Chapter 70

1.1K 31 6
                                    

After the two of them headed outside, the awkwardness between them eased a little. Her hands behind her back, Lisa sauntered to the public square. This was where they held the flag-raising ceremony every Monday.

A row of poplar trees was planted next to the public square. As memory struck Jungkook, he walked over and started counting the trees. When he was at the twelfth tree, Lisa realized what he was doing and the two of them began examining the tree together.

As a long time had passed, the poplar tree had grown much taller and thicker than before. After searching for a long while, they finally found two distorted images.

A pear and a piece of Sugar Candy.

This was something that Lisa had carved with a tiny knife. When carving, she had no other thoughts than how fun it was. Jungkook was there as well but he had refused to participate. Lisa took an effort to explain, "I heard that trees won't die from merely having their bark carved".

She originally wanted to carve their names. However, there were too many strokes and she gave up carving after a few lines. She then substituted a pear (Jeon) to represent Jeon Jungkook and a piece of sugar candy (Manoban) to represent herself.

A child's drawing and carving skills were nothing to speak of in the first place. Factoring in the poplar tree's natural growth, the two images were already barely recognizable. They would most likely be completely unrecognizable after another period of time.

As the two of them regarded at the pear and the sugar candy, Lisa suddenly lamented, "Jungkook, say, if Lake City High School had not given you 100,000 yuan then, how do you think things would have turned out now?" After saying this, she turned and gazed at him.

Jungkook was jolted by her focus on him. "100,000 yuan?"

"You don't have to hide. Your mom told my dad. In order to lure better students, Lake City High School gave you 100,000 yuan". After explaining, Lisa comforted him, "I can understand that. 100,000 yuan is not a small sum. If it was me, I would have made the same choice".

So....was this how things played out?

Jungkook thought of Principal Manoban's hostile stare that day. He finally understood the reason for it.

He thought that Lisa would have understood his stance from how he felt without saying goodbye. Who knew that she had actually been deceived by a lie all this while.

It had been so many years.

Time is a gentle being. It could soothe hatred and soften resentment. However there is a cruel side to it as well. It could magnify the ramifications of a misunderstanding and culminate it to a point of no return.

Jungkook was suddenly afraid to tell the truth.

Lisa was a little disappointed at how Jungkook was unwilling to reply to her. She did not continue the conversation, turned and said, "Let's head to the field".

Jungkook walked beside her silently.

As they walked along, Lisa suddenly heard a dog barking. Immediately after this, a large yellow dog dashed out from the school building in the distance. The large dog did not stop barking and appeared extremely fierce.

Lisa recognized this dog. It was raised by the gate security grandpa and was usually leashed by a chain. Perhaps since no one was around during the school holiday, it had been let off its leash. It was was a "Field dog" and name was ' Lee Lima'. When she was young, Lisa often called it 'Teacher Lee'. Once, her father was even beaten up because of this. From then on, he forbade her to call it 'Teacher Lee'.

Lisa waved to Lima, "Hi, Lee Lima".

Instead of settling down, Lima became even more aggressive, charging towards her with a "swoosh". Feeling that Lima did not look friendly. Lisa quickly turned and ran in fright. "Hey, hey, hey, hey, Lee Lima!, Teacher Lee! Oh gosh stop chasing me! I'm Lisa Manoban, not a stranger, have you forgotten?"

Rock Sugar And Pear Stew | L.K AdaptationWhere stories live. Discover now