Chapter 13 - Final
With Slow steps, she moves towards the door and before entering it, she takes a deep breath and completes her path to the inside.
After the door there is a short corridor, after it there is an empty space separating the rest of the rooms, it's the hall maybe. To her left is the kitchen, and next to it is the bathroom while to her right there are two rooms. Everything inside the house is upside down; Scattered objects and broken furniture.
"What happened here for heaven's sake?" She mutters looking around.
As she directs the flashlight around, her gaze falls into a small, inverted frame between the objects. She squats and and lifts it off the ground, flips it over and directs the light on it as she stands back up.
Its glass is broken but she can see the picture, a picture of a teenage girl with a grown man beside her and both are smiling. She can tell from the features of the girl that that is Jennie and this man must be her father.
"She's cute from a young age." She mutters, smiling as she stares at Little Jennie's picture, to then she looks around again.
'So this is really her house.'
She flips the frame back, opens it, extracts the image, and throws the frame. Folds the picture in the middle so that only Jennie is showing, folds it so well that the folding line appears clear and sharp and then tears it slowly according to it.
She hides the part of the picture that shows Jennie in her jacket and wrinkles the other part aggressively.
Yes.. she hates Jennie's father.
Turning to the side, she walks and enters the first room to her right. It's scattered, messy and the wardrobe, in addition to the bed, were upside down. As she walks further inside she can hear the sound of the glass crashing under her shoe, and in one of the corners of the room there are a group of empty beer bottles. Obviously this room belongs to her father because all the clothes on the floor are men clothes and also because of the presence of beer bottles.
Backing away from this room, she heads to the other room, it's also scattered. The wardrobe is still in place, but its contents have also been scattered and thrown to the ground. She also notices that many notebooks are thrown on floor. Walking inside, she squats and takes one of them, and sees it's mathematics notes, her school notebook.
Jisoo starts opening them one by one and what she notices in each notebook is that Jennie was leaving the first page to write her information on;
Name: Jennie Kim Ruby Jane
Grade: A-2, second year
Material: xxx
And at the end of the page, she drew small cute hearts.
Jisoo chuckles as she looks at them, she saw another side of her.
After opening the notebooks, she puts the phone aside, starts picking up the clothes, and then folds them. Most of her clothes were black, she must have liked this color.
At every piece of clothing she was lifting, she would stop and look at it, remove the dust off of it by shaking it in the air forcefully and then hold it close to her, and lastly she would fold and return it to the wardrobe.
Her eyes lay on a few pieces in one of the lower drawers of the wardrobe that still have not fallen to the ground and are still folded. She pulls one out, takes the phone and directs the light on it..it's a white T-shirt with cartoon drawing of a bear in pink color printed on it.
Again seeing such a thing makes her chuckle, She thinks how cute Jennie would be if she wore it.
Her smile disappears the moment she remembers that Jennie is no longer here for her to wear it.
not tomorrow..
And not after tomorrow..
And she won't see her again.
She sits on her knees, turns off the light, and puts the phone beside her. No matter how bright the place around her, it cannot light the darkness that has surrounded her heart.
Before she lifts the piece of clothing she was holding to her face to inhale its smell, her tears gather and fall first, She can't hold them back anymore. As she close her eyes, she brings it closer to her face.
The smell of the T-shirt was like the smell of cheap soap, but she prefers it over the expensive scents that filled the luxurious places.
She stills when she hears the sound of the door opening followed by the sound of rummage and objects scattering.
"Haash! Those bastards! They left nothing intact!"
Jisoo's tears stop falling suddenly and she raises her face off the piece of clothing, furrowing, not believing the voice she heard just now.
Jisoo gets up, taking her phone and stands upright, hoping that she didn't lose her mind and started imagining voices that don't exist. With steady careful steps, she walks out of the room.
The place is dark and she barely can see anything due to the low light from outside.
