"We've got three stops to make," Chaeyoung explained as they walked. Lisa listened intently, curious as to what Chaeyoung had in store.
"We're only going to one place today," Chaeyoung continued, reaching over and lacing their fingers together. Lisa smiled up at her, nodding and skipping happily in front of them to inspect a dandelion poking out of the sidewalk.
Chaeyoung bit her lip, wondering if she was doing the right thing. She was aware that it may be somewhat frightening for Lisa, but she was also tired of trying to fix anything but the real problem.
They walked for a while, and eventually Lisa stole Chaeyoung's phone to call Jisoo and check up on Louis. She trailed behind Chaeyoung as she dialed Jisoo's number, holding the phone up to her ear and smiling excitedly.
"Hello?" she tilted her head to the side. Chaeyoung glanced back at her, watching as the Thai girl widened her eyes and squealed excitedly. "Hi Jisoo!"
Laughing to herself, Chaeyoung jogged back and grabbed Lisa's free hand to pull her forwards. The Thai girl babbled on and on to Jisoo about the funeral, even explaining her entire outfit in detail.
"I would bump your fist, but I can not see you," Lisa giggled. Chaeyoung rolled her eyes playfully, tugging on Lisa's hand to make her turn down the sidewalk.
"Is Louis taking good care of you?" Lisa teased. Chaeyoung couldn't help but laugh. Lisa's jokes were cheesy but extremely endearing.
They walked for a while longer until Chaeyoung made a turn onto a familiar street. She bit her lip and glanced back at Lisa, squeezing her hand and pointing to the building across the street.
Lisa's eyes widened and she nearly dropped the phone. Chaeyoung quickly grabbed it, telling Jisoo they had to go and glancing over at her girlfriend, whose eyes were scanning the large building up and down.
"I remember," Lisa said softly, turning to Chaeyoung. "We had Chemistry."
"We did," Chaeyoung nodded, looking both ways before leading Lisa across the street. "Do you know why we're here?" Lisa tilted her head to the side, following closely behind Chaeyoung.
"This is all stuff that was familiar to you... before... the accident," Chaeyoung explained quietly. Lisa started walking towards the front door of the building but Chaeyoung nudged her around the side. Confused, Lisa followed.
"The best way to conquer your fears is to face them," Chaeyoung continued. Lisa nodded quietly, jogging forwards and holding onto Chaeyoung's arm as they neared the back of the building.
"So this is step one," Chaeyoung whispered, turning around to the back entrance of the building. Lisa stopped walking when she saw someone else leaning against the wall. She recognized the blonde hair.
"Lili," Chaeyoung whispered, gently leading Lisa forward. The girl smiled, greeting Chaeyoung. Lisa continued to study her. She knew her. She recognized her.
And then it clicked. Lisa scooted closer to Chaeyoung, holding onto her arm and biting her lip.
"You left," Lisa whispered, shaking her head and looking at the girl, who she remembered as Skylar. "You left."
Skylar glanced at Chaeyoung before shaking her head. "What do you mean?"
Lisa bit her lip. "You left. You did not come back," she looked up at Chaeyoung pleadingly. The blonde girl squeezed her hand and gave her a supportive smile.
"You don't understand, Lisa," Skylar shook her head, trying to explain herself. "I did. I mean... I tried to come and see you. I swear," she held her hands up in the air as if she were surrendering. "But... your uncle... he..."
"He didn't let anyone see you," Chaeyoung finished Skylar's sentence, giving her a soft smile before turning to Lisa. "Skylar didn't do anything. She tried her best."
Lisa bit her lip, looking up at Chaeyoung to see if she was telling the truth. She looked back at Skylar, thinking for a few moments.
"Did he hurt you?" she asked quietly, taking a step forwards but still holding onto Chaeyoung's arm. Chaeyoung was surprised at Lisa's concern for the other girl.
Skylar shook her head and held her hands out in front of her as if to show Lisa that she was fine. "He just yelled a lot," she laughed nervously. "The real question is, are you okay?"
