ARBITRARY 𝘭𝘪𝘴𝘮𝘪𝘯

[ o1 ]

that had been until their father had told her that they were going to live near nature and so making them feel like at home. lalisa couldn't have been any happier when seeing the vast fields and mountains of green, even when not understand the language of the people living in the village near, she could tell they were being kind to her.

it took her time to master the language and habits, but eventually, she settled in.

when taken to meetings where she could meet more people, she would always go back home with new phone numbers added to her contact list. as she grew up, she was adored by many and known by most.

both her and her family.

it was a great mixture of faces — exotic ones, at that. and people loved them.

as the pair walked through the large door of the veranda, a large table had been placed not far away and sat on one end was the eldest cousin of the household.

"good morning, nichkhun." lalisa greeted her her cousin in their mother language. the older male nods his head with a large smile.

"good morning, lalisa — and chaeyoung." he acknowledges the female standing beside his cousin who also smiled back in politeness.

but the polite air was soon interrupted by the other end of the table.

"oh my god, next time I will drag lisa out of her room myself!" the eldest sister sighed loudly and dramatically.

a part of the table laughed at her comment and so did the said girl. lalisa and chaeyoung took their seats and soon started eating along with the family.

"you can try." lalisa jokes and her sister gave her a slightly shocked look before smirking.

"oh, are you challenging me?"

"hm, am I?"

∝

right after breakfast, after being excused from the table — whenever chaeyoung would be over their home, lalisa and the girl would run out to her guest room and snatch her guitar before running out to the field.

first, they would start out by jumping fences despite their outfits and not scared of dirtying them, when finding their usual spot of settling down on — which had been a tree — they would climb onto its thick branches and start to braid their hairs into either twin or single tails.

they never got tired of this ritual of theirs, it had been something they always did since they were eleven years of age.

when chaeyoung would have her fingers strum the guitar wires, lisa would start to hum along. and when both of them started to sing in unison, it was as if everything around them didn't exist and it was just a world of their own.

and it really was.

only the two of them knew about this place of theirs, the large oak tree near the end of their landscape. and from there, even the tall city skyscrapers could be seen.

rarely, would they get tired to singing whatever chaeyoung played, but when they did, they would start to share stories of what had happened in their lives so far and sometimes even reminisce memories from their childhood.

their friendship, undeniably, had been one of a true kind.

"hey, lisa..." chaeyoung hummed out. "did you know that jisoo's getting married?"

lalisa nodded with her largest smile. "of course! I was invited to the wedding." she closes her eyes while exhaling a soft breath. "I'm happy for her, she and junmyeon have been together for as long as I've known them — I bet their children are going to be as beautiful as their parents are!"

"pfft, they are going to be on every magazine cover!" chaeyoung laugh. "world's most beautiful babies — or something like that!" both girls laughed.

but soon, chaeyoung was first to stop when her eyes opened as if realizing something, she glanced at lisa and moved closer.

"y'know..." she started, gaining the thai girl's interest. "when are you, going to find someone?" it made lalisa almost choke.

it took her a while to answer, for she didn't know how to answer.

"I... I don't know." she answers with a shrug of shoulders. "I guess that... I will wait for the right person?"

"you don't sound very sure."

"but I just really don't know." she looks up. "I guess I'm the only one left — you are married to kibum, jisoo is getting married to junmyeon, jennie is engaged to baekhyun, yerim is about to have a —"

"okay, don't name a list because that will only bring you down and not give you enough motivation." chaeyoung interrupts.

lalisa stopped as told and had her lips slightly parted in thought. she never really thought of being in a relationship recently — she was of the perfect age, nineteen years old was the perfect age to get married. some people, like chaeyoung, married younger than that.

but in the way she was raised, nineteen had been the peak age.

a sigh left from chaeyoung, and having lalisa look her way.

"you know what? forget it." she says rather care freely. "you shouldn't worry about it, in my opinion, finding someone right now is what you should least be interested in."

lalisa furrowed her brows. "what do you mean?"

"well — think about it." chaeyoung starts, having her five fingers come up. "you are in uni right now, studying as hard as you can," one finger down.

"think about my situation where I got married off when I was 16 to kibum, who was 22 at the time, and I quit school and ended up starting to be homeschooled," another finger down.

"to find someone right now would basically mean having to lose the freedom you have right now — unless the person can be carefree but not everyone in the community we live in is like that." another finger down.

"it's best for you to wait because if you look for one too quickly, he may not be the right one," another finger down.

"and lastly, I just personally think you should just focus on uni right now." the last finger came down.

both girls had gone quiet for a few minutes until lalisa spoke up.

"the last two reasons — I just don't really understand them." she sighed and chaeyoung shrugged her shoulders.

"well — just consider them. should I add another one?" lalisa couldn't see why not and nodded her head.

"I personally, don't think you are prepared for marriage." her words surprised her best friend. "right now, I think it would weigh down on you quite a lot."

lalisa processed chaeyoung's words in her head, not noticing how the girl looked down at her watch and already started to climb down the tree.

"lisa! come on! we need to get going!"

she shook away her thoughts and started to follow chaeyoung.

marriage couldn't possibly be her scariest thought.