3

Lisa walked around campus taking photos for her photography project and she couldn't help but think over Jennie's suggestion. It was a ridiculous proposition. No one in their right minds would believe that Jennie and Lisa would actually date each other. They were always constantly fighting.

Lisa shook her head, no way. She didn't even know why she was considering it.

She was completely set on declining the offer to be Jennie's fake girlfriend as she snapped her last picture. She went to the dance studio on campus to take her mind off of things. She had to use the the room with the crappier sound system because Jimin was in the good room, as per usual. Lisa really couldn't be annoyed considering they had decided today was his day according to their arranged schedule. Lisa's day wasn't until tomorrow.

Lisa's mind kept drifting back to Jennie though, no amount of dancing could shake off the thought that maybe she should agree to do it after all.

She was being swayed. She couldn't think of any other options as much as she wracked her brain for another idea.

Lisa finally laid on the ground like a starfish, exhausted and panting, staring at the ceiling.

"I'm only doing this because I need a date for the wedding." Lisa said to herself. She didn't really have a better plan than Jennie's other than telling Suzy the truth that she lied about having a girlfriend and that was entirely too embarrassing for her. She really had no other choice right? Right.

She pulled her phone out and texted Jennie.

Lisa had never even saved her number, she only had it because Chaeyoung had made a group chat for the four of them a long time ago that neither Lisa nor Jennie hardly ever responded to. The thread was mostly filled with texts from Chaeyoung telling them where to meet or Jisoo sending all of them memes she found on the internet.

____

Jennie got a text from a random number she didn't completely recognize but looked a little familiar that night.

Meet me in the quad.

Jennie replied but only because she was sure she had seen that number before.

Since when do serial killers use phones to lure their victims?

Its Lisa 🙄

Jennie smirked once she got a reply. She hadn't realized it was Lisa texting her but now that she knew it was her Jennie decided to mess with her as usual.

Like I said, since when do serial killers text their victims? You should watch criminal minds and get some tips because you suck at this. Especially if you're planning to murder me in the quad, pick somewhere less public. That's just common sense.

You're insufferable.

Thank you 😌

Hurry up! I won't wait forever.

Jennie didn't reply, just to mess with her a little more. She got a double text from Lisa a few minutes later.

Are you coming or not?

Desperate doesn't suit you, but I can't blame you really. I'd be dying to see me too.

Ha. Dying. Get it, cus you're a serial killer?

You don't huh? Cus I'm too smart for you.

Jennie sent text after text, smirking into her phone.

Nevermind. Don't come. I change my mind. You're annoying and I can't do this.

Were you actually considering our deal?

I was, then I realized I'd be making a deal with the devil and I kind of like my soul.

You're always so dramatic.

Says the rich baby brat. Don't think I forgot about the tantrum you threw when someone scratched your Audi. If anyone is dramatic it's you.

Jennie huffed. She was still pissed about that. It wasn't because of her car though, she could care less. It was just a car, money wasn't everything. It was about the disrespect because she was pretty sure it had been one of the girls that Kai had been messing around with that keyed it out of jealousy because Jennie was technically his girlfriend and she wasn't. Jennie had too much pride for that, so of course she was pissed when it happened. Of course she was mad some girl actually had the audacity to key her car over a stupid boy like Kai that neither of them should really care for.

Whatever. You're the one who cries during Disney movies like a baby.

I'm telling Rosie you called her a baby. She cries during Disney movies too.

I actually like Rosie though. She's nice, unlike you. She's allowed to cry.

🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄

Yeah, this is definitely a bad idea, I changed my mind again. There's no way I can be your girlfriend for three months, even if it is fake.

Please, you should be honored to be my girlfriend.

I'm not.

You should.

Well I'm not.

Why did you text me then, if you were just going to change your mind?

Jennie didn't get a reply until an hour later.

I thought it might work out and then you irritated me within seconds of texting you so there's no way we can make this work. It'll be a disaster.

That's because you can't commit Lisa. You're too indecisive.

Excuse me? I was in a relationship for four years, what do you mean I can't commit?

No comment 🙃

No, say what you need to say.

