Miss J | Jensoo

Ch24. Night of Truth

"Rosé, any plans tonight?" Jisoo dragged a palm vigorously down her face as she rested her head against the headrest. She closed her eyes and drew out a long breath.

She could hear the shuffling of papers and tucking away of pens on the other end of the line, before Rosé's calm and serious voice loomed in, "Where do I meet you, Unnie?"

At that, Jisoo smiled sincerely for the first time in almost nine hours she had unwillingly spent with Joohee. This little chipmunk maknae always could read her like a book, anytime, anyplace, even over the phone.

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Jisoo wanted a breather from the suffocating confines of her ironically huge penthouse that made her feel too lonely and vulnerable to her dangerously emotional thoughts. So, here they were, in a secluded private booth in an exclusive upscale bar, where it smelt of posh leather and the lights were dim and yellow, and the music jazzy and blues. It was designed to relax troubled souls, and Jisoo wished it worked for her.

"Holy shit, you've got to be kidding me," Rosé's facial features had been frozen for a while now – eyebrows raised so high they were nearly glued to her hairline, round eyes staring wide and serious, lips parted and jaw slack in perpetual astonishment.

Downing her fifth shot of vodka, Jisoo twirled the intricate glass piece in her hands and giggled at it, "Nuh-uh." She had just blabbered the day's events to her best friend, who now looked every bit as shell-shocked as she first felt in the morning.

"Let me get this straight: Joohee, the daughter of Jiyong and his second wife, walked up to you this morning to offer you a deal – a romantic relationship with you, in exchange for the safety of Jennie, whom she thinks is her half-sister, also our Miss J?" Rosé furrowed her brows and scrunched up her nose in confusion.

"Mmhmm," Jisoo hummed in agreement and tilted her head, as she traced her fingers carefully on the glassware in her hands like it was the most interesting thing on Earth.

"But why would anyone want to hurt Jennie? And if so, shouldn't we immediately alert Jiyong to this?" From the tone of her voice, Rosé was quickly getting anxious, but Jisoo only let out a bitter laugh as she finally put down her glass and glanced at Rosé through half-lidded eyes, "Once upon a time, a queen left and the king remarried. The new queen bore a daughter and raised her to be heir. Alas, the former queen, who later died, had a daughter too! Now lurking somewhere as a peasant. What do you think the current queen would do, little Rosie?"

Gasping aloud, Rosé's hand flew to her open mouth, before she shakily ventured, "Kill?"

Jisoo scoffed and patted her cute maknae's head, "So naïve. Chaebols play games, little Rosie, they're not cold-blooded murderers." She paused and looked straight into her best friend's eyes, "They're worse than that. You'd be thankful to be dead."

Rosé shuddered and sank weakly into the seat, as Jisoo shifted her attention to refilling her glass and then gulped the liquor down in one go.

"But...," Rosé pouted sideways and frowned, "what could be worse than being dead?"

"Living like you already are," Jisoo placed her empty glass back on the table with a clank. "And I can't bear for Jennie to be hurt like that, Miss J or not." Her head throbbed harder at the mere thought of an injured Jennie and she slammed her eyes shut in hopes of escaping reality. Without looking, she already knew Rosé must be giving her those sad eyes full of pity, which was not something Jisoo needed right now.

Huffing in defeat, Rosé sounded exasperated, "I still don't get it. Why can't you just reveal the peasant princess right now so that the king can protect her from all evil?"