Chapter 2

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Lisa's day had been going fine until a few minutes ago. As Jennie tripped over a bicycle that had been left in the very narrow hallway, the only thing that crossed her mind was that she hoped she wouldn't get bike grease on the dress. Coffee could be got rid of by a good dry-cleaner, but bike grease? Oil? She might as well consign the dress to the trash and have done with it, and spend her next fifteen paychecks buying a replacement.

However, her mind had quickly went blank when she had grabbed Jennie around the waist to stop her from falling over. Lisa was strong, so Jennie didn't fall far at all, but far enough for Lisa to need to spread her hands across Jennie's abdomen. It was firm under her fingers, but ultimately soft. She quickly let go and watched Jennie school her face into another neutral expression as she turned around to look at her. An expression that now said nothing. Lisa smiled sheepishly and shifted her weight from one foot to the other.

Jennie looked questioningly at her. The moment stretched until Lisa suddenly realized that they were still standing in the hallway, that Jennie was in the house of a complete stranger, wearing coffee which was soaking into her dress more deeply every passing second. Irritation finally washed across Jennie's face, and she looked deeply unimpressed with the fact that essentially, they were still just standing in an entrance hall rather than doing anything about this ridiculous situation.

"Let's get you out of that dress?" Lisa said, and then immediately winced.

Jennie rolled her eyes and took a deep breath, huffing it out quickly. "Excuse me?"

"I mean, so that I can get it to the dry cleaners, not- I didn't mean it the way it sounded!"

"I'm sure. Now look here, Miss..."

"Manoban, Lisa Manoban. But please, call m-"

"Miss Manoban," Jennie said, waving her hand and immediately making Lisa gabble to a stop. "Miss Manoban, I have coffee soaking into an expensive Chanel dress. It's quite frankly getting very cold and damp against my skin, and I would like to see if this could be rectified before we both die of old age or you bury me in the walls."

Lisa's face fell. "I'm not going to murder you, I promise you're safe with me. I mean, aside from coffee. Follow me."

Lisa squeezed past her, narrowly missing stepping on Jennie's left foot, and walked up a dimly-lit flight of stairs before motioning for her to follow, and stomped up the stairs. Of all the fantasies that she could have ever entertained about Jennie Kim, or indeed any other unattainable celebrity, this was at the bottom of the pile. She yanked open a drawer, searching for some clothes for Jennie to wear. She wasn't exactly a haute couture kind of girl, and almost none of her clothes had seen an iron since they left the factory. There was precious little that she thought the rich, famous actress downstairs would approve of, so she pulled out a favorite pair of soft jeans that had been worn into comfortable perfection, a Muppets t-shirt, and the only real leather brown jacket she owned.

Mercifully, Rosé was out. Lisa thumped back down the stairs as loudly as she could to announce her presence, and found Jennie standing in the middle of the living area, typing something on her cell. It was the space she loved the most in the house. The dim stairwell from the entrance hall belied the fact that it was in fact a rather roomy space. It entered into a very bright living area. The room had exposed brickwork, with old white patches of plaster every here and there, on which photo frames had been hung. The room was, unusually, for its location, a kitchen with an island in the middle of it. It was clean, but lived in, with dirty plates stacked in the sink and an old cup of... something, on the counter-top, that Lisa belatedly realized was three days old. There was a second door at the end of the room, which led to the more relaxed room with a very large sofa could be seen, covered in blankets, and a huge TV where she and Rosé chilled out after long days.

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