『JenSoo Short Stories』

Nuages

She looked at her like she was the sun. Jisoo refused to leave Jennie's field of vision, so Jennie only ever looked at her in frustration. She revelled in her warmth and protested when she was gone, but she never really looked at her.

Until Jisoo was leaving. In the sunset, Jennie would wonder how she hadn't seen her like this before.

Jennie stared at the sunrise, swinging her legs into the emptiness of air.

The sounds of skipping footsteps, bouncing and cheery. Jisoo sat down beside her. Immense, absolute, bold, and disruptive. "Jen! Good morning. Isn't the sun nice?"

"No," Jennie grumbled. Clouds drifted.

Jisoo continued unabated. "It's so rosy and drowsy and magical!"

"It's too bright. Too vivid. Hurts my eyes." The sky was an awful florid orange, greasy and lurid. As if it was drowsy. Jisoo needed to get her eyes checked.

"No? It's like a peaceful pastel," Jisoo rebutted, tilting her head to the side and pouting.

"More of an awful pink." The sunrise was anything but peaceful and calm. It was blinding, immense and ceaseless.

"It's misty and pale and warm!"

"It's horrible and stinging and explosive," Jennie groused, twirling her hair. "It's better when it's leaving."

Jisoo hugged her legs to her chest. "That's a sad way to look at the sun. I think it's prettier when it comes. Like a slow, sleepy, hazy joy."

"The moon is better. It's always pretty. I've only ever squinted angrily at the sun. It's merciless."

"Yeah, the moon is pretty. But the sun is warm. Almost cuddly. Tender. The moon's cold and freezing and brr. I bet you're sad when the sun's gone." She waves her hands around, bracelet brushing against the brick. "The sunrise is positive. A new day."

"The moonrise is positive. A new night. Sleep."

"Yeah, but... The sun's delightful. The day's delightful. The morning's great. Morning dew and spuriousness and coral colours and romantic clouds."

"You trying to go poet on me?" Despite herself, Jennie laughed.

"I'm manifesting my inner Shizu." She crossed her legs and held her hair up into a ponytail. "Oh, I'm Shizu! I have it bad for Harper and refuse to admit it." Shizu and Harper were so easy together that Jennie sighed as Jisoo giggled, the sound high-pitched, glassy, and candid. But Jennie smiled, against all her better judgement. Jisoo saw and beamed. "Oh. So you do still like me. Good. I was getting worried."

Jennie elbowed her. "In your dreams."

The dew vanished into the air and a sole bird wet its wings in the dampness. The bricks beneath them stayed still as they always did.

The sky moved around them sitting on this jutting tower's roof. Jisoo stuck a tongue out. "Sun's out, sweetheart, and the day's taking you with it." Jennie fondly rolled her eyes as Jisoo uncrossed her legs and draped her arm over Jennie's shoulder, gazing at the clouds. "This is nice."

"Disagreement," Jennie claimed, even as she relaxed and her eyes followed a flying blackbird.

"Then leave," Jisoo challenged, all the while as she suddenly lay supine and pulled Jennie down with her. Jennie caught herself just before she tumbled into the floor as well, her face a few inches from Jisoo's. Her eyes were nebulous and the same colour as the clouds, her cheeks dappled with sunlight. She smiled smugly, reaching up and softly tapping Jennie's nose. The audacity.

Jennie blushed a bright red, her face painted strawberry. She awkwardly fumbled into a lying position as well and looked up.

Coral coloured clouds, just as Jisoo had said, migrated slowly across the sky. Intricate laces of mist covered the sunlight, and she could almost see the light fluttering of the sun's breath on its misty veil. The lapping of rolling ocean waves grew louder, as well as the smell of salt.

She was painfully aware of Jisoo's self-satisfied stare.

Because she was never one to back down from challenges, she tore her eyes away from the sky and turned her head to meet Jisoo's intent look. Though Jennie knew it would be waiting for her, it was still surprising how pretty she really was in the misty air. Rosy and drowsy and magical. Their eyes locked.

A chilling gust of wind interrupted the moment, and then, rain. A quiet sort of rain. Gentle and light and dancing on their skin. A white butterfly landed on Jisoo's left hand, flapped its wings, and flew away.

It was almost religious.

Jisoo raised the hand up to the sky, a finger reaching out and tracing the rolling clouds. A bird sang from a tree far below, and Jisoo looked back at Jennie and smiled, skin a peaceful pastel in the hazy view. A silver strand of lank hair covered her left eye.

Jennie reached out and brushed it away, tucking it gently behind Jisoo's ear as the rain coloured it darker. "Your hair's so messy."

"You're one to talk. Look at yours!" Indeed, Jennie's long cream and crepe-coloured hair was strewn around them, mottled with wet spots, tangled and wind-blown. "What, do you brush it once a month?"

"...Yes. Always on the twenty-eighth. With your hairbrush." Jennie admitted.

Chuckling, Jisoo remarked, "Twenty-eighth? Any reason for that date?"

"...No." Jisoo had come to the Bonded on February the twenty-eighth.

Her mouth was half-open and framed in the foggy light, her face speckled with dew.

"Kiss me, please." Jennie's words came out in a flurry, fast and blunt. She was usually somebody who hid her feelings away, who deliberated before every sentence. But this. This she definitely wanted.

Jisoo smiled. "Thought you'd never ask." With water smudged across her face and dirt on her forehead, and their lips met. Butter from breakfast. Lychee and cream. Cinnamon and the violets she always pinned onto her vest. The hand clutching at Jennie's collar was warm despite the rain, and their limbs tangled in a way that felt transcendently home.

Jennie closed her eyes.

Maybe the sunrise wasn't so bad after all.

-------------------------------

All Rights Reserved to the original author: Jemie Wong (on reedsyprompts)