Trials and Tribulations [Chaelisa]

Chapter 50 (part 4) [M]

“Give me another example,” Chaeyoung urged, not believing that she’d ever once acted ‘cutesy,’ her brain for some reason not wanting to be associated with the word, seeing only negative connotations of weakness and over femininity.

“How about I give you five?” Lisa asked with a challenging tone to her voice.

“Alright,” Chaeyoung replied, lifting her head readily.

“One,” Lisa said, leaning a little closer to Chaeyoung, “when you used to carry my bag for me to class.”

“That was me being helpful,” Chaeyoung said stubbornly.

“Two is the way that you always trace the scar above my left eye with your fingertips,” Lisa continued unfazed by Chaeyoung’s denial of her own behaviour.

“That’s just…” Chaeyoung began but she stopped, unable to think of a single valid reason as to why she did that, the habit coming reflexively, her hand drawn to the spot on her girlfriend’s forehead out of some primal and unexplained desire to touch it. Lisa raised her eyebrow knowingly when Chaeyoung didn’t continue and went on listing her examples.

“Three is the way that you always laugh at my jokes even though they aren’t actually funny,” Lisa informed her.

“That is not cutesy,” Chaeyoung responded. “I just don’t want to hurt your feelings, that’s all.”

“Yeah, but that’s cute.” Lisa said smiling.

“Cute maybe,” Chaeyoung conceded, “But not cutesy.”

“They’re the same thing,” Lisa told her and Chaeyoung rolled her eyes at this revelation. “Four,” she persisted, leaning forward to whisper in her girlfriend’s ear, “when you tell me all about your imaginary plans for our future.” Chaeyoung swallowed hard as Lisa moved her lips to delicately kiss the spot where Chaeyoung’s jaw met her neck.

“What’s the fifth example?” Chaeyoung asked; closing her eyes as Lisa’s lips traced lightly down the taller girls’ jaw and to the hollow of her neck.

“Five,” Lisa muttered against Chaeyoung’s skin, her breath tickling the flesh there gratifyingly. “When you’d put my feelings and our friendship first by denying yourself the simple luxury of telling me that you liked me, even though that was the one thing that you wished you could do more than anything else.”

“How do you know about that?” Chaeyoung asked her, shivering slightly as Lisa’s mouth trailed a path of kisses back along her jaw and towards her ear, one of the younger girl’s arms stroking Chaeyoung’s side affectionately.

“Jisoo might have mentioned something,” Lisa told her truthfully, sucking on Chaeyoung’s ear lobe for a moment teasingly, “and Somi,” she exhaled breathily into her girlfriends’ ear, the hand wandering Chaeyoung’s flank and slipping up underneath her shirt to caress her stomach lightly. “Jennie too.” She finished, lowering her mouth to kiss Chaeyoung’s partially exposed collar bone.

“What did they tell you?” Chaeyoung asked trying to be annoyed at her friends for their communication with Lisa regarding her past crush, back before they’d officially started dating. Lisa lifted her head and smiled at Chaeyoung, raising one hand to stroke at her brow lovingly.

“Enough,” she answered and Chaeyoung couldn’t help but return Lisa’s grin. “You loved me even then didn’t you?”

“You know that I did,” Chaeyoung answered and Lisa tilted her head forward to take Chaeyoung’s lips in her own gently.

“I can’t believe it took me so long to finally see it,” Lisa shared with Chaeyoung when they parted. “It literally took you telling me before I even had any idea how you felt. I was so oblivious…”