> about time;
trinxjen:
@trinxjisoo
One would think that news of their mother’s death would come as a shock to them, and the rest of the day—month, or even year to most—would be filled with grief upon remembrance of fond childhood memories. But Jennie was neither shocked nor miserable. That’s not to say that she felt nothing upon hearing the news; in fact, she had been swept up in a flurry of different emotions.
First comes joy. As someone who’s blamed her mother for basically every bad thing to ever occur in her life, and has thus dedicated her life to making her mother feel as empty as she truly is inside, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that the smile on her lips only grew wider as she read of the death of her mother on the news.
Then comes irritation. Because of her mother’s death, her pool of potential gamers have suddenly become limited, more so than they already were due to the precautions her mother was forced to adopt upon realising that her daughter would kill every man and woman she ever befriended, platonically or otherwise. At the start, Jennie had initially reserved her games for the men that her mother was romantically involved with, but with old age and the curse that Jennie’s put on her mother, men visiting Mrs Kim’s household has gotten significantly less, so Jennie’s had to tweak her rules a little. Now, she doesn’t even have that. It’s annoying, because what started out as a game to make the rest of her mother’s short life miserable soon became Jennie’s secret obsession, so now with the objective of the games basically completed, Jennie fears she’ll have no valid reason to continue hosting it.
But no matter, she’ll find a way to overcome the issue, as she always does. Besides, the matter should be put aside—at least for today—because of her well-founded excitement. Because there’s only one other person who hates her mother just as much as Jennie does. Coincidentally, Jennie likes to think that she killed off all the men in her mother’s life and saved the biggest kill—that being her mother—just for said person, as a token of her appreciation.
That person was her very own half-sister, Kim Jisoo.
The very sister who doted on her, along with her dad, and gave her a childhood worth remembering. The only person alive who a person like Jennie could ever truly love. And the only person who voluntarily abandoned Jennie when she needed Jisoo the most.
(No matter, Jennie loves Jisoo too much to hold a grudge.)
Shortly after the death of the mother, Jennie had been working days and nights trying to look for her sister through hacked police cameras around Incheon. And when she had finally found her sister, she studied the latter’s routine to a T, because their meeting had to be perfect. And from what Jennie could see, Jisoo’s routine often involves her walking through this specific road at approximately 10am every day.
So there Jennie is, at 9.55am, standing in the middle of said route. She stares impatiently at the watch on her wrist—she wore one just for today—and grits her teeth in annoyance every time she looks up to see that her sister has not yet arrived. Jennie’s watched many movies, and found it extremely cool when villains would show up unexpectedly in a hero’s path to say, “surprise,” so since she had enough information, she had decided to mimic the scenes she deemed cool.
(But no one ever broadcasts what the villains were doing the minutes and seconds before said ‘cool’ scene, so Jennie’s had to wait and, in the meantime, do exactly nothing.)
After what feels like decades, she sees a familiar face approaching her, though her sister doesn’t seem to notice her at first. Jennie almost drops her happy personality due to the many emotions she’s swept up in, upon seeing her sister after all these years—God, she better not be teary eyed—but she manages to keep her composure. Hands on hips and a characteristic grin on her pink lips, Jennie leans forward and calls, “hey, sissy! Did ya miss me?”
Jisoo was no fool. In fact, out of the many, many words that comprised up all languages alike, ‘foolish’ would still be the last word anyone would use to describe Kim Jisoo.
No, Jisoo knew better than anyone else that starting from the first moment she set foot on Incheon soil, she would be entirely exposed to the omnipresent technologic eye of her sister. Nowadays, with the likes of CCTV and computer records, Jisoo imagined that it would be pitifully easy to find her, especially considering Jennie’s cyberpathy. Perhaps that was why Jisoo didn’t bother to keep a low profile, nor did she utilize any of the skills she earned through blood, sweat and tears during her time in the military. Instead, Jisoo placed herself nonchalantly in plain sight.
(And perhaps, just perhaps; a little part of Jisoo also longed to see Jennie’s face again, despite the younger’s forefront role in propagating the terrible event that was their father’s death. But no, Jisoo was not ready to forgive nor forget, and so these thoughts were stored away for another rainy day.)
Therefore, Jisoo decided that if there was no way around Jennie’s annoyingly all-pervading eye, then Jisoo might as well wrap her grand entrance like a gift, and send Jennie a message card while she was at it. And so that was why Jisoo’s first day back in Incheon wasn’t spent doing frivolous things like catching up with friends; but rather, Jisoo occupied her time with putting their mother’s face at the business end of her sniper scope. Oh – Jisoo intended to send a message, alright.
To Jisoo, the reason for Jennie’s downward spiral lay within their mother’s continued existence. And thus, the solution seemed to be very simple. Terminate the root cause, and Jennie could go back to being her normal, bratty self, and maybe then – if Jisoo could see that part of Jennie again, the smiling, happy, innocent Jendeuk, and maybe Jisoo could finally forget the haunting visage of Jennie with swollen eyes and wet tear tracks; her continuous tears spelling a silent plead of ‘Don’t let me take his place, please, Jisoo please’.
(Though if Jisoo was honest with herself, she was well aware that she also had a role in their father’s death. In fact, her own helplessness and immobility as she watched their beloved father get beaten to his death still haunted her to this day – but it’s always easier to have someone else to blame, isn’t it?
Why, isn’t ironic that whilst the sisters were complete opposites in almost every way, they were still fundamentally similar at their core? Indeed, they both had a ubiquitous sense of righteousness that they were not above utilizing: Jennie with her games directed at their mother, and Jisoo with her ‘older sister knows best’ attitude.)
And so, as Jisoo traveled down to what became her routine walk, she wasn’t surprised to see Jennie in the middle her path, her hands straddled on her hips like a child trying to grow up before her time. “Hello, Jennie.” Jisoo said coolly, forgoing the younger’s nickname. As Jisoo allowed her gaze to linger on Jennie’s form, however, a part of her ached at Jennie’s still chubby cheeks, and for a moment, Jisoo entertained the thought of reaching out to fold her darling sister into an embrace – until it passed, and Jisoo chose to merely smile tightly in response.
“I hope you got my message.” Jisoo continued, folding her arms as she gazed knowingly into Jennie’s eyes. “Now that she’s dead, stop whatever idiotic thing that you’re doing and get yourself together, for goodness sakes.”
After only a few seconds in Jennie’s company, Jisoo could already feel a migraine forming at her temples. “And now, if you’ll excuse me; I have better things to do.”
