[4] - Cold Night

Chapter 4

By the time the dinner is complete, Jisoo, Lisa and Chaeyoung were in constant movement from the kitchen to the dining area; preparing the table, setting dishes, arranging spoons and helping Jennie to pour and distribute food.

With all the noise they were making; the jokes Lisa is throwing at them between a second and another, the sound of laughter that filled the apartment and sometimes some bickering between Jennie and Lisa and Chaeyoung spoiled behavior as she keeps asking Jisoo to put the fatty dishes close to her.

All of it was filling Jisoo with warmth and familiarity watching them like that, in fact,  it was like this for everyone..

Like they are a small family.

That and the cold weather of December and its whole atmosphere, gives these moments a special flavor.

After they're finished and everyone is in their seats, where Jennie sat next to Jisoo, facing Lisa and Chaeyoung on the other side of the table, they're ready to start and fill their stomachs now, especially that what's in front of them is no less than a brilliant chef's cook, just the scent of it is enough.

And of course that chef is none other than Jennie, who's very proud of what she had made: kimchi fried rice, grilled chicken breasts with vegetables, chicken soup with noodles and fruit salad with chicken caesar salad.

Yes, even though she teases Jisoo that she may have to do a thorough examination to see if there is some chicken lying inside of her, she makes sure the dinner is full of Jisoo's favorite dishes.

Moments pass exchanging looks between each other and toward the table, all happy with the first home meal made by one of them.

"Wait! Wait!" Chaeyoung startles them when she stops them suddenly as she spreads her arms in front of them as they were about to start eating.

"Let's say our prayer first." She says, adjusts her sitting and stretches her hands to Lisa who's next to her and Jennie as a sign to hold her hand and create a circle with Jisoo.

They exchange a few looks of confusion between them, nod and hold hands to each other, forming a circle. After making sure that she has their full attention, she closes her eyes to get ready. Imitating her, they close their eyes too,

"Dear Lord, our savior.." Chaeyoung starts calmly and the girls nods along with with her,

"Thank you for this meal..

Okay, let's start!"

Chaeyoung ends her prayer that lasted no more than ten seconds, pulling her hands to pick up the spoon hastily, leaving the girls shocked in a half circle.

- "What? Are we done?" | -"this fast?"

- "Hey! I thought you were going to give a speech," Lisa stresses, irritated and surprised, agreeing with Jisoo's and Jennie's responses.

"The food would have cooled down by then." Chaeyoung replies simply as she continues to eat carelessly.

. . . . . . . . .

Throughout the dinner period was full of stories and funny situations that happened to each one of them, most of them were Lisa's embarrassing situations.

All while enjoying their meal wholeheartedly.

At first, when they tasted the food, they kept humming in a rhythmic tone from the deliciousness, and might as well for Jisoo and Chaeyoung to produce an album from that.

Jisoo specifically liked the kimchi fried rice and declared that it's her favorite from now on, and that Jennie must always cook it and that she will be a loyal customer for Jennie's restaurant only.

After the dinner and after washing the dishes - which happened to be on Lisa and Chaeyoung because they had done nothing but sitting and watching TV since morning or either sleeping; by Jennie's decision of course- they sat for their favorite time of the day, watching a movie together.

It's still early in the evening and this's what Jisoo likes about winter, the long night duration and this's what leads her to think that sitting like this at home with this wonderful atmosphere outside is a waste of time.

Which makes her think about all the places she can take them to spend some fun time, also it's an opportunity to take them on a tour around Seoul because she wants to see expressions of surprise and happiness on their faces.

And so once she finds the right place to visit, she gets up surprising them and stands in front of the TV and faces them, features of her face topped by a smile.

"Get up and change your clothes immediately!"

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"Amusement park?" Jennie says in a cheerful tone as she gets out of the car, followed by Lisa and Chaeyoung.

- "The happiest place!" Jisoo responds enthusiastically while closing the car door.

"Wow.. it's so beautiful," says Chaeyoung with astonishment as she watches the theme park from the outside, and Lisa just nods in agreement. Not knowing what to say, they have never visited such a place before.