As her eyes adjust to the darkness, she can see now a vogue glimpse of the person in front of her, And their body line is familiar to her. She approaches them slowly announcing her presence in this house and drawing their attention.
"Wh-Who are you?" The girl blurts out after being startled for a moment at this sudden appearance, who's getting closer to her, "Don't come close! I warn you, I'm- I'm carrying a dangerous weapon with my hand now!" She lies, it's obvious she doesn't hold anything in her hand.
"If you try to do something-"
Jisoo and the other girl come face to face, both looking shocked, except that Jisoo was shocked as if she had won the lottery and the other girl was as if she had seen a ghost.
"Jisoo?"
- "Jennie!"
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"Jisoo! Jisoo, stop! let's talk! Stop it!"
Jisoo was striding fast with her left hand tightening its grip over Jennie's right wrist as she dragged her along. Without turning around, making her focus on the way ahead, she just keeps ignoring her.
"Jisoo! I'm talking to you! Where are you taking me?"
- "To the car. We're going back to the mansion." Jisoo finally informs her simply, in a sharp and calm tone.
"What? No! I don't want to! Jisoo!" Jennie objects trying to free her wrist, "Let me go..I'm leaving from here!"
- "You are not going anywhere." She states nonchalantly.
"I told you about my reason for this in the letter! I told you everything, now let me go!"
No answer..
"Jisoo, stop! You are hurting me!"
They approach the main highway when she stops and turns around, facing Jennie.
"Yes, you told me everything, but this was only your part of the talk! Without listening to what I have, you decided on your own that this is better!" She finishes her words angrily, holds her wrist, and starts walking again.
Jennie wanders off with her thoughts, a little taken back by Jisoo's words. She can't see her expressions well, the darkness prevents her, but she can see her body line and movements.
"Yes! It's better! Just let me go my way! Someone like me.." she trails off, feeling her sense of guilt rising again.
- "Someone like you is what?" Jisoo stresses as she continue to drag her, getting closer to the street.
" 'Someone like me..someone like me..' Don't you get tired of saying it?" Jisoo denounces mimicking her, "What's wrong with someone like you?"
- "Everything! Everything is wrong with me!" Jennie snaps feeling more guilty than ever, more confused, "Now let me go! You said it yourself, it's not like we were close to each other! So why are you doing this? What is your concern with me?"
No answer, but she can feel Jisoo tightening her handgrip more around her wrist.
"Jisoo! Stop it now and tell me!" She orders loudly, "Why are you doing this?"
She loses her patience when she doesn't hear an answer from her again and asks again, "Jisoo!-"
"Because I don't want you to leave!" She blurts out louder than Jennie's tone from before as she turns to face her again, leaving her hand.
- "What?" Jennie says in a low tone, dumbfounded.
"Jennie. RubyJane. Kim. You're so selfish, do you know that?" She says as she approaches Jennie slowly, "You say what you have and go because this is easier for you, only thinking about yourself..Did you ask me whether I agree with you or not? You didn't even bother yourself to know? Who gave you the right to decide what's better for me?" She tells her off, looking directly at her.
There is a little silence between them, and before Jisoo continues, she takes a deep breath to calm herself down and starts again in a steady gentle tone, "I don't want you to leave."
A truck approaches them, the headlights of it fall on them as it passes by, revealing a glimpses of Jisoo's face.
Her expressions are serious, but her eyes are dark, eyelashes wet, and a tear is on her way to leave her cheek.
The truck moved away from them darkening the place again, but Jennie no longer needs the light.
"I..didn't offer you money so you can leave like this, I offered it to you so you can solve your problem and continue to live here. I was thinking to plan a visit from time to time, to create coincidences so I can meet you and we may get to know each other more.." she declares in all seriousness and Jennie reddens hearing that.
'She's blurting everything out!'
"I don't want to meet you in another life, I don't want to meet after many years from now, I can't afford to wait that long. We're already have this life.." Jisoo confesses, her tone filled with tenderness as she follows,
"I want you now."
