tolerating you.

006

I'm so sorry for ghosting y'all 🥺 hope this makes it up to you🤌

-
I have your free Science Fair ticket if you still want it, the text message said. It was from Jisoo.

Jennie sighed and hit reply. Sure.

Jennie wasn't planning on actually going, given the current circumstances, but she'd talked herself into it. She had nothing better to do on Friday night, since she basically had no friends, and she'd tried to look at it in a positive light: either Taehyung or Jin was going to win for sure.

No, she wasn't happy about that, but this was the way she saw it - if Taehyung won, then that meant Bastard Jin lost, which was awesome. And if Jin won, then Pain-in-my-ass Taehyung lost, and that meant she could rub it in his face. It was a win-win situation for her. A pretty sad one, yes, but one none-the-less. Plus, Jisoo had a free ticket for her. So why not?

Jisoo put the ticket in Jennie's locker when she wasn't looking. She'd forgotten that she knew her combination; she was lucky that she had a best friend who wouldn't steal, not even from people she didn't like. Jisoo was admirable in that way. She had good morals.

Friday night came quickly, but went slowly. Jennie made her way to the convention center downtown where the Science Fair was taking place, feeling stupid the whole way there. Why was she even going? She didn't understand science one bit.

When Jennie got there, Jisoo was standing right at the entrance talking to Jin. Fortunately, he was called back to his station at the exact moment Jennie walked in, so she avoided at least one confrontation. The other, she wasn't so lucky.

"You actually showed up," Jisoo said to her. For a moment, her voice sounded how it used to: bubbly and excited. Then she realized she was still mad at her. "I didn't think you would."

"Yeah, well," Jennie said. "I had nothing better to do."

"Hey," Taehyung came up behind his sister and put his hand on her shoulder. "Mom wants you to come take pictures, she's really camera happy right now..." He trailed off when he noticed that Jennie was standing there.

She smiled meekly at him, which she knew Jisoo thought was weird because she gave her this look. Hell, Jennie thought it was weird, too - as soon as she realized she was being nice to him she stopped immediately.

"Well," Jisoo said after a moment of awkwardness. "See you."

"See you," Jennie replied. The twins walked off.

Jennie sighed. I should just leave, she thought pathetically. Seeing Taehyung and/or Jin lose a scholarship isn't worth this torture.

But she stayed. Why, she didn't really know - but she did. And it turned out to be a good thing, too, because what happened later...was awesome.

The judges were going around, looking at each table for the last time before choosing the winner. They had a camera man with them (the event was being televised on the local news) and the footage was being shown on the big TV screen overlooking the area. Jennie glanced up at the screen and saw Taehyung smiling proudly as he demonstrated his energy converter.

Jennie realized that he had a nice smile. She stared at the screen, transfixed; she'd never really seen him smile before. Probably because he can't stand me, she reasoned. Well, she can't stand him, either, so nyeh.

She decided to go take a look at Jin's table. Yeah, she hated the guy, and yeah, there was a zero percent chance she'd know what the heck his project was, but she was bored and staring at Taehyung on the big screen was getting weird. She wasn't expecting Jin to be alone at his table, but he was. She also wasn't expecting him to talk to her, but he did. Great.

"Look who showed up," he said. "It's Little Black."

She stared. Little Black? What was that even supposed to mean?

His smile faltered. "You...your hair is black. Get it?"

"My hair's not black," Jennie retorted. Not him, too! "It's dark brown, dumbass."

"Whatever," he said. "So why'd you come? One last feeble attempt to win your best friend back?"

"No," she said. Jennie glanced at the big screen. The camera was moving to the next table. That was odd, since they seemed to really like Madison, and from what she'd heard, if they liked someone enough they'd award them with the prize right then and there. Maybe he screwed up?

"Good," Jin said. "Because she'll never believe your story."

It was at that moment that she realized where the cameras were headed. Heart racing, she answered the jerk in front of her. "What was my story again?"

Jin laughed. "Wow, you really are stupid," he said. "You told Jisoo that I tried to get in your pants at the party. You were telling the truth, obviously," he laughed some more, "but how could she believe that? I'm too convincing."

"Are we interrupting something?" the head judge spoke suddenly. Jin's eyes lit up in horror as he realized that they had company.

"Um, no, sir," he said. "Would you like to see my project?"

"Of course," the man said.

"Hold it!"

Jin and Jennie froze. It was Jisoo.

"You dirty liar," she whispered. And then she slapped him.

The auditorium was quiet. Jisoo hugged her tightly. She whispered, "I'm sorry" in her ear and then turned to the camera man. "Carry on," she said.

Jin was so shocked, he bombed his entire presentation.