[12] - Family Bonds

Chapter 12

"This is your doing!"

Krystal walks out of the seats tier as she heads towards Jisoo.

"You caused Tiffany's transfer!!" She says angrily, pointing her finger at Jisoo.

"Just like the rest of the students before!!" She continues, and before she approaches Jisoo any further, she stops when Jennie suddenly steps in front of her.

"Don't." Jennie warns in a sharp tone.

Krystal is silent about this sudden intervention as she stares at Jennie and turnes her gaze to Jisoo in disbelief.

"What Jisoo? Are you hiding behind them now?" She sneers, her tone filled with irony devoid of humor. "Do you think that if you surround yourself with people, that will change your reality?"

She finishes and all she receives is the angry looks that Jennie shoots at her.

Jisoo steps up, grabs Jennie's arm and pulls her back a little, without taking her eyes off Krystal to face her.

"If you have any other words, say them to me and leave those around me." Jisoo tells her, looking at her indifferently.

Krystal scoffs bitterly.

"We both know that you were the one who pushed them to transfer her, only because she said what she said. Do you realize how ruthless you are?"

- "You mean, Tiffany?" Jisoo says calmly and nonchalantly. "I don't care about her even one bit, why should I bother with it to the point that I transfer her?"

"So you do know how to lie very well?" Krystal remarks sarcastically with a nod knowingly.

Jisoo is silent for a moment, still staring at her coldly when she adds carelessly, "Done?"

Krystal scoffs again angrily before she exclaims further in distaste, "You really are—" she stops herself before completing.

-"What?" Jisoo challenges her and when she sees that Krystal is struggling for not uttering the word, she insists more as she steps forward smirking devilishly.

"I am really.. what? Krystal?" Jisoo asks as if she's saying, 'Go ahead, if you dare.'

Krystal doesn't respond and instead she retorts, "You're going to fall harshly from your high horse one day, Jisoo, and I will be here laughing at you. I'll make sure of that."

She guides her gaze around Jennie and then takes it back to Jisoo.

"And don't think too highly from their presence around you, they can't do anything. They're only by your side for your money, you know that well. "

She whispers her last phrase to Jisoo's ear and passes quickly beside her, bumping into her shoulder deliberately, exiting the hall where she encounters the arrival of the professor, whom she also ignored and passed by, leaving him completely amazed at the overwhelming silence inside the hall.

"What's going on here?" The professor says while looking at the students and at Jisoo, but everyone stays silent.

Jisoo turns to Jennie and says taking her wrist,

"Come on.. let's sit, the lecture will start," fidgeting, she guides them towards one of the seats row.

The rest of the students begin to take their seats gradually, in preparation for the start of the lecture.

.

.

.

.

.

The second period ends and while Jisoo and Jennie were on their way to the cafeteria to meet with Lisa and Chaeyoung, walking down a corridor, they are stopped by a man in sports clothes that Jisoo knew well.

The coach of the university basketball team, Jung Sook.

"Jisoo, can I talk to you about something?" The coach begins with a firm tone as he looks at Jisoo.

- "Yeah, sure." Jisoo answers with a confused expression.

. . . .

"Do you mean Lisa?"

- "So her name is Lisa," he says and nods to himself affirmatively.

They were sitting inside one of the adjacent halls, Jisoo and Jennie on separate chairs around the office while Jung Sook was sitting across from them.

- "What about her? Did she do something?" Jisoo asks him worriedly. What did Lisa do this time?

"Team members told me that she is one of your friends, so I came to ask you: Is she a participant in any sport club? If not, I would like to include her in my team." He says, looking at her optimistically.

Jisoo becomes silent, her eyes widen in shock, and then she exchanges looks with Jennie, who was mirroring her facial expression.

"Sorry, I still don't understand exactly what caused this sudden request. What happened?"

- "During the practice, one of the girls missed throwing the ball outside the boundaries of the play floor at one of the students, who managed to catch it smoothly. This student was Lisa.."

"Uhm.. do you want her on your team just because she caught the ball?" Jisoo interrupts him when he falls silent for a moment.

- "Let me continue." he tells her firmly.

"Okay." She whispers out sheepishly.

- "After she had caught it, instead of throwing it back to one of the players, she threw it towards the basket.. and scored a goal as well."

He pauses when he sees that he really grabbed Jisoo's attention, and then continues excitedly,

"Lisa were at the end of the court and only with one shot at that distance, she was able to get the ball into the basket and she did it effortlessly.. also her hight is another advantage."

