Third person's POV.
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The flight from City B to Buriram Province takes one and a half hours. By the time her plane landed, it is already dark outside. Despite Lisa’s assurance that she will get home safely by herself, she can see her father waiting or her the moment she exits the gate.
Mr.Manoban owns a car but he seldom drives these days due to age. Especially now that it is night time, he has taken public transport to the airport and fetch his daughter home by cab. When they are near home, Lisa’s mother – Mrs. Manoban – has been expecting them and she opens the window to call out to her daughter the moment she sees her alighting from the cab.
Lisa’s home is on the third floor of an apartment block. Their house is comfortably spacious – property prices are more affordable in second and third tier cities – and Lisa can feel a sense of homecoming when she steps in, Mrs.Manoban sits her down on a sofa and starts fussing over her while Mr.Manobab quickly fetches a cardigan from the room and starts fussing over his wife, for fear that the cold night air from the open window will cause her to catch a cold.
Lisa’s dad Marco is a Swiss Native by birth. Before he retired, he used to work as a Chef in A Restaurant.and he has married Lisa's Mom, a kindergarten teacher.
Mr.Manoban used to have a fiery temper and Mrs.Manoban is his exact opposite with a sanguine nature. When they have arguments earlier in their marriage, Mr.Manoban would bellow all over the place while Mrs.Manoban would remain quiet and unmovable like a mountain Unbothered. Lisa does not know if there is any love in her parent’s marriage, but over the years, her parent have settled into a companionable partnership and that togetherness seems much more solid and sustainable to Lisa, than waxing love poetics.
When she is back in her childhood room, she looks out of her window to admire the view.Like any other Country, development has been relentless and has transformed the city landscape like mushroom blossoming after rain. Even the stars, which used to be visible from any part of the city, seem duller now with the polluted air. The changes have taken away a lot of the familiarity of home, and like most young people returning to their hometown, her eyes scans the landscape hungrily for familiar sights.
While she gets lost in nostalgia, she receives a call from Jungkook. Although he has received her message when her plane has landed, he misses her deeply and has waited, waited and waited until he thinks she is done with her reunion before calling her. However, when she picks up his call, all the words that he wants to say seem stuck to this tongue and he can only manage to talk about the most mundane things. A long while into their conversation, he finally manages. “Lisa.”
“Hm?”
“I miss you.” 4 hours and over 400km of separation presses like a dead weight on him.
Lisa sighs, equally forlorn. “I miss you too.”
*******
Mrs.Manoban is scheduled for operation the next day and it is a great success. Over the next few days, Lisa would spend a lot of time at the hospital taking care of her, earning herself praises from the hospital staff for being a filial daughter. Although most of the complements are just routine remarks for the occasion, Mrs.Manoban is nonetheless very happy to hear from others how lucky she is to have such a filial daughter.
During this period, she notices that her daughter receives a lot of calls and very often when she is talking to the other party, Lisa would smile into the phone. Deciding to be direct, she asks one day. “Do you have a boyfriend already?”
Lisa flushes and nods shyly, much to Mrs.Manoban’s amusement. Stroking her daughter’s hair, she teases. “Why are you feeling shy? After all, it is not as if you have never dated before.”
Because this one is different, Lisa thinks. Ever since they started dating, Lisa has reconnected with her shy inner self and has been too embarrassed to tell her parents. By her reaction, Mrs.Manoban surmises that Lisa has probably fallen for the young man for real and after some questioning, she manages to find out that the young man’s name is Jungkook and even sees his picture from Lisa’s handphone. The young man is from an intellectual family and is a lecturer in a famous university. Besides holding a respectable job, he is also good-looking, rich, and very good with computers.
The knowledge makes her pause. From his qualifications, this man is far much more outstanding than Lisa, and her daughter is even Older than him besides, If they end up getting married, Lisa may seem to have landed herself a good catch but at the same, if things turn sour, Lisa will likely be on the losing end. Still, Mrs.Manoban does not want to dampen her daughter’s obvious bliss and decides to with hold further judgment until she sees Jungkook in person. Besides, she is more concern over the bread and butter stuff. “When do you intend to return to City B and what do you plan to do when you return?”
Lisa became quiet and did not reply the question.
And she remained quiet and contemplative over the next few days.
*******
Having turn all his attention on Lisa, Jungkook is quick to sense her change. Although their communication did not lessen, Jungkook can feel an invisible wall that has erected between them. The reason for her emotional distance is not difficult to guess, Lisa has mentioned time and again that she misses home and during one time, she has even asked if he would miss her if she returns home and never returns.
