Sheets | Chaelisa converted

Chapter 30

Chaeyoung's injured leg dangled off the side of the chair listlessly, feeling fat and puffy and constrained in the tightly wound bandages. After getting back home last night, Claire had immediately leapt off her supine position on the couch and shoved a bag of frozen peas on top of her throbbing ankle. As a nurse, she had taken one lingering look at the red and puffy ankle, quickly icing it and wrapping a bandage neatly around it, ordering Chaeyoung to take it easy so as to not exacerbate the severity of the sprain. Although the pain had calmed down a little, it was still painful and throbbing, and when she re-wrapped the bandage this morning the skin beneath them was significantly bruised and hot.

Sighing as she nibbled on her small square of buttered toast, Hank let out a concerned whine as he brushed past her bandaged foot. Seeing his little eyes looking at her injured limb sadly, she cracked a small smile and rubbed the top of his head, his sad whines turning into a satisfied rumble. The momentary happiness only lasted a short while, however, as she recalled Jisoo's words from last night.

After getting confined to the bed by Mum, Jisoo had come in and pestered her about the group of people from the bowling alley, and in particular, Lisa. Her sister did not hold back on her less-than-stellar opinion of the group, and to be honest, Chaeyoung couldn't blame her. Theo was a total dick-wad - even she knew that. As she dished out an expletive-laden monologue about how unsavoury Theo was and how she would have to shower in boiling water and antiseptic to get rid of the nasty germs he left on her shoulder, Chaeyoung had nodded along, agreeing with everything she was saying. However, once she ran out of breath, her face red and eyes livid, she had moved on to the next target of her disgust.

Lisa.

She first started talking about her tattoos; filthy and gangster-like, she said. Chaeyoung did not say anything, her lips held together in a thin line as she swallowed back her words. At first, she had thought Lisa's tattoos were a little scary, but these days she found herself looking at them fondly, and enjoyed tracing her fingers along the intricate lines of Lisa's dark designs. After expressing her disgust of Lisa's body art, Jisoo moved on to her piercings; the ones that littered her ears, even though Jisoo was being a complete hippocrite because she also had multiple ear piercings. Chaeyoung frowned, thinking about Lisa's tattoo's that Jisoo hated and remembered how she had been placing sloppy kisses to them when they had slept together two weeks ago.

Her face had immediately flushed when the thought wandered into her mind, and Jisoo mistook the change in colour for hatred, not embarrassment. Thinking Chaeyoung was getting equally as riled up as she was, Jisoo's mouth kept moving, turning from a shotgun to an automatic rifle.

She then started calling Lisa a violent thug, and this was when Chaeyoung had to physically bite her lip to prevent herself from snapping at her older sister. When she recounted how he had beaten Theo, as much as it was satisfying to see that pig on the ground, Jisoo was still adamant that anyone who physically hurt others was a menace and deserved to be put away. Maybe a few months ago, before she knew Lisa Manoban - the real Lisa Manoban - Chaeyoung would've thought the same thing. She did think the same thing. But now she knew that the Lisa Manoban that Jisoo sees was not the real one. The real Lisa Manoban held her gently and kissed her softly, she cooked her pasta and took her on a picnic. That Lisa Manoban doted on her grandmother and worked hard to support her family.

That was the Lisa Manoban that Chaeyoung had come to love.

When Jisoo's mouth had opened again to say yet another vile comment about Lisa, Chaeyoung had quickly blurted out that she was tired and wanted to rest, shoving Jisoo off the foot of her bed with her good foot and burrowing herself under the blanket, face red and hands balled into tight fists. Jisoo hadn't said anything, and just pat her good leg twice, before heading out and letting her rest. Before the door had even clicked behind her, Chaeyoung had already dialled Lisa's number, holding the phone close to her ear as she pulled her legs up, curling into a ball. The moment Lisa picked up, a husky 'Chae' wafting through the receiver, her tight shoulders had melted and everything drained away in a breath. They talked for a short while about simple things, both of them not mentioning the events of the evening, just listening to each other's voices before Chaeyoung eventually drifted off into sleep. When she checked the phone in the morning, she saw that the call had not been cut off for a while after she fell asleep, the thought made her smile a little.