Lisa

"We should probably talk about Rosé." I lay on my back, Jennie draped across my chest in a contented half-slumber.

"No…" she grumbled. "You'll chase away the afterglow."

"That just means we get to do it all over again so we can recapture it." I kissed her head, loving the sound of her sleepy chuckle.

"I'm not going to like it, am I?"

I didn't need to say anything. She was a smart girl.

She blew out a breath that skittered across my bare chest. "She's the one, isn't she?"

"Looks that way, but we haven't been able to prove anything yet."

"We?" She sat up, propping herself on one elbow.

I nodded, eyes wide. "Suho stepped up and wanted to help."

Her eyes bulged. "No shit?"

"Yep," I confirmed, my mouth twisting into an ironic smile. "Apparently, what he did to you on the set, scaring you like that, was Rosé's doing. She's grasping at straws, thinks she's about to be written out of the show, that you were slotted to replace her or whatever, so she coerced Suho into trying to scare you off. When that didn't work, she apparently decided to go bigger."

She didn't say anything, just looked at me blankly for a while.

It was unnerving.

"Baby, you okay?"

She nodded, snapping out of it. "Yep. I mean, of course, I'm pissed off, but…"

"But what?"

She shook her head. "I don't know. I guess I thought I'd be angrier."

"Me too, actually." I studied her. "You should be fucking livid. I know I am."

She lay back on the pillows, still facing me. "I should be, but I'm sort of numb, know what I mean? Like, I'm definitely going to deal with her, but I'm not as stabby as I'd imagined I'd be when I figured out who was responsible." She wrinkled her brow. "Maybe after a nice dinner and a good night's sleep—preferably in your arms—I'll have the energy to cut a bitch. For right now, I think my mind is refusing to switch back into crisis mode because I'm just so incredibly happy you took me back."

I rolled onto my side and dropped a kiss onto her swollen lips. "You were never gone from me in the first place, Jennie-girl. You were mine even when you didn't want to be, even when you doubted, even when my heart was breaking…you were still mine. You're a part of me now. I could no more let you go than I could cut off my own arm."

"I love you, Lisa-fucking-Manoban," she whispered, eyes shining.

"I love you too, Jennie-fucking-Kim."

She reached up and shoved my shoulder, forcing me onto my back. Then she moved to straddle my hips, leaning down to kiss my neck as she wiggled lower, dragging her tongue across my abs as she held my eye. "Let's see if you truly think it's better to watch me come than to feel yourself coming down my throat. Once that's settled, we'll order in and eat dinner in bed." She moved lower and took her time licking me from base to tip in one long, hot pass, all the while holding my gaze. "Sound good to you?"

Instead of answering, I thrust my hips up a fraction and pressed myself to her lips, shameless in my need for her to put her mouth on me.

She smirked and full-on kissed the head of my cock, lips warm and soft as she barely grazed it with her tongue. "I'll take that as a yes."

With that, she slid me into her mouth, inch by inch until I was fisting the sheets in my hands and fighting for control, so lost in the sensation I could barely speak.

Okay, so watching her come and watching her stare me down while she sucked me off were pretty much tied…but I'd never tell her that.

"I need a favor."

We were kicked back on the couch, waiting for our multiple food orders to arrive because, well, we'd worked up an appetite and everything sounded good. Pizza and Chinese had topped the list, so we went with both.

My head felt so heavy I didn't bother lifting it from the back of the couch, deciding it was easier to roll it to the side as I quirked a brow at her. "A favor? Again? I don't know if I have it in me, sweetheart."

She giggled, her head leaning back against the couch in much the same way as mine. "Technically, I usually have it in me, but that's not what I was going to ask."

I chuckled at her dirty mind.

The humor swiftly left her eyes and she looked at me with a serious expression. "I need you to go along with whatever happens tomorrow. I've already emailed Tedd to arrange to have the cast meet up in the morning, early, before the rest of the crew gets there."

"What exactly will I be going along with?" The way she was looking at me had me nervous.

