Chapter 18

"So, Jennie. What do you do?" A-yeon asked after five bottles of beer and all the inhibitions were gone.

They were sitting around the three tables they gathered together in the middle of the floor, to accomodate all the ten of them.

There was Jisoo and Jennie, sitting beside each other, feeling slightly intimidated and out of place, Jisoo most especially. And then there was Lisa who was sitting cozily beside Jennie, and both couldn't keep their hands to themselves. They would either lazily touch each other's hairs or Lisa would drape her arm on Jennie's shoulders and Jennie would automatically rest her head on Lisa's shoulder. There were times when they would held hands under the table and would then exchange lazy smiles.

Chaeyoung, meanwhile, was sitting across Lisa, silent and observing, taking occassional swigs on her own bottle, her eyes were somewhat droopy. She was seated between Chahee and Jiyeon, and both were still not over the fact that Jennie was sitting with them at the wee hour, drinking with them and tagging along a friend who was equally pretty and intimidating. Jiyeon have been staring at Jisoo because she still could not fathom how someone could be as mind-blowingly beautiful as Jisoo.

Then there were Chaeyoung's bandmates--A-yeon, the outrageous drunken master, Ji-In, the silent drunk type and Jin-Ah, who couldn't stop humming and singing classical piano pieces. They were eyeing at the two new additional company with curiosity and were particularly eyeing with Jennie and how she was slightly leaning her body towards Lisa and would then sneak a peek at Chaeyoung and how their redhead friend would react to it.

The body language of Lisa and Jennie obviously spoke volumes, the three of them agreed in silence. There was tension between Jennie and Lisa and it was emitting through their stares and the way they gravitate towards each other. Like, each of them would adjust to the slight motion of the other, to compliment each other's movements. They'd have been squealing and teasing the two about it, but Chaeyoung was their friend and they knew exactly what Chaeyoung was going through at the moment.

"Oh, for god's sake, A-yeon! You can ask Jennie anything other than that. What she does should never be our business to deal with. Seriously!" said Jin-Ah with her eyes closed, who was getting drunk every passing minute. She was humming an old Mozart tune.

It was already almost four in the morning. The Orange closed at two. Jisoo and Jennie stayed, albeit Jisoo's persistent refusal, because A-yeon insisted and everyone agreed, including Chaeyoung although hesitantly, and because Jennie didn't really want to leave just yet because of Lisa. She wanted to spend more time with her.

"You don't have to answer that, Jennie," Chahee butted in gently, sounding almost motherly, which earned her a stern look from Chaeyoung.

"What?" A-yeon mumbled. "I just want to know Jennie better, you know, since she's going out with our Lisa and--,"

"Oh, no. Lisa and I aren't dating..." Jennie went crimson in the face.

"--yet, officially," Jisoo interjected drearily.

"--and Lisa is our friend and it's imperative that we should know the kind of person Lisa is hanging out with. Right?" The drunk A-yeon continued, slurring on her words.

"Well, I'm a...a...I'm the--," Jennie started with a stammer but Jisoo cut her off.

"Jendeuk's private life should never be anybody's business unless she wants to," Jisoo interferred yet again, sounding bored. She had been stiff and acting distant and reserved all night, eversince she and Chaeyoung had a tensed exchange of unfriendly conversation few hours ago.

"What are you? Her spokesperson?" Chaeyoung mocked. Hostility was still on her voice. And because she was too drunk to even act civilly.

Chaeyoung Park had been eyeing Jisoo Kim with obvious dislike. Half of the reason behind it was that she, too, could not deny the fact that Jennie and Lisa were acting all cozy and soft all night. It's as though they were on their own little world right in front of them. Flirting right in front of her. It was a sickening sight, according to her clouded judgement.

Chaeyoung really didn't want to be jealous or whatever, but there was this persistent severe throbbing on her head and her heart felt like had been consistently punctured with a long, sharp needle and both were just so much to deal with that she felt the need to lash it out to anyone.

Maybe that's the reason why Jiyeon and Chahee chose to sandwich her. Probably to pull her away in case she would suddenly sprung forward and latch her claws on Jennie. But Jennie was too sweet and nice and friendly that Chaeyoung couldn't find a fault against her. Except that Lisa obviously liked her. So Chaeyoung directed her hostility towards Jisoo. Because the woman was wearing a stupid beret hat. She didn't have a problem with beret hats, in general. Only that Jisoo was wearing one and that awfully annoyed her for some reason.

