in the hallway for everyone's benefit. Two things were guaranteed to get you kicked off the show—violence and the discovery of a significant other back home.

"That was quick," Jisoo remarked up in my return. "Did you get all your teeth? I won't be held responsible for cavities."

"I'm going to murder that woman," I growled.

Jisoo looked startled. "Woah. Easy there, Tiger. I'm only looking out for your dental hygiene."

"Not you. Kim Innae. I overheard her talking to some of the other women. She thinks Jennie must have done something ... something ... sexual ... to convince Kai to pick her over the other three girls."