Chapter 44

Lisa's POV

Jennie plops down on the grass and stares up at the horse. "We need to give her a name."

For the past five hours, we've been roaming around the city with this black horse that seems to be enjoying its taste of freedom.

"Let's call her Horse," I shrug, sitting right across her.

"Is that the most creative you can get?" she laughs while randomly picking on the grass.

"Well, I had a hamster named hamster once, so why not?" I insisted. I brushed her black, shiny coat with my hands and gave her head a kiss. "Horse, where do you want to go next?"

"This is probably the happiest she has been," Jennie sighs as she gets up on her feet. "At least she experienced being free for a while, thanks to you."

"I think Horse is thirsty," I pointed out, taking the reigns in my hands. "We should make her drink in the fountain."

Jennie rolls her eyes and giggles. "You're ridiculously cute, you know that?"

"I really try to appear though most of the time, but that's all I get," I pout, letting out a loud and deep sigh.

Jennie smiles and kisses my cheek. "You are also insanely hot, baby, don't worry."

"As much as I'd like to flirt with you here with Horse standing in the middle of us, I think we need to take her back," I laugh, glancing back and forth from Jennie to Horse.

"Says the one who stole it!" Jennie teases me. "So how do you plan to take it back?"

"You wouldn't mind running a few blocks, right?" I beam from ear to ear.

**

"In the count of three...are you ready?" I hide behind Horse's bum. We secretly tied it back to the carriage while the owner was going ballistic on the phone, trying to get people to look for her horse.

"No, not really but I have no choice," Jennie admits while stifling a giggle.

"One..."

"Two..."

We look at each other one last time.

"Three!"

Just when we began running for the hills, Horse's owner spots us and starts yelling at us one more time.

"That's them!" he shouts. "They're the ones who took Rudolph!!"

"Rudolph?" I repeat while running for my life. "Who names a horse Rudolph??"

"Horse is so much better!" Jennie huffs as she takes my hand while running behind me.

"Didn't know you could run that fast!" I laugh.

"Yeah well if I go to jail for this, I'm never going to forgive you," Jennie taunts.

"Sounds fair to me."

"Awesome."

"Let's go up the Eiffel!" I point towards the majestic tower that was before us.

Jennie shoots me a glare. "Are you kidding me?? After making me run that far, you want me to go up the tower with you?"

"Are you genuinely angry at me right now?" I stop walking in the middle of the road and looked straight into her anxious brown eyes. "Because I don't want you to hate me, but damn, you look so hot when you're angry."

"Lisa," she narrows her eyes.

"Jennie," I smiled, teasingly running my fingers up her arms. "Is this our first fight as a couple, baby?"

"So you labeled us now," she smirks. "It's official...?"

"What else do you want to call us though?"

Our little moment was interrupted when the fireworks started to shoot up from one of the huge tents that were set up out in the streets. Turns out we were in front of a huge festival celebrating the New Years.

"I think they're having a countdown," she looks up at the sky. "What time is it?"

"It's ten-fifty," I check my watch.

"Let's find someplace to rest," Jennie sighs, letting go of my hand as she wanders around the street.

"Hey wait, are you really mad at me?" I run after her.

Jennie turns to face me, obviously blinking back tears. "No."

"When girls say no, it's always a yes," I make a face.

"No, god, look who's talking" she groans, slouching her shoulders in annoyance. "You're so... ugh... I hate you."

She sighs and wraps her arms around me tightly. "I really hate you," she says again. "I hate the way you keep me up at night all the time. I hate how it took you months to bump into me. I hate how you pretty much took over my life since we unofficially and officially met. I hate how you changed my life. I hate how you make me smile like an idiot all the time. I hate how your kisses just keep making me want more. . . ."

"I hate how you drive me crazy in a good way," I continue for her as I play with her hair. "Wow, Jennie. Thanks for making me realize how much I hate you too."

She looked up at me and pouted. "In a sweet way or like..."

I shook my head and frowned. "No, damn it. I don't hate you. Fuck, it was a joke and I wanted to make it sound cute and all that. In fact, it's really the complete opposite."

"I love you," she blurts out, her cheeks turning into a tint of red.

My heartbeat stopped for a second. It felt completely different to actually hear those words from her.

"I k-know that," I stammered, feeling quite surprised. I knew that she loved me. I remember lots of times wherein she insinuated her feelings towards me, not that it was hard to guess. It was what started this whole thing in the first place.

"You know that?" she almost laughs in annoyance. "Well, I'm glad you know Lisa."

I palmed my shoulder and grunted. "Ugh, no, oh god. No. That's not what I mean. I mean, I do know. Of course I love you too. I love you and I'm sure you know that as well."

"Thanks for trying to make me feel better," she smiles weakly. She turns her back against me, and starts walking towards the huge tent.

"Wait, Jennie!" I call after her. "Come on!"

Fuck, Lisa, why do you have to be such an idiot??

I followed her inside the tent, which happened to have really loud music and loads of people. All of a sudden, a group of ladies and gentlemen in sparkly costumes gather around us.