"What are you waiting for?" Jisoo calls them rubbing her hands together to warm them.

As soon as they enter, Lisa and Chaeyoung get more and more excited and their eagerness to roam around and visit every place and every booth inside the park increases, which makes them wonder from where to start. And although Jennie was calm and satisfied with only looking, Jisoo can see how excited she is and happy too.

At first, Jisoo told them to wander around for a little while to look and enjoy the view of the rides, lights that range from all colors, the crowds and noise of people and the green trees and plants surrounding the walking paths that give a comfortable pleasant view to the eye.

Later on, Lisa and Chaeyoung became at the forefront, taken by the beauty of what their eyes are seeing and their excitement, arguing about which ride they should get on first. Behind them, Jennie was walking steadily with her hands in her pockets and Jisoo, who was walking behind her, a few steps away from her, notices how Jennie is trying to warm herself, especially her neck, with small frequent movements in an attempt to create some warmth with her coat.

"Jennie?" Jisoo approaches her, prompting her to stop. "Where is your scarf?"

- "Aah.. I forgot it.." Jennie says then digresses sheepishly, " actually, I thought I wouldn't need it."

"Here, come."

Jisoo says after a moment of silence between them and takes off her scarf that was surrounding her neck, puts it around Jennie's neck and wraps it around her gently, unaware of Jennie's dreamy gaze on her.

"It's a cold night .." Jisoo adds softly as she adjusts the scarf to surround her neck well.

- "What about you?" Jennie asks her with clear concern on her facial expressions.

"It's okay, I love the cold anyway." Jisoo replies shrugging before she puts her hands back in her pockets and looks around to find out that Lisa and Chaeyoung are no longer in front of them.

"Aaah.. these two! They must have gotten lost among the people!" Jennie groans after realizing why Jisoo's eyes are wandering on the bystanders.

- "I knew they'd forget themselves once we get in." Jisoo says amusedly.

"What are we going to do now? these two don't even carry money."

- "Don't worry, I've given them enough before we had gone out. Maybe that's why they didn't wait for us. " Jisoo says and laughs afterwards shaking her head helplessly.

Jennie doesn't understand why someone might think Jisoo is cruel or even rude? Jisoo is nice, so nice.. to a degree that might makes her look naive but she's not.

How can a person possess all this capability to give without expecting anything in return? and what is even enough to repay her?

"So.. which one you want to start with first?" Jisoo starts, pulling Jennie out of her thoughts.

- "Ah..mmm..I don't know. There's a lot," Jennie replies as she looks around the rides and stalls.

Jisoo notices that Jennie's gaze stills at one of the stalls more than the others, the stall is used to offer animal dolls and teddies in exchange for hitting some targets with the prize for first place being a large teddy bear, that is almost same long as her leg. A couple were standing in front of the stall and It seems that the man had won, but not the first prize, and he's currently presenting the doll to his girlfriend, who seems very happy with it anyway.

"Okay, it's decided!" Jisoo takes Jennie's wrist, surprising her, and leads her towards the stall

"Hi! one round, please!" Jisoo tells the stall owner once she arrives as she prepares to carry the fake gun and looks at Jennie who's next to her, still looking a little bit confused.

"I'll win you that bear! "Jisoo promises with confidence, pointing at the big bear hanging on the side of the stall.

. . . . . . . . . .

After Jackson finishes his dinner with his mother, he adjusts his sitting, wipes his mouth with a tissue, and then puts it aside on the table, turning his eyes to his mother, who is still in the middle of eating her dinner.

"I met her today." He says and takes a sip of his wine glass.

- "And ..?" His mother responds calmly without taking her eyes off the plate.

"I have to admit.. your ability to choose is admirable. She's.. fascinating." He says with a smile, shaking his head in disbelief, "I mean, the pictures don't do her justice. At first, I thought she was basic, but after seeing her in person..woah.. that body and that shape .. "

- "Jackson! Don't be impolite in front of me." She tells him off firmly and puts the spoon on the table and looks up at him.