He ends his conversation with a smile because he can see the great interest in Jisoo's features.

Yet, she can't just decide or give him an answer without making sure of everything.

"Lisa is not a student here, she is only here to receive a special lessons for the time being.. also, she doesn't know anything about basketball or how to play."

He furrows his eyebrows incredulously.

"So? She can practice. What matters in basketball is getting the ball in anyway.. We can work on the rest of the details."

Jisoo ponders over his words and says,

"I have to talk to her first .."

- "Well.. I will wait for any news back from you, and it will be better if it would be quick."

He says getting up from the chair and heads out.

After he's gone, Jennie turns to Jisoo with a wondering expression.

"What are you going to do?"

- "We'll see if she's really good or it was just a lucky shot." Jisoo says as she gets up, followed by Jennie, heading out of the hall.

. . . . .

Jisoo and Jennie arrive at the cafeteria and head to the table that Chaeyoung was sitting at and next to her was Nayeon, but there was no sign of Lisa around them.

"Where is Lisa?" When she approaches them, Jisoo asks Chaeyoung, ignoring Nayeon's greeting to her, who greeted Jennie instead.

- "Uh, She just went to the bathroom." Chaeyoung answers her as she dips her spoon into the noodles.

"Alone?" Jisoo asks her in a sharp, dessent tone, causing Chaeyoung to look at her confusingly, and then Jisoo sighs when she realizes the obviousness of her question.

If Chaeyoung was here, of course she would be alone.

She couldn't let any of the girls wander around alone, especially Lisa after her stunt yesterday, because she spent enough time here to know that it would never be safe for them.

Still standing, Jisoo stare at the distance a little thoughtfully.

"I'm going after her, if you're done, go to the sport hall."

She tells the girls and then turns around and walks away from them.

. . . . .

Lisa stands in front of the restroom basin, washing her hands and modifying her makeup and outfit a little. After she's finished, she leaves the women's bathroom, looking to her right and left strangely, surprised that there is no one in this area and this hallway in particular.

When she turns around and wanders away, a man's voice stops her.

"You bitch! You finally showed up!"

The man's tone was vulgar and full of anger.

Lisa turns to the direction of the sound to see who the owner of the voice is, and finds that he is the same man who she hit yesterday.

Well, not quite the same, the area around his nose is bluish and red, swollen badly, and his nose has a bandaid over it. Once she saw him, she knew what this was about.

"Did you think you could get away with what you did?!" He says in the same raging tone as he approaches step by step.

Lisa didn't overlook the other two men behind him, both of whom had the same spiteful stare.

She can't believe that he brought his friends with him to face a girl! What lower than this could they possibly stoop?

But of course, Lisa is not one to hold back in front of a coward like him.

"Apparently, one fracture is not enough.." she says calmly, adjusting her stature and clenching her fists as she prepares herself to confront them as she walks back slowly, step by step.

- "I'll make you regret your words when I scatter that beautiful face of yours!"

"Ah..thank you (?)." She says sarcastically, slightly weirded out.

She knows that their fight isn't equal and that she will most likely end up hurt, yet she won't run away.

All she has to do now is to focus carefully on his hands movements and on the two men behind him.

"Sorry. I can't say the same thing about your face—"

He interrupts her when he suddenly throws his fist towards her face, but she swiftly dodges it, shifting her head back. She skips quickly to the side and backward when she sees one of the two men is trying to get close to her, which made her focus slightly distracted.

He use this as an opportunity and raises his fist, intending to swoosh it again and forcefully when it suddenly stops mid-air, close to her face and he freezes.

She can see that his gaze is not on her but rather somewhere behind her.

He looks back at the dumbfounded Lisa and pulls his hand slowly as he brings it back to his side, and at the same time his friends froze in their place as well.

Lisa doesn't turn her head for fear that they will trick her in a sudden move, and doesn't do until she sees them drifting away back, little by little.

She turns her head to see Jisoo standing, eyebrows creased intensely, looking at them in a way that she had never seen before. She was looking at them with a genuine intent to kill.

She looks back towards them to find that they have already gone.

"They must have fled when they realized they had no chance in front of me." Lisa says in a dramatic way, wiping her nose with the back of her hand cinematically, when Jisoo comes to her side and stands next to her, both of them are looking at where the guys went from.

Jisoo rolls her eyes hopelessly and then turns towards Lisa

"Let's go." She says, grabbing her by the collar of her shirt playfully and starts dragging her with her.

. . . . .

"What are we doing here?" Lisa asks, her eyes wandering among the girls.

