The Tiger King (Chaelisa)

67| Freefall

previously:  jennie almost confessed the truth to jisoo, jinyoung attacked jisoo, chaelisa were having the perfect date night until they found jennie passed out on the floor, with jisoo and ella missing.

Jennie was in freefall. 

The world crumbled at her feet as she looked on, helplessly caught in the eye of the hurricane. All the memories came rushing back as soon as Lisa had slapped her awake.

Jisoo. Jisoo. Jisoo. Jisoo.

Gone.  In the blink of an eye, Jisoo slipped through her fingers like sand and Jennie felt the panic vortex open up and reach for her, consuming her whole.

She couldn't even scream—she had no strength to do anything other than cry.

"It's my fault," Jennie sobbed in Lisa's chest. "He took them, it's my fault, I shouldn't have involved Jisoo. It's my fucking fault. I didn't stop him!"

"What happened?" Lisa said urgently, gripping Jennie from her shoulders. Her eyes were wide with fear and through her sobbing haze, Jennie realised that Lisa had probably never seen her lose control like this, not even after they lost Hwangssabu.

But remembering Jinyoung's shark grin and his voice, soft as a snake's hiss, had Jennie finally clench her teeth and wrench herself out of the panic tornado.

"They came. Jinyoung and his lackeys," Jennie said in the deathly silence that suddenly filled the apartment. Rosé lifted her head, dried tear streaks on her face as she scooted closer to hear Jennie. Her eyes were bloodshot and red-rimmed, her hair sticking out at every angle.

"What did he do?" Rosé whispered. The venom that oozed from her voice made Jennie shiver. Lisa tried putting an arm over Rosé but she didn't react, clutching the forlorn bunny toy to her chest as she gazed at Jennie with a burning intensity. 

"Jennie, what did he do?"

Jennie took a deep breath, her hands trembling as she recalled the whole sequence of events. "I, I was on the phone with Matthew..."

Flashback

"Hey Matt what's up?

"Jen, have you heard from Somi lately?" Matthew asked.

"Hmm? Somi? No I haven't seen her today."

From behind her, Jennie heard the doorchime, which meant the pizza they had ordered was here.

"She left the house yesterday, said she was going over to some friend's," Matt said anxiously. "But I didn't hear from her at all since. I texted and called but it's been radio silent. I...I'm trying hard not to be overbearing, she's always telling me I do that and I was—"

"Aunty!"

Ella's scream and Dalgom's spate of aggressive barking, abruptly cut off, had Jennie whip around, phone still glued to her ear as she rushed out to the hallway and stopped dead in her tracks when she saw the pizza guy with a gun in his hand step over the bodies of Jisoo, Ella and Dalgom.

All three lay frighteningly still and silent a few paces away from each other. Jennie felt the world fall out from under her feet

"Jennie? You still there?"

The pizza guy raised his head at the same time as he raised his gun level with her chest and Jennie's blood turned to ice.

"Cut the call," said Jinyoung quietly. He looked bizarrely out of place in the bright red pizza delivery Tshirt and jeans—Jennie only knew him in his monotonous array of suits.