The silence reigns between them as she lets her words sink in, she knows that she has to take that thought, that bad judgment on herself, out of her mind first.
"And please, stop blaming yourself, stop looking down at yourself. If only you could see yourself through me, Then you will understand.. you will see how beautiful you are in my eyes." She finishes and she doesn't mean her outer beauty, but the beauty of her soul.
Jennie doesn't know what to say anymore, she's so overwhelmed by Jisoo words that she feels she's about to cry any second, she's already tearing up.
'This's too much..too much for me.'
"And I'm not any better than you.." Jisoo adds making Jennie furrow in disbelief.
- "Not true." Jennie objects quickly.
"I'm not."
- "Yes, you are."
"I'm not!" Jisoo snaps impatiently, in non angry way, "Gosh! Jennie, are you going to die if you didn't oppose me for once? Is this how you treat the god's gift to you?"
"wh-what?" Jennie lets out offhandedly, feeling dumbfounded for a moment as her eyes widens, and turns her head away shyly, "Yah!Don't reminding me of what I wrote! I'm already embarrassed enough!"
"What? You didn't mean it?" Jisoo asks her genuinely, her tone filled with worry.
-" of course I did!" She assures her immediately, looking back at her.
Silence is back between them for a while before Jennie digresses," I..I hurt you. Just..just forget about me.." she finishes, feeling unworthy, as she tries to turn around and leave when Jisoo stops her by holding her wrist.
"So? Does running away will make the hurt go away?" She asks her in an authoritative determined tone, looking sharply at her, "shouldn't you stay and make up for it?"
Jennie stills for a moment, feeling more lost.
"Why are you like this?" Jennie says, freeing her wrist and backing away. "You don't even know me!"
"Then let me!" Jisoo declares hopefully, "I want to know you."
Jennie stares at her again, still can't believe what's happening.
"No..I can't , I'm stupid.. you make me stupid!" She says ruffling her hair helplessly and looking somewhere else, " I feel like I'm the stupidest girl on earth when I'm with you.." She adds looking back at Jisoo as she takes a step toward her.
"You're not the only one." Jisoo assures her calmly.
- "Too many bad and dangerous men are chasing after me.."
Another step forward..
"I will protect you."
- "You might get hurt.."
Another step acrossing Jisoo's personal space to stand right in front of her.
"You won't allow it."
They stare at each other for moments before Jennie lowers her gaze and raises her right hand slowly and puts it lightly on Jisoo's arm as she gets closer and rests her head on Jisoo's left shoulder.
She stays like this for another long silent moments and Jisoo lets her..
"My heart is heavy." Jennie informs her lastly, making sure that Jisoo is aware of everything that might happen or might face her, and that she has a heavy heart.
A heavy heart that requires great care and carries many expectations from the other, placing great pressure on them.
"I will carry it carefully." She promises tilting her head to let it touch Jennie's head gently.
Jennie's hand, that was still on Jisoo's arm, slips leisurely down, without lifting it until it reaches Jisoo's hand and Jennie intertwines their fingers together and tightens her fingers around Jisoo's hand.
"Jennie.. stay?" In a whisper, she adds.
Jennie lifts her head to look at Jisoo, her face is so close to her, and she can recognize her features now.
Jisoo is looking at her too.
She leans her head a little closer and rests the side of her face on the side of Jisoo's face, with both of their eyes are closed.
Moments pass before Jennie's lips find their way towards the spot between the corner of Jisoo's mouth and below her cheek, placing a long and affectionate kiss as her body pushes onto Jisoo's body a little.
She can feel the heat of her body flowing and she hopes that this heat will reach Jisoo so that it may warm her cold skin.
And Jisoo got her answer.
She lifts her lips and pulls her face away, facing Jisoo again before Jisoo rests her forehead on Jennie's forehead and they stay like this for a little while.
"Let's go back home." Jisoo says, wearing a weak smile.