Nothing Lisa. Whatever, just forget about the deal, you're obviously not serious about it since you keep going back and forth.

I'm just saying, how can I even trust you? We only know each other because of Chaengie and Jisoo. We hate each other.

Exactly Lisa. You have trust issues and I'm not dealing with it. Either you're in or you're out. It doesn't matter how we feel about each other, this can benefit us both but you're too stuck freaking out about trusting me that it'll never work. You'll just bail and ruin the plan.

Lisa didn't reply again until the morning.

Meet me in the cafe by campus.

No.

I'll buy your coffee.

I'll be there in five minutes.

I want a latte machiatto

The biggest size they have

Triple shot of espresso.

Half soy milk, half heavy cream.

And don't let them make it too sweet!

Jennie was still typing, giving more instructions on how she wanted her coffee made when she got another text from Lisa.

I know your coffee order Jennie 🙄

Jennie looked at the text curiously, wondering how Lisa remembered her coffee order. Her phone buzzed and she got another text. She rolled her eyes, annoyed Lisa had pretty much read her mind.

How could I forget the ice queen's complicated, extremely bitter coffee order. Baby brat. You owe me for this, the barista looked at me like I was some spoiled rich kid when I put in your ridiculously long and extremely detailed order.

Jennie chose not to reply, getting ready for school instead. At least she was getting free coffee that morning, even if she did have to see Lisa to get it.

She found Lisa in the corner of the coffee shop and marched to her, unceremoniously grabbing the coffee that was sitting in front of Lisa and taking a sip from it, completely ignoring her as she sat down.

"Good morning to you too. Me? I slept well, thank you. Oh, no need to thank me for the coffee, it was my pleasure." Lisa said sarcastically in response as she watched Jennie sit in front of her without so much as a hello.

Jennie rolled her eyes at her and hummed happily as she tasted her coffee. Jennie was a health freak but there were two things that had always been her weaknesses, caffeine and ice cream.

"What? No angry kitten today?" Lisa taunted her as she took a sip of her own coffee. "I actually got the baby brat's complicated order right?"

Jennie still ignored Lisa until she got about halfway through her drink. She needed coffee in the mornings before she was able to tolerate and talk to anyone, especially if that someone was Lisa. Jennie wasn't a morning person, she wasn't a people person, and she most definitely wasn't a Lisa person.

"You're going to have a heart attack if you keep drinking that much caffeine." Lisa pointed out.

"Make sure to donate a lot at my funeral. Considering you'll be the happiest person once I'm gone." Jennie quipped, smiling sweetly.

Lisa almost smiled at that.

"What do you want Manoban? I only came for the coffee and I'm almost done with it so you have about five minutes of my time left."

"We need to talk about rules." Lisa said.

"Rules for what?"

"For our fake relationship."

Jennie smirked, "I knew you couldn't stay away."

"Rule number one, no irritating me." Lisa said, ignoring Jennie's irritating comment.

"No one is irritated by me." Jennie said smugly. "I'm perfect."

"I am." Lisa answered dryly.

"That's your problem, not mine." Jennie reasoned, completely trying to irritate Lisa again.

Lisa facepalmed.

"Enjoy your coffee." Lisa said, attempting to get up from the table, over it already.

Jennie giggled, "You're so easy. Sit down Lisa." She always knew just how to rile Lisa up and it was always so funny to her.

Lisa looked at her dubiously but sat down anyway.

Jennie reached into her bag and took out a notebook, opening it up to one of the many tabs she had on there.

Lisa noticed a well organized checklist from her seat.

"Okay, here is my list of demands. If you won't agree with even a single one of them then I'm not signing the contract." Jennie said, going into serious mode.

Lisa raised her eyebrow at Jennie. "You already made a list of demands? I hadn't even agreed to this yet, and since when is there a contract?"

"My mother is a lawyer. What do you expect? If I'm going to be doing this, I'm doing it right."

Lisa rolled her eyes but motioned for Jennie to continue. "Let's hear it then."

"No cheating, flirting, texting, or even looking at any other girl while we're fake dating."

"That's unrealistic."

Jennie sent her a glare.

