31

A/N

Another story arc I ain't even mean to write ayyyyye ✌🏽😅

Anyways, there's certain recurring themes in all of my stories that are starting to sound redundant but I can't help the way I am lol, sorry not sorry.

Slight short [M] scenes towards the beginning btw in case you're innocent and don't like that stuff you can skip a few paragraphs.

___________________

"Are you guys ready?" Lisa asked.

"I can't believe we're so lucky to get to do this." Chaeyoung said excitedly.

"Auntie Kim was right, keep the people you trust close."

"Guess my mom isn't a complete jerk." Jisoo joked. "Let's go, the car is here."

"Oh be quiet, you love your mom."

"Don't tell her that." Jisoo said as they put their luggage in. "She'll use it against me."

Jennie just rolled her eyes playfully at Jisoo and then smiled hard when Lisa took the luggage from her to put it in for her. They didn't pack much. Only the essentials. Lisa was the one that had the most luggage because of her cameras and Rosie was next because of her guitar.

Everyone had finally graduated. Jennie had gotten into med school but decided to defer for a year for this year long trip. She had no idea everyone had an ulterior motive for it.

____________

"I figured out how I want to propose." Lisa told Chaeyoung and Jisoo.

"Great, let's hear it. It's been like three months already." Jisoo said. "We're literally about to graduate, even you are even though you left for a year. Can't believe you got credits for just dancing for one Kpop act."

"I killed it." Lisa shrugged nonchalantly. "Anyway, I was thinking about doing another fellowship trip and then proposing at the end."

Jisoo facepalmed.

"You want to leave her for a year and then come back and propose? What is this, some kind of masochist proposal so you can do over what you should have done in the first place?" Jisoo asked incredulously.

"No!" Lisa said immediately. "I've had this idea for a while. You know Chaengie is getting pretty popular in the music business, and I know there's been talk of a small tour so she can start getting notoriety, and you're so loaded now, even more so than before so you were going to go be her groupie anyway."

Jisoo shrugged. "I can't be away from my woman for too long and I have to keep everyone else's paws away from her."

Chaeyoung giggled at Jisoo's jealousy, as if she'd let anyone that wasn't Jisoo come within three feet of her. She supposed it was warranted though, Jisoo wasn't generally a jealous person but Chaeyoung had done a show at a small club and a few girls threw their bra's at the stage where Chaeyoung was singing and ever since then Jisoo had been eyeing the audience like a hawk.

"My point was I had this idea for the four of us. I just don't know how to execute it. That would be your forte."

"What is it Lis?" Chaeyoung asked.

"My studio is surprisingly making bank now that I won that IPA and Santos' picture is up at university."

"Not so surprising." Chaeyoung cut in. "But continue."

Lisa blushed a bit.

"Okay so since Jennie recruited us for her nonprofit and we even have that building now—"

"You're welcome by the way." Jisoo smirked. She had bought out a boujee beautiful skyscraper in the middle of Seoul for that purpose alone, she just didn't tell Jennie that was the reason.

She told her it was a smart business decision, it was, but really she just wanted to help Jennie. She offered the top floor for her nonprofit and charged her nonprofit 'rent,' which Jisoo proceeded to donate sporadically back into the nonprofit so Jennie wouldn't know.

They all had beautiful corner offices at the very top with wall to wall windows where they could see all of Seoul. Jennie chose the side opposite the sunrise and usually kept her curtains drawn unless it was sunset because she still hadn't outgrown her whole vampire thing and hated light.

Lisa's office was next to Jennie's and unlike her she had the curtains up 24/7. It was laughable how different they were in that regard.

They didn't do much yet. They'd only had it for about a month so it was a work in progress. It was like an official second home because usually Jennie either studied or worked on the nonprofit and occasionally asked the others for help when she needed them.

Jisoo basically either spent her time helping Jennie, renting the rest of the building to new businesses and keeping up with the ones that had already been there when she took over, or playing games on her computer because she absolutely decked out her 'office' computer into a triple screened gaming computer with insane graphics and processing power.

You know, for 'work,' she would always say when Lisa teased her about it.

They had all let Lisa have the biggest office because when she wasn't helping Jennie or editing pictures, she used the rest of the office space for dancing. Jennie had even surprised her with full length mirrors on one side of it so she could practice.

Jennie secretly did that for herself, because since their offices were next to each other, only partitioned by clear glass, Jennie could watch Lisa dance. It was probably a bad idea, because she often got distracted by Lisa, who would smirk into the mirrors knowing Jennie was watching, but everyone had their vices and Jennie stopped being ashamed at the fact that she really, really went wild for Lisa's dancing.

It became a game. Lisa would take her regular breaks since she could hardly focus for longer than thirty minutes at a time and then tease the hell out of Jennie by dancing sensually, knowing she was watching out of the corner of her eye most of the time.

Lisa was pretty much guaranteed to get some that night when she danced like that for Jennie. They had already christened both of their offices one weekend.

Jennie had accidentally left some books she needed behind and Lisa offered to go with her and things got out of hand and the next thing Jennie knew she was being perched on her desk and Lisa was all over her.

"Lili this is so wrong." Jennie said as Lisa snaked a hand under her skirt.

Despite her words, Jennie couldn't help but encircle Lisa's waist with her legs to bring her closer anyway, moaning the entire time because Lisa was touching her and kissing her neck.

"Be bad with me baby brat." Lisa mumbled. "You deserve orgasms for already having your own office when you haven't even graduated yet. Your nonprofit already has the whole top floor to this nice building, you've made it baby, let me reward you."

Jennie was glad they were on the top floor and the other buildings all had their lights off because if anyone had been in the building across from them they would have seen Lisa make Jennie come over and over again through the open windows.

Jennie had learned Lisa had a thing about being intimate on pretty much every surface, especially in new places. She thought that first time in the bunker had only been because they hadn't seen each other for so long and hadn't been intimate for a year but she quickly found out it wasn't the case.

Part of the bunker thing was because she wanted to taunt Jisoo, but most of it was because she said she liked the memories.

