BREAK THE WALL | JENLISA, CHAESOO

Chapter 15

In the middle of the dinner Lisa realized with satisfaction that her "parents" couldn't tell that she wasn't really Jennie. She had been stressing the entire afternoon that maybe she wouldn't be able to behave or eat properly at the table but apparently she did a really good job pretending because there wasn't a single hint that Mr. and Mrs. Kim found her behavior suspicious. "Maybe Jennie and I aren't really that different." a thought flashed through her brain, but she brushed it off immediately. Thinking that it might be true was making her strangely uncomfortable because it prevented her from hating Jennie, which she was constantly forcing herself to believe.

The second realization was far less positive. Determined to get back at Jennie for agreeing to date Jungkook, Lisa was exceptionally nice to Kai, bordering on flirty. She touched his arm a few times, always gazed into his eyes whenever he was talking, even pouted her lips one time. But halfway through the dinner she came to the conclusion that she had gone too far. Way too far. Kai apparently got the wrong impression because his behavior with her had become increasingly bold. He even moved his chair closer to hers and put his arm around her, touching her back. Jennie's parents were looking approvingly at these displays of affection, but Lisa was starting to feel more and more uneasy.

"What have you done, Lisa, why do you have to be so stupid sometimes?" she scolded herself in her mind. "Yes, Jennie sure is pretty infuriating but what you're doing to her is just wrong. Wicked. Despicable." Lisa ran out of negative adjectives to describe her behavior. She reached for Kai's hand and removed it from her hip, because it was slowly moving dangerously low. He glanced at her in surprise but said nothing.

"While we're waiting for dessert, why don't you show Kai our garden, honey?" Mrs. Kim asked Lisa, who at first wanted to refuse but in the end didn't dare to. She stood up, took a glass of wine and went outside the house with Kai diligently following her, shamelessly glancing at her butt.

"Shit, they're really adamant about Jennie and Kai getting together, it makes me want to puke." she thought on her way out. What was surprising was that she didn't know if she found it nauseating because he was so much older than Jennie or because...

Or because she didn't like the idea of Jennie dating anyone.

"The garden is as beautiful as you." Kai said and Lisa almost rolled her eyes at this poor attempt of a compliment.

"It's nothing special really, just a bunch of different bushes and flowers." she said dryly, trying to ruin the flirty atmosphere. It didn't work, Kai was too encouraged by her earlier behavior to pay attention to her signals right now. He approached her from the side and put his arm around her.

"You know that my house is even larger." he boasted and this time Lisa didn't even stop herself from rolling her eyes. Bragging about money? She hated it with passion.

"Money isn't everything." was her reply although she wished to say something much, much harsher.

"It's not. But it matters a lot. Come on, you don't have to pretend, I know a rich girl like you wouldn't even look at someone poor."

Feeling how her blood starts boiling, Lisa trembled with sudden rage, barely keeping it together. But when he followed his words with touching her butt, she just lost it completely and threw the contents of the glass right in his face.

"Asshole!" she yelled and ran away, leaving him clumsily wiping the red wine from his shocked face.

***

"Are you mad at me?" Jisoo read the message from Rosé and jumped out of bed in excitement, her heart pounding.

"No, of course I'm not!!!" she wrote with trembling fingers, but eventually decided to erase the three exclamations marks and sent the text without them.

"Good, I couldn't fall asleep worrying that you might be mad for what I said."

"Oh god, oh god, oh god." Jisoo's mind was racing. "What should I write? Think, think, think!"

After a brief moment of panic she started typing:

"I'm just mad at the world, how unfair it is. I really wish we could be friends." she drew a sharp breath as she pressed "send".

"Yeah, me too..." Jisoo trembled seeing the three dots in the reply. "What does it mean!? Is she reconsidering her decision or she's just confirming that it's impossible?" her mind wondered. A full minute passed by and she didn't have any idea what to write, so in desperation she went for the most obvious question:

"So how was your day?"

"It pretty much sucked :("

"Sorry to hear that, mine wasn't so great either :("

"I bet mine was worse. I had to put on earplugs because of Irene and Seulgi going at it in the next room."

"LOL were they really that loud?"

"You have no idea."

"Was it their anniversary or something?"

"No, just a Saturday night ;)"

Deciding to be brave, Jisoo wrote the next question with a big lump in her throat, feeling how her entire face was heating up.

"And what about you? Are you seeing anyone right now?"

"No :("

"Why the sad face?"

There was no response and Jisoo was getting anxious. After three minutes, she sent another message:

"Rosé? Are you there?"

The reply came right away.

"I'm sorry, I have to go now. You're an amazing girl. Good night."

Jisoo was so exhilarated about the compliment that she almost forgot to send back "Good night". Even after she took a shower and went to bed, her heartbeat was still noticeably faster than usual, she kept repeating Rosé's last message in her mind, wondering what it could mean. Was there something hidden behind it or was it a way of saying goodbye? Shuddering at that possibility, Jisoo decided to stay positive. She put her phone down, turned off the light and lied her head on the pillow. The last image in her mind as she was dozing off into sleep was a face of a girl with captivating, clever eyes and long silver locks falling down on her shoulders.