Chapter 8

The blond was smiling at her. A smile that indicated that she remembered her that day, at The Era.

Jennie have not yet recovered from herself. She was still gaping in shock. And the fact that she knew she was gaping and she knew she probably looked like an idiot right now made her feel stupid. But she just couldn't move. Here of all places! Tonight of all nights! The blond! Those big, round eyes that kept haunting her. What. A. Night!

"Annyeong!" Lisa said brightly, slightly tipping her head for a nod.

"So, you two know each other, then?" the bartender asked, shifting her eyes from Lisa to Jennie, and back and forth.

"Yes!"

"No!"

They both answered at the same time, and with the same decibels, but in different tones. Lisa sounded excited. Jennie sounded frightened.

Chahee looked at Lisa with a raised brow, probably asking for an explanation. Her expression was funny. She was smirking.

Lisa, in return, looked at Jennie with an accusing eyes. And a raised brow, like Chahee. But her expression was anything but funny. She looked offended by Jennie's denial. Gone was the bright smile plastered on her face.

"Lisa-ya?" Chahee said, she was still looking at Lisa with a funny expression. Her eyes would avert from Lisa to Jennie, who was now sitting rigidly on her seat, clutching the Chanel jacket on her chest, looking away from Lisa. Her eyes were fidgety and looking as though she's calculating the probability of dashing towards the exit without tripping herself in front of the crowd.

"I mean, no," Lisa said after a while, in a morose manner. "No, we don't know each other, Chahee-ssi." She could hear the deflated tone in her own voice. She looked at Jennie as if she was daring Jennie to refute what she just said.

But Jennie just looked straight ahead. She was staring at a bit of a vodka bottle in the shelf, to the side of Chahee's left ear. Her eyes behind her spectacles were emotionless, like she was in a trance or something. And just when Lisa was about to decide whether she'll introduce herself to the woman sitting next to her and remind her about that day, who, by the way, was the reason why she was a bit slacking off from photography lately, Jennie decided to make a run for the exit. That was after she hastily pulled more than a few bills from her purse and rather clumsily put it at the countertop, beside her empty glass of daiquiri, much to Chahee's surprise. Both Chahee and Lisa were watching her dashing and made a beeline for the exit door, bumping not just one but four people, a waiter included, who was carrying a tray full of empty bottles, and almost tripped on one of the tables.

"Uhm..." was the only thing that Lisa could utter at the moment.

"Uh..." muttered Chahee also. She was staring at Jennie's wake with a bewildered expression.

"What just happened? Did I do something wrong?" Lisa asked Chahee, who looked as clueless as Lisa.

Chahee shrugged and shook her head in bewilderment.

"Wow! I didn't realize my daiquiri could drive someone like that!" the hot bartender said.

Lisa suddenly jumped from her seat, to Chahee's surprise.

"I need to talk to her, Chahee-ssi!" she said, which made Chahee looked even more shocked than ever.

"But I thought you said you don't know her?" the bartender asked, now looking confuse.

"I know I did. It's...it's a long story!" Lisa replied, who was now running towards the exit, following Jennie's wake.

"But...but!" Chahee stuttered. "Ya! Lalisa! What will I tell Chaeng if she'll look for you later?"

Lisa wheeled around, holding the door handle, about to push it.

"Tell Chaeyoung I found her already. And I'll be back later!" Lisa answered and pushed her way towards the exit.

She was then frantically looking for a woman in red jacket around the perimeter. Or a big, black car with men in black suits waiting for her, like what the waitress from The Era have told her. And finally, she saw Jennie beside a shiny red car, fumbling with her keys and was about to hop inside No big, black, shiny car. And no men in black suits, either. It was just her and the neon lights in this dynamic part of Mapo-gu.

Lisa ran. She ran as fast as she could and stopped Jennie from closing the car door. She was clutching her chest and gasping for air. Oh, what a night!

"Ya! Let it go!" Jennie protested and tried to yank the door off from Lisa's clutched.

"Wait! Just wait! Okay?" Lisa said, still gasping for air. "Let. Me. Catch. My. Breath. First!" she said every word, panting. "Aigoo! My side is aching!" she groaned, clutching the side of her stomach.

Few passersby were now looking at them curiously. And Jennie was not liking the attention that both she and the blond was getting. She didn't want to be recognized.

She yanked again the door of her car off from the blond's strong hand.

"Let go! Now!" she commanded, using the authoritarian and domineering voice she knew she would use if and when she'll decide to accept the chairmanship one day.

But Lisa was stronger. And she did not even flinch with Jennie's intimidation.

