I CHOOSE TO BELIEVE (JENLISA)

Chapter 7. Sweet relief.

2015

Jennie was breathing heavily, droplets of sweat were glistening on her forehead. She just finished practicing her dance for her monthly evaluation at the YG academy. It was scheduled for the next day, but she felt pretty confident. She had been practicing for the whole week and the dance she had to prepare was slow and sensual, which had always been her specialty. Suddenly, someone approached her with an envelope in hand.

"A message from the CEO miss Kim." - the woman said, handed her the envelope and promptly disappeared.

Jennie felt slightly anxious. A message from the CEO could only mean trouble. She thought for a moment about what happened in CEO's office three weeks ago, when she had rejected his offer for her solo career. She expected some kind of punishment but it never came. Is that what it was? Reluctantly, she opened the envelope and started reading.

"Due to recent changes in the company policy regarding the evaluation of trainees, the trainees who receive this letter are expected to present an additional dance at their monthly evaluation. Note that the choreography is expected to be completely new and unique. Please find additional details below."

Jennie sighed desperately. So this was his revenge, CEO Yang made sure that she would fail her monthly evaluation. "What's the point of even trying?" - she thought as she walked to the door, exhausted and resigned. She knew that it was practically impossible to create and learn an entire new dance in one day. She opened that door and immediately recognized Lisa with an unmistakably genuine smile on her face. "Only Lisa can smile like that." - Jennie thought and instinctively responded with a smile too.

"I was watching you dance." - the Thai girl explained simply and Jennie's heart started beating slightly faster.

"You were really sexy." - Lisa added and Jennie had to turn away to hide her reddening cheeks. For a moment she was truly scared that her heart would jump out of her chest.

"Hey, what's wrong Nini?" - Lisa rushed towards her and gave her a back hug.

The stayed embraced for several seconds, but it felt like eternity to Jennie.

"Wow, your heart is beating really hard." - Lisa noticed.

The brunette bit her tongue and didn't answer although the thought of saying "Yes, it's always beating this hard when you are so close." briefly crossed her mind. Instead, she just handed the letter to Lisa, who looked at it anxiously.

"What? But the evaluation is tomorrow... That's not fair!" - she exclaimed, furiously shaking her head.

"Life's not always fair Lisa." Jennie said sadly, thinking that the most unfair thing about life was that there's no guarantee that the person you love will love you back. She noticed that Lisa is staring at her intently. Then, with sudden determination in her eyes, Lisa grabbed Jennie's hand and began dragging her back to the dance hall.

"Come on, we're doing it!"

"What, no, Lisa, stop! I can't do it, it's too difficult!" - Jennie was protesting but her friend didn't listen.

"Remember when you were giving me Korean lessons?" - Lisa suddenly stopped moving. "Do you remember what you told me when I said that I couldn't do it?"

"I don't remember, something nice and encouraging?"

"Nah, you said: 'Just shut up and repeat after me' " - Lisa said firmly - "It was exactly what I needed. You didn't give up on me back then. Well, Jennie, guess what." - Lisa paused.