Lisa zoned out a lot, and loved to daydream, and she said anytime she'd look at her office chair or her desk or that glass partition she would be able to vividly remember just what they did on them.

"It helps me focus baby." Lisa whispered as she pinned Jennie to the glass.

"I don't know how remembering you're making me feel so good right now is going to make you focus." Jennie managed to breathe out because if anything, Jennie already knew she was going to do the absolute opposite.

She was going to blush anytime she saw her desk or the glass partition or her desk chair and think about everything Lisa did to her.

She was going to think about how Lisa made them face the mirrors in her own office so Jennie could watch just what Lisa was doing to her.

"Motivation." Lisa said simply. "Come for me again."

Jennie did, moaning Lisa's name. She was glad the bottom floor was empty, because even though it was after hours employees from other businesses were often still seen in the building working overtime and Jennie was always so loud she thought if anyone occupied the next floor even they would have heard it.

They didn't get home until midnight. Jennie had to talk Lisa out of breaking into Jisoo's office and doing it in there too so she could mess with her. They didn't, but Jisoo didn't know that, so Lisa still told her they did.

Jennie and Rosie made them apologize to each other and had them clean up the mess they made because Jisoo had chased Lisa around the house when Lisa claimed they took so long because they 'did it on her desk,' and when they got to the kitchen Jisoo grabbed the hose from the sink and sprayed her and it started a whole water fight.

"Sorry chipmunk."

"Don't say sorry to me, say sorry to your friend." Rosie said sternly.

"Is she quoting me right now? She's pretty much quoting me right now." Lisa whispered to Jennie.

They had all gone to watch one of Lisa's rehearsals for the Kpop act that she did and Lisa had said that to one of the back up dancers at some point. Since she was the main back up dancer it was up to her to keep them all in line and she had been very stern, the girls teased her about it relentlessly ever since then.

Jennie didn't think Lisa had it in her to be that serious and commanding and she had found it very hot to watch her boss the girls around despite being the newbie.

Jennie leveled a gaze at her.

"Guess not." Lisa said, promptly shutting up because the angry kitten was clearly still very angry at her.

Jisoo rolled her eyes hard.

"They did it on my desk babe! It's her fault we flooded the kitchen!"

At some point during their little 'fight' Lisa had managed to grab the hose and they ended up pulling on it too hard as they fought over it and it snapped so now the kitchen was flooded with a few inches of water because they were too busy bickering to turn the water off. Rosie had to run in there and do it herself.

"Did you just roll your eyes at me?" Rosie asked Jisoo with narrowed eyes.

"No." Jisoo frowned, "I rolled my eyes at her."

"Kim Jisoo!"

Jisoo did her usual half scowl half pout that she always did when Rosie got on to her for something.

Rosie found it so cute but she never told her because Jisoo would just use it to her advantage the next time she was in trouble and Rosie would lose her leverage.

Jisoo knew if she didn't apologize she was going to end up getting banned from kisses, or worse, sex.

"Ugh. Sorry I made you look like a wet puppy Limario." Jisoo said, rolling her eyes again.

Lisa's hair was sticking to her face because she was drenched and she was pouting because Jisoo was drenched too but Rosie had gotten Jisoo a towel and Jennie just stood there with her arms crossed glaring at her for lying.

"She messes with me all the time baby brat! Why can't I?" Lisa said indignantly.

Jennie just raised a stern eyebrow and Lisa deflated.

"Fine. We didn't actually do it on your desk. Jennie wouldn't let me." Lisa said pouting harder.

Jennie finally felt satisfied enough and went to grab a towel for Lisa too, wrapping her up in it.

"Thank you baby." Lisa said sheepishly.

"You could have gotten shower sex too when we got home but now you get to spend the rest of the night cleaning up this mess and washing the dishes with Jisoo." Jennie said smiling sweetly. She leaned up to kiss Lisa on the cheek and reached out for Rosie. "Come on hubby, lets let these two idiots clean up their mess."

"Movies and wine with me wifey?" Rosie asked.

"You read my mind." Jennie said as they walked away leaving the other two grumbling grumpily.

"You pick the movie, I'll go get one of Jisoo's wine bottles." Rosie said giddily.

"I like movies and wine." Lisa pouted.

"It's always your fault Limario. Now who's going to hold my chipmunk when she cries because you know how they are, they always pick sad movies when they're alone together."

"My baby brat will because she'll probably cry too but can we hurry up and clean this so we can shower and it be us instead."

Jisoo reached her hand out to do their handshake. The one that meant they would behave with each other because they had more important things to do, like get to their girls.

They loved to mess with each other always but in the end they were best friends and the handshake was always their truce that they would behave until their next round of teasing.

___________

Rosie had picked the smallest office in the buildings because of the acoustics. When they went to scout the building it was the first thing she said so Jisoo took it upon herself to give her future wife what she really wanted.

Rosie's office was basically a recording studio once Jisoo was done with it. She had a whole set up, microphones, pianos, guitars, speakers, acoustic panels. All Jisoo's doing.

Her office was next to Jisoo's and Jisoo had made sure to replace the glass between them with custom glass that didn't ruin the acoustics but also had a slit at the top so she could still hear Rosie's singing. It was her favorite thing, listening to Rosie work on her songs.

She told Rosie it was an early wedding present when she presented the newly renovated office to her.

Jennie and Lisa had to leave the house for an entire day after that surprise because the moans they kept hearing from them was ridiculous and they knew they wouldn't stop any time soon.

The whole top floor was an interesting set up. The building basically doubled as a multi business office for all of them where they would do their chosen career but officially, it was listed under Jennie's nonprofit. So they all did both. They worked on what they did best and navigated a way into working for the nonprofit too, trying to expand it.

They all had official titles now, registered under the business. Jennie was the CEO of course. Rosie got the title of Chief Marketing Officer. Lisa was their Chief Recruitment Officer.

Jisoo even presented them all with nameplates and they all toasted when they moved into the office after the building deal was done.