Jackson laughs a little about his mother's sudden response and adds,"I apologize.. the point is that she will be a great partner! I will make sure of it."

- "How did the practice go?"

"Hmm... aside of some parts I missed, it was fine."

- "I told you that practicing once a week is not enough to master a dance."

"It's not that difficult, tomorrow or after tomorrow I will master it completely. With Jisoo on my arms, of course," he finishes smiling mischievously, making his mother sighs and rolls her eyes.

- "What about Jin Young?"

"what about him?"

- "Are you sure he won't cause us any troubles? You know, he and Jisoo have a past together."

"Oh, don't worry, he's a coward. He won't do anything.. although I do wonder about the reason why they broke up." He says leaning back on his chair and lifting the glass and follows with low voice as he stares into the void, "He must be out of his mind to leave a girl like her."

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If someone asked Jennie about one of the best times in her life, he answer would definitely be this.. right now.

Jisoo really did win the big teddy bear, which is now in Jennie's arms hiding her reddish face behind it as she walks alongside Jisoo who was annoyed and never stoped talking about how such adulterated games were made only to consume people's money because, contrary to her expectations, she didn't win the teddy from the first attempt.

In fact, she didn't win from the second attempt either..

Not from the third ..

And not from the fourth..

Well, not even after many attempts.

You can now imagine how embarrassed Jisoo feels and irritated. Perhaps that's why she can't stop questioning the game's credibility, it's like she's justifying and giving a rationale reasons for why she didn't win from the first attempt.

It's not like Jennie saw this as embarrassing..not at all. There is nothing Jisoo would do and Jennie would think it's embarrassing.

Even when Jennie asked her to stop and told her that it wasn't worth it to spend her money on it, Jisoo still insisted.

What a competitive cute hotheaded!

And now Jennie embraces the teddy as if her life depends on it, not because of the amount of money that was spent to win it, nor for its size but only because it's from Jisoo and is specially for her.. so yeah, she's not ashamed of the way she started jumping excitedly when Jisoo won it, not one bit.

Anyone would do the same, don't judge.

After walking for a while in the park, they stand at one of the rides, and while they are looking around, They glance Lisa and Chaeyoung sitting in the other ride, waiting for it to start. When Lisa notices them, she tells Chaeyoung and then both of them wave to them as they seem to be extremely happy,

"So.. shall we take this ride?"

  Jisoo says, turning to Jennie, after waving back to them.

Jennie nods and they go to stand in line behind the queuing people waiting for their turn.

The ride was the drop tower, in which people sit with their seats and belts tightly adjusted around them and then they start to rise high gradually until they reach a certain height and then it drops quickly at once and stops before they reach the ground at a safe distance.

It's a game that is not suitable for people with weak hearts and of course requires high courage and looking at this tower, it's definitely high.. very high indeed.

If Jennie were alone, she would never get on such a ride, but Jisoo's expressions of enthusiasm and excitement prevent her from asking to change it and make her ignore the fear inside her and perhaps.. perhaps it's not that scary. In the end, she also wants to have a good time with Jisoo.

When their turn comes, they go to sit in their seats, and after the worker tightens the belt around them and lowers the steel pillar in front of them to the abdominal area to hold onto it, the game starts.

The game begins to rise gradually and the higher they rise the more Jennie tightens her grip around the pillar as she takes deep breaths to calm herself, feeling the fear overwhelming her slowly, until they reach the end of the tower and now Jennie can't even dare to look down. Jisoo, on the other hand, was extremely excited smiling from ear to ear, occasionally screaming amusedly.

When Jennie feels the tower is about to drop, her eyes close tightly and spontaneously she lifts one of her hands off the pillar and holds Jisoo's hand instead and then the tower drops.

Although its arrival to the ground was fast and within seconds, Jennie felt as though her soul had been pulled out of her body and her heart was about to leave its place.

The passengers started to get off the ride and after calming down a little, Jennie felt gentle movements of a thumb on the back of her hand. She opens her eyes to find that she was holding Jisoo's hand very strongly - and still is - to the point where her hand knuckles turned white.

Turning her eyes to Jisoo, she finds her looking at her with a hidden smile, her gaze is warm and understanding.