"No! I really think we need to talk!" Lisa said, her breathing was back from normal. "It was you, right? From the cafè?"

Jennie looked at Lisa with imploring eyes and said, "Yes. So?" in her most deadpan voice.

But Lisa being Lisa just smiled widely. Unaffected, yet again, by Jennie's antic to scare her off.

"Ha! I knew it!" Lisa said gleefully. "Look, I have been looking for you. Okay? There's something that I really have to give you. I mean, I really want to give you. But I left it my apartment, so apparently I can't hand it to you right now," Lisa said without pausing to breath. Only when she saw the look on Jennie's face did she realize that she was babbling so much. "Oh, sorry! I'm Lisa, by the way," she said and extended her arm towards Jennie.

Jennie just stared at it with an unreadable expression on her face.

"Tonight shouldn't be any different."

Jisoo's words were ringing on her ears once again.

"No, Chu. Tonight will be different. I'll make sure of that!"

"This. This was acting funny for a moment back there."

"And if you ever see her again? Like, coincidentally?"

"I don't know. I might say hi?"

Her own voice and Chu's were now ringing on her ears simultaneously like a group of wasps buzzing just outside her earlobes.

Jennie then looked at Lisa's extended hand in front of her and then at Lisa's face hovering just about a couple of feet away from her own face.

She was still smiling, Lisa, despite the fact that Jennie was still ignoring her extended hand. And despite the chilly air. Her smile was still bright and unaffected. Her big, round eyes were shining along with the neon lights.

"Damn the rules!"

"Do you want to go for a ride?" asked Jennie. She finally decided to drop all the defensive pretenses and her hand that was trying so hard to yank the door off from Lisa's hand.

Lisa, who was clearly taken aback from Jennie's sudden change of mood said, "Huh?" sounding shocked and bewildered and dropped her hand limply that was holding the door frame beside her.

"No, you don't. Never mind," Jennie said and was about to close the car door.

Lisa held unto it once again and stopped Jennie from closing it.

"No, wait! Wait! Yeah, sure! Sure! I'd...I'd like to go for a ride," said Lisa, sounding unsure.

"Hop in, then," Jennie said without hesitation and opened the car door on the other side.

Lisa walked and then ran around the hood of the car and settled herself on the soft upholstered customized car seat, which was screaming with little LV logos all over, inside the red Porsche.

They both closed their respective doors at the same time and were welcomed with a silence that wrapped them like a blanket.

It wasn't awkward, the silence, like how they subconsciously both thought it might be. Instead, it felt more like they've been doing it, Lisa thought, doing this kind of thing before. Sitting inside the dark car, which by the way smelled like strawberry and spring, and being engulfed with a silence that wasn't even unfamiliar. Like, contrary to reality, everything about sitting for the first time inside the dark car with a stranger she was practically searching for for the last week, everything about it seemed comfortable. It was weird. A beautiful kind of weird.

"Seatbelt, please," Jennie said as soon as the car engine roared in to life. She said it like she's been saying it to Lisa eversince.

Lisa did as she was told. She did not even fumbled with the seatbelt in the dark. It's as if she was familiar with the technicalities of it. Again, weird.

"Where do you want to go?" Jennie asked after she made a reverse and smoothly made a turn in the corner, away from the Orange. Lisa thought the woman was a good driver.

"I don't know," Lisa answered. "Anywhere?"

"Anywhere," Jennie mimicked her and stepped on the gas pedal.

They spent the past fifteen minutes with just the roaring sound of the engine and the muffled sounds of the outside world. They both sat still inside the car, probably waiting for the other to break the silence that was currently, embracing them. Their outlines and their faces were lit by the luminiscent lights coming from the dashboard and the occassional headlights that they encounter along the highway.

"I Want To Hold Your Hand," Lisa said, finally breaking the monotony between her and the silent driver. Because she couldn't take it anymore. Plus her eyes were stinging from all the flickerings she's done towards the direction of Jennie for the last fifteen minutes.

She heard the tiny bones of Jennie's neck snapped a little when she turned her head towards Lisa.

"E...excuse me?" Jennie said, sounding aghast and confuse and a little nervous.

"Your shirt, The Beatles," Lisa said, pointing the words printed across Jennie's oversized tee. "It's one of their best songs ever and their first single. I Want To Hold Your Hand."

"Uhm..." was the only sound that came out from Jennie's throat. She didn't know what Lisa was talking about.

And Lisa, being the keen observer that she was, noticed it.

