Miss J | Jensoo

Ch19. Surf's Up (part 1)

"Stop, stop, stop!" Jisoo bent forward and waved her palms in front of her, panting and laughing. "I surrender! I can't breathe!"

Jennie was sprinting but slowed to a stop in front of her victim and planted her hands on her hips as she tried to catch her own breath too, grinning triumphantly down her nose, "So, finally gonna let me pay my share?"

They had run all the way from the café to the beach, at the edge where the grass ended and the sand started. Waving her hand some more, Jisoo plopped her butt down and lay her back on the scrubby grass with her hands behind her head, and let the heels of her sneakers dig into the soft sand. Jennie chuckled at the sight as she joined the exhausted girl, lying half on the grass and half on the sand.

There was a comfortable silence, filled only by the sounds of their breaths, as both of them grinned up at the sky and panted through their mouths. Fluffy, sunlit clouds drifted slowly across the clear blue sky, chasing after seagulls that passed them by, one after another.

Jennie had wanted to persist in paying for her pancakes, but when she turned her head to see Jisoo with her eyes closed, her breathing steadier, strands of her dark hair twirling in the wind and her features basking peacefully in the warm sunshine, Jennie forgot the question completely and settled on admiring the pretty girl instead. It abruptly dawned on her that she knew next to nothing about Jisoo – which town she grew up in, how many siblings she had, what foods she liked or disliked, if she had any hobbies, what was her favourite subject, why she transferred schools...

"Close your eyes, Jennie."

When Jisoo's lips suddenly moved, Jennie hurriedly snapped her head back and pretended to be looking at the clouds all this while, but she realized from a sideways peep that the raven still had her eyes closed as she took a deep breath and hummed in satisfaction, continuing, "Doesn't it just make you want to stay here like this forever?"

Jennie raised an eyebrow quizzically, but closed her eyes anyway and inhaled deeply. For a moment, Jennie felt nothing; however, when the rhythmic crashing of the waves and the distant calls of the birds grew clearer to her ears, and she could distinctly feel the wind's soft caress across her skin, Jennie's body started to respond on its own, relaxing her limbs, her joints, her back, shoulders, her neck and her head loosely into the grass. It felt as if nature was reminding her of how big the world really was, of how she could be as unaffected as the tumbling clouds or as carefree as the playing birds, of how she could choose to let herself fall recklessly into the sea if she wanted to, just like how she could fall recklessly in love.

In this moment, she had all the wonders of the world and none of the cares.

"Yeah... Yeah, it certainly does," Jennie finally uttered a reply, her eyes still closed as she recharged her soul, "Know what else it makes me want?"

"Hmm?"

"To know you," with a dose of wild courage from nature, Jennie blurted out the truth into the atmosphere. "To really know you."

Funny thing was, she was not freaking out from that confession. Yes, she was blushing and her eyes remained closed, but inside she felt strangely calm, like an ancient knot at the back of her throat had at last been undone.

Rustling was heard beside her, followed by a shadow over her eyelids. Jennie blinked open her eyes to see Jisoo's head tilted and propped up on a hand, face hovering very close above hers with an obnoxious smirk, hair raked to one side in a large wave over her head and tumbling down the shoulder. Times like this made Jennie wonder if Jisoo was possibly more beautifully blinding than the sun.

Cheeks warming badly and eyes stupidly unsure of where to look, Jennie subconsciously gulped and clutched onto the grass beneath her hands, until her lips were tickled by Jisoo's warm breath as the girl laughed softly and squeezed Jennie's cheek, "Let me answer you one by one, starting from where I come from."