"Sorry..I.. I wasn't aware." Jennie says pulling her hand slowly.

Jisoo just shakes her head dismissively and digresses,"Let's go."

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As soon as they got out of the game, Jennie felt as if the earth was spinning around, which made her stop in her tracks immediately.

"What? Are you okay?" Jisoo asks her right away, noticing her sudden stop.

- "Ah.. no, it's nothing." Jennie dismisses and smiles indifferently.

It happened for a few seconds and so she didn't give it much attention.

"Let's go to the next game then!"

A ride after a ride.. Jennie was feeling more and more dizzy, accompanied by nausea.

She was constantly ignoring that and pretending she was fine and enjoying her time, and this's what she was telling Jisoo if she asked her because she doesn't want to worry Jisoo or to spoil her joy.

After the last game Jisoo decided to take a break and go find Lisa and Chaeyoung. She was carrying the teddy bear and walking ahead of Jennie while looking around, talking about how wonderful the ride was and how the girls were screaming so high that she could no longer hear her own screams.

Jennie was trying hard to listen to Jisoo's talk and to keep walking and keep up with her, but she started to feel as if the earth had come back to spin and her head started to hurt badly as her steps became slower.

"Where do you think they are now?" Jisoo says as she stops and is about to turn around,

Jennie would have liked to answer her but the words didn't come out and the dizziness increased and the rate of her heart beat began to decrease and in one moment, exactly right when Jisoo turned around and met her, she felt her body falling and everything became black and dark, and contrary to what she expected at the moment, she didn't feel the pain of collision on the ground, but instead she felt something fragile and strong at the same time caught her and after that she no longer felt anything.

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Noise..unknown voices.. sounds of children playing..the crowded people's voices.. feeling her body lying on its side on a solid and flat object, moving her head slightly, something soft under it makes up for the hardness of the floor that makes her want to sleep like this forever, but the noise prevents her.

Her eyes slowly open so that she can distinguish what she sees. Now she knows the source of all that noise, because she's still in the theme park.

Gathers her energy and trys to sit up gradually, she notices the time has become more dark and the park became more crowded ..

"Are you feeling well now?" A voice on her right side interrupts the delirium of her mind and its attempt to remember what happened, a voice that she recognizes from a thousand voices.

She turns her head to the side and finds Jisoo sitting at the end of the long wooden bench, looking at her with worry. She looks down on Jisoo's thigh, and then realizes what that soft thing was, and her memories from before she passed out come back to her.

"Here! Here it is!"

Before Jennie can reply to Jisoo, she hears Lisa calling once she arrives, running with two bottles of water with Chaeyoung behind her, both trying to catch their breath.

- "Do you feel better now? When we found you, you were passed out, and Jisoo was carrying you, trying to move you to the seat." Chaeyoung says opening a bottle of water, which is supposed to be for Jennie and drinks from it.

"Ah..Yes..I don't know what happened back there. Sorry to make you worry like this." She says with a weak bow to express her sorry, lifts the bottle of water that Lisa gave her and drinks a little from it.

- "It looks like you were having motion sickness. You should have told me." Looking at her, Jisoo says coldly, and Jennie doesn't know how to interpret her expression.. she is neither angry nor sad.. disappointed? Maybe?

Silence reigns between them for some moments and when Lisa feels that the atmosphere is about get awkward, she digresses, "Well, great thing you're okay now because we have to go right now! There's fireworks' show that will be playing very soon!"

- "Yes! I'm so excited to see it! It will be a great ending to a night out," Chaeyoung agrees clapping her hands excitedly.

Jisoo turnes her eyes to Jennie and gives her a meaningful look as if to ask her if it's okay for her and Jennie nods and gets up. Once she gets up, she gets a little dizzy, and Jisoo quickly stretches her arm to support her.

"Can you walk?" Jisoo asks.

-"Yes." Jennie assures her.

"Let's go before they take all the good spots!" Lisa tells them to make them hurry and start walking already.

