Playing with Fire: A BLACKPINK Story

Chapter 33: Reconcile

I still felt a little uncomfortable around Jennie. I knew there was no reason for it—we had gotten over whatever misgivings we had a long time ago. She had forgiven me, and we had reconciled. We were friends, and I liked her a lot.

But at the same time, something made it hard for me to forget the way that she had once felt about me, the way she had looked at me after what I had done to Jisoo. It wasn't that I was trying to avoid being alone with her... but the truth was that I always felt a little better if there was someone else there with us.

So of course, I wasn't overly thrilled when I learned that I would need to go out and stay with her while she did a modeling shoot for one of her endorsements. The other girls wouldn't need me today, so there was no excuse for me to not go.

I cursed myself a little bit for thinking so unprofessionally. I never would have done that before. Of course, there were a lot of things about me before that I wasn't exactly proud of, so I supposed it was a trade-off.

The drive to the shoot was, as always, a little awkward. There was no animosity between us anymore, but I still felt a little on edge. It was stupid and overly sensitive of me, I knew. It was something I was just going to have to work past.

"How have you been?" she asked me as we drove.

"Relaxed," I said honestly. "For the first time in a long time. Things are calmer now."

"I noticed," she said with a touch of humor in her face. "How are... you and Jisoo?"

"We don't need to talk about that," I said, almost automatically. "I know you weren't..."

"Oh, Ollie, that's all in the past," she said. "I know how I felt at first. And I think I had my reasons. But you... well, I know what you did. What you went through. Jisoo told me everything."

I felt a little bit of the tension that had been resting heavily on me fade away. "Everything?"

"More or less," she said. "And, well, I know you almost died. You were gone for almost a month."

"Yeah," I said. "Just doing my job."

"No more secrets now though, right?" she asked as our car began to approach the destination.

"No more secrets," I confirmed. "There's no reason for them anymore."

"That's what I like to hear," she said.

I glanced back at her in the rear-view mirror. She was smiling up at me. I returned her smile and parked, feeling like a massive weight had been lifted off my shoulders. Maybe she and I could get back on the right path.

---

The shoot went just as I had expected it to. She was as professional as ever, and downright stunning as well. I was always amazed at her duality. She had the uncanny ability to somehow switch between being a tiny, adorable young woman, to becoming a fierce, uncompromising beauty.

I admired her ability to turn it on and off like that. I had seen firsthand just how hard that could be for them.

But there was something else that I could see as well—that it was all taking a toll on her. I knew that she had struggled with her breakup with Kai, and on top of that, she had a hard time maintaining the level of energy that was necessary for a successful idol career, especially one as stressful and varied as hers.

She did a good job of hiding it—she had been doing it for several years now. But I knew her better than any of these strangers did. And I could see the energy fading from her with every minute that passed. She was getting tired.