"I'm just saying. There's a lot of girls, how can I not look at them." Lisa reasoned.

"Manoban." Jennie warned.

"Fine, no looking." Lisa grumbled. "Carry on, ice queen."

"You have to attend every function that I'm obligated to attend to as my date up until your airhead ex girlfriend's wedding."

"How many of those are there from here to the end of November exactly?"

"At least four." Jennie answered.

"I'm going to go broke." Lisa mumbled, thinking about the stuffy parties and the dress code that was expected at them. Lisa didn't really have anything appropriate to wear. She told Jennie as much. "Can't we skip a few, I don't really have the wardrobe for them."

"That's next on my list of demands actually. I'll be the one picking your outfits. I'll be fair and pay for them though."

"I'm not letting you pay for my clothes."

"And I'm not letting you wear sweats to an event. I want to piss off my dad, but not that much."

"I knew you were just using me to piss him off. Is this what all rich straight rebellious girls do in college?" Lisa taunted. "Use lesbians to piss off their daddy? You could have probably just found a delinquent bad boy to date but I guess that's too 2000's for you isn't it? Gay girls work much better nowadays."

Jennie grabbed an unused napkin, balled it up and shoved it into Lisa's coffee, annoyed with her again.

"What the hell Jennie, I wasn't done."

"Serves you right for assuming shit."

"What am I assuming, is that not what you're doing?"

"No. First of all, I don't know what I am but I'm certainly not straight—not that its any of your business—and second of all while it is nice that I get to piss him off a little bit I'm only doing this because I just want him off my back so I can live my life in peace without him meddling. So can you please keep your ridiculous assumptions to yourself because I'm really getting tired of them. You think you know me but you really fucking don't. Far from it."

Lisa was a little taken aback, she didn't realize Jennie even remotely swung that way. She thought Jennie was prim and proper and very, very straight. She also felt a little guilty after Jennie's rant because Jennie had a point, Lisa really didn't know a lot about Jennie and it reminded her a little too much of all the times Chaeyoung scolded Lisa when she complained about Jennie being spoiled. Chaeyoung always told her she should get to know Jennie better before making assumptions.

"Can I continue now?" Jennie asked Lisa, still glaring at her.

Lisa nodded.

"I'm the one that will break up with you when it's over."

"Why can't I break up with you?" Lisa complained.

"Because no one will ever believe you dumped me." Jennie said matter of factly.

"You're so full of yourself."

"I know my worth."

"You dated Kai."

"That wasn't a real thing."

"No wonder you suggested this then, you just love fake relationships don't you?" Lisa said, annoyed.

Jennie ignored her.

"You can't tell anyone about this, not even Chaeyoung or Jisoo." Jennie continued.

"Are you kidding me? They'll never believe we're dating!" Lisa countered. "We have to tell them it's fake!"

"If we can convince those two, we can convince everyone else." Jennie said logically. "This is important for us to figure out if we can pull this off or not. We can't tell them. They're our baseline."

"I've already told Rosie about how I pretended to be your date the other night, she'll never believe that we're suddenly actually dating after that."

"Idiot. Of course you did." Jennie said rolling her eyes at Lisa. "Whatever, its still salvageable. Just tell her we bonded over us faking it and you asked me out for real after that."

"Why would I be the one asking you out? I rescued you, you should ask me out in thanks since I was your hero."

"Next demand, you're the one that asked me out." Jennie said, ignoring Lisa again.

"That's not fair!"

"Fine, I asked you out and then I can just tell everyone you're really a bottom then." Jennie said, smirking. "Since you didn't have the courage to ask first so that's what everyone will assume right?"

"Okay okay, I asked you out." Lisa said hastily, looking around the coffee shop making sure no one else heard. She had a reputation to protect. She was so, not a bottom.

Jennie rolled her eyes at Lisa, "You're worse than a guy."

"My top energy is my charm!" Lisa said complaining. "That's how I attract women."

"Cut that energy off until we break up." Jennie threatened, narrowing her eyes as she glared at Lisa. "Okay, next demand, if you tell anybody about this being fake I'll show them the contract and humiliate you in front of everybody."

"What if you expose me?"