"Wait, what's your title?" Lisa asked Jisoo. "You didn't show us yours."

Jisoo smirked. "Funny you should ask."

Jisoo brought her own nameplate out.

Kim Jisoo C.B.O

"CBO?" Jennie asked, perplexed, almost panicking because she obviously didn't go to school for business but it was important that she knew business if she were to keep this thing going. "What's a CBO? I've never heard of that."

"Chief Bullshit Officer." Jisoo answered and Lisa and her both dropped their champagne and fell on the ground in laughter.

"Are you gonna let her keep that?" Chaeyoung asked Jennie, giggling too as she watched them cackle and smack each other on the ground. They'd stop laughing, look at each other and start laughing again.

Jennie rolled her eyes playfully.

"Even if I didn't you know she'd just put it back. Just for that, I'm making her CFO." Jennie said. "Cut some time away from her games while she figures out our finances. It's not like she's not a genius in it, she just doesn't care enough to take over the world. Though judging by this building I think she already has but she's using it as a front to be able to play her games and still let Auntie Kim think she's being productive." Jennie laughed. "As if she'd fall for it."

"You're so cruel." Rosie giggled. "She's going to hate you for that kind of responsibility. She likes a life of crime and leisure." Rosie said, only half joking because while Jisoo wouldn't really be a criminal, her devious side and scheming could have definitely landed her in jail more than once.

Jennie shrugged. "It's okay, I'll still be her favorite cousin. She'll probably just say well played and get me back some other way."

"I'll make sure she doesn't go overboard." Rosie promised, hugging Jennie as they both watched their idiot girls giggle uncontrollably on the ground.

"Wait wait wait, so what exactly does a Chief Bullshit Officer do?" Lisa said as she cackled with Jisoo.

"Call you out on your bullshit! Duh Limario! It's literally in the title! Also, I'd mostly be bullshitting."

"So what, you're like the mature rated version of human resources when you're not slacking?" Lisa asked laughing.

"Nope, I'm like a mom whose going to find something to complain about her children anytime it inconveniences me and then call you out on it." Jisoo shrugged. "That's obviously why I'm here, for my own entertainment."

"You were born for this title." Lisa giggled.

"That's why I invented it." Jisoo answered, helping Lisa up from the floor once their laughter finally died down.

That building and their set up was exactly what Jisoo had always intended after a certain conversation, especially once Jennie divulged about her having started a nonprofit.

She had been planning this ever since she received her inheritance. Her mother had sat her down and talked to her and asked her what she would do with the money, should she receive it.

Jisoo may have always been loaded thanks to her parents, especially because of her mother and the wealth she had managed to accumulate again despite being disowned from her family, but there were stipulations to that wealth.

They provided her with any basic needs. She was spoiled in the sense of private schools and getting the best of everything, anything that would provide her the tools for success they gave freely but she always had to earn it if it wasn't something that would help her or others in the future.

They paid for her tuition to any school or academy she chose to attend. They let her explore her interests and bankrolled that too. They let her go on trips around the world so she could learn about different cultures. Anything in the pursuit of skill or knowledge she freely received, but if Jisoo wanted a fancy car or some gift that had nothing to do with making her a better person, Jisoo really had to earn it.

Every single one of her gaming consoles, her car, concert tickets, Jisoo had always had to do something for them, whether it was volunteering somewhere, doing chores around the house, making good grades.

All of it was earned and the bigger the thing she wanted the more she had to work for it and negotiate with her mother if she deserved it or not. Jisoo figured that was probably part of the reason she'd gotten so good at real estate.

Her mother had always raised her to be humble. Jisoo had known all her life that she wouldn't just get the inheritance money for free. She had to have some form of business plan. In the case of her inheritance, her parents were basically a bank and she had to convince them to give her a loan.

Her parents, especially her mother, valued charity, so some kind of charitable reason in order to get it would have worked for Jisoo to earn it too and have free rein over that money without needing to earn it any time she wanted to use some of it.

She still remembered the conversation. It was seared into her brain, she could never forget it.

Her parents had already congratulated her for getting in to the best university in Korea once she graduated, so they had given her a fraction of her inheritance as a reward for that.

It was a few years in to her college education when it happened, despite Jisoo being a troublemaker and pissing her parents off every once in a while with the shenanigans she got up to, since she was doing so well in school her mother finally sat her down.

"It's time we talk about the rest of it." Mrs. Kim said, handing Jisoo a glass of whiskey.

"The rest of it?" Jisoo asked, taking it and clinking glasses with her mom. She'd always loved that about her, though she'd never say it. Her mother treated her like an adult. They drank together sometimes while her mom gave her life lessons. It was their little bonding experience.

"Your inheritance."

"Oh." Jisoo said. "I didn't think I'd even get to remotely earn that until I'm at least thirty." Jisoo half joked because she was well aware that she had put her parents through a lot of stress all of her life.

Sure she was succeeding but she was also a menace and figured her parents didn't think she could be trusted with that much money just yet. Jisoo figured they'd probably think she'd rent out an island and squander it all having parties or something.

"You've proven yourself."

Jisoo was hardly ever self conscious, she hardly ever doubted herself, but in this case she was.

"I don't know that I have yet mom." Jisoo admitted honestly.

"Jisoo, you're basically a millionaire, even though you have to go through us at the moment.

You know your privilege, you know you could have anything you want yet you're still humble. Anyone that met you wouldn't know that you could ask us to buy you the most expensive car and a mansion and we could afford it for you. Your father and I both know you wouldn't ask though because you know the value of earning things in life.

I'm proud of that because it means you don't flaunt your wealth but you also don't squander it. It's what we wanted from you.

That's why we raised you like that, to know that people don't have your opportunities so you don't take advantage of those that don't have them but you still appreciate what you were lucky enough to have and be born into and maybe help those less fortunate along the way when you can."

"It's not a big deal." Jisoo shrugged, being completely honest. "Jennie's like that too. It's only right to be that way and my uncle doesn't believe in the things you believe in so I don't think I should really be commended for that mom."