"What do you know?" Jisoo replied with the same amount of mockery, which annoyed Chaeyoung more.

"Why don't we play a game?" Ji-In said loudly to ease down the tension that was rising between Lisa and Jennie--the sexual tension between them was clear as the daylight, probably because of the alcohol and the cold weather outside and probably because they both like each other, obviously--and between Jisoo and Chaeyoung, who obviously hated each other.

"I love games!" Jin-Ah screamed and raised a bottle in the air. "Cheers for all the players out there! May they burn in hell!" she said and drank her beer.

Jiyeon stared at Jin-Ah with disgust and shook her head. "Why don't we play 'Spin The Bottle'?" she suggested.

"The last time we played 'Spin The Bottle', A-yeon broke at least ten bottles. So no!" Lisa said, laughing. Ji-In and Jin-Ah laughed with her.

"Why?" Jennie asked incredulously.

"Because she was too drunk, she sent those bottles flying instead of spinning it," Ji-In answered.

"In my defense, I was too drunk to even remember anything about it," A-yeon said.

"'Truth Or Dare' perhaps?" Chahee pitched in.

"What are we? Pre-schoolers??" A-yeon protested. "Why don't we play "Never Have I Ever'?"

"No!" Jisoo blurted out before anyone could speak.

"Definitely not!" Chahee and Jiyeon agreed at the same time.

"What a bunch of pussies! We probably won't even remember any of this tomorrow when we wake up," A-yeon snorted.

"Still no. Leave me out of this," Ji-In said.

"What do you think, Lisa? You love this game, right?"

"I'm cool with it," Lisa said and again, turned her face towards Jennie who was already looking at Lisa endearingly. "Jennie?"

"I don't know. It should be fun," Jennie said apprehensively and then turned to Jisoo. "Chu? What do you think?"

"Spill my secrets and get drunk? No way, Jendeuk," Jisoo said.

"Chaebol kids probably don't have any sense of fun," Chaeyoung said coldly and turned to A-yeon. "Let's do it, A-yeon."

Jisoo suddenly stood up, knocking down her chair backwards, furiously looking at Chaeyoung.

"Wait a minute! Who are you calling kids?" she demanded to Chaeyoung, who was smirking at her with mockery.

"Whoa whoa! Chill, you guys! We're just trying to have some fun here," Chahee said, also standing up. Her hand was already on Chaeyoung's shoulder.

"Sit down, Chu! What's the matter with you?" Jennie hissed cautiously while looking at Chaeyoung apologetically and tugged Jisoo's overcoat.

Jisoo flopped back on her chair and looked at Chaeyoung with ardent dislike. "Fine. Let's do it!" she said, earning a drunken cheer from A-yeon.

"Alright! Who wants to go first?" A-yeon asked excitedly. A bottle of beer was ready on her hand.

Jisoo, to everyone's surprise, raised her bottle first, and said, "Never have I ever felt jealous in my entire life," Jisoo said, staring straight at Chaeyoung's mocking eyes, who have gone cold for a fraction of a second.

"Lucky you," A-yeon jested, raising her own bottle to Jisoo and said, "Cheers to your sheltered chaebol life, gorgeous!"

Chaeyoung's bandmates laughed and copied A-yeon and they all took a swig on their bottles. Including Chaeyoung and Lisa.

The rule of the game was simple: Each of them must confess something that they have not done yet in their entire life. It doesn't matter if it was absurd, trivial or controversial and scandalous it would be, and if the other players knew that they have done exactly the same thing that the person have confessed not doing, they would take a swig on their bottles.

There would be no losers or winners. The purpose of the game was to simply get drunk gradually during the course of the game and knowing each other's secrets without obliging anyone to confess the full details of it.

"Never have I ever been not shoved up in a wall and kissed real hard," A-yeon confessed with a drunken grin on her face, followed by a dragging sensual moan that echoed throughout the interior of the Orange. She even acted like she was straddling on her chair and grind her lower body against the cushioned seat.

"Oh my god! It's started!" Jiyeon said, covering a palm on her face and picked her bottle up along with everyone else.

Everyone took a swig on their bottles except A-yeon with a triumphant look on her face. Jennie was giggling and Jisoo was looking like someone have hit her in the face. They both didn't have seen anything as vulgar as what A-yeon did, ever.

