To All The Girls I've Loved Before - Jenlisa

Chapter 11

Early 2018

"I've always meant to ask but keep forgetting: how long have you been dating Jendeukie?"

The loose waffle Henley sweatshirt suddenly felt very tight around Lisa's neck.

This piece was always her particular favourite. Lisa wasn't sure what kind of cotton blend mix was on this tan oversized sweatshirt, but it always held Jen's smell the longest.

When Jen snuggled up to her early this morning before she left and asked her to meet with Jisoo and Chaeyoung over at Nuss around 9 am while she meets with her professor at 8, the Thai just grunted and pulled this tan sweatshirt from under Jennie's pillows and wormed into it before wrapping herself under the sheets. New York winters can get really harsh and there are times she wishes she never had to leave the bed, where it becomes bearable only because she's either wrapped in Jennie or her scent.

For that reason alone, she barely found the motivation to go back to her own apartment, too, knowing that place is devoid of Jen in the first place.

At 8:15 she slipped again into the tan sweatshirt after a shower, before layering with heavier winter coats. The Wu + Nussbaum coffee shop, or Nuss as the students call it, was usually warm inside filled with the welcoming smell of baked goods, and now that her body's calling for a decent cup of coffee she wasn't feeling too averse to walking 10 minutes to meet the gang.

The group, or the "Colombians" as Lisa lovingly called them, is Jen and her schoolmates from Columbia University. Jen would always point out that it's not politically correct to use the term and might offend actual Colombians who would hear it, but the play on the name wasn't just because they came from Columbia University, but secretly because the three reminds Lisa of mafia leaders. A Pablo Escobar in shorter, feminine forms if you will.

Sans the drugs and killings of course.

And yes, she's kind of scared of the three.

Jisoo, the eldest, is the youngest child of a chaebol family in South Korea. And while Lisa has heard of stories about how chaebol families can get extreme with their sons, Jisoo as a chaebol daughter doesn't fall too far from the tree and can be fairly intense and sans emotions at times. Chaeyoung, the youngest of the three, is a New Zealand born Asian who came from a family of lawyers and has developed quite a network in Melbourne where their family moved. Developing the same rectitude, Chaeyoung is quite the over-achiever, slaving away with studies till the morning and still finding time to sing at a local church choir on the weekends. And Jen...just became a more intense Jen.

Lisa loved describing them as such because despite seeing the intensity in them, working with them, and motivating herself to operate at their pace, the three Columbia University students adopted her NYU Tisch ass as a close friend and looked after her in ways she could never thank them enough for. She knows Chaeyoung and Jisoo were Jen's first but soon it felt they were hers, too, and that kept her warm.

But, that doesn't mean she's still not scared of them.

Especially of Jisoo, when she starts asking questions like this.

Lisa subtly pulled on the neck of the sweatshirt again and tried looking into Jisoo's eyes. Big mistake. It felt like the Korean just tried looking into her soul.

"What are you talking about? She's my best friend."

If Jisoo heard that her voice practically went 3 octaves higher, the Korean's face did not show it. Her face barely flinched, a small smirk across her face.