Jisoo was standing close to the basket base in the arc of the rectangular floor, making Lisa stand on its end and Chaeyoung at her side while Jennie was standing at the edge of the play area to the left of Jisoo.

Jisoo takes a ball and throws it at Lisa to catch it.

"We will play." She takes off her jacket and gives it to Jennie to carry it, and then comes back to stand in her previous spot.

"What are you waiting for? Throw the ball!"

Jisoo urges her again when she sees her still standing still, holding the ball, looking confused.

-"OK." Lisa says simply, shrugging, and then nonchalantly tosses the ball towards the basket.

Jisoo was intending to stop her, but before she could even try, the ball had reached and went through the basket already.

She stands looking at the ball in amazement, blinks several times and looks back at Lisa, who was still in the same indifferent expression.

Jisoo squints her eyes as she thinks, and then follows,

"Go ahead, we'll do some maneuvers. Your job is to score, and I'm going to get in the way of that."

- "Do we really have to do this? I'm hungry!" Lisa groans impatiently.

"I'll buy you lunch from outside after we're done, anything you want." Jisoo promises, throwing another ball at Lisa to catch it.

Lisa's face shines instantly, her boredom disappears, her lifely spirit returns, and she looks more resolute.

"Really? Well then." She says smugly as she advances inside the play rectangular.

"All I have to do is get the ball in, right?" Lisa inquires for a good measure with a side smile as she bounces the ball up and down on the wooden floor.

-"Yeah." Jisoo confirms.

Their maneuvers begin and at the same time two cheerleaders appear out of the blue, Jennie cheers for Jisoo while Chaeyoung is cheering for Lisa.

Lisa was good at getting the ball through the basket and scoring the goal from afar, very good at any spot, but bad at close distances when she's approaches Jisoo a d colliding with her for Jisoo's speed and smoothness at stealing the ball from her.

Whenever Jisoo succeeded in taking the ball, she would throw it back to Lisa and start over. She wanted to test Lisa's weaknesses and strength points. Over and over until they had enough, both of them breathing heavily.

"Okaaay! It's my turn! I want to try it too!" Chaeyoung squeals excitedly as she goes to catch the ball once Lisa and Jisoo stopped and stepped aside catching their breath.

Chaeyoung stands in the middle of the play rectangular, stretches her arm in preparation to throw the ball, and keeps staring at the basket as if to determine the direction of her throw. The girls were silently focusing with her, looking at her with anticipation as to whether she would score or not.

Chaeyoung takes a deep breath and then hurls the ball forcefully . The ball flies at great speed and instead of falling into the basket, skips it and hits the large glassed backboard and bounces back hard to the opposite side, directly hitting Jennie's head, cutting off her excited cheering, throwing her to fall on her back with a thud.

It happened quickly and suddenly, leaving Chaeyoung , Lisa, and Jisoo stunned in their place from the shock for a moment, until Lisa broke the silence as she burst into a guffaw, followed by Chaeyoung while Jisoo dashes to check on Jennie, holding herself back from laughing too seeing Jennie's face wrinkled from the pain.

"That was awesome! Do it again!" Lisa exclaims between giggles, holding her stomach in one hand, and with the other hand, high-fives Chaeyoung's, which was the same.

At first Jisoo endured it until she helped Jennie to sit up, then she gradually started laughing while caressing Jennie's head, and when she saw Jennie's pouting expression, she couldn't hold it anymore as she starts laughing heartily sitting back on the floor.

"Did you see how the ball collided with her? Or the way she landed?!" Lisa says to Jisoo and Chaeyoung , making them laugh even more.

- "I thought she went flying for a second." Chaeyoung chimes in and then laughs again at her joke as she lies on the floor surrendering.

"Next time do a flip!" Lisa adds shaking with laughter, looking at Jennie.

- "It's a pity that we didn't record that." Jisoo agrees, after calming down a little, gaining a slap from Jennie on her shoulder, which then threw the jacket at her.

"Yeah yeah, laugh.. let's see who will make dinner for you tonight!" Jennie threads angrily, hiding her smile, almost laughing along with them.

As soon as she says that, Chaeyoung stops laughing as she looks at Jennie in horror.

"But it was an accident!" Chaeyoung explains sitting up.

"It wasn't an accident when you were laughing your ass off a second ago." Jennie deadpans in a faux anger.

"Hey!" Chaeyoung whines.

