BREAK THE WALL | JENLISA, CHAESOO

Chapter 3

Expecting to see someone older, Jisoo stared in surprise at the friendly-looking thin girl with long, silver-colored hair who just opened the door.

"Hi, my name is Jennie Kim, I'm here for-" she couldn't finish because she heard a happy bark and Kuma ran to her. Jennie immediately picked it up and held it in her arms. "Kuma, you're fine, I can't believe it! I missed you so much!"

"And I'm Jisoo, her sister." the older girl introduced herself.

"Nice to meet you, I'm Park Chaeyoung. Or Rosé, that's how everyone calls me. And this is my roommate, Lisa." she pointed to the couch where a slim, blonde-haired girl was sitting, she was clearly not Korean, probably Thai.

"Hi." she just said and nodded.

"And please, come in for a moment." Rosé suggested and both Jennie and Jisoo cautiously moved forward, curiously glancing around. Whoever lived here tried to make the apartment as presentable as possible, it was clean and cozy but it was obvious that it hadn't been renovated in a long time. The paint coming off the walls, an old carpet on the floor, worn-out furniture... the girls who lived here clearly didn't have a lot of money.

Meanwhile Rosé and Lisa were observing the other girls too and immediately noticed fashionable clothes, expensive jewelry and of course their bags.

"Wow, is that a Chanel bag?" Lisa thought. "It's probably worth more than my several monthly salaries. And the other girl has what? Dior's? Yeah. Damn, they must be filthy rich." she couldn't help feeling envious.

"Thanks for calling us-" Jisoo said but Jennie interrupted her:

"Yeah, I'm so sorry, I forgot to thank you for finding Kuma, I don't know what I'd do if he got lost-"

"There's nothing to thank us for." Lisa said modestly. "I just found your dog near our house, I noticed it was lost so I took it here."

"And I work as an assistant in a vet's office, so I knew how to read the microchip." Rosé explained. "That's how we found your number and called you."

"Still, thank you very much." Jennie looked at Lisa's face, caressing Kuma. In Thai's beautiful brown eyes she noticed something similar to her own personality: this wild, untamed rebelliousness.

"Maybe you'd like to drink something? I could prepare some tea-" Rosé offered.

"No, we wouldn't want to cause any trouble-" Jisoo politely declined.

"But it's no trouble at all." the silver-haired girl headed to the kitchen. Jennie took a quick look at the apartment again. It had two bedrooms, a living room and a small kitchen but from the look of it, it was barely bigger than her single bedroom in their parents' house. Lisa noticed that and said:

"I know the apartment may seem small to you-"

"No, it's not that small, I mean it's quite okay for two people." Jennie quickly said, not wanting to sound too critical.

"Four people. We have two other roommates, Irene and Seulgi but they're not here right now, they went on a date."

"Oh." Jisoo didn't know what else to say. Four girls living in such a small space: she couldn't even imagine how difficult it had to be.

"So you're a couple too?" Jennie asked and Jisoo kicked her under the table, it was a too personal thing to ask.

"No." Rosé chuckled, coming back from the kitchen, holding a tray with several glasses on it.

"But you share a bedroom?" Jennie continued naively with a surprised look on her face and Lisa immediately became wary. These rich girls were really clueless. "Not everyone is as loaded with money as you are!" an angry thought flashed through her mind. Her eyes grew colder as she looked again at the other girls' expensive outfits.

"We kind of have to. We can't afford a larger apartment right now." Rosé explained and Jisoo admired how cool she seemed about it, not sounding even remotely sad or resentful. Unlike Lisa, who looked a little disgruntled about the situation.

"Listen, about that..." Jisoo started talking awkwardly, drinking tea. "We would like to compensate you somehow for saving Kuma-"

"No, absolutely not." Rosé seemed really adamant about it. "We just did what everyone would have done."

"We don't need your money." Lisa said a little too curtly and Jisoo understood: the girls were poor but very proud, they'd never agree to taking money. But Jennie's impulsive character made her insist:

"But it's really not a problem, please, let us help you." Jennie reached for her purse but stopped abruptly, seeing how Lisa gave her a death glare. The air in the room filled with tension.

"I said: we don't need your money." the Thai's eyes flashed angrily. Jennie frowned, her eyes suddenly a little mad too.

"Why can't you just accept our gratitude? We just want to make a nice gesture!"

Jennie and Lisa stared at each other so defiantly that other girls decided to intervene: Jisoo put her hand on her sister's shoulder and Rosé gave her roommate a signal to calm down.

"I'm sorry, my younger sister can be a little... rash. She's just very impulsive." Jisoo said apologetically.

"Yeah, I know exactly what you mean." Rosé glanced at Lisa with a slight reproach. Then she turned to Jisoo again, for a moment letting herself appreciate how sensible and level-headed the older sister was. "She would make a great friend." she thought before realizing that it was impossible because they both lived in completely different worlds. "But we won't take any money." she added calmly.

"I understand. Just know that what you did was really great." Jisoo replied and then added with a genuine smile: "And I hope that good karma will come back to you, you deserve it."

"Thanks!" Rosé's face brightened up and the tension disappeared.

"So I guess we should go now." Jennie said and got up. "But could I use the bathroom before?"

"Sure. It's here, on the right." Rosé showed her the way.

Some time later, when both Kim girls had already left their apartment, Lisa went to the bathroom and Rosé heard her angry scream. Worried, she went to the living room and saw how the Thai kicked the door open, visibly mad and blurted out:

"You're not going to believe this."