You Got Me (JenLisa)

Chapter 43

"Found her? What do you mean 'found her'? Was Lisa in trouble?" Chaeyoung demanded with a worried look.

Jisoo wondered when was Chaeyoung Park not worried about Lisa? Probably never, she thought. Because Chaeyoung had been looking out for Lisa, she told herself, like how she was always looking out for Jennie all these years. At least, they had that one thing in common.

"Well, not exactly. It's not life-threatening, if that's what you want to know. Anyway," Jisoo said and stood up, "I have to go," she told the redhead who looked mildly surprised at her sudden intention of leaving. "Thank you so much for the help and for this." She meant the tea. She took another sip of it before putting the mug down. "It's delicious," she said.

"No, wait!" Chaeyoung said in a rather panicky voice and hastily stoop up, almost toppling her chair backward, surprising the dishivelled, raven-haired Jisoo.

The wooden feet of her chair made a scraping sound against the tiled floor that it made Doona stir on the couch and changed her position. The fleece blanket dropping so slowly on the carpet. Her back was on them.

"You can't go," the redhead declared in a hiss, carefully toning down her voice so she wouldn't disturb Doona again from her stupor.

Jisoo raised her eyebrows and just stood there, staring at the redhead and waited for something. An explanation, maybe. Or whatever. This wasn't the first that Chaeyoung Park had stopped her from leaving. And the last time that the redhead did, well, it didn't end up well.

"I mean, you can't go just yet," Chaeyoung reiterated, now in a milder voice. "What if Miss Doona will wake up and...I don't know," she shrugged dramatically, "I might need help?" she said in a faltering tiny voice at the end.

If there was one thing that Jisoo knew why she liked and possibly hated Chaeyoung Park (although, hate, she realized, might be a strong word to describe her disinclination or whatever it was she would feel when she's with the redhead), it was the fact that whenever she would look at her, she would be reminded of that night when Chaeyoung was tapping melodies on her piano with a solitary light bulb above her head. It was beautiful. Jisoo liked and hated that. She hated the fact that she liked that. And at three in the morning, Chaeyoung looked oddly glowing. Or maybe it was due to the aesthetic light decor hanging directly above the island table. It made the redhead's red head glowing like an ember and made her skin shone, like she was some sort of a divine apparition. And Jisoo liked and hated that, too. Weird.

"She doesn't look like she's going to wake up anytime soon, though," Jisoo commented after she took a quick, assessing look at the sleeping Doona. "Besides, I'm really exhausted. I just want to go home and sleep."

"Exactly. You can't drive in that state. It's dangerous," Chaeyoung argued, still hissing and whispering. "I can drive you back to your place, but I can't leave Miss Doona here, alone..."

"I can't stay here," Jisoo said in a more dignified and hurried voice that she thought for a moment it wasn't hers.

"Why not? I'm not asking you to leave," Chaeyoung replied with genuine curiosity.

Jisoo didn't want to stay there because being inside Chaeyoung's place for the first time was giving her weird feelings, no matter how much she tried to ignore it from the second she stepped inside the apartment. She felt like she was treading in a place too personal for the redhead. All the photo frames being hung on the wall and above the mantelpiece, the trinkets and vinyl collections that covered a whole wall, the small piano in the corner, the lights and ornaments, the small casserole on the electric stove and the ref magnets and small papers, which looked like bills, being held in place by a koala magnet and the strong essence of raspberry, chamomile and a hint of kimchi--all of it spoke so much about Chaeyoung Park and Jisoo, no matter how many times she told herself to keep it together, was starting to feel like she could not keep it together anymore.