"Yes, yes she is and that's why she's my favorite niece, because despite the fact my brother raised her differently she still understands that."

"I really do hate my uncle, sorry not sorry." Jisoo said bluntly.

"Uncle, imagine hating your own brother?" Mrs. Kim giggled.

Jisoo laughed too. She knew they had the rockiest relationship because her mother and her youngest brother were polar opposites.

Jisoo had always wondered how Jennie and her were so similar considering the household she grew up in compared to her own. Jennie was raised with pretentious parents that used her for their own convenience and scolded her all the time when they thought she wasn't being perfect whereas Jisoo had parents that raised her with love and care and only scolded her when she made a true mistake so that she could be the best version of herself.

"Anyway, your father and I talked about it, and we agree you're finally responsible enough to have that much money at your disposal now, despite your rebellious ways.

We figured it was as safe as it could be now. We're still taking a tenth of it though and donating it to charity in your name since you lied to us about going backpacking through Europe instead of going to summer camp without telling us and sending us letters acting like you were still there."

"You're still mad about that?" Jisoo almost pouted. She didn't care that a tenth of the money would be gone, she just hated when her parents were disappointed in her. It sucked. She liked it better when they yelled. They hardly ever yelled though and the disappointed looks broke Jisoo's heart. Especially her dad's.

When she got caught he had taken her out to eat chicken at her favorite place and sighed the entire time and if Jisoo could cry she would have at the look of sadness on her father's face.

He was much more sentimental than her mom and Jisoo had expected a lecture but he didn't even say anything, instead he just bought her favorite meal and took her home and played games with her but she could tell he was upset with her for lying and somehow the fact he still treated her like his 'little girl' made it so much worse for her.

"You were sixteen Jisoo! Something could have happened to you. If it had we wouldn't have even known where you were to help! Do you know what that would have done to us? To your father especially. He would have been a wreck, unable to function and then how would we have found you! I would have probably committed murder if you had been hurt."

"Nothing did though." Jisoo pointed out. "I'm smarter than that, and Jennie knew where I was. Well, sort of. I would call her and tell her what city I had been at before so she wouldn't rat me out to you.

She threatened to tell on me to you guys as soon as she found out when I called her the first time so it was my leverage so she wouldn't tell on me but I would always send a letter of where I was going next just in case too.

You could have found me. She had permission to tell you guys if I missed a single day of calling her." Jisoo shrugged.

"Maybe it is too soon." Mrs. Kim huffed, face palming because Jisoo didn't look even a little bit guilty about that trip and she knew she'd probably do it again if she had the option to go back in time to fix it now that she knew she would get caught.

Jisoo smirked at her reaction.

Mrs. Kim rolled her eyes at her when she noticed it.

"I knew the first time I ever saw that smirk that you would be trouble."

"You still love me though." Jisoo said smugly. "Even though you probably aged about ten years and your stress levels spiked ever since I was born."

"Of course I love you, you're my daughter, even if you are a menace and give me regular heart attacks every other month. Who am I kidding it was always like twice a month until you met Rosie."

Jisoo smirked at the mention of her girlfriend. Her mother was right, she stopped wreaking as much havoc as soon as she met Rosie. She was always too focused on being in love with her to scheme as much.

At first it was because she was trying to gather the courage to ask her out and too busy trying to figure out how to do it, then when they actually started dating Jisoo was too focused on making her happy.

"That's an invalid argument mom. Jennie is also her parents' daughter and they suck. They don't act like they love her so I don't accept your logic. You don't love me because I'm your flesh and blood, you love me cus I'm awesome, I'm an evil genius, and you love having me around because even though you love to banter with me I make you laugh." Jisoo smirked again. "Admit it, you'll miss me when I finally move out."

Mrs. Kim sighed heavily.

"Okay rude." Jisoo said, misunderstanding her mom's sigh, thinking she was teasing her about not wanting her around.

"We need to talk about Jennie." Mrs. Kim said with a stoic face.

Jisoo sobered up quickly because despite the fact that her mom was very formidable, capable, and a badass, she was hardly ever serious. Jisoo took after her so when they were together there was always banter and jokes even when they were having heavy conversations but her mom looked deadly serious right now.

"What about Jendeukie?" Jisoo asked in concern. Her baby cousin was her favorite person before Rosie had come along. The moment she had the realization that Rosie had over taken Jennie was the moment Jisoo realized she'd end up marrying Rosie if she let her.

Jennie and Jisoo had always been incredibly close and still were, even though Jisoo didn't hang out with her as much one on one now that she was dating Rosie.

Jennie was still always around, it just wasn't always the two of them anymore and Jisoo knew if someone could take her baby cousin's place as favorite person then that person was it for her.

It wasn't like she hadn't dated before and she always blew them off for Jennie if Jennie wanted to hang out but not with Rosie, she just invited Jennie along with them instead.

"Besides the fact that my youngest brother is a certified asshole, there's another reason why he treats Jennie the way he treats her, and why his wife has never paid attention to her in her entire life and Jennie was raised by her baby sitters and us more than her own parents."

"What are you saying mom?" Jisoo asked, setting her whiskey down and leaning forward.

"Your uncle cheated. I doubt it's not very hard for you to imagine him doing something like that. I always had an inkling he was cheating but he always seemed like the type to only sleep with one of them once before moving on so he wasn't caught considering how much he loved to guard his reputation.

There was a woman he was apparently very particular to at some point though. She was his girlfriend for a while, despite him having a wife. It was easy for him to hide the relationship from both of them since back then he was going on lots of business trips since he wasn't employed at the university yet. He worked for our father still.

The woman lived in Busan, he lived in Seoul, it was easy for him to hide the fact he had a girlfriend to his wife with those business trips and to his girlfriend that he had a wife on the pretense of needing to come back to work for the company.

They stayed together so long he accidentally got her pregnant. Contraceptives weren't as good back then, not that they're foolproof now, but they're much better.