"Back me up, okay? Whatever I say, whatever I choose, support me without question." She gave me a pleading look. "Please, Lisa."

"I can do that." I nodded. "Whatever you need from me, I'm prepared to give."

"Even if I decide to quit?"

My whole body reacted to that one, a cold feeling washing over me at the idea of what that might mean for us. But I did what I said I would, I gave her my support. "Even if you decide to quit. You can quit the show as long as you don't quit me."

"Not gonna happen."

I turned and started to pull her in for a kiss when a knock at the door interrupted me. I gave her a longing look and went to answer the door. Before I'd set the pizza on the counter, the Chinese food arrived and we loaded down our plates with food. Plates overflowing, we hurried back to the bedroom.

There was a television on the low dresser but we didn't bother turning it on. Instead, we sat in the middle of the bed, picnic style, and stuffed our faces while we talked.

She wouldn't elaborate on what was to come the next morning and after a while, I stopped pressing her for info. I'd have to trust that whatever she had planned was the right thing for her, which made it the right thing for me too.

Whatever she decided, I would have her back.

She was going to do what came naturally to her…she was going to make this situation her bitch.

There was still something I had to know, though. "Not that I'm complaining, but what changed your mind about us?"

She dabbed her mouth with her napkin, eyes turning serious. "I wanted to fix things between us, was desperate to let you back in, but I didn't know how. I even had this awful dream where everything was closing in on me and you weren't there to protect me because I'd shut you out. I let that video cost me what I cared about most." I reached over and gripped her hand, giving it a reassuring squeeze as she continued. "Then, Nayeon came running in with her tablet, and I watched your video. When you told the whole world how much you loved me and that you refused to let me be hurt…something inside me clicked into place. I decided I could either let that first video ruin me or I could let yours remind me of everything I had to be thankful for. I chose yours. I chose happiness. I chose you."

I leaned across the picnic between us and kissed her forehead. "And you thought I was good at dramatic declarations…"

Jennie

I didn't think I could sleep so well in a strange apartment. Lisa's place was nice, far more luxurious than my own, but it wasn't home, which had worried me at first.

There was no need, though, since Lisa had so thoroughly worn me out that I fell into an orgasm induced mini-coma and slept a dreamless sleep for the first time in ages.

I awakened refreshed and invigorated, despite the early hour. I carefully crept out from under the covers and went to wash my face and start the coffee.

I didn't have any of my stuff with me but that was the great thing about working in television. There was plenty of makeup and clothes at the studio, so I could roll in looking like zombie death and they'd hook me right up.

Good thing too, since I had zero fucks to give about my appearance in light of all the other stuff going on.

While the coffee was brewing, I went in search of a toothbrush and hit pay dirt when I found a brand new one tucked into a drawer in Lisa's bathroom. I brushed, washed my face, and pulled my hair into a messy knot—literally a knot because I had no hair ties either—at my nape.

Screw it. Good enough.

I stepped from the bathroom and was greeted by Lisa's bare torso as she shuffled across the room in my direction wearing the most adorable sleepy expression.

"Good morning." I smiled at the way she scrubbed her hand over her face, while simultaneously tugging her sweatpants up. They'd been riding dangerously low on her hips, giving me a peek at the near her hip bones.

She peered at me around the hand still rubbing her face. "Did you just sigh?"

I could feel the blush creeping into my cheeks. "Sorry. You're just so…" I glanced down and pointedly nodded toward the outline of her against the fabric of her sweats.

"It's biology. Happens every morning. But you keep looking at me like that and it's going to shift into something else entirely."

I averted my eyes and slipped past her, smirking as she chuckled at my back. "No time. Get ready. We have to leave soon."

"Tease," she grumbled as she closed the bathroom door behind her.

The temptation to join her in the shower was almost too much to bear, but I had to concentrate if I was going to get through this day intact.

I was going in there and kicking some ass, hopefully in the figurative sense but I wouldn't back down from a literal fight either.

I was taking my goddamn life back and God help anyone who got in my way.

