living on a fault line || Jensoo

Chapter 22

Later ends up being after dinner, once the majority of the pizza is gone and Charlie -instead of getting ready to nap like she usually does after a big, greasy meal- is bouncing off the walls, begging them to take her to the park two blocks away from Jisoo's new apartment. They'd taken her there the first time they visited with Jisoo, and Jennie is at least a little bit sure that the closeness of the large park and the towering jungle gym it boasts were at least partly responsible for the ease with which Charlie accepted the move.

In the end, its her mom that offers to take her while they finish cleaning up, and Jennie is thankful, if not slightly suspicious about her motives.

She puts it out of her head.

As soon as the door closes after her mom and Charlie, the atmosphere inside the apartment changes. The air itself becomes heavier, thick with the things unsaid and the moments they've missed, stacked up higher than the boxes holding Jisoo's belongings. There's so much between them that they have to unpack. It seems like such a daunting task Jennie isn't entirely sure how to begin.

"How are you?" She asks.

"I could ask you the same," Jisoo asks back. "Has the wound bothered you? And what did the doctor say at the-"

"I'm fine," she tells her. "He said everything looked good. This was just a scare."

Jisoo nods.

She walks to the couch in front of the fireplace, and Jennie follows after her. They sit on opposite sides, but even with the distance between them she feels so close its almost intoxicating. The apartment is empty. It's one of a handful of times they've been completely alone since the divorce, and probably the only one when they weren't scrambling for it to end.

"I -huh- I talked to Gustus," Jisoo tells her. "He said my place at the firm is always going to be waiting for me."

Jennie smiles. She's thankful for Gustus in that moment -not just for letting Jisoo go back to a job she loves when she's ready, but for being there for her.

"That's amazing."

"Yeah, he was really great. He understands."

She nods. And then she decides to bite the bullet.

"Is that what you wanted to talk about?"

Jisoo looks up. "Not just that. We need to talk about...us. What are we going to do? When-"

"I think the 'how do we do it' is also pretty important," she tells her, trying to lighten the mood. It works, and Jisoo gives her a brief smile.

"I think we should make time for each other," she says, and it sounds practiced, but Jennie is thankful at least one of them is confident in where she stands. "These next two weeks are going to be hard at work, and I have to fix up the rest of the apartment, but after, I was thinking-"

"You might start dating your ex-wife?" The words send a rush through Jennie, but she says them and she means them. She's not naive enough to think they can just go back to what they used to be. But they can start somewhere.

"Dating," Jisoo repeats.

"You're right," Jennie tells her. "We need time together. Alone. To...talk about everything, get to know each other again. See where we go from there." Jisoo nods, and Jennie swallows, pushing nerves down. "So, would you go on a date with me?"

Jisoo smiles softly.

"I'd like that," she tells her. And Jennie feels her heart soar with hope.

____________________

(September 1st, 2025.)

"Have you been feeling anxious lately? There's a normal amount of nerves we go through when facing big changes, but I want to make to sure it's manageable, and it's not getting in the way of day to day life."