- "Good thing I'm going to have dinner out tonight." Jisoo says playfully as she pulls Jennie between her legs, who tried to fight at first but gave up eventually, letting Jisoo rub gently over the area where the ball hit her.

. . . . .

"Wait.. do you see what I'm seeing?" Wendy asks as she looks down and through the glass corridor that overlooks the basketball hall, making her friends Krystal and Irene stop as well, both of them looking at her with confusion.

They were wearing tracksuits and on their way to their own sport hall when Wendy stopped them.

"Is this Kim Jisoo? Laughing? Kim Jisoo is laughing? And that intensely? This is the first time I've seen her like this!" Wendy finishes in disbelief.

They look at where Wendy was looking and see Jisoo with the girls, sitting on the ground, laughing together.

Krystal rolls her eyes and turns to Wendy angrily, "Are you kidding me? Who fucking cares?"

"She is so beautiful when she laughs." Irene randomly mutters eyeing Jisoo from afar, not oblivious to the fact that her laugh was with the girl sitting between her legs now. Irene actually hadn't looked away since Wendy pointed at her, making Krystal look at her in disgust.

"Irene? Do you hear yourself? This one you are talking about has taken our friend away.. damn, I can't even reach her on the phone!" She says, breathing in annoyance, attracting Irene's attention.

- "Most likely she changed her number. She will call us. Don't make it look like Jisoo killed her or something." Irene replies sighing desperately.

Krystal raises her eyebrows in question at the response.

"I still don't understand why are you on her side? Are you with her or with us?"

Irene sighs again, rolling her eyes, and answers calmly: "All I'm saying is not to exaggerate! I don't want the matter to get any bigger."

"Okay okay.. How about we stop arguing now and drop the subject?" Wendy steps in to stop their argument, "Don't forget that we have to go now before the coach gets mad at us. "

She finishes and it looks like Krystal is convinced, but she's still upset about Irene's attitude, so she just turns quickly and starts walking away from them.

Irene and Wendy look at each other strangely, then Irene just shrugs and goes after Krystal, followed by Wendy.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

Jennie stands outside the apartment on the balcony leaning against the railing, looking at the city and at the bright lights that color the evening, taking regular breaths as she contemplates the weather, letting the air breeze caresses her locks as she closes her eyes.

"It's beautiful." She hears Lisa voice out of the blue, complementing the scene, making Jennie snapping her eyes open.

When Jennie entered the balcony, she did not close the glass door behind her, and this was most likely the reason for her not noticing Lisa entering and standing to her left until the latter spoke.

"It is." She agrees softly.

They fell silent for a few minutes, and then Lisa breaks the silence,  "So, what do you think?"

Jennie furrows her eyebrows in question as she turns towards Lisa, indicating her to clarify more.

"I heard what happened today morning.. in fact the majority were talking about it, so I'm asking you now, what do you think?"

Lisa says as she looks ahead.

"Do you think Jisoo was the one who actually transferred her?" She finishes, turning her head to look at Jennie.

Jennie is silent for a while as she looks at the distance, then sighs and turns her head to the front as she simply replies, "I don't know."

- "Yesterday when Jisoo confronted that girl named Krystal.." Lisa begins on a calm note.

"I noticed the expression Jisoo was wearing at the time. It was different from what it is when she is with us, it was almost as if I was looking at a different Jisoo.."

She pauses a little and continue,

"I know you noticed that, too."

Another silence and then:

-"I did. But this's Jisoo, we only know what she lets us see. And I don't really care. Either way, it was for the better that that girl got transferred.. she deserved it."

Jennie turns to Lisa and asks, "what about you? Are you afraid that Jisoo might really done it?"

They stare at each other a little, then Lisa sighs, turnes her gaze ahead, and answers determinedly.

"No. I'm with Jisoo no matter what she does, even if it's bad."

Jennie chuckles knowingly as she looks down at the city.

"Chaeyoung?" Jennie wonders.

- "Ooh..She is much worse than us. She can't go to sleep before eating my brains out about how cool Jisoo is in everything and anything and how much she look up to her. I started to fear that she might love her more than me."

Lisa says playfully, gaining a silent laugh from Jennie, and then the silence returns between them.

"I've always wondered how Jisoo can stay composed and calm in whatever situation and at all times." Jennie says randomly having a distant look in her eyes.

- "Isn't it the same for you? You also maintained your composure despite all that you have been through." Lisa remarks quizzically.

"It's different.. when people go through bad accidents, they change. I.."