"I'm almost afraid to turn it back on," I muttered, looking at my phone like it was a venomous snake ready to strike.

"I know the feeling." Lisa held hers up and showed me the blank screen. "I turned mine off as soon as I heard from you without checking the dozen messages Tedd, my agent, and the execs left. I'm betting my ass is grass when we roll into that studio."

"I emailed Tedd on the way to your apartment but after that, I turned it off." I looked thoughtfully at the ceiling of her new rental—the cast changed up cars every few weeks to help stave off the flow of media hounds. "It was kind of nice not having to be a slave to my notifications for a while."

"Amen to that," she agreed, resting one hand on my thigh, the other slung casually across the top of the wheel. She tossed a quick look my way. "You nervous?"

"Petrified, actually, which means there's something amazing on the other side of this giant clusterfuck, right?"

"Ah, I see my pep talk from that first week made an impression. Very good, grasshopper." She bowed her head at me, smiling.

"A lot of things about you made an impression on me." I looked out the window at the darkened sky. It wasn't even close to sunrise yet and already I was on the way to what had the potential to be either the best or worst day of my life.

Only time would tell.

Either way, there was no backing down now.

"Speed up, Hollywood," I told her. "I'm ready to get this show on the road."

As soon as we walked into the building, all hell broke loose. Tedd was bitching at Lisa and cutting looks my way that indicated he saw me as a ticking time bomb.

Good, that means he read the email.

Rosé stood off to one side of the main hall, watching with something akin to fear on her face. Suho pushed past everyone and stopped in front of us, a sincere apology in his eyes as he asked to speak to me and Lisa privately.

It was all so much.

Taking a deep, fortifying breath, I raised one hand to halt the onslaught and gripped tight to Lisa's hand with the other. Time to take fucking charge.

"Hold it, hold it. One thing at a time. Can we all migrate to Tedd's office where we can have privacy in case anyone on the crew shows up early?"

Rosé snorted but turned and walked in that direction, as did Mino, who had been frantically trying to get my attention as well. Tedd eyed Lisa like he wanted to take a swing at her but I glowered in his direction until he grudgingly turned and walked away. In my email, I'd told him he better play ball this morning or he could find a new Meadow and I'd see him in court. He better have prepped everyone like I asked too, or this would devolve into a literal fight fast.

The only straggler was Suho, who started talking in a whisper as soon as we three were alone.

"Rosé all but admitted to outing the video," he blurted, eyeing me sympathetically. "She's too smart to actually come right out and say it, of course. You don't vocalize your sins when there's always a camera around waiting to capture it." He held up one finger. "But, I think maybe if we made her think there was a way to trace the original anonymous post on the message boards, we can catch her trying to destroy her computer or something."

I reached out and gripped his hand, giving him a grateful smile. "Stop, Suho. It's okay. I really appreciate what you're trying to do but I don't need it. It's not going to put the genie back in the bottle, so to speak. All I can do now is deal with the situation the only way I know how."

He flicked his gaze to Lisa then back to me. "How's that?"

"Head-on," I told him, nodding down the hall.

I went to let go of his hand and he held on, leaning down so we were on eye level. "I'm so sorry, Jennie. I didn't want to… I mean, I shouldn't have done what I did. There's no excuse."

I squeezed his hand and offered him a genuine smile. "I forgive you."

His eyes widened. "Really? Why?"

"Because I know that wasn't you, not really. And I also know that if you ever get rough with me again, cameras or no cameras, I'm going to feed you your nuts."

He swallowed thickly and nodded. "As well you should."

I dropped his hand but kept smiling as I looked back and forth between him and Lisa. "I'm going to fuck shit up. You two coming?"

They both nodded, looking equal parts amused and afraid.

When we walked into Tedd's office, everyone's chatter dropped off and was replaced with an awkward, expectant, and somewhat ominous silence.

Tedd was getting some hostile looks from everyone, which meant they knew what he'd been doing—hoarding their sins in some creepy file on his computer. I'd given him a choice; either he told them before I got here or I was going to commandeer a bullhorn to make the announcement for him.