That baby they had was Jennie."

Jisoo made a grab at her whiskey and drank it in one go, not believing it. There was no way. She was sure her mother was just playing with her.

"Jennie's real mother's name is Scarlett. Your uncle's wife isn't Jennie's biological mother. She can't even have kids. They didn't find this out until way after Jennie was born but that's the main reason why she's an only child.

You know your uncle, he always wanted a boy. Though obviously that wasn't the reason he cheated in the first place, he's just awful like that but they tried and couldn't make it work.

Your uncle didn't get his perfect heir in his eyes so Jennie was a great target for his aggression. It's why he wanted to marry her off to Kai so much. I guess he figured a perfect son in law was next best."

"What the fuck?!" Jisoo said, standing up and almost knocking the bottle of whiskey over that was sitting on the table next to them. "This is a joke right? You're fucking with me? You have to be fucking with me mom."

Mrs. Kim didn't even flinch at Jisoo's language. She knew Jisoo cursed a lot and she got on to her sometimes but it was a valid response so she said nothing about it.

"Sit."

Jisoo sat down.

"It's true. Scarlett is her real mother."

Jisoo had never ever been truly angry at her mother until that point, until that revelation. She poured herself another glass and downed it because she really couldn't believe her mom right now.

"If this is seriously true then why the hell didn't you ever tell Jendeukie then?!" Jisoo said, setting the glass down so harshly that it almost broke.

"I thought you were a good person!" Jisoo yelled so loud she was sure even the neighbors would have heard despite their house and property being so huge. She felt hurt and betrayed by the woman she always refused to admit she looked up to and aspired to be like. "You raised me to be a good person so why the fuck aren't you?!"

Jisoo watched her mom look down with tears in her eyes.

"I couldn't just yet."

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?! You knew! You should have told her as soon as she was old enough to understand! I'm telling her right now. She deserves to know why her 'mom' never loved her and why her father resented her so she stops feeling awful about herself and thinking it's her fault for supposedly not being perfect." Jisoo moved to get up but her mom held her back.

"Scarlett is dead Jisoo."

That made Jisoo pause.

"She died when Jennie was only six months old. I didn't even know about Jennie until then. Until your uncle basically had a child delivered to his home by the police when Scarlett died because he was Jennie's father.

Scarlett had no siblings so she forced herself to name Jennie's father so they could write it on the birth certificate just in case something happened to her, a mother's instinct I guess, despite breaking up with him after finding out he was married and not telling him that he got her pregnant.

My darling baby brother was going to put her up in an orphanage" Mrs. Kim said sarcastically. "He didn't want her, and I didn't want that for Jennie.

I wanted to take her in at least, but it was a mistake to ask him. You know him, always competitive with me because for some reason he's always held a grudge against me and as soon as I said I would take her in instead of having him send her away he snapped and said I couldn't take his child.

So he took her in instead, too afraid I'd adopt her from the orphanage. I couldn't do anything about it. Legally, she was his.

He forced his wife to claim her, used his influence to forge her birth and say Jennie was biologically hers. I couldn't take her away either because despite them being neglectful and him torturing her by basically treating her like a puppet, they provided for her and she was never abused in the eye of the law so there was no claim."

"I still don't get why you didn't tell her! She deserves to know. Don't you know how much she's suffered because of them! How guilty I feel when I see her try not to complain about her parents because I had a cozy life with you guys and she didn't.

I know she feels guilty too because I could tell, I could always tell anytime you guys did something nice for me she would pout and I know she wishes it was her that got that luck and then she'd just feel awful for momentarily hoping the roles were reversed.

She thinks it's her fucking fault for being who she is why her parents don't act like actual parents! Why didn't you just tell her mom! I know you're not that dense!"

"Because that's the deal I made with my brother. He didn't want his supposed pristine reputation damaged if anyone heard that the family man had cheated and had a daughter with someone else. Especially since he had just started working at the university and began moving up, it was too precious to him.

He wouldn't let me take Jennie so I gave up my inheritance for him in exchange for some promises from him.

He had taken her in, but I knew his plans were to hide her away. Send her to boarding school, if that. I doubt he would have spent his money on her like that at the time.

I knew he'd probably deny her and act like Scarlett lied about Jennie being his legitimate daughter and then play the martyr card about him taking her in anyway even though she supposedly wasn't his and use it to his advantage. I knew he'd use her somehow to make himself look better, he still did, but I thought it was the lesser of two evils.

I knew his wife would be awful to her too. She was livid that she had to claim a 'bastard' child. They still were awful to her, but it wasn't as bad as it was going to be if I hadn't done that. His wife relaxed a bit and basically just ignored Jennie all of her life but at least she wasn't cruel like I knew she would have been.

So did my brother, he believed me when I said I wouldn't say anything once I convinced our parents to hand him my portion of the inheritance they had set out for us so he behaved with her for the most part.

They treated Jennie like most rich people treat their children, like someone to be used for advantage. As she grew up he saw her value so he loosened up even more. He realized she was his in to gain more wealth and notoriety.

Jennie has always been smart and beautiful, he didn't have to try hard to arrange a marriage of convenience and that's when he really started 'spoiling' her and trying to buy things for her so she would be the picture of a perfect daughter he could marry off to someone that would work to his favor."

"Hold on, wait, wait, I thought you didn't get your inheritance because you married dad?" Jisoo asked her mother, completely confused. "Because he wasn't a millionaire or whatever at the time."

"Your grandparents weren't that shallow. They didn't raise us that way either. All of that was a lie we came up with to tell you all so no one in the family knew the truth."

"Who else knows about this?"

"Just your uncle, his wife, me and your dad, and now you. Your grandparents obviously knew too, they questioned why I would give up so much money when I came to them.

Your grandmother actually thought your uncle was blackmailing me at some point but I told her the truth. She was always the type to let us make our own decisions so she let it happen.

I know she also thought this would be the best for Jennie too, considering she was illegitimate and we could do nothing about taking her away once he decided to keep her. They passed soon after."