"Same thing Lisa. Duh. You'll have your own version to blackmail me with." Jennie answered sarcastically. "Second to last demand, we can amend the demands of the contract but only if we both agree with them."

"I guess that sounds reasonable."

"Last one." Jennie said, about to read the last one on her checklist.

"Let me guess, don't fall in love with you." Lisa said sarcastically, laughing in the process. "That's the last thing that will happen so we don't even have to write that one in."

Jennie glared at Lisa.

"Whatever Manoban, you don't know who you're dealing with. I'm just saying, if you develop feelings for me we cut this whole thing off because I'm not about to deal with you being lovesick over me. You're annoying enough as it is."

"I think what you mean is when you fall in love with me. You need to tell me before you're in too deep. I know I can be really charming so please make sure you watch out for your feelings because they'll hit you out of nowhere." Lisa finished smugly.

"As if. I have taste."

"Right, your taste is immaculate. Golden boy Kai, who could do better than him? He's so handsome and rich." Lisa said sarcastically, echoing what he had said to Jennie earlier that week.

Jennie threw another napkin at Lisa.

"You're annoying."

"I think the word you were looking for is charming." Lisa said looking proud of herself.

Jennie rolled her eyes.

"Childish." Jennie commented. "Anyway, I have to get to class soon so we need to hurry, are you good with those demands? Does the pea brain have any herself?" Jennie taunted.

"Only two. We never speak about this again once its over." Lisa answered, ignoring the insults. "We don't ever talk about dating each other once we break up ever again and we don't tell anyone we fake dated."

"That's a given." Jennie answered, "that's literally the first rule of fake dating." Idiot, she thought.

"The second one is since I have to go to your stuffy parties you have to go with me to things if I require your help too."

"Things like what?"

"I don't know yet. Things might come up for Suzy's wedding or I may need you for something else in order to sell our relationship."

"We'll talk about them as they come." Jennie said noncommittally because she wasn't going to agree to anything if Lisa wasn't clear. She didn't want to commit to something unreasonable ahead of time.

"Insufferable."

"I know." Jennie said smugly again. "So it's a deal?"

Lisa was about to shake her hand before she realized something when they almost touched.

"Wait, we might have forgotten the most important part." Lisa said, drawing her hand back before they shook on it.

"Which is?"

"PDA."

Jennie almost blushed.

"Right, I was going to bring that up at some point. I think you should at least hold my hand when we're on campus, just to make it more believable."

"Okay." Lisa said awkwardly. "Um, what about kissing?"

"No kissing!" Jennie almost shouted, looking scandalized. "I can't kiss you. I'm drawing the line there, it's already bad enough I have to hold your hand."

"Look, I obviously don't want to kiss you either.  Trust me. I'm just saying. We need to establish a rule. What if we get into a situation where we have to? Where people expect us to kiss? Do you just want us to break the whole thing off and have them catch on to the fact that this is all fake or do we go for it?"

Jennie sputtered, not really knowing what to say.

"I—no—It won't come to that. No kissing."

"Jennie, we're two grown adults in college. You really think the subject of us kissing each other won't come up at some point?"

Jennie abruptly got up feeling a little flustered, "We'll get there when we get there. It probably won't even come up so why talk about it? Anyway, are we doing this or not?" Jennie asked Lisa, deflecting again from the subject of kissing because she was feeling too nervous about it. She could never kiss Lisa, there was no way.

"I guess so." Lisa answered. Letting the subject drop too.

Jennie sat back down. Calming herself now. She pulled out two sheets from her bag again.

"You actually drew up a contract?" Lisa asked incredulously, especially since it looked so official despite Lisa knowing it didn't really have legal weight.

"I told you, my mother is a lawyer and I need insurance that you're not just doing this to humiliate me. Now sign yours and we'll switch."

Lisa wasn't even surprised when she saw the flash of a camera when she signed the first contract.

"And you say I have trust issues." Lisa mumbled under her breath once she realized Jennie had taken a picture of her signing it.

"Signatures don't have much weight with a bunch of college students Lisa. Pictures are more important."