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They arrive at the mansion and enter the front yard. The car stops and they exit, Jisoo steps ahead of Jennie, then stops, turns to her and extends her hand to Jennie.
Jennie looks at Jisoo first for a moment and then at her hand before she takes it eagerly and they continue walking.
Jisoo was walking in front of Jennie as she had before, except that now she is sauntering and gently holding the hand of Jennie on their way to her wing.
She reaches her room and lets Jennie go in first and she follows and closes the door behind them. She puts her keys and phone on the make-up table and heads toward her closet while Jennie is still standing at the door with a lost expression, not knowing what to do, where to look, or why Jisoo led her to room.
Jisoo opens one of the closet doors, takes off her jacket, throws it inside the closet, and then takes off her T-shirt to stay only with a bra.
When Jennie sees her, she turns around quickly facing the door, feeling extremely shy.
"Wha- What are you doing?" Jennie exclaims bashfully.
- "Changing my clothes?" Jisoo replies sarcastically while still changing her clothes, amused at her reaction.
"I know..I mean, I'm still here!"
- "So? We're both girls."
'Right..we're both girls. Why so nervous?'
Jennie stays facing the door for a little while and then turns back around to find that she has already finished wearing her sleepwear.
Jisoo shuffles toward her bed and turns around it to sit on the right side of it.
"Why are you still standing there? Aren't you going to change your clothes?" She wonders looking up at Jennie.
- "Oh yeah..I'm going now."
Jennie turns around and is about to open the door when Jisoo stops her:
"Where are you going?"
- "To my room." Jennie answers simply as she turns back to her.
"Oh, you're not going anywhere. You're sleeping here tonight." Jisoo states firmly making Jennie's face go blank.
"What? Why?"
"I mean, how do I know? I can't leave you alone, maybe you will run away again or something."
- "I thought we have already solved that problem."
Jisoo doesn't say anything, and just raises her eyebrows, shrugs and points to the closet her head, wearing a broad smile on her face.
"What? Here? In front of you?" Jennie asks in disbelief and Jisoo follows nonchalantly,
"Are you shy? I'll close my eyes then."
Jisoo closes her eyes, and leans against the headboard. Jennie sighs helplessly, hiding her amusement at Jisoo's behavior, and goes to the closet to change her clothes to wear one of Jisoo's sleepwear.
After finishing changing her clothes, she stands next to the closet, as she looks at Jisoo, who was true to her words and kept her eyes closed. Jennie was looking at her with a hidden smile, and when Jisoo doesn't hear any movement from Jennie she asks, "done?"
No answer..
she slowly opens her eyes to see Jennie standing staring at her, looking so tiny and cute.
"It suits you.." She adds softly and smiles, puts her hand on the empty space beside her and patters it, "Come here."
Jennie saunters towards the bed and sits at the side where Jisoo referred to.
Jisoo adjusts her sitting and then lays down on her left side with her left hand under her head and the other hand resting on the empty space that remained between them. Her eyes still on Jennie.
Jennie lays down as well on her right side facing Jisoo, with her arms folded close to her, one resting on the pillow and the other rests on top of it. Looking at Jisoo and Jisoo's looking at her, as they let the comfortable silence prevails between them.
"Jennie." Jisoo says calmly.
-"Yes." She responds matching her tone.
"Jennie.."
-"I'm listening."
"Jennie!"
She repeats playfully as Jennie starts to smile, "Yes, Jisoo!"
"Jennie... Jennie..Jen Jen.. Jennie.." she sings in a slow melody making her chuckle softly, "What? Jisoo.."
Jisoo extends her hand towards Jennie's face and runs her fingers on her eyebrow gently and slowly, all the way to the side of her face from her eye to her chin.
"Jennie, you're so beautiful." She tells her from an observational view.
- "Not as beautiful as you're." Jennie replies tenderly.
"Your eyes are very beautiful too."
- "Yours are prettier."
