because the world can't hold us down

let's slowly let this go

She's not home.

Lisa stands outside an impassive, unyielding door, the chilly breeze grazing her skin. Her knuckles are white with the cold, or alternatively with tension, as she raises her hand to knock for the third time in as many minutes. But inside the house the lights are dark and there's not a hint of movement; Jennie isn't home and nobody answers the door.

She drops down to sit on the welcome mat, rubbing at the bridge of her nose with a kind of bitter disappointment eating away at her. It reminds Lisa of the first day of school, when she'd likewise been faced with closed doors and a hopeless situation, except this time there's no Chaeyoung to help her out.

Chaeyoung or no Chaeyoung, Lisa isn't going to give up so easily. She leans back against a nearby potted plant, stretches out her legs in front of her, and waits. Jennie's got to return eventually.

Except eventually turns out to be a very long time, and luck isn't on her side at all— the weather is  really  freezing today. This area is known for its stubbornly warm climate, winter be damned, but the second Lisa has to spend more than a second outside, it decides to convert to the Arctic.

As a result, mere minutes pass by before Lisa finds that her teeth are chattering even under the thick sweater she'd shrugged on for the first day of December. Lisa tugs her hood over her head in an attempt to preserve whatever body heat she can, pulls her sleeves over her hands to prevent them from frosting over, and hugs her knees close to her chest.
With nothing to do, her mind considers a number of questions. How long will it be until Jennie gets back? Where even is Jennie? Lisa doubts that Jennie has a car or can even drive, from what she's seen. That means her mom probably took her out somewhere.

And if she's with her mom, she might be doing any number of things: visiting the doctor, shopping, even modelling again. All of those could take hours. Can Lisa actually wait out here for that long? Besides the high probability of her catching a cold based on this temperature, well... Lisa has homework. There's a history project due on Monday, the calculus assignment promises to be impossibly long, and in biology she's got a test to study for.

I can get that done tomorrow  , rationalizes Lisa,  if I lose some more sleep (she spent half of last night awake stressing about today). But even if she can finish all that, she still has dance practice in about half an hour. With the way things are looking right now, Jennie won't even be back by then, much less have enough time to hear Lisa out.

By all logic, Lisa's brain tells her, she should just get up, head home, and try again tomorrow. But right on the heels of that, a different part of her is screaming that if she doesn't get this done right here and right now, if she lets this wound gape any wider... it'll be the end. Lisa doesn't want it to be the end.

So she stays.

And stays...

and stays...

and...

stays...

and there's a hand on her shoulder an eternity later, shaking her awake gently, and a voice that's softer than the cotton of her sweater around her ears, "Excuse me."

Lisa lifts her head slightly off where it had slumped onto her knees and blinks the haze from her eyes. Then the cold catches up to her in an instant, and Lisa has to turn her face away before sneezing violently.
The hand retracts a bit. "Are you alright?" She tilts her head back to see its owner, the hood tumbles down the slope of her hair and— oh.

Lisa's been waiting for her.

Jennie Kim stands silent, her mouth hanging half-open in shock. She's got one earbud in, the other dangles from its wire at her side as helplessly as her hand, which has fallen away from Lisa. Fingers hook into the bottom line of her running shorts like they're searching for something to hold on to, and the keys she'd been holding clatter to the pavement noisily.
"Jennie." Lisa grabs the door handle and yanks herself to her feet. "Hi."
Oh, Jisoos Christ, can she get any dumber?