"How did none of my other uncles and aunts question that suddenly a six month old baby just appeared out of no where though? There's no way Jennie could have just popped up as a six month old and they passed her off as a newborn without ever even seeing his wife pregnant! Even my uncle doesn't have that much influence."

"There's a reason why all of my older siblings eventually went bankrupt. None of them have ever paid attention to details, they were all too self absorbed." Mrs. Kim said humorlessly. "But really, the fact is none of us are close. It's incredibly easy to fake a pregnancy when you don't see each other for years at a time.

That's probably what broke your grandmother's heart and why she died too soon. She didn't raise us that way. She was kind. She wanted us to love each other and even I failed at that because I thought my siblings were all too shallow so I never reached out to them either. It was sheer dumb luck I even found out about Jennie.

I was visiting your grandparents, they were lightly bickering about something or other, probably the food because your grandfather was as much of a picky eater as you are and your grandmother would cook for him sometimes and he could never hide his faces when he didn't like it.

So they'd argue and your grandfather would lie to her and say he liked it and she would never believe it and she'd smack him with a wooden spoon for lying about her cooking."

Jisoo watched her mother soften a bit at the memory. She'd heard some stories of her grandparents. She obviously never got to meet them so her mom would fill her in sometimes. She hadn't heard that tidbit though and Jisoo was smart.

Now she realized why her mom always looked like she missed them so much on the rare occasions she did talk about them. Jisoo had always been confused considering they had supposedly cut her off because of her dad and her mom wasn't the sentimental type so she had never understood it.

Now she did. Her mother didn't talk about them because she had to sell the lie that they'd cut her off. She had to pretend they hadn't been loving parents.

Jisoo reached over and squeezed her mom's hand and she knew her mom understood that she had caught on to why she never talked about her parents to her despite them always being open books in their family.

"You'll tell me about them?" Jisoo asked.

"Next Sunday. Drinks. Bring Rosie, I think she'll find it funny how much your relationship mirrored your grandparents' relationship. It's uncanny really.

Although your grandmother was way more physical with your grandfather than Rosie is with you. All Rosie has to do is scold you and you fall in line. My daddy would fall in line immediately too but I think your grandma found it funny she could smack him with things when she scolded him and he always let her so she did it all the time."

"She'll love to hear about that, and so will I. I'd like to get to know them." Jisoo said honestly, leaning back again to let her mom continue.

"Good. I've wanted to tell you about them for a long time. The true them. Only your father really knows how great they really were. They loved him. They hated when they had to pretend like they didn't to others but we always had weekly dinners. We always had them even before then, before your father and I got married.

It was at one of those dinners when it happened. I picked up the phone for them when it rang because they were too busy with their little debate. My brother never changed his address officially so they called to find him in our parents' home despite us all having moved out already and they told me about his daughter who no longer had a home because her mother had passed.

They asked me if I knew how to get in contact with him. I knew he wouldn't want her so I went too when they took her to him for him to meet her. They told me they were bringing her to him because fathers were usually worse than women, they needed to see the children to want them.

They thought maybe he might want her once he saw her so she wouldn't end up in an orphanage and actually got a home. I took him aside when he immediately told them to put her up for adoption as soon as he opened the door and they told him who she was and well, you know what happened after that now."

Jisoo was reeling. She was still in shock. She couldn't believe this huge secret her mother had kept for so long. It made sense, but it didn't make it any less jarring for her.

They sat there in silence for long moments before Jisoo could finally find the words to say what she wanted to say as soon as she started believing her mom about Jennie's past.

She would have said the same thing years before even without knowing the secret about Jennie's real mom but she hadn't earned it yet and apparently now she had so now she could.

"Give the money to Jendeukie." Jisoo said firmly. "I don't want it. She deserves it. Her father is an ass, she's been trying to get away from them for forever and this could help her finally do it. Now it all makes sense.

You guys have always supported me but she's never had that. Give my inheritance to her. I don't need it. Even if I were to fail I know you guys would always be there for me, it's not like I'd ever be homeless even if I did fuck up that bad somehow."

"Kim Jisoo, you're smarter than this." Her mom scolded her sternly.

"I don't want it mom!" Jisoo shouted, feeling frustrated at her response. "She needs it, not me! Didn't you raise me to be kind and generous? To help others and not be greedy! To put the people I love and those less fortunate above myself?! I have enough. I have you guys if shit goes to hell and I graduate and can't get a job or something. She has nothing. What the fuck mom? Who are you right now?!" Jisoo finished incredulously.

"I know baby, that's not what I meant." Mrs. Kim moved to sit next to Jisoo. "But be smart like you always are darling. Do you really think Jennie would accept it? She'd just give it right back and you know it and if Jennie came into that much money randomly it would just tip my brother off anyway and this whole deal goes out the window.

You know Jennie is still too afraid of them to defy them, and for good reason. He controls every aspect of her life and she's way too proud to accept help if he derails it. He'd start with sabotaging her education so she will fall in line again and would probably force her to marry Kai already."

Jisoo huffed, knowing that was true. Jennie was way too proud for that, to accept any kind of charity even if she was drowning. She hardly even touched the money her dad gave her. All the things she had were basically forced on her.

Jisoo could count with one finger the times Jennie asked her parents for money, and it was for a loan that she apparently paid back double to her father a year later. It had been the only time Jisoo had heard Mr. Kim brag about Jennie, about her supposed financial responsibility.

Jisoo knew it was more to brag about how he supposedly raised her to be that smart than actually praising Jennie considering they were at a garden party with plenty of people to brag to about how he had taught his daughter how to invest.

As if. They hardly talked unless it was in public with plenty of people to see he was a 'good' father and he would bring Jennie in and she had to play the part of grateful daughter.

Jisoo knew Jennie had probably poured over books and newspapers with stock market prices and taught herself how to do it. She hadn't known about Jennie making that money investing until she had overheard him talking about it at the party to a bunch of old dudes.

