The Tiger King (Chaelisa)

74| The Sins of Our Mothers

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previously: jennie's deal with jinyoung comes to light, chaennie decide to enlist jisoo's parents help, jinyoung discusses the way forward to eliminate opponents, reprogram tiger king and prepare subjects for the tiger king regimen.

"Jennie, what's our gameplan?"

"I'm thinking."

"Wow, still?"

"Shut up Rosé."

"That's what you said twenty minutes ago."

"Shut up, Rosé." 

Rosé gave up and wearily settled on watching the passing scenery as it flashed by. To say that things were tense between them was an understatement: 

Rosé wasn't thrilled with Jennie for almost giving up Lisa to Jinyoung; Jennie wasn't thrilled to have Rosé come along, adding on to her stress.

Both of them were too on edge to try and engage in some semblance of a conversation. Jennie's paranoia had gotten worse when they boarded the subway. Hemmed in from all sides by people, Rosé noticed how the shorter girl's agitation increased, her eyes darting everywhere as she swept her surroundings with the intensity of a laser scanner, tapping her foot restlessly.

"Cut it out," Rosé had muttered at one point, "you're drawing more attention."

Thankfully, Jennie had listened and lapsed into stony silence, her grip on the railing tight as she fixed her gaze out the window.

"I wish I got an energy drink," Rosé heard her mutter, "Jisoo isn't around to nag anyway..."

"We'll get one when we get to the station. What's our gameplan?"

"Shut up Rosé."

Rosé's hand strayed to her phone in her pocket. Although reluctant, she had agreed with Jennie about staying off grid, at least while they travelled, and turned off her phone, cutting off any potential connection with Ella. 

The thought of something happening to her daughter with no way of finding out was terrifying and Rosé was praying for their journey to end soon. She was going to call Ella the moment they stepped off the subway.

Her thoughts drifted to Lisa, heart hollow with pain. She hadn't stopped blaming herself for not grabbing on to Lisa's arm and hanging on tight when her girlfriend fled the Vault, but fear had frozen her to the spot even as her heart cried out for Lisa to stay. 

She wouldn't have killed me, Rosé thought, she wouldn't have...right?

But the yellow eyes had been filled with such cruel, cold rage that when they returned in her dreams, it made Rosé wake up each time gasping for breath and sweating as though she had run a marathon. Her hand automatically reached across the bed to search the cold emptiness for the comforting warm body that should be occupying the space next to her. Her heart dropped every time she remembered that Lisa was gone.

Not entirely, she's still out there. I have to find her, Rosé reminded herself again and again, fervently hoping it was true.

She slept fitfully, pacing about the apartment and checking in on Ella frequently to reassure herself, sometimes even lying down and cuddling next to her and dozing off, but she couldn't say she had had a restful sleep since that cursed night when the illusion she had spun shattered.

To indulge in her streak of masochism, Rosé had taken to replay the day Lisa had run away from the Vault to an obsessive degree, let herself go over every word she spoke, trying to pinpoint the moment when she had uttered the wrong thing. Because Rosé had been certain that for a while, she had almost gotten through to Lisa, until something set her off and she lost control, attacking Rosé.