"Okay, my turn," Jiyeon said. "Uhm, never have I ever been drunk and wasted, even though I work in a bar?"

Ayeon and Jin-Ah groaned in protest. Ji-In shook her head in disbelief and whispered, "Unbelievable!". Chahee burst out laughing and Chaeyoung decided to pat Jiyeon in the back, saying, "I'm so proud of you, Jiyeon-a."

"What?" The innocent Jiyeon asked.

"You're too precious, Jiyeon-a!" Lisa teased Jiyeon and raised her bottle and said, "Cheers!"

All of Chaeyoung's crew said it aloud along with Lisa, particularly A-yeon, raising their bottles to Jiyeon who went red in the face.

All seven of them, Chaeyoung included, was laughing out loud after. While Jennie and Jisoo, the sheltered and cultured chaebol daughters of the city of Gangnam, kept their mum and looked slightly offended with the idea that they were clearly outnumbered and the lack of drinking experience was starting to get obvious.

"Jennie, your turn," Jin-Ah said, nodding to Jennie.

"Step up your game, chaebols," A-yeon mumbled. "Let's all get dirty here!"

"Okay," Jennie started and cleared her throat. "Never have I ever, uhm, been kissed?"

"OH MY GOD," A-yeon screamed in disbelief and spilled her beer on the table.

Everyone erupted and burst out laughing, even Lisa and Chaeyoung. Jisoo shook her head due to embarrassment.

"What?" Jennie asked Lisa in disbelief. But she, too, was laughing so hard because she found it appealing and totally amusing how everyone was laughing at her and how she didn't feel offended at all. Like, she belonged with them. If this was what Lisa was talking about being normal, then she wanted to be part of it.

"You're so cute I could kiss you right now!" Lisa cooed on Jennie's ear out of drunkenness.

"Ya! Get a room!" A-yeon screamed.

Jennie giggled from being besotted and everyone groaned because they thought they looked cute together, when Chaeyoung decided to step up her game, big time, and rain on the parade.

"Okay, my turn," she said boorishly and stood up, raising her half-empty bottle, swaying on her spot and said, "Never have I ever not been kissed by a girl." Chaeyoung dropped the bomb and everyone became still and silent.

Each one of them was waiting for someone, anyone within the group to raise their bottle. Nobody did. Except Lisa, A-yeon and Ji-In.

Ji-In did not come as a surprise. She have always been a loud and proud lesbian. She and A-yeon had a short thing in the past, so A-yeon had to drink on her bottle, too.

So, all eyes turned from Chaeyoung to Lisa, who was staring hard at Chaeyoung. Gone was the cooing laughter on her face. She looked bewildered and sobered up a little.

Their was a sudden change in the atmosphere. It was as though the time have stood still. Frozen. Calculating. Waiting for the bomb to finally explode. If there was ever any.

"Why don't you tell them, Lis?" Chaeyoung said with a smirk. She was daring Lisa to detonate the bomb she created.

"Uhm, it happened a long time ago," Lisa started. She was particularly looking at Jennie. "Chaeyoung and I...we shared a kiss. On the lips." Everyone gasped except Jennie. She was smiling at Lisa, as if she found the confession amusing. "It was a dare, actually. We played 'Truth or Dare' with some friends from school and..."

"It lasted for five minutes. Lisa was a good-kisser," Chaeyoung confessed with a triumphant grin on her face. She looked too drunk and sleepy, Chahee and Jiyeon were holding her to stop her from swaying and falling on the floor. "We were each other's first kiss. Right, Lis?"

"Yes, we were," Lisa said, still looking at Jennie. Wondering why Jennie was still smiling at her, a strange spark was playing on her cat-like eyes. Jisoo beside Jennie was tutting and whispered, "Why am I not surprised?"

"What did you just say?" Chaeyoung demanded.

Jisoo scoffed and stared directly at the drunk Chaeyoung. She raised her bottle and said, "I said, never have I ever seen anyone so pathetic in my entire life."

And everything happpened in a blur...

Chaeyoung smashed her bottle of beer angrily on the tiled floor and tried to climb and crawl up on the table. All the bottles of beer above the table came tumbling down, spilling the contents on the table. Some even rolled down and came crashing on the cold floor. Chahee and Jiyeon was pulling Chaeyoung, trying to stop her from getting her hands on Jisoo.

Lisa pulled Jennie, who was forcibly pulling Jisoo away from Chaeyoung's grasp.

