"Penny for your thoughts, Lisa?"
Lisa turns her head towards the source of the voice, when she sees who it came it from, she turns her attention back to the field that she's been staring at for God knows how long.
"You can't get any."
A scoff. "You have been staring at an empty field, your eyes are so distant.. what's bothering you, bud?"
Lisa senses the movements across her but refuses to turn her head once again. Too lazy, too drowned. "I'm good, Jongin. Seriously."
She may have not turn her full attention to the man across her, she knows he's frowning. "Doubt it."
Lisa didn't say anything anymore so Jongin didn't too. One of the things that Jongin learned from their friendship is to never push personal agenda when Lisa is this quiet. She'd share what she wants to share anyway when she's ready.
Must have been so weird to see Lisa and Jongin being labeled as friends, huh? So, how did their friendship start? Buckle up.
Jongin used to live in Thailand due to an exchange program he participated in his sophomore year in high school. Jongin literally had zero Thai words up in his sleeves so the moment he stepped foot in the campus, he could've sworn he cussed himself for being too spontaneous on his decisions.
He wanted challenge, he wanted something new, he wanted adventure so he immediately filed an application when the exchange program post was up. Lucky for him, he was approved by both universities and was shipped to Thailand a week before the fiscal year had started.
He transferred in an international school though but he knew he's going to encounter a language barrier anytime soon. And he actually did, too soon even, he got lost somewhere in between the high school and college boundary and couldn't even properly ask for direction because aside from Thai, his English vocabulary had failed him that moment.
He knew he's going to be late and almost gave up until Lisa showed up. Lisa talked to him in Korean and if Jongin could deep bow (knees to the ground) right then and there he would but people will surely look at him weirdly if he did that.
Since then, they became friends. Close friends even. Jongin's exchange program was just for a year but not wanting to leave the country and his closest friend just yet, he filed for a year extension. It was accepted almost right immediately though.
A little background.
Jongin is from a family of businessmen in Korea, not really the typical rich type of businessmen but the money could get them through on a daily basis with some extra cash to spend for their luxury. On top of that, he is happy. His family is complete and happy.
Lisa on the other hand has the exact opposite. Her father owns several chains of casinos not only in Thailand but all over Asia. Her mother is a real estate shareholder, not only in one but in several companies. But is Lisa happy? No.
Lisa grew up under the care of her Nanny — Faith. Her parents never attended any of her school's family day events, Faith did. Her parents never attended any of her competition events, Faith did. Her parents never took care of her when she's clumsy enough to get sick, Faith did. Her parents never attended any of her achievement ceremonies, Faith did.
When she was a young kid, she did all her best to be noticed by her parents. She broke someone's nose, almost turned someone bald, bullied someone because they were annoying her but she never got anything. Not even a single piece of advice, or scolding — she was that desperate to get their attention that even it's from a wrong deed, she'd risk it.
But instead of her parents, Faith did all of it. When Faith cried because of everything she had been doing, that was her wake up call. She promised to herself that she will never do anything that could disappoint Faith anymore. Faith showed her an unconditional love even though they are not related and by not giving her heart attacks will be the least thing she could do to return the favor.
Her parents were literally non-existent in her life that when they decided to get a divorce, Lisa never begged them to not do it. Nothing would change, she thought. Her parents were almost never home anyway, Lisa could only count a handful of times they had meal together, but she didn't care because Faith was there.
Faith became her unofficial guardian so when her parents got divorced, Faith stayed just for a year to take care of Lisa until she's legally enough to be on her own and decided to fly back home — in South Korea.
Being too attached to her Nanny, Lisa decided to fly out with her and will be have her college life in a foreign country. Good thing her Korean is tolerable because Faith had been teaching her since she could remember — that's why she was able to talk to Jongin.
Considering Faith's age, in her fifties, she retired in her Gwangju home with her family. Lisa went there to meet them personally and learned that Faith's kindness runs in the family.
They helped her get settled in Seoul and made her promise to visit them when time allows her — it's just a two hour train ride, or three hours if she's driving, anyway.
Did her parents stop her? No. Obviously but despite their absence in Lisa's life, Lisa's bank accounts were never empty. They provided her financially, more than she needs even but unfortunately, they can't do the same efforts to become the parents she needed.
Lisa bought a condo unit near her university, just 10 minute drive and to her surprise, Jongin also lives there, just a floor below hers. Also, Lisa is taking Media Arts and Performing Arts for Jongin in the same university. Safe to say, Lisa is having a good start in this foreign country.
Jongin knows everything that happened to Lisa back in Thailand, they were constantly in contact when he had to fly back to his homeland. He also one of the reasons why Lisa left — Jongin pitched her an idea to get the hell out of Thailand and start exploring the world on her own. What he didn't expect though was Lisa moving to Seoul.
"Oh, do you have any plans after your schedules?" Jongin says after a brief silence.
Lisa finally turns her attention to him. "No. First day of classes is so boring. Why did I even bother coming here?"
Jongin chuckles and shakes his head. "First days are always the most exciting day!"
She could only raise her eyebrow. "First day hook ups already? Damn, hold your horses, cowboy!"
Jongin throws dead leaf at Lisa which of course didn't reach her. "That's not it!"
"Then what is it?"
"Club registration!"
Lisa rolls her eyes and stands up from the bench. "No interests whatsoever."
As she starts walking away and back inside their building, Jongin walks beside her. "Come on, let's join the Dance Club."
"No time."
"You're not going to have any extra curriculum? That is so boring!"
Lisa stays quiet and heads straight to where her next class is. "Bye. See you later." And goes inside the room.
Jongin peeks and noticed that the professor is still not there so he calls Lisa's name again and says, "Don't waste that talent, Buddy."
Lisa gestured a "shoo" sign to him as soon as she had taken a seat to occupy. "I'm going to fill it out for you." Jongin says which instantly got a glare from Lisa.
"Don't you dare."
"Oh I will. Bye."
"Hey! Hey! Jo—" but Jongin had already ran out of the room. ".. damn that jerk." Lisa mutters lowly.
"Well that was entertaining to watch." A voice from in front of and below her said.
"Excuse me?" Lisa replies.
"Oh! So rude of me." The brunette says as she turns her body slightly so she could offer her hand forward. "I'm Jisoo, Kim Jisoo. And you are?"
Lisa stares at the hand for briefly a second before he meets it on the air. "Lisa. Lalisa Manoban."
They pulled their hands from the contact and the woman named Jisoo snaps her fingers. "Aha! Exchange?"
Lisa shakes her head. "No, took a formal exam myself."
"Oh." Jisoo smiles. "Not to be xenophobic or offensive so don't take this weirdly but you don't sound like foreign at all. You sounded like a local!"
Lisa smiles, "No offense taken and I knew Korean since I don't know.. Three? Four? Not sure."
Jisoo's mouth formed an O-shape. "Oh, no wonder. Well, it's a pleasure to meet you. What's your course?"
This woman sure talks a lot. Lisa thought but surprisingly, she is not annoyed by it. "Film and Media