How can he possibly not miss her? These past 10 days have been very hard on him. Several times, he has booked the tickets to Thailand, but each time, he would hold himself back. The reason for holding back is the same reason why he had not insisted on following her home right from the start – he has hoped to see if Lisa is willing to bring him home and formally introduce him to her parents, but she has not. When Jungkook offers to visit her mother at hospital, she has also turned down his suggestion.
Tossing and turning, Jungkook is unable to sleep. Finally, he decides to move to the living room. He came across an electronic mouse – the same mouse that Lisa has used to prank Schrodinger – and proceeded to scare the living daylights out of Schrodinger. But unlike the last time, there is no Lisa pretending to be a white knight and after 2 hours of inhumane treatment, Jungkook finally tosses away the remote control and walks to the study.
At 6.20am the next day, a plane ascends the air as it leaves for Thailand. On board is a man driven to near desperation by days of separation from his beloved and finally, he is going to look for her in a faraway land.
* * * * *
Just when Lisa finishes her breakfast, she receives a call from Jungkook saying that he is at the airport. She taps her head twice and when it hurts, she realizes she is indeed not dreaming and she flies out of the door only to return shortly for her wallet.
When her parents ask the reason for her rush, she says “I’m going to pick up someone!” before dashing out of the door again, and the older folks more or less can guess what has happened.
When Lisa spots Jungkook at the airport, the first thing she notices is that he has lost weight. He looks pale and there are shadows under his eyes which makes her heart ache. “Did you not sleep well yesterday?”
“No.” He shakes his head. “I did not sleep at all.”
She strokes his cheek. “What is wrong? Did something happen?”
“For that, I will have to ask you.”
Feeling guilty, she looks away. Jungkook takes in her reaction but did not press her. They manage to hail a taxi and when the driver asks where they are going, Lisa does not know how to answer. Seeing her hesitation, Jungkook directs the driver to go to X Hotel and assures Lisa that he will not make things difficult for her. Feeling even more guilty, Lisa can only keep her head bowed throughout the ride.
They did not speak until he has settled into his hotel room. When Lisa suggests that he catch up on some sleep, he crosses his arms in front of his chest and looks at her steadily. “Lisa, let’s talk.”
When she nods, he sighs. “Lisa, do you know? I love you.” She has not expect him to be so direct and flushes.
When she tries to speak, he interjects. “According to my mom, to like someone is when you want to see that person every day and to love someone is when you want to be with someone seriously enough to consider a future together. Lisa, not only do I like you, I love you too. I have seriously thought about our future together, but I am curious.” he pauses and looks at her straight in the eyes. Although his eyes appear calm, there is a faint chill in them like a scalpel capable of cutting through her skin. “Am I in your future?”
Lisa has been avoiding this question and at his direct questioning, she is at a lost of how to answer. When she is not working, she is not the decisive sort and when it comes to resolving personal problems, she has a tendency to ignore the issue and pray for the problem to disappear. In this aspect, both of them are equally contradictory for unlike his usual mild-mannerism, Jungkook would face a problem straight on, especially if it involves a fundamental problem to his personal life, and he would cut to the heart of the matter and try to resolve the problem asap.
Forced to answer, she sighs. “When I made the decision to stay in City B all these years ago, I have not intended to stay there permanently. I am an only child and with my dad and mom getting on years, I ….. I have to stay here and take care of them.”
“Then how about now? What do you intend to do now?”
“I don’t know.” She looks at him, torn. “Perhaps you think I do not love you, but if I don’t, I would have broken off with you long ago instead of dragging things till now.”
Jungkook can feel a knife cutting into his heart when he hears “break off” and grabs her by the shoulders. “I will not break off with you!”
“You, you, you, calm down! I never said I’m going to break off with you!”
Jungkook envelops her into a tight embrace and Lisa can nearly hear her bones creaking in protest. He buries his face into her neck and inhales the sweet scent of her while his grips her even tighter, and left with no choice, Lisa can only hug him in return and pats his back soothingly. “It’s alright, it’s alright. We will not break off. I also do not want to part from you, you know?”
Jungkook is unconvinced. “Then what do you intend to do?” He needs a clear answer before he can shake off the uncertainty which has became his shadow. When she asks for two days to think it over, he knows it is no use pressing her too hard and releases her reluctantly after a kiss. “Ok.”
They chat a while more and after Jungkook finally shakes off some of his unease, Lisa leaves him to finally catch up on some much needed sleep.
A/N: [Yes Lisa is older than Jungkook In this story, I know I changed it before but know I decided to put back Lisa's original age which is 28 rather than 24 and Jungkook is 25 here so.Also sorry if I didn't update for almost two weeks now kinda busy with school and all that I only get to use Wattpad now Haha]
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