It had been a rare occasion when Jisoo had actually shown up to one of those things because Jennie had been giddy all week and Jisoo didn't want her dad to make her depressed and ruin her mood at one of his stupid functions so she went too because Jennie was hardly ever this happy so consistently thanks to them.

Jisoo realized why she had been so happy once she overheard that conversation as he threw an arm around Jennie while he condescendingly bragged and Jennie tried not to grimace. Jisoo rescued her immediately.

"This isn't where I had meant for the conversation to go just yet, but all of this just proved to me that we were right, you really are ready for your inheritance."

Jisoo felt her mom hug her and usually Jisoo wasn't touchy, neither was her mom really, she had always been more affectionate through actions. She usually only did it to annoy her on purpose because Jisoo would scowl at her and her mom would giggle and then flick her forehead.

This time Jisoo let her, she was just too upset for Jennie and she kind of needed the comfort. She even leaned her head on her mom's shoulder like she used to do when she was little.

"The money will be released to you first thing tomorrow. Your father already called to have them put it in your account. Use it well, though I don't think I really need to say that anymore. You're grown." She said proudly.

"I'm gonna use it to help my baby cousin." Jisoo said adamantly.

"I know you will, what's your plan baby?"

"I'm getting her out of that house for one." Jisoo said immediately. "I can figure out a way to get my uncle to let her move into an apartment with me or something. I guess I'm finally moving out now. Sorry mom."

"Good girl. As much as I'll miss you living with us. Your father already cried over it when we talked about giving you the money because he figured that's the first thing you would do. I honestly expected it to happen much sooner than this though, knowing you." She said rolling her eyes good-naturedly.

"I figured you'd move out as soon as you were of age and you were legally allowed to so that we wouldn't catch you when you were up to something."

Jisoo shrugged. "I guess I like it here, you're alright when you're not grounding me from my games."

Her mother smirked at her and shook her head.

"You're still not over that?" She said raising an eyebrow, laughing as she echoed Jisoo's earlier question.

"I'll never get over that." Jisoo scowled. It had been hell when they actually grounded her when they found out about her backpacking trip. Usually they made her do something good for the world when she was bad, like volunteer somewhere, not punish her so cruelly like that. Jisoo shivered as she thought about that awful time in her life.

"You act like we put you in jail and threw away the key."

"You practically did!" Jisoo said indignantly. "I was so bored! I even started learning how to play dungeons and dragons with dad! I was that game deprived."

Her mom rolled her eyes at her.

"Please, I know you liked it."

"Shut up. I'm a gaming addict, not a nerd." Jisoo mumbled. "Please don't tell dad I called him a nerd." Jisoo said nervously because her dad was obsessed with D&D, he played with his friends every Thursday and her dad was sensitive. She didn't want to hurt his feelings.

Her mother rolled her eyes at her again as she poured Jisoo and herself another drink because Jisoo still played with him any time he asked, they had the whole set up in his office of their little adventure and she was always as into it as he was.

"I'm telling Jennie everything." Jisoo said as her mother handed it to her. "I have to. I can't keep this from her."

"You can't yet."

"Why can't we tell her already though? Maybe she'll come live with us on her own and I don't even have to move out and break dad's heart yet." Jisoo pleaded her mom. "It's not like we don't have plenty of space and you already wanted to take her in. I know she'd want to come live with us too. It's a win win mom.

She's old enough to leave them now. It's not like she's a minor anymore. I don't get why you haven't told her yet. I know she's proud but she probably wouldn't stay in that house and do something silly like offer to pay rent here so she could move in."

"As much of an idiot as my brother is, he's still pretty diabolic. The only smart thing he's good at is manipulation. Jennie's life would be ruined if she knew. He's got leverage still, even more so than the way she can mess with her life. It's why I haven't told her. She's not allowed to know just yet."

"I don't think she'd say anything though, if she knew. All she wants is to get away from them." Jisoo reasoned. "So that doesn't even matter. We can tell her so she leaves them on her own."

"Of course she wouldn't, but she'd choose to stay in that house and not fight to get out of their grasp like she is now if we told her."

"Why would she? Jendeukie isn't dumb."

"She's not dumb. She's incredibly intelligent, just like you. She is however proud, also just like you, and kind, and she would regret having done any of it when my brother does what he threatened to do if we ever stole Jennie away from them."

"I don't get it, none of this is making sense! You're loaded, I'm about to be loaded, Jennie hates that place. Her dad's a fucking piece of shit and her mom isn't even her mom and she's not much better! Like what the fuck, let's just tell her and take her already!"

"Do you remember the series we watched of those unsolved murders of children in that documentary we watched the other day?"

"What?" Jisoo asked bewildered, completely confused at the sudden change in subject. "Mom, we're talking about Jennie right now! I know we're both unserious most of the time and all over the place but this is important. This is my baby cousin we're talking about."

"This has to do with Jennie."

Jisoo looked even more perplexed.

"I told you my brother was diabolical. He had someone fabricate evidence that Scarlett committed those murders. He didn't want his wife knowing he cheated once Scarlett broke up with him when she found out about him being married so he threatened her with it and told her if she ever said anything he'd send it to the police.

I only know this because his wife came to me once the secret was out and Jennie fell on their doorstep, since I was the only other one to know at the time. She told me that if I ever said anything she would make sure everyone knew Jennie was a serial killer's daughter.

She added to the 'evidence' my brother had fabricated and made it seem like Scarlett had killed herself before she got caught for the crime of murdering several children.

She was fearful of the reputation she would get if people knew her husband had cheated enough to play his little game. She's just as awful as he is.

I found some friends of Scarlett's after I found out about Jennie. The police had mentioned her name over the phone so I started looking.

She was a good woman by what everyone said. Sweet and generous and her only fault had been her awful taste in men. Her best friend said she was a romantic at heart and fell for sweet words because she believed in love and that's how my brother won her over despite her friends warning her that he seemed like he was bad news.

She was a nurse. The entire hospital had a memorial for her when she passed because they all loved her, they even put her picture up in the ward she used to work in to honor her.