Lisa glanced up at Chaeyoung and then back to Skylar with a small smile on her face. "Yes. I found friends," she reached up to fix the bow in her hair and looked at Chaeyoung for approval. "Friends and Rosie."
"You don't know how happy that makes me," Skylar laughed softly. "I was so worried about you."
Lisa smiled widely, letting go of Chaeyoung and stepping forward so she could pull the girl into a hug. "Do not worry. I am happy," Lisa laughed softly once they pulled away from the hug. "Thank you for being my friend."
Skylar was surprised, as was Chaeyoung. The blonde girl was proud of Lisa for being able to forgive and move on. "I've got to go before my parents ask where I was," Skylar laughed, pulling a key out of her pocket and unlocking the back door. Lisa looked at Chaeyoung questioningly.
"She was on the cheer team so she has the key to the gym. I asked her to help us out," Chaeyoung explained, giving Skylar a thankful smile.
"Hey," Skylar nudged Lisa's arm to get her attention before reaching into her bag and digging around for a moment. "After your accident we had to clean out your locker and I held onto this just in case," she pulled out a blue, while, and yellow bow that all the cheerleaders had worn. "I thought maybe you'd want this."
Lisa studied the bow for a few moments, a spark of familiarity filling her. She smiled softly, taking the bow into her hands and turning it around.
"Thank you, you're welcome," she smiled, clutching it to her chest and then turning to show it to Chaeyoung. Skylar laughed softly and closed up her bag.
"Thank you," Chaeyoung added, addressing the blonde girl.
"No problem," Skylar shrugged it off, keeping the door open with her foot. "Good luck."
"Thanks," Chaeyoung laughed softly, nudging Lisa into the building. "I'll message you or something just to let you know we left."
After the girls said their goodbyes, Chaeyoung led Lisa into the dark gym. She quickly turned on her phone flashlight to light the way until she could find the lights and turn them on. Lisa clung onto her arm, a bit concerned about what they were doing.
"Do you remember any of this?" Chaeyoung asked, motioning around the gym. Lisa shrugged softly. It felt familiar, but nothing stuck out to her. Chaeyoung simply nodded and led her through two double doors into a wide hallway.
Lisa studied the school in awe as she followed Chaeyoung down the hallway. It felt familiar to her. Chaeyoung reached out, grabbing her hand and leading her into one of the classrooms.
"We had Chemistry, remember?" Chaeyoung smiled softly, flicking on the lights to the classroom. Lisa's eyes widened, taking in the familiar surroundings as her memories came rushing back to her.
"Ten minutes left, ladies and gentlemen!"
Lisa looked up from her book, watching the blonde girl across from her scramble to finish up the lab they had been working on. She glanced at the two other students in her lab group. One was asleep, and the other was doodling aimlessly on the worksheet. They wouldn't be any help.
Lisa had been done for a while now. She glanced over at Chaeyoung once more, wondering if she should try and help the girl out.
She knew it would end badly. She knew Chaeyoung would just snap at her. After what she had done to the girl less than a month ago, it was probably well deserved.
Lisa found herself staring at the girl, realizing just how beautiful she really was. Cursing herself for being so stupid, she tore her eyes off of Chaeyoung and rubbed her shoulder, wincing when her fingers came in contact with the sensitive skin.
She tried to focus on her book, but she found herself reading the same paragraph over and over. Meanwhile, Chaeyoung huffed in frustration, erasing her answer once more.
Giving in, Lisa glanced up and snuck a look at Chaeyoung's paper. Taking a deep breath, she took a chance.
"You're using the wrong formula, you've got to u-,"
"I've got it," Chaeyoung snapped, not even looking up at the other girl. Lisa sighed, slumping back in her chair and forcing herself to take her eyes off of the girl.
Lisa kept her eyes down on her book for the rest of the class. As soon as the bell rang, Chaeyoung shoved her paper in Lisa's direction and bolted out of the classroom.