"You haven't heard of it? Like, ever?" she asked Jennie. There was a little accusatory tone on her voice. Because how could someone wear something as iconic as The Beatles printed on their shirt and doesn't know I Want To Hold Your Hand? She felt a little offended.

Jennie shook her head. She was kind of embarrassed from the fact that she was wearing an iconic shirt and didn't even know the song Lisa was talking about.

"No. Sorry," she muttered.

Instead of talking, Lisa started humming the first verse of the song, until she reached the chorus and sang it, bobbing her head along with the beat that she created from drumming her hands on her lap.

Jennie was just listening and fighting off a smile from cracking on her tightly-sealed lips. She realized she invited a crackhead and a dork inside her car. And she was wondering if she made the right decision for inviting Lisa for a ride.

"This is my favorite part," Lisa said, disturbing her long mane of blond with her fingers, turning herself into a 60's rockstar look-alike with messy hair and started singing with her high-pitched voice again.

And when I touch you

I feel happy inside

It's such a feelin' that my love

I can't hiiide

I can't hiiide

I can't hiiide

Jennie could not take it anymore. She burts out laughing. She laughed so loud, it made Lisa fell silent and stopped from singing.

Lisa was staring at Jennie. She was wondering why Jennie was whipping her head, clutching the side of her stomach and laughing so hard that she was almost in tears, when she, Lisa, was just singing her favorite part of the song.

"Are you okay?" Lisa asked. Concern and confusion was on her voice.

"God! That. Was. Funny!" Jennie said, wiping the tears on her eyes, her laughter was already subdued, left with occassional cackling. She said every word with a gasp.

Stephen Chbosky was right, Jennie realized as she was clutching the side of her stomach. That there's nothing like deep breaths after laughing that hard. That there's nothing in the world like a sore stomach for the right reasons.

"I was just singing, though," Lisa said weakly and embarrassed.

"Still funny," Jennie said. The embers of her laughters were now slowly fading. She was getting back to her usual demeanor once again. "Are you a fan?" she asked Lisa.

Lisa shook her head.

"Not really. My Dad is," she answered. "He listens to The Beatles every morning, when he's drinking his coffee. He says it is therapeutic."

"My Dad never listened to any music," Jennie blurted out before she could even stop herself.

"Listened? As in past t--,"

"He passed away a year ago," said Jennie, in a manner that which sounded like she was just stating an obvious fact. "Don't say you're sorry. It's not your fault," she added when she heard Lisa gasped and looked like she was about to say the usual customary apologies when someone hears of someone's death. She hated that. Like, why would anyone be sorry for anyone who lost a loved one like it's their fault? Or maybe she just did not want Lisa to feel sorry for her? Because why would Lisa be?

"Are you okay, though? I mean, you know, after..." Lisa hesitated.

"I'm fine," Jennie answered briefly. She felt the need to lie about it at the moment.

But Lisa knew better. Because how can anyone say they're fine after losing someone important? That's stupid. And the way Jennie said she's fine clearly indicated that she was not fine. At. All.

"You know you can say you're not fine if you're not fine. It's not a weakness to feel not fine," Lisa said gently, calculating her words. She did not want to impose and to sound like a life guru or something.

"I know. But I really don't feel like talking about it," Jennie said. "Not this time, anyway."

Lisa nodded. She understood. She'd do the same if it was her. She was still a stranger to Jennie as Jennie was to her. Trust was not a freebie from the department store that should be handed out freely. It's something that should be earned. Like loyalty. And love. And friendship.

"Are you hungry?" Lisa asked Jennie. Much to the Jennie's surprise.

Jennie looked at Lisa curiously. She was expecting Lisa to prod her, to probe and pry on her privacy, like everyone else. And it was a relief on her part. Somehow.

"No," answered Jennie. It was the second lie she have told Lisa tonight.

"Oh, come on! Anyone who goes in the Orange goes out hungry after," Lisa said matter-of-factly. "Let's go find something to eat. I'm starving!" she groaned.

"Fine. Where do you want to go, then? It's almost midnight. Restaurants close at ten," Jennie said.

Lisa scoffed.

"Who said anything about restaurants?" she asked. "I know just the right place," Lisa said and started giving Jennie directions.

And Jennie obliged willingly, even though she hated it when someone bosses her around. Because nobody bosses Jennie Kim around. She was raised and grew up having people around to do her bidding willingly. She was born to become the boss.

But tonight, she thought she'd let it pass. She had decided about it after she saw the laughter on Lisa's face when she proclaimed her starvation, without inhibition. Like it was the most natural thing in the world.