"What are you two doing all alone here?" one of the men says, dancing around me in while waving her tambourine in the air.

"You should go in and party with us!" one lady chips in. "Come on! It's an open party for everyone!"

"What on earth is going on..." Jennie's voice trails off as one guy takes her hand and starts dancing around her. Her friends circled around me and I clenched my jaw as I watched one of the male dancers spin Jennie around while holding her waist. I was about to march up to them when two female dancers popped in front of me and grabbed my hand.

"Did you come alone?" one of them bats her long-ass eyelashes at me.

"You're flushed," the other girl laughs flirtatiously. "You look like you need a drink."

I saw Jennie look at me for a second and in that one second, I clearly saw the pain in her eyes.

"Excuse me, I need to go get my girlfriend," I politely push one of the girls off me.

"You have a girlfriend?" she frowns.

"Didn't you see me with her just a few seconds ago before you rudely got in between us?" I shot back.

"Nope," she shakes her head, placing her finger over my bottom lip. "Didn't see anyone else but you, darling."

Shit. French girls. Their accents were normally irresistible.

But I only had my eyes on one girl – the girl who was currently the center of attention of all the men on the dance floor as of this moment.

**

Jennie's POV

How could I be so stupid? Why did I just blurt it out like that? Not that I didn't mean it, because I'm a hundred percent sure that I did. I am head over heels in love with this girl.

What if she just said it just so I wouldn't feel bad? What if she said it just to be polite? This is not how I imagined it to be at all. I guess it's really true when they say that your dreams will always be so much better than your reality.

"Because I have already fallen deeply in love with you..." she hummed into my ears as i thought of our shared dreams.

That was a lot more swoon-worthy than how she said it a while ago. Was she just in a state of panic and shock? Was she confused? I wish I could read her mind.

As I replayed the situation in my head, I felt the strong urge to go up the Eiffel at this time. Maybe staying there would help me reminisce everything that happened in my dream even better.

I tapped the shoulder of one of the shirtless dancers who was grinding the air in front of me. "Excuse me, would you know the way to the tower from here?"

"The tower?" she repeats, still swaying her hips. "The Eiffel?"

"Yes," I eagerly nodded.

"You can't just go up there whenever you please," she chuckles. "Have you made a reservation?"

"A reservation?" I repeated.

I felt a slight feeling of stubbornness rise in me, like I wanted to just insist on getting my way. When I turned around, Lisa was already walking towards me with her jaw dropped open.

"Jennie, can you stop grinding with that man and just talk to me?" she huffs, throwing her hands up frustratingly.

"I was not dancing with him!" I defensively frown. "I just wanted to go to the Eiffel!"

"Well, you can't go to the Eiffel," she crosses her arms. "You're here in this wild and stupid festival, with me."

"But it's not fair. I wanted to go there because I wanted to feel the thrill. I wanted the perfect and unfathomable feeling that I felt for you and tell it to you right in there"

Lisa cut me off by dragging me out of the dance floor with her. "You wanted to relive the moment when I told you that I loved you, right? That's what you want?"

I stood there, feeling quite stunned.

"I remember that because I've dreamt about it" she says, like as if she couldn't believe her own words. "I remember my dream, Jennie, we talked about the future and you were just so... you were so damn paranoid that I might not really exist. You started crying and I then assumed that you were in love with me, only because I was so certain that I was in love with you..."

"Lisa..." I wheeze, not knowing how to react.

"And I still am," she declares. "This may be so different from your dreams now and probably not as perfect but my feelings are still exactly the same; maybe even stronger. I'm in love with you, Jennie Kim, and this is reality."

"You're not just saying that?" I stammered.

"I'm not just saying this," Lisa sighs. "I know I acted like a douche back there but I was just caught by surprise when you said you love me. I wasn't planning on saying it yet because I had something else in mind and then it ended up coming out all wrong. I'm an idiot, okay? But this idiot loves you with all of her heart."

Out of nowhere, the same male dancer started wiggling his body around us while attempting to pull me back to the dance floor.

Lisa gritted her teeth and held up one finger. She gave me one last glance before pulling up her sleeves, throwing a strong punch at the guy. "Stop trying to fucking grind on my girlfriend!"

"Oh my god!" I gasped. "You did not just punch her!"

"Oh my god," Lisa repeated, looking surprised himself. "I think I just did!"

The guy wobbled up to his feet and started to dance again, going for other ladies in the crowd instead.

"I think he's drunk," Lisa's eyes widen. "He probably didn't even realize that I just punched him."

I suddenly felt the urge to laugh at loud despite everything that has happened today. I was feeling ecstatic. "Lisa, I love you," I bite my lip, ignoring the fact that everyone's eyes were on us right after Lisa punched the poor guy.

"I love you," she smiles, leaning in for a kiss.

"Now that it's all out, how were you really planning to tell me how you felt?" I teasingly ask.

Lisa licks her lips and smirks at me. "You think we can make it back to our hotel room before midnight?"