In each lab group, one student was assigned the job of gathering everyone's papers and taking them to the folders in the back of the classroom. That just so happened to be Lisa.
As she was shuffling the papers together, Lisa heard footsteps. She glanced behind her, realizing the teacher had gone out to monitor the hallway.
On a rush decision, Lisa found Chaeyoung's paper and scanned it over. Every answer was wrong. Grimacing, Lisa grabbed her pencil. Making sure no one was watching, she erased Chaeyoung's answers and rushed to scrawl the right answers overtop of them. Giving the paper one last look over, Lisa set it on top of the pile and hurried to put them away in the back of the classroom.
She figured it was the least she could do to make up for what she had done to the other girl.
Lisa collected her things and hurried out into the hallway, anxious to get to lunch. She raised an eyebrow when she saw a few girls in cheer uniforms crowded by some of the lockers.
Lisa hurried over to see what was going on, wincing when her backpack rubbed over one of the sore spots on her shoulders.
"So you really are gay?" One of the cheerleaders laughed. Lisa's heart dropped in her chest when she realized who they were talking to. She stood on her tiptoes, spotting Chaeyoung and one of her friends by her locker.
Lisa quickly ducked down so Chaeyoung wouldn't see her. The girl didn't need another reason to hate her.
"Is there a problem with that?" one of Chaeyoung's friends stepped towards them.
"We were only asking," Harper laughed. Lisa could tell from the tone of her voice that she wasn't serious.
"Jisoo, just ignore them," Chaeyoung hissed, bent down over her backpack and looking for something in the bottom of her bag. Jisoo ignored her.
"Ooooh," Harper raised an eyebrow and turned to the girls beside her, holding a coffee cup in one hand. "I think they've been fucking," she teased, nodding towards Jisoo and Chaeyoung.
Lisa's heart sped up when she saw Jisoo take a step forward. At the same time Chaeyoung jumped up to grab the back of her friend's shirt, Lisa 'accidentally' turned quickly and let her backpack run into the coffee cup in Harper's hand, spilling the hot liquid all over the floor.
"Oh my god, I'm so sorry," Lisa shook her head, hoping she sounded believable. She felt everyone's eyes on her, even Chaeyoung and Jisoo's piercing glares.
"Come on, Lisa," Harper scoffed, rolling her eyes. "You're such a clutz," she laughed. Everyone else took it as a joke, but Lisa knew there was a bit of truth to her words.
"I'll buy you a new one, come on," Lisa mumbled, grabbing Harper's arm and pulling her down the hallway before they could say anything else to Chaeyoung. Lisa had to force herself not to look back.
As she followed the other cheerleaders into the cafeteria, Lisa took a deep breath and tugged on the sleeves of her uniform. She hated school. She hated seeing Chaeyoung suffer for something she had done.
Lisa had debated telling Chaeyoung the reasons behind what she had done multiple times. But that meant risking her friendship with the other girls, as well as telling Chaeyoung about her uncle. And what if Chaeyoung didn't even believe her? Hell, Lisa wouldn't blame her.
She'd been trying to do little things to gain back some good karma. Obviously outing Chaeyoung had granted her all the bad luck in the world. All she could do now was try and subtly protect Chaeyoung and hope that Jisoo didn't pound her face into the lockers.
One thing that scared her the most, though, was seeing how unaccepting all of her closest friends seemed to be towards Chaeyoung's sexuality. What happened if Lisa was gay? What if she told them? Would they do the same thing?
Lisa sighed, sliding into the same chair she had sat at during every lunch. Every day. Every week. For what felt like forever. Except now it felt a lot different.
She just wanted to go home. She wanted to go home, take her shoebox full of money she had saved up, and drive off into the sunset. She wished it was that simple, really.
Lisa stole a glance behind her, finding the familiar head of blonde hair a few tables back. Chaeyoung was laughing with her friends, covering her mouth to hide how widely she was smiling. Lisa wondered if Chaeyoung was truly happy. Because she knew that she wasn't.