Silence, then she lowers her head for a moment and raises it to continue, "I locked up what I was feeling in terms of pain and turned it into hatred and detestation, and that overwhelmed my actions, reflected it towards those around me and effected my belief in them. As for Jisoo..  Jisoo looks like someone who has never felt pain in their entire life or ever faced a dilemma, which apparently that is not the case at all."

- "Or maybe she's just too strong." Lisa says after listening carefully to Jennie's talk.

"She is. This is what scares me.. I'm afraid she's strong at the expense of herself. "

🎶▶️ Melanie Martinez - Dollhouse

Because there is always a breaking point and one day Jisoo will reach it. And Jennie just hopes when that day comes that Jisoo won't be alone.. that she will allow her to not let it happen.

. . . . . .

Jisoo's car arrives at her father and his family's villa and stops in front of the main door.  The driver gets out and advances quickly to open the door for Jisoo and keeps it open while helping her to climb down from her seat.

Jisoo exits and stands looking up contemplatively at the villa door.  She pulls the dress slightly upward with her hands so that she does not trip when going up the stone stairs and starts walking with a steady steps.

She wore a long black dress with a V open neck, a slit at the front and thin shoulder strings that showed her neck, collar bones, taut shoulders and a bit of cleavage, laying on her perfectly, highlighting her body shape and curves in a delicate way.

She reaches the door, release her hold on the dress, and then strokes it down gently to get rid of any wrinkles if present. She then knocks on the door and seconds passes before one of the servants opens it for her, who as soon as he saw her bowed deeply to her while opening the door wide and at the same time she can see another servant rushing towards them, most likely to take her coat.

Jisoo enters and begins to look around while the server takes off her coat.  The venue felt like it was in constant motion in preparation for the party, the servants some of them were on hand and the other on a constant move, the lights were very bright and yellow-ish and the entire villa is decked out with exaggerated royal furniture along with a classical music playing throughout the place.

Typical, she thought.

Taking a deep breath, sighing in boredom, she begins to calmly walk up the main staircase to the upper floor.

As soon as she reaches the main hall where the party will be held, she hears a familiar voice calling her.

"Jisoo! You made it!"  Sehun gleefully says, drawing her attention to look at him and find him with his arms outstretched.

- "Dad.." she lets out softly, giving him a warm smile as she turns towards him and into his arms.

"You look astonishing."  He compliments after embracing her and prints a light kiss on her cheek.

She smiles at him again timidly.

"And you're not bad yourself, You look very handsome in this suit."

-"I know, right?" He enthusiastically agrees and they exchange lighthearted chuckles between them

"Come on, I'd like to talk to you for a little while before dinner is ready."  He says, heading towards his office, as his smile fades away slightly and his tone suddenly turning serious, Jisoo follows him knowingly.

🎶⏸

. . . . . . . . .

"To be honest.. I was really surprised."

Sehun starts holding the glass of red wine that he poured for Jisoo, then turns around and moves towards her and hands the glass to her and then sits across from her on the chair and continues, "You have never asked me such a thing before. I mean, in the past, you were completely against what I did and we even had an argument at the time."

It was the second semester of the first year of college for Jisoo when Sehun visited her in one of the days and got to know what was going on and what was circulating around her, about her past, from the dehumanizing comments and nicknames to the absurd rumors.

Deciding to take the matter into his own hands, he transferred every single one of them at the time, every one he saw or heard talking about his daughter, to the farthest place possible with a serious warning. That, of course, made the rest shut up out of fear, like talking about her past is some kind of taboo, but also made them hate Jisoo even more.

Jisoo slowly pauses after playing with the rim of the glass with her thumb, and then lifts it and takes a sip.

"Did something happen again?" He asks seeing her prolonged silence.

- "It's not a big deal." Jisoo answers him calmly while looking at him.

He stares at her a little thoughtfully, then sighs helplessly before he elaborates,

"I'm not saying this to judge you, I'm just worried about you. If someone upset you, I won't just do that." He informs her in a firm tone, looking directly at her.

- "Believe me, it's nothing. It was just necessary." She reassures him placing the glass on the coffee table. "Have you made sure that she won't cause us any problems there?" She continues, looking at him seriously.

"Yes, rest assured." He says despite his surprise at such a question.

Before Sehun can open his mouth again, the door is knocked on a few times to then the servant enters and announces that dinner has been prepared.

"I think our conversation is over." Jisoo says in a cheerful tone as she gets up, followed by Sehun.

Taking another deep breath, preparing herself to meet her so called family members after a long time.

Preparing herself to play happy family again.

—————————

To be continued

—————————