behind the stars // chaelisa + hints of jensoo

It takes Lisa a full minute to realize her bath bomb has dissolved completely.

The deep blue is supposed to be relaxing, with its seaweed promising to clear her mind and lavender and lemon oils filling the room, taking her back to handpicking citrus in the orchard. But all it does is remind her of the way Chaeyoung's eyes look in the early sunlight coming through the drawn shades.

She sighs.

Trying her hardest to keep her mind in the moment, Lisa takes off her robe and hangs it on the hook by the door, ties her hair into a knot and tip toes inside the bathtub, until she's comfortably soaked, the warm water lulling her into a calm she hasn't known in a while.

The last few weeks have been... rough.

She doesn't regret walking up to Chaeyoung in that parking lot and kissing her until they were both breathless. She doesn't regret the lingering touches and silly pictures that followed the one that got published. She doesn't regret it, she wouldn't take any of it back - the quiet mornings in bed, the whispered "I love you" , the promises that seemed too big in the approaching dawn.

Chaeyoung makes her feel things she had only read about, had given up ever feeling them. Chaeyoung - just Chaeyoung , not Chaeyoung Park, the popstar - makes Lisa feel truly alive for the first time in her life.

That's not the part Lisa hates, the one she wishes she could peel from her skin and forget it ever touched it.

Saying a solid fuck it to her plans of not getting her hair wet, Lisa holds her breath and slides down the bathtub, until she's completely submerged. Her ears pop and her lungs start burning way too soon, but she needs the feeling of water surrounding her, just warm enough for it to feel like she's floating in nothingness.

Only a moment passes before she's crushing the surface, gasping slightly for air, reaching for a towel before the salt gets in her eyes. She pats her face dry and settles back down, closing her eyes, letting her arms float around her.

She might go swim on the river when it gets warmer - she needs the quietness of the water to calm her thoughts, her heart, her soul.

The picture of them kissing in the parking lot was just the beginning, the tip of the iceberg. Once they posted that selfie of them - in bed, nonetheless, looking very much sated and glowing - got online, paparazzis surrounded them like vultures.

Somehow, they managed to stay in their happy little bubble all of Sunday and a good part of Monday morning. Truthfully, most of it was spent in bed, mapping valleys and curves, committing sighs to memory, holding hands in that way only new lovers knew how.

But all their peace came crashing down the moment they left for the airport.

For a moment, Lisa thought someone was shooting at them. It took her a few blinks to realize a bunch of photographers had been all but camping outside Chaeyoung's building - which is a safety issue on itself - waiting for the moment they decided to come out. Chaeyoung rolled down the window and smiled, said hello, but Lisa couldn't shake out of her haze fast enough for the cameras to capture anything but a grumpy face.

Which would be fine, if those pictures hadn't been all over the internet a hot minute later.

Chaeyoung had dropped her off at the airport with a lengthy kiss before speeding off. Something had gone wrong with one of her songs and she'd have to record the track again so they could finish the album, but she didn't leave until Lisa promised to call her the moment she landed and gave her another kiss that left them both panting.

When she did land, Lisa turned her phone on, only for it to freeze with the amount of notifications that flooded the device. Her Google alert for Chaeyoung was still set up, but the face that showed up wasn't the one Lisa spent a good hour looking at - it was her own.