LA LA LOVE YOU | LIZKOOK

iii. fashion statements

The new year had come and gone uneventfully for Lisa. Whilst the members had managed to spend some time with their families, Lisa couldn't go home to Thailand and her parents were spending the holidays in Switzerland and couldn't visit.
When the Blackpink girls finally came back though, they spent a couple days off together, catching up and relaxing.
They lounged the days away, until they were called for duty for another award show.
"Yah, Chaeyoung, did you eat my snacks again!?" Lisa shouted across the dressing room. She had upturned all her bags to find something to eat, and she was sure she had packed at least a chocolate bar with her.
"Why do you always blame me!?" Rosé cried back.
Jisoo didn't even take her eyes off the game she was playing on her phone when she replied, "Aish, stop bickering, you're too noisy. Lisa, I have some snacks in my bag."
Lisa pouted but complied as she rummaged around Jisoo's bag but only found a healthy cereal bar and a small pouch of nuts.
"Eugh, these are too healthy," Lisa whined. "I'm going to the vending machine."
"Don't be too long," Jennie called after her from the hair station.
"I'll be quick, unnie." She had already gotten her hair and make up done and had dressed in her stage outfit, a colourful fringed dress that swayed and flowed whenever she moved.
She found the vending machines at the end of a long corridor, just around the corner from the toilets. She went for what she was really craving, a chocolate bar and sat down on a nearby bench to get her sugar fix.
From the corner where the toilets were, a familiar figure approached.
"Whoa, I thought you must have been an exotic bird or something for a second."
Lisa looked up at the suited figure of Jungkook and rolled her eyes at his comment.
"Very funny. Are you here for round two?" She put up her fists in a mocking fighting stance.
"Whoa there, Rocky. Not today, I can't get my suit dirty." He lovingly smoothed his hands down the lapels of his jacket.
She smirked lopsidedly. "I always knew you were a pretty boy."
"Ey! This is Prada."
She rolled her eyes, unimpressed.
"So did you find the birds that made your dress at the zoo or in the wild?" he asked casually, but a small joking smile was pulling at the corners of his lips.
"Neither, though I can't say that no Muppets were harmed in the making of this dress," she played along, inspecting a sleeve full of the long, colourful tassels with a sceptical eyebrow raise.
He grinned back at her joke. "I'm just kidding, you look nice."
She blushed and stuffed her mouth with chocolate so she didn't have to reply. He came to sit next to her and his sudden body heat almost made her want to slide away from him before she fainted.
"You don't have to be polite. I know the dress looks a bit garish."
"Well at least I'll be able spot you easily tonight," he chuckled.
Again, no matter what he said, or how he said it, he never failed to make her blush.
To distract herself from his large, warm body next to hers and his endearing words, she offered him the half of her chocolate bar that she hadn't yet eaten.
"Here, I'd feel bad if I didn't offer any," she jokingly said with a light-hearted grin.
He took the piece with a thank you, and they both sat in silence eating their chocolate.
She tried to steal glances at his side profile without making it obvious. She didn't get a good look when he stood in front of her earlier, but his hair looked a bit lighter and had been styled differently to hang low almost over his eyes.
"Like what you see?" he teased her. Her way of being inconspicuous obviously didn't work very well.
"Just checking out your new bowl cut," she retaliated with a mischievous smirk.
He looked mock-offended as a hand went to self-consciously rearrange his fringe again.
"Just kidding. You look nice," she echoed his aloof words back to him with a cheeky grin.
He almost looked surprised at her forwardness before his lips broke out into a smile. "You know you're not so bad when you're not annoying."
"Geez, thanks," she replied sarcastically, but secretly, she also thought the same. They had squabbled for almost the whole night at the Gayo Daejun award shows, but it had actually made them a lot closer in the process, breaking down those awkward first encounters immediately without either of them even really trying.
Jungkook nudged her with an elbow. "So... I must be your bias right?"
Lisa cocked an eyebrow in puzzlement, so Jungkook elaborated. "Jimin-hyung said you were a fan of ours. You must have a favourite in the group?" He gave her an expectant look, waiting for her to admit that it was him. Which it obviously was. But she didn't think his head needed to get any bigger.
"Yeah, I really like Jimin actually. His voice is like melted chocolate, and obviously he's a dancer like me, so he's my favourite."
"What!? What about after Jimin?" Jungkook asked, his hope not yet diminishing.
"Well..." Lisa pretended to think long and hard. "It would have to be a toss up between J-Hope and Namjoon. And then Taehyung and maybe Suga and Jin are joint... Oh and I'm forgetting someone..." She saw his incredulous face and carried on, trying hard to suppress her laughter. "Oh yeah, and then there's you."
"You break my heart, Lisa," he said with his cute lower lip jutting out in a pout. "My hyungs will be pleased though."
Lisa finally let out her laughter. "If you look that cute when disappointed, I'll have to disappoint you more."
"Wow, Blackpink's Lisa really does have a black heart."
"I can't reveal where you really place in my favourites list, or you'll just be too cocky and insufferable," she admitted eventually to make him feel better.
It worked, and his full grin came back. "I knew it, I really am first, aren't I?"
"Shut up, before your head doesn't fit in the stadium anymore." She nudged him in the side with her arm.
He continued to tease her about him being her bias despite her adamant denials and diversion tactics she tried on him, before she realised the time and had to get back to the dressing room.
"See you out there, Jungkook-ah," she teased with a wink and a wave. It didn't escape his notice that she had finally stopped calling him sunbae-nim and had actually lowered her formality to something a lot more appropriate and familiar.
"See you, Lllaaalisa," he rolled his tongue on the 'l' with a teasing grin. 