Jisoo were about to start walking when she sees that Jennie's still standing in her place, but this time she's looking around as if she's looking for something until her gaze lies at the end of the bench where Jisoo was sitting and her face lightens up when she finds what she's looking for.

"Aah..Yeah, the teddy bear!" Jisoo says when she finds out what Jennie wants and goes to carry it and then hands it to Jennie to carry in her other arm.

Jisoo and Jennie became at the back again, behind Lisa and Chaeyoung, because they were walking at a steady pace. Actually, Jennie was the one who's walking slowly and Jisoo was just keeping up with her pace because Jennie was holding onto her arm for support and clinging to her.

"I'm sorry." Jennie starts calmly once she sees that they have some privacy.

Jisoo stays silent for moments before she replies without turning her eyes away from Lisa and Chaeyoung,

"Don't do this again. If you don't feel well, don't hide it from me again."

Jisoo's tone was gentle to let Jennie know that it's not a scold but rather a request and a hope.

A hope that she leans on her more often..

And always.

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🎶▶️ Saoirse Ronan - Tell Me by Johnny Jewel (With Lyrics)

When they get to the place where they would see the fireworks, they all stand next to each other in one line looking towards the sky and listening to the countdown before the launch.

While they were waiting for the end of the count, Jennie was taking deep steady breaths inhaling the cold fresh air, closing her eyes each time she does because despite the cold weather around her, it felt warm and peaceful.

She looks around; park lights with the night give the perfect atmosphere for this moments, families are gathered, children eager to see fireworks and couples embracing each other.  All contemplating the sky as well.

Everything was so beautiful.

At that moment, she remembered the only time she managed to go to an amusement park, when she was little. All she did then was just stand, watch and wish.

And wish..

And now?

Now she's in the same kind of place, the same groups of people, with widespread love and joy,

The difference is.. 

She, now, has an entire home standing right next to her.

five..

four..

Three ..

two..

One.

The empty sky became full of various colors of fireworks, and the voices of people became louder as they shouted with joy and excitement at the picturesque view in front of them, their hands not lowering as they were recording the show with their phones and some not stopping clapping.

The show was so beautiful until Jennie turned her face to look at Jisoo and saw; her eyes sparkling by the bright lights, her cheeks and lips that became red from the cold weather, which looks so perfect with her white and pale skin.. her hair, whose strands flew out from the breezes of the air, the falling lights resulting from the firing of fireworks landing on her face, which were evident in colors and her broad happy smile, the light of which could illuminate the darkness of this whole world.

She was ethereal.

And then, Jennie's brain functions were no longer working properly and she lost the sense of time and space and became immersed in the piece of art that is in front of her. Even when Jisoo turned towards her and found her staring at her, she didn't turn away her gaze as she used to do and didn't even bother to hide it.

Surprised, Jisoo squints her eyes in wonder with a hidden smile.

"You're missing the view," Jisoo says amusedly as she tries to figure out why is Jennie looking at her like this.

Jennie slowly shakes her head and then smiles confidently,

"I have the most beautiful view in the world in front of me."

Moments of silence pass between them as they keep staring at each other and Jisoo doesn't know how to reply to this and all she managed to do is to smile for her until the show ended and the random people's movement broke their eye contact.

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The majority of people started leaving and some of them decided to stay, Jisoo and the girls were from the majority and now they are on their way to the exit gate.

Lisa and Chaeyoung haven't been quite since the show ended and they keep repeating what they did for the day, immersed in their own world and as usual Jisoo and Jennie were walking behind them listening to their ramble.

They were walking so close to each other that their hands were touching every now and then , and while Jisoo was unaware of this,  Jennie was dying to hold her hand, giving herself encouraging words to motivate her and do it.

After many internal intense motivations, Jennie finally decides to hold her hand, and so.. by a smooth move, she slides her hand and grasps Jisoo's, intertwines their fingers together, lifts their hands and puts them in the pocket of her coat as she continues to look at the path in front of her with indifference, hiding half of her reddish face behind the scarf.

"It's a cold night.."she says bashfully in a muffled voice when she feels Jisoo's gaze on her.

🎶⏸

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To be continued

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