"I can stay like this, contemplating your beauty for a long..long time."
- "You're exaggerating." She dismisses, feeling flattered.
"But this is really how I feel now."
- "Then it's as you say, I'm the most beautiful girl on earth." She agrees wholeheartedly.
Jisoo smiles broadly while Jennie is smiling like an idiot now, she needs a super power to make her stop smiling.
Jisoo didn't stop her hand caressing movements over the side of Jennie's face; pushing her hair strands back to the rest of her hair or holding one of them between the tips of her index and middle finger, lifting them slightly and returning it to the rest of the hair and Jennie just lets her.
"Jennie.." she starts again, her tone is low and soft.
- "Yes, Jisoo." Jennie responds playing along.
"Jennie."
-"What now?"
"Jennie..Jennie.." in a melodic tone making her chuckle again.
- "Do you like saying my name that much?"
"Can you blame me? You deprived me from it for a week!" Jisoo answers playfully, but Jennie's expression goes serious and sad.
-" I'm sorry."
"Stop apologizing."
Jisoo stresses knowing that she still feeling guilty and silence is back between them for moments before Jennie decides to change the subject and starts genuinely worried, "Why don't you go to sleep? You had a business dinner, then you went out like this and stayed until midnight, you must be exhausted."
"A little more.. I want to stay with you like this a little more." Jisoo declares wearing a warm smile, "Let's talk about other things, Um..is there something you're wondering about and want to ask me about it?"
Jennie falls silent for a moment as she thinks about it, "Ah yes. How did you know my home address?"
"Lisa told me about your village and the rest I knew with the help of an old man who knew your father. What about you, where have you been?"
- "I went to the man who was my father's friend at the port and while I was waiting for the ship that would take me, to arrive, we got the news that the port will be closed and that they can't sail. So I went out to search for a deserted place where I could stay until the morning and then I remembered that my ID was still at home along with other stuff. I kept waiting until it passed midnight, in case someone was there. And the rest you know it.. " Jennie explains in one go, so immersed in her talk that she didn't notice herself.
"Woah! I wasn't expecting a long answer," Jisoo jokes teasingly, lifting her hand off Jennie's face, "Now I'm really starting to feel sleepy."
Jennie's eyes widens at that, feeling embarrassed.
- "Jisoo!" She says pouting, pretending to be mad, and then she smiles as she remembers something that has always aroused her curiosity, "Why don't you have any perfume?"
"Oh, I don't mean anything with this," Jennie digresses quickly lifting her head slightly when Jisoo's expression goes straight, surprised by her question, "you smell great! I just.. your scent-"
"Okay..'kay..I get it!" Jisoo assures her, cutting her ramble,holding her laugh and then she answers her calmly, "Because I'm allergic to it."
Her smile widens when she sees Jennie's cute realization expression, forming a small O with her mouth.
"Jennie.." she starts again with a skeptical tone.
- "Oh god no! Not again!"
Jisoo puts her hand on her stomach when they both burst into laughter at that as they look at each other.
"Your laugh is beautiful too."
Jisoo blurts out between the laughs, drawing Jennie's attention to her and to stop laughing, while her smile is still present.
- "Then I will never stop laughing."
"Okay, but don't overdo it. I don't want others to think that I'm hiding some kind of a psycho with me."
Jennie laughs at that, and as she keeps laughing her eyes tear up unitl she stops laughing gradually looking at Jisoo. She covers her face with her hand as her tears starts to fall rapidly.
- "Stop crying already!" Jisoo says in a steady non angry tone.
"I'm sorry."
- "Jennie!"
"I'm just.. so happy right now."
Jisoo stares at her meaningfully for a moment before she puts her hand gently on Jennie's hand and moves it away from her face, revealing it. Jennie calms herself down a little while looking at Jisoo, her eyes are still watery.
With her thumb, Jisoo wipes the tears from Jennie's eyes and cheeks, and after she's done, she goes back caressing the side of her face.