-&-

"Thank you blinks, and thank you Teddy oppa!"
Blackpink had just won their award and Lisa had accepted the award and was making her acceptance speech in an aegyo voice that none of the BTS members seemed to be immune too.
Jungkook looked at his other members to see them also smiling endearingly up at Lisa who was trying her best to not mess up her Korean.
"Oppa, your heart is black," she sang into the microphone with a little hand gesture that mimicked her Playing with Fire choreography. The screams in the stadium blew up at her adorableness and Jungkook even saw Yoongi-hyung smiling. Taehyung and Jin looked at him and Namjoon with a knowing look before the four of them burst out laughing, suddenly remembering the restaurant scene when that part had played.
"Please say a bit more," the MC encouraged, to which Lisa finished her speech in Thai.
Jungkook watched with a grin as the Blackpink girls exit the stage, Lisa laughing with her members at her speech attempt.
"Too. Much. Cuteness... Aegyo. Overload," Taehyung cried, clutching at his chest dramatically.
Jungkook pointed out his hyung's theatrics to Namjoon and laughed. 

-&-

Lisa wanted to bury her head in her arms for the whole night after her embarrassing speech attempt. Jennie patted her shoulder consolingly as they sat back down at their table.
"You were too cute, Lali," Jisoo teased. "Too much natural aegyo. I need my eyes and ears cleansed after that."
Lisa smacked her arm with a pout, but she knew her unnie was only joking.
The rest of the night passed with some amazing performances and other deserving wins. Lisa swore she felt eyes on her throughout the evening, but when she tried to look around her, she only saw the fans cheering everywhere in the stadium and put it down to Blinks being supportive.
After the show ended, they were ready to leave the venue, but her name was suddenly called as they were making their way to the exit. She turned in surprise and saw her BTS sunbaes in front of her with large grins on their faces.
"Aigoo, you're too cute, Lisa," Jin said to her, even ruffling her hair like she was a child.
"Sunbae," she whined. "I'm so embarrassed.'
Namjoon laughed and told her not to worry, his leadership skills shining through.
"You haven't met them yet, but this is J-Hope and Suga."
She bowed to the two members, and introduced herself.
"And these are my members, Rosé, Jisoo and Jennie."
They all bowed to each other and were making polite small talk. 
"As I thought, your dress made it easy to spot you," Jungkook said, away from the main conversation their members were having together. He lightly ran his fingers through the tassels on said dress at her waist. The touch was so light but the thoughtless gesture made Lisa's mind narrow in on it. 
"The Muppets made a noble sacrifice then," she replied back light-heartedly, although inside she was feeling anything but.
"It seems so," he joked along with a grin. "I'm sure a lot of people couldn't take their eyes off you."
The way he said the statement didn't seem so innocent to Lisa's ears, but she feigned ignorance.
"And what about you? Your Prada suits were popular out there," she teased, name-dropping the designer that he had so readily praised earlier.
"I like to think it was also the guys wearing them, but you know..." 
"Ah, you would like to think that, wouldn't you?" Lisa laughed back, stubbornly not playing into his attempt at a humble-brag.
He grinned back playfully, their teasing both infectious to the other. It was short-lived, however, as Blackpink's manager was calling them to leave.
"Till we meet again, Jungkook. Bye guys!" She waved and bowed as she took off after her members to the exit.
As they were leaving, she could faintly hear J-Hope, the jokester of BTS, imitate her speech with an exaggerated level of aegyo, to which she couldn't help but feel embarrassed all over again, her face burying into her hands.