She had cancer and was that rare exception where the drugs she had to take to survive ended up killing her from the side effects. It was easy for anyone to say she killed herself on purpose instead, based on the dosages she had to receive for the pain.

Jennie's stepmom knew this and used it to her advantage. After all that your uncle managed to fabricate, and it was legit, I had that looked into as well and he must have paid upwards of thousands of dollars to make it seem real. He has many buddies in the police force too that could just corroborate his story.

I could say what I know, but unfortunately once the media got wind of this, and they would get wind of it because it would be such a high profile case, it wouldn't matter what the truth was.

They'd run with the story. It would be more scandalous to start a news broadcast saying a nurse probably murdered dozens of children than to say she was innocent even though it's the truth and a trial would drag her name through the mud and Scarlett isn't even here anymore to give alibi's and defend herself.

Even if the detectives and lawyers did their jobs correctly and she was proven innocent, by the time it would be over it would be too late. The damage would be done.

Do you think Jennie would be happy to stain her true mother's reputation like that? You really think she wouldn't resent the fact she chose to leave them and this gets released even though its been decades since she passed and even longer since the murders stopped.

It would make national news. And if we tell her the whole truth, do you really think she'd leave them then? She'd stay to protect her and suffer through it for the rest of her life.

And for you, do you really want to label your favorite cousin as a serial killer's daughter? You know what happens to the illegitimate children of chaebols, imagine what will happen to an illegitimate daughter of a powerful man who supposedly is the offspring of a serial killer mother. Your uncle will jump on that narrative immediately.

We both know she's very capable. She's suffered enough but she'll do it on her own, with your help and when the time is right, you can tell her. I'll leave it up to you when to do that, but don't do it now.

She has to be powerful enough to be able to fight her father and that means not stinging her pride by offering her what she'll automatically assume will be charity and being strong enough to choose to fight him without him thinking we've told her.

He'll chalk it all up to rebelliousness if she ever defies him as long as we don't tell her, it's not like he's ever treated her as more than a pawn and she's always toed the line and rebelled against him in some way. You know her demeanor will change if we tell her and he'll know she knows and all these years of her suffering under their roof will increase tenfold."

Jisoo sighed again, knowing her mother was right. She truly understood what Jennie had always felt over the years about her privilege, about how Jennie would rather have been born poor rather than rich.

Jisoo knew she had been luckier than Jennie of course. She had wonderful parents, and lots of money and opportunities so of course she got why Jennie would rather be poor considering she didn't get that.

She understood Jennie, she always empathized with her because she knew she was always miserable but she didn't truly understand until now how much Jennie was caged in by the endless hell that was her powerful family. She wasn't their daughter, she was their puppet and Jisoo vowed to help get her out somehow.

"Here." Her mother walked up to the shelf and grabbed an album. "These are all the pictures I could scrounge up of Scarlett that her friends gave me. For Jennie, once you tell her.

She should know who her mother was. There's dozens and dozens of letters in there too from some friends and coworkers that were kind enough to reminisce about her for Jennie's sake.

She truly was loved and they were all devastated that Jennie was left without a mother. They wanted to honor Scarlett for her. They all said the same thing, that Scarlett would do the same for them and more."

Jisoo opened the album and immediately smiled.

"They could be literal twins." Jisoo whispered when she saw an old photo of Scarlett with several friends on a college campus. "Jennie's the spitting image of her. If you hadn't told me this was Scarlett I would have really thought this was Jennie. Even their style is very similar, I wouldn't have been able to tell this was taken so many years ago."

Jisoo paused.

"Oh wait, nevermind, I would have figured it out eventually. Ew, that outfit and that hair is atrocious. Why is this man dressed as a highlighter in a too tight bodysuit with a mullet and a porn stache? He looks like a cross between Richard Simmons and a bad Lionel Richie." Jisoo said as she spotted the only boy at the very edge of the picture walking behind the group of girls.

Her mother rolled her eyes and snorted, laughing at the comment. Her daughter really had no filter whatsoever. She also wasn't wrong in her observations and it just made her laugh harder.

Jisoo closed the album after that, she had only wanted to see a picture of Jennie's real mother. She didn't read any of the letters, those were for Jennie, she deserved to see them first. Jisoo was curious to know about her too but she knew Jennie would come to her eventually.

Jisoo did exactly what she had said once she got the money. She took a leaf out of Jennie's book and did her research. She invested in property and basically tried to make sure to funnel some of the money back to Jennie.

At first it was by making sure she paid as little rent as possible once they convinced Jennie's father to let Jennie move out without making her suspicious considering the huge boujee apartment they got.

Jisoo would have gone for a cheaper place for Jennie's sake but she knew this was what her uncle would have expected Jennie to move in to and they had to keep up appearances.

She saved all the money Jennie gave her for rent in a special account until she could figure out a way to get it back to her without Jennie knowing. She lucked out once Jennie finally told her about the nonprofit she had started and started giving it back to her there anonymously.

Rosie and Lisa were just as important to her too so once she kept making it big with her business decisions in real estate she wanted to help them out as well.

It also helped mask the fact Jisoo was trying to get Jennie truly away from her uncle once and for all so despite being so smart, Jennie had no clue she was the reason all of this had even started.

It's why they all now lived in the same house together, and had a building they worked at together. Jisoo had even anonymously bought some of Lisa's pictures and gifted them to their friends. She continued donating to Jennie's nonprofit anonymously and no one could get her started on the things she did for Rosie. She could write a two hundred page report on this last year alone.

__________

A/N

Accidental #Jisoonie #BestUnnie chapter

Also bro, why do I write in layers? Lol. I write so A.D.D like I start at the end then go to the beginning then the middle then the end again then I gotta split the chapters cus they're so long and istg idk how my chapters ever make sense at this rate 😭😅

SEND HELP.

Anyway proposal idea that I meant to write in THIS chapter coming in the next chapter. Might be a sort of double, might not. Send me good juju. Carry on and don't mind my rambling