Ji-In was clutching her hair, begging desperately for everyone to calm down. Tears were on her eyes. Jin-Ah was too drunk to even give a damn about what's happening around her and continued to drink the remaining contents of her bottle in silence. And A-yeon was looking at the whole ordeal with curiosity and amusement and said, "What a great time to be alive and drunk!"

Lisa then walked around the table and pulled Chaeyoung on the waist away from everyone.

"Calm down, Chipmunk! Please!" she said, because the drunk and angry Chaeyoung Park was still writhing and fuming inside her arm.

"Let me go, Lisa! Let me go, now!" Chaeyoung screamed, trying to release herself from Lisa's embrace.

"Only if you will calm down!" Lisa hissed on Chaeyoung's ear. "Will you calm down?"

"Fine! Fine! I will! Let me go now! I can't breath!" Chaeyoung responded and pulled herself away from Lisa's grasp.

She was still fuming and shaking. She was breathing heavily. Her face was livid. Her eyes were glaring. She ran her hands on her messy hair. She was crying.

"This is all your fault, Lisa!" she said angrily in between sobs.

"I'm sorry, Chipmunk," Lisa said. "I should have asked first if it was okay with you if I tag Jennie and Jisoo along. I apologize."

"It's not like that!" Chaeyoung whimpered.

Lisa, unable to think of any words to console Chaeyoung, tried to pull Chaeyoung for a hug. But Chaeyoung pushed her away.

"Just go away, Lisa!" Chaeyoung said.

"Chipmunk, please?" Lisa begged.

"Lisa, Jennie asked me to tell you that she and Jisoo are leaving," Chahee told Lisa when she and Jiyeon came over to pacify the unstable Chaeyoung Park.

"But Chaeng--," Lisa started.

"Just go! Talk to Jennie! Just leave me alone!" Chaeyoung said, now wiping the saline off her face and walked straight towards the door of her office. Leaving Lisa, Chaee and Jiyeon staring at her wake.

"Take care of her. I'll be right back," Lisa said and stalked off towards the exit of the Orange.

She found Jennie standing beside Jisoo's car, both hands were hidden deep in the pockets of her overcoat, bracing the cold 4 AM air.

"How is she?" Jennie asked as soon as she saw Lisa walking towards her.

"Not fine. I've never seen Chaeng like that before," Lisa answered. She halted her steps and was now standing half a foot from Jennie.

"I'm so sorry about what happened, Lisa. I've already talked to Chu," Jennie said.

"How's she doing?" Lisa asked about Jisoo who was sitting inside her car, waiting for Jennie to hop in so they could leave already.

"She's still livid. Honestly, I've never seen Jisoo acting like that before. She was always nice and funny. Well, maybe a little bully, but she had never ever talked to anyone like that before," Jennie said sadly.

"Well, I guess there's always a first in everything," Lisa said.

"Like your first kiss?" Jennie asked.

"About that--,"

"No, no. It's okay," Jennie interjected, a smile was suddenly creeping on her face. "Lisa, it's okay. Really."

"What on earth are you even smiling about at four in the morning?" Lisa asked curiously.

"Nothing. I just thought that at least one of us have already got an experience," Jennie said, stifled a laughter.

"What do you mean?" Lisa inquired.

"Nothing," Jennie laughed and opened the car door beside her. "We'll go ahead. You should probably get inside and talk to Chaeyoung. She needs you right now."

"Hey, Jennie. When can I see you again?" Lisa asked before Jennie would disappear inside Jisoo's car.

"Soon," Jennie answered with a smile.

"But how soon is 'soon'?" Lisa asked.

Jennie leaned herself closer towards Lisa. She tiptoed and planted a warm kiss on Lisa's frosty cheek, just centimeters away from Lisa's mouth. It only lasted for a couple of seconds but it was enough to set Lisa on fire. The alcohol was still kicking in.

"You'll know. Bye, Lisa! I had a great time!" she said before finally getting inside Jisoo's car.

Jisoo honked once, probably her way of saying goodbye to Lisa, before she maneuvered her huge Range Rover away from Lisa. Away from the Orange. Away from the drama that she and Chaeyoung have created.

Lisa was still standing on her spot, the part of her face where Jennie's lips landed was still burning. She was waiting for Jisoo's car to take a turn on the first corner and disappear from her sight before she walked back inside the Orange.

She and Chaeyoung have a lot to talk about.