jealousy, jealousy | Jenlisa

1

Jennie's predicament started in Professor Lee's History class.

It was one of their few minor subjects for their programs, with her majoring in Chemical Engineering, and Lisa with her Marine Biology and Business Administration double degree, but it was required and still had the weight of 3 units, which was still a big deal when computing their general weighted average, so Jennie still took it incredibly seriously because of her scholarship.

Lee assigned a partner project for them to research and write a paper on a particular prominent figure in Korea's history, but the catch was none of them got to pick their partners, much to their consternation—Lee chose their partners randomly for them. Jennie was partnered with Hyunsuk, one of the few people from her early elective classes in her first year at Seoul University, who mostly kept to himself and got good grades, so she wasn't too upset with the pick.

And Lisa was partnered with a girl named Diana, who they were sharing a class with for the very first time in this subject.

Jennie can admit to herself that Diana is pretty, with warm dark brown eyes that crease when she smiles, and dimples in her peach skin, and she seems easygoing, amicable, bubbly, and just a pleasant person to be around.

Lisa had told Jennie as much when they were let out of class.

"Guess Professor Lee saved me from a slew of migraines," Lisa told her smugly, which she responded to with a middle finger.

"Go fuck yourself. I am a great fucking partner; we've gotten perfect scores for every single paper."

Lisa had snorted, and replied, "True, but don't deny it—if we became partners, we both know exactly what was going to happen. We were going to fight over who to do a paper on until the weekend before the deadline, then pull two all-nighters just to catch up and blame each other for the delay."

Jennie rolled her eyes, grumbling under her breath. But Lisa wasn't finished talking.

"She gave me her number," Lisa said, taking her phone out and a piece of paper Jennie hadn't noticed her holding. She inputted Diana number into her contacts, and typed out a message. A few seconds later, Lisa's phone buzzed, and she nodded, looking satisfied. "Good to go. You have Professor Park next, don't you?"

Jennie nodded, groaning. "Anatomy and Physiology will end up killing me."

Lisa snorted. "I'll be sure to throw a party when it finally does."

"At least bring the good alcohol."

"Of course, I'm not a fucking heathen."

Jennie was about to retort when Lisa's phone buzzed again. She frowned as Lisa typed a response.

"Who was that?" she'd found herself asking.

Lisa didn't look up from her phone when she answered. "Diana. She wants to meet up after her last class to talk about the paper."

Her frown deepened, a weird twinge in her stomach.

"The deadline is in two months."

"Not everyone wants to do shit last minute, Jen."

"Aren't we heading over to Rosie's tonight to study for Jun's long exam, though?"

Lisa blinked, as if she'd forgotten they were going to do that in the first place. The weird twinge became a knot now, making her feel wildly unsettled. Maybe what she ate for lunch didn't sit well with her.

"I'll catch up. It shouldn't be too long, we might just pick a person."

"Oh," Jennie responded, very intelligently. "Fine, then."

"I'll beat your ass in that exam, don't worry. A pretty girl won't distract me, if that's what you're so concerned about. I won't let you show me up," Lisa retorted, pocketing her phone disinterestedly.

Her chest tightened at the words 'pretty girl'.

What the fuck?

Maybe she needed to go to the campus physician. She might be getting heartburn or something.

Before she could make sense of what she was feeling, though, Lisa's stupid little smartwatch beeped, signaling that they had five minutes to get to their next class. Lisa bumped her shoulder and told her not to die climbing the stairs to the Medicine Wing before she left for her class which is Mathematics.

Lisa was an hour late that night, and didn't even bother texting ahead to any of them, the inconsiderate fuck.

That was three weeks ago.