Apparently, he'd opted to do it himself.

Taking a deep breath, I let go of Lisa's hand and stepped into the center of the room, waiting for all eyes to be on me. Talk about irony, this whole thing started because I wanted to avoid situations like this.

Lisa gave me a quick nod when my eyes fell on her and I drew in a deep breath, feeling something shift inside me, something awakening after many years of lying dormant under the stifling blanket of my anxiety.

"Thanks for coming in early. I know Monday's are already hellish, but this couldn't wait."

"Not like we had a choice," Rosé snipped.

I turned to her, eyes blazing. "Oh, you had a choice. You could have chosen not to be a cruel, vindictive bitch and none of this would be happening. But thanks to your ridiculous insecurity, here we all are."

"Wait, are you saying Rosé was the one?" Jisoo asked from somewhere near the door.

I didn't bother turning to look at her as I answered, my eyes pinning a now wide-eyed Rosé as I spoke. "I'm sure she can fill you in later, Jisoo. I don't have any desire to give her more attention than she's already gotten."

I moved closer, closing the distance between me and Rosé until I saw Tedd take a step forward as if preparing to break up a fight. It was a wasted effort, though. I wasn't going to hit her, not physically anyway.

"You see, Rosé, what you didn't count on here was the fact that I don't intend to fucking quit. You made more than one attempt at chasing me off and here I am, still here, still in your face, still willing to deal with the bullshit parts of this job because the rest of it is too amazing to walk away from." I sneered at the way her jaw clenched. "And I'm not walking away. I don't scare as easily as you think, and I'm not going anywhere, though I hear that you might be."

Her eyes darted to Tedd, who said nothing.

"What you did, bringing that disgusting video into play, was weak. Chances are, it was going to come out eventually, whether you leaked the story or not. Probably would have taken years, but you couldn't wait that long, could you? So, congratulations. You drew first blood. But it was only a scratch, not enough to take me out. This will be the story of the week, viral one minute and forgotten the next, nothing but a footnote in my story." I stepped so close I could feel her thousand-dollar perfume burning my nose. "Now you get to sit back and wonder what I'm going to do in retaliation. And if you think you're ballsy, ask Tedd how stupid it is to fuck with me."

He snorted before he could stop himself and I stepped back, looking his way for the first time. "Oh, I'm not a fan of yours these days, either. If you thought I was ready to taser your ass that first day, you have no idea how close you are right now."

His smile slipped and he had the decency to look ashamed.

Fuck it. I'm sick of this shit. They want the wide-open, brutally honest Jennie that's so freaking perfect for this show, they're gonna fucking get her.

I met each of their gazes as I addressed the room. "I didn't walk in here ready to call everyone out but Jesus! Someone needs to. What the fuck is wrong with you people? I mean, really? You." I pointed to Rosé. "You're so desperate for attention that you don't care who you have to step on to reach the spotlight. You're insecure as hell and that's the saddest thing I've ever heard because you're talented…and beautiful…and in a position to really be a positive influence on people. It's also sad because we could have been friends if you weren't so quick to feel threatened, and I'm not even the threat here. Your freaking attitude is what's going to lose you your job."

I looked at Jisoo, who flinched back. "You are not a background character. Not on the show and not in real life. Don't settle for being the sidekick. Especially to someone like Rosé. Be the leader. You're a really great actress and an even better person. Stop hiding in someone else's shadow."

Jisoo nodded, tears in her eyes as she smiled at me.

I pointed at Suho, leveling a severe look his way. "You, you big idiot, have been cast as the villain so many times that's how you see yourself. You're not a villain." I shrugged, letting the corner of my mouth turn up in a ghost of a smile. "You might be an ass sometimes, but that doesn't make you the bad guy. Stop playing into that shit. Don't be the Joker when you'd make a really great Batman."

