it's always ourselves that we find in the sea || jensoo

Chapter 30

Jennie was gentle with Jisoo for the next few days, carefully caring for her as Jisoo wallowed in her suppressed grief, even if she tried not to show it. It was clear in her hollow eyes though, ringed by dark circles, and in the darker songs she played on the piano, the compositions haughty and morose, her anguish pouring into her music, and in the way she picked at her food and had to be delicately prompted into showering and changing into the fresh pyjamas Jennie laid out for her. She'd barely been home at all, and only to fetch things and spend a few minutes with Minzy, who had been briefed on the reason for her daughter's absence, although she was always working late at the lab anyway, so it made little difference to her anyway. But as February arrived with a flurry of showers and strong winds, slowly but surely, Jisoo crept back to her usual self, her heavy silences turning back to thoughtful and introspective, her melodies becoming softer, and her appetite returning enough for her to sample the cookies Jennie baked in her kitchen.

Still, a week later, when they were eating flaky croissants and drinking coffee that Jennie had picked up in town, she received an email that made her hesitate for a moment. They'd been having a conversation about whether or not they wanted to brave the fierce weather that had swept in early that morning and go for a walk when Jennie's phone had vibrated on the table. As soon as she'd read the contents of the email, she'd trailed off mid-sentence, her coffee raised to take a sip, and she set her cup down on the table with a small thud.

"What is it?" Jisoo asked, her eyebrows raising slightly as she dusted buttery flakes of pastry off her fingers.

"It's a, uh, it's for an interview, with the Seoul Newspaper," Jennie murmured, "they turned me down months ago."

Jisoo let out a snort of laughter, "no doubt my mother's doing. When is it?"

Setting her phone down on the table, Jennie reached for her coffee again, replying in an offhand manner. "Tomorrow. At two."

"Well that's plenty of time to head up there. You can stay the night at Chaeyoung's. The storm is supposed to be hitting tomorrow afternoon and I don't think it would be safe to come back in it," Jisoo pragmatically replied, coming up with a plan within moments.

Hesitating slightly, Jennie fiddled with the coffee sleeve wrapped around her cup, her teeth worrying at her bottom lip for a few moments before she let out a soft sigh. It wasn't that she didn't want to go - this job would've been an incredible opportunity, even better than her prior job - she just didn't feel right leaving Jisoo alone, even for a day. She couldn't not go though, because Jennie knew it would be stupid of her to put her dream job on hold to hover around her girlfriend, and Jisoo wouldn't take too kindly to her doing it either.

"Yeah," Jennie said, a nervous smile flitting across her face, "yeah, that sounds like a good idea."

With a few more words of encouragement, the conversation was swept elsewhere as Jennie emailed back a confirmation and sipped at her coffee, a flicker of hope inside that maybe this time it would work out. An interview was closer than all of the rejections she'd been facing for months, and from a company that had already rejected her too, which meant that surely they wanted her if they had reached out themselves? It was an exciting thought that a well established news company might offer her a job, and Jennie began to envision herself as a reputed journalist, living in a busy city again, spending sunny afternoons in the park, joining Chaeyoung for coffee and pancakes and karaoke nights at the dive bar she used to hit up with her friends, getting drunk at one of the grimy booths and belting out the lyrics to eighties songs on the dingy stage. She could have her old city life back. A better life, with a better reporting job and without the burden of Taehyung. And then there was Jisoo.