Jennie signed both contracts too, fully expecting Lisa to take her picture as well as she signed but Lisa didn't bother.

"I'm a little confused as to why you worded it this way though, this doesn't even have our demands on there." Lisa asked as she read hers again.

"Its blackmail, obviously. If one of us breaks the rules we could show everyone this and humiliate the other person."

"You're an evil genius, I swear." Lisa said, looking at Jennie in equal parts awe and fear.

"I know." Jennie said proudly.

Lisa looked back down to read the contracts, the statement was short. They both basically said the same thing but with their names switched. That one of them had bribed and blackmailed the other to fake date them. It was enough of a threat of humiliation for each of them to want to behave during their deal.

"When do we start?" Lisa asked.

"Lunch? I guess. Jisoo already texted me to join them. They're the first ones we have to convince so we might as well try acting like a couple then."

"This is going to end before it even starts." Lisa said dejectedly.

"You're already giving up Manoban? You're pathetic I swear. If only I had run into anyone else other than you outside of the awards ceremony this would be much easier. You're hopeless, I thought you were the optimistic type."

"I am, but have you met Rosie?! She's like a mindreader. You really think we'll convince her when she literally has a direct line to people's feelings?!"

Jennie had to admit Lisa had a point.

"Just try for once." Jennie chose to say.

They walked out of the cafe towards campus together and Jennie fully expected them to part ways already but she felt Lisa grab her book bag off of her shoulder instead.

"What are you doing, give that back." Jennie said before promptly shutting up as Lisa grabbed her hand and laced their fingers together.

"What do you mean what am I doing?" Lisa asked. "I'm walking you to class, obviously."

"That's unnecessary."

"You're the one who said we had to hold hands on campus."

"There's no one around right now!"

"So what, we're just going to grab at each other's hands every time we spot someone? That's not going to arouse suspicion at all." Lisa said sarcastically.

"That's not what I meant, we're still a block away. We don't have to hold hands yet anyway, and why did you take my bag?" Jennie huffed.

Lisa stopped them from walking.

"Listen here, this may be fake, but I have a reputation to protect. I'm so not going to be labeled as a shitty girlfriend so I'm going to do everything I would do if we were actually dating." Lisa said seriously. "Besides, I'm so not going to let people think Kai was a better fit for you over me because the guy is an idiot. Everyone is going to compare me to him from now on and they need to know I'm so much better for you than him."

"No one is even going to care about us dating." Jennie mumbled.

"For a spoiled brat you really are clueless. I thought brats thrived on attention. You should know by now that everyone gives it to you." Lisa answered, pulling Jennie behind her again as she started walking them to campus.

Lisa's point was proven right seconds later as they walked up the steps to the university, people noticed them immediately. "You really thought they wouldn't care about who you were dating?" Lisa asked Jennie under her breath sarcastically.

Jennie didn't answer. She was a little too preoccupied on willing her palms not to sweat in Lisa's hand. She didn't need Lisa making fun of her for that later. Jennie noticed Lisa's hand was really soft and was most definitely not sweaty. Nothing was going Jennie's way this week.

Lisa handed Jennie her bag as she dropped her off at her class.

"See you at lunch." Lisa said, fully aware of the stares. "Do you want me to pick you up after your last class?"

"Um, no. That's fine, I'll just meet you in the quad." Jennie managed to say. Now that Lisa had let go of her hand she started noticing the stares too and they were making her almost as nervous as Lisa holding her hand.

"Cool, I'll pick you up outside your last class." Lisa said smirking at Jennie and winking, completely ignoring Jennie's request to just meet her in the quad.

"Lisa! Why did you even ask if you're not going to listen to me?" Jennie shouted after her, whining a bit but Lisa just waved at her and blew her a kiss, not responding.

Jennie was annoyed at her so she pretended to grab Lisa's kiss mid air and mimed throwing it away on the ground with a huff.

She heard Lisa giggle before turning around and running to make it to her own class in time.

Jennie had to touch her cheek afterwards because it felt a little hot. Did she just blush? She shook her head in a daze. No way.

"I need more sleep." Jennie mumbled to herself as she tried to cool down. "I'm delusional."

_______