Tedd didn't flinch when I turned to him, which impressed me. He stood there like he was ready to take whatever I dished out. Head high, shoulders squared, ready for the firing squad.

"You think being the director, producer, and whatever other titles you hold around here—basically making people do exactly what you see fit—makes you some kind of god. And on the set, maybe that's true. But you can't really think it applies outside of work, can you?" I didn't expect a response and didn't wait for him to give one. "I know you thought what you were doing was a good thing, some twisted, highly-invasive form of protecting us and the show, but you set all of this into motion with that stupid report. You can't play with people's lives, can't collect their secrets and invade their privacy this way." I gestured to his desk. "Are the files on that computer?"

He shook his head, pointing across the room. "On a laptop in the safe."

"Get it."

"Why?" he asked, brows raised.

"So I can do what I came here to do. Destroy it."

"Jennie—" he began.

"If you want me to continue on the show, this is going to happen. Period. If not, I'll see you in court. I told you in my email that I'm not fucking around and I meant it. You can sue me for breach of contract and I'll sue you right back for whatever bullshit claims I decide will ruin your reputation the fastest. Because we all know it's the allegation that counts, not the truth, right?"

He looked around the room and saw the agreement in everyone's eyes, then slunk his ass over to the wall safe like I asked.

He handed the laptop to me and I turned to Mino, the only one who I hadn't reamed a new one, but he was still there for a reason—a couple of reasons, actually. "Mino, can you find me a screwdriver?"

He nodded and started toward the door.

"Wait, there's one in my desk," Tedd said quietly, stopping him. He walked over and opened the center pull-out. After fumbling around inside for a bit, he produced a small screwdriver, which he then offered to me.

I took it with a nod and flipped the laptop over so I could get to work on the various screws in the back. "You have a minibar and kitchenette around here somewhere, right?"

Tedd nodded. "Yeah, behind the door. Why? You need a drink? Because I sure as fuck do."

I almost laughed. "No. I need a microwave. There's one in there, right? I thought I saw one last time I was here."

"Under the bar area, with the mini fridge." he sounded wary. "Kind of an odd time to heat up a frozen burrito, though."

I snatched the hard drive out with a grunt of triumph and gave him a sweet smile. "No burrito, but I'll definitely be nuking something."

His eyes went round. "You can't…"

I didn't hesitate. I crossed the room, lifted the hinged wooden door over the bar area, and plunked the hard drive into the microwave. Finger poised over the 'start' button, I turned to Jisoo and Mino who were nearby. "Might want to back up a few steps, guys."

I hit the button, quickly backing away as Lisa stepped up beside me and muttered, "Let the fireworks begin."

The acrid smell of smoke and charred metal dissipated faster than I would have guessed, but Tedd would definitely need to replace his microwave. And Mino—thank goodness for Mino—managed to reset the fire alarm before it triggered the sprinklers, which I'd totally forgotten about.

Whoops.

Guess I was really on a roll to have forgotten that. I didn't let them know I cared one way or the other but there was one person in the room who knew better.

Lisa was fighting hard not to smile as I studied everyone with a stone-faced expression that I was barely able to maintain. "We all good here?"

Nods all around, along with smiles from most everyone.

Except for Rosé, of course.

Mino cleared his throat and tapped his headset. "It's time."

"Time for what?" Tedd asked, still giving me a death stare for blowing up his microwave.

I looked around the room. "Time for my interview."

"What?" Rosé's brows shot up.

Suho said nothing, neither did Jisoo, but they were clearly as surprised as Rosé, though not quite as worried.

Lisa smiled. "I knew you had something up your sleeve."

I gave her a wink. "Gotta go get dolled up. I'm doing an exclusive in a few minutes."

"Jennie, maybe we better discuss this…" Tedd looked ready to pop a blood vessel.

I considered a second before giving my head a little shake. "Nah. I'm good." I turned to Rosé but spoke to the room. "You're all invited to watch, of course."

She looked so green around the gills that I almost laughed. Lisa chuckled as I swatted her ass on the way by. "See you all on the flip side."