JUST FRIENDS

FOUR

Jisoo finds it unbelievably hard to see Jennie again after that night, and, though she knows it would be impossible to avoid her completely, she tries to keep their time together extra short.

It helps that Jennie spends so much time with Kai now, though thinking about that drives spikes through her chest.

Now when they meet up for their daily lunch dates with Lisa, Kai joins them, always taking the seat nearest Jennie and holding her hand on the table for nearly the entire meal. Jisoo scoots her chair closer to Lisa and tries her best to avoid eye contact with Jennie on the other side of the table.

Conversation is considerably harder to stay away from, and it seems like every time her attention drifts away, Jennie pulls her back with a question directed to her. Jisoo answers each one to varying degrees of coldness, some bordering on warm while others sound so aloof even she's surprised at herself.

For every gruff answer she gives, she can see Jennie's face drop, and that's almost enough to get her to open up again, but then she hears Kai drag Jennie's attention back to him, and she clams up again.

Lisa stealthily bumps her knee with hers under the table, and Jisoo's phone buzzes where she had placed it on the table, a text message notification popping up on the screen. It's from Lisa.

Hang in there, okay?

-----------------

Lisa and Jisoo went out to a walk with Leo.

Leo bounds around the snowy ground, head whipping from sculpture to sculpture.

"It's been a while since we've hung out alone, hasn't it?" Lisa asks, softly as though if she speaks too loudly, She'll damage the ice around them.

"Yeah, I'm sorry" Jisoo responds, her own voice barely above a whisper as she marvels at the pure artistry that surrounds her.

They come to a halt in front of one of the most intricate of the ice sculptures in the exhibit. "Well thanks for coming anyway," she tells her, leaning down slightly so that she can hear her.

"No, I should thank you. This is really getting my mind of the whole..." she trails off.

Lisa turns to face her, nudging her shoulder to do the same. "Oh no, you don't," she says. "You are not thinking about that today. Today is about this ice sculpture exhibit, so you are only going to think about ice. Got it?"

Jisoo smiles sheepishly at Lisa, hoping to thank her telepathically because she's not sure if she can really speak at the moment. She grins back, and she knows that she understands.

They're about to move to look at another sculpture when they hear a whimper and some shocked gasps. Spinning around, they spot Leo, tongue stuck to a sculpture of a snowman and desperately trying to free himself.

Lisa heaves a sigh, running a hand over her face. "And I told him to behave and everything."

Hand darting up to cover her mouth, Jisoo giggles, and it's the first time she can honestly say she's laughed in weeks.

-----------------

It's pretty rare for Jisoo to get a call from Lisa so late at night. Tapping the answer button, she hardly gets the phone to her ear before she started talking at her.

"Jisoo! Hey, sorry for calling so late, but it's Jennie."

Her heart picks up in love-struck excitement at the mention of Jennie's name but accelerates even faster in worry at Lisa's tone.

"What about her? Is something wrong?" she interrogates her, one hand pressed to her chest in a vain attempt to slow her heart rate down.

"It's Kai," Lisa explains, keeping her voice calm, as though she knows how worried Jisoo is. "It turns out he's a huge asshole."