"Don't. okay?" Jisoo asks looking at her with worrisome and Jennie just nods as she pouts and sniffles.
Jisoo notices a bright red spot on her wrist, so she pulls her hand and places it on the spot as she runs her fingers carefully over the red area.
"Does it hurt?"
-"It's nothing."
Jisoo's fingers pause and curl around her wrist, holding it, as she pulls Jennie's hand towards her and puts it closer to her chest.
" Jisoo.." this time, it's Jennie who starts.
-"Yes." Jisoo smiles knowing what Jennie intends to do.
What she thinks she intends to do.
"Jisoo.."
- "Yes, Jennie.."
Jennie shifts her body closer to Jisoo so that only Jisoo's folded arm, under her head, is separating them.
"I really want to hug you right now."
🎶▶️ Alina Baraz - My Whole Life.
'And also kiss you, on your cheek again..but I'll leave this for another time.'
Jisoo stares at her for a while, taken back a little, then she lets go of Jennie's hand, shifts back away, pulles her hand out from under her head, and opens her arms, an invitation from her to Jennie to come closer.
Jennie doesn't waste anytime and shifts closer, passes her arms around Jisoo's waist, buries her face at the corner of her neck and tightens her arms more around her and so does Jisoo.
She can feel Jisoo's heartbeat accelerating and she smiles, because this means that Jisoo feels exactly the same as her. She embraces her more forcefully and warmly as she nuzzles with slight movements around Jisoo's neck as if she could blend with her and become one, she would.
They stay like this for a few minutes, both of them don't want to sleep now but Jisoo has reached her limit for the day, her eyelids are struggling to stay open.
"Jennie.." she calls with faint tired voice.
- "Yes, Jisoo" Jennie replies matching her tone.
"Good night."
- "Good night-"
Jennie stills when she feels Jisoo's lips on her crown, giving her a kiss with the same energy that Jennie kissed her with before, letting herself fall into a deep sleep.
"Sweet dreams Jisoo." She whisper to her lovingly.
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It's approaching dawn and Jennie is still awake, engulfed in Jisoo's arms. She's unusually active, doesn't want to waste such moments sleeping.
Gently, she pulls her head away from Jisoo's shoulder with her body and arm, and promotes herself on her elbow. She wants to look at Jisoo as she sleeps, to contemplate her..
People's hearts are fragile.
You cannot imagine the number of things and actions that they might get attached to, no matter how simple or small, exaggerated or ridiculous in the eyes of others, whether they're material or moral. These things and these actions ignited something inside them they didn't know existed and that is all.
What Jisoo did to Jennie might be seen by someone who didn't go through the same circumstances as Jennie, normal and happens often, but no.. not for Jennie. Who may hold you after discovering your attempt to steal them? Who may understand your reasons then? Who might trust you completely after?
Jisoo is no longer an ordinary person in Jennie's eyes, especially that Jisoo had showed her mutual feelings for her, letting her know that she's wanted.
She could offer her heart on a plate for Jisoo if she wanted to..
Jennie raises her hand so carefully so that she doesn't wake her up and moves few tresses lightly away from Jisoo's face.
"Jisoo.." in a whisper, "You're sleeping and you have no idea of what you're doing to my heart."
She falls silent for a bit then she follows,
"I don't know what's in store for us tomorrow or the rest of the days, but I will trust you. I will trust these two arms that carried me before I fall.
I will trust you and I'll keep you close."
Two people, there is nothing that binds them together; their lives are different, their circumstances are different, their families are different, it's not the coincidence that brought them together.
What brought them together was the pain.
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The End
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A/N: Hi everyone, it's the end of the book, not the end of story.
Stay tuned for book two, their story had just begun.
If you like it, let me know and leave a review and vote, also it will help me continue and it'll be much appreciated.
All love, Ary. ♥️
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Thank you all for your Votes & comments ♥ ️