didn't know you were cold ('til you felt my fire) // JENLISA AU

Chapter 10

Sunday for Jennie went by both excruciatingly slow and far too quickly. She'd spent the majority of it in bed at her parent's insistence, them bringing up food and books for her before they went out, and she idly spent her time catching up on some homework.

The binder of Lisa's French workbooks and mock tests sat at the edge of the bed with her others while she worked on her Histories essay, distracting her as she kept looking up at it. She chewed on her lip, thinking about seeing Lisa for their tutoring session tomorrow.

The entire confusing rush over everything that happened last night still felt unreal, that Lisa had not only defended her but let Jennie patch her up afterwards. Called her 'Jen'. Said they were friends.

As much as she was starting to warm up to Lisa, she hadn't expected Lisa to reciprocate, especially not that quickly or to that extent. Lisa went out of her way to help Jennie, let Jennie help her out in turn. Even just thinking about it now sent a nervous, warm buzz to flutter through her chest as she remembered the other girl standing so close, calmly letting Jennie wash her face.

That moment in the bathroom, right before her mother had interrupted... it had felt so overwhelming, so unfamiliar and yet-

She shook her head to clear the thoughts.

She wasn't meant to befriend Lisa, she was supposed to be- well, Ella had mentioned that Lisa didn't really have any friends who were girls, so technically this was an improvement. She wasn't doing anything wrong and refused to feel nervous about it.

She shook her head again and tried to refocus on her homework.

*

"Heard a rumour," Seunghyun said on Monday, as Jennie walked into the auto shop classroom before she even finished her 'Lunch?' question. She blinked back at him. With a slight chuckle Seunghyun leaned back in his seat, flicking his pencil between his fingers. "Did you punch someone at a party this weekend?"

"Did I..." Jennie placed her lunch bag on the table, blinking over at her teacher. "Goodness, no! I only pushed him."

Seunghyun nearly choked on his laugh, sitting upright to beat a fist on his chest until his breath settled. He blinked up at Jennie. "You did what?" He asked, disbelief making his voice slightly high.

"I prevented a fight." Jennie said cooly, unpacking her lunch kit with careful indifference. "Well, prevented it from escalating in any case. And yes," she tapped her container against the table to shake any loose rice grains off the lid before opening it, "I had to push someone to achieve it."

"You..." Seunghyun's jaw actually dropped, and he shook his head almost comically to clear it. "Let me get this straight. You went to a party, and got a fight? You. Jennie Kim."

"Prevented a fight." Jennie corrected before taking a bite of her meal. "And yes. I did. It was terrible."

Seunghyun chuckled, an eyebrow raised in disbelief. "Since when did you go to parties? Your last three birthdays I've been the only person there you weren't related to."

Jennie chewed slowly, ears hot. "Yes, well, I thought I'd give it a try."

Seunghyun didn't look convinced. "Jennie..."

"Fine," she sighed, sensing he wasn't going to drop this. She tried to think of a way to phrase it that didn't give away too many details. "I went with a friend."

Seunghyun actually perked up at that news, leaning forward even more. "You did? Who?"

Jennie inwardly cursed Seunghyun's insatiable prying. "Just a girl from here, you don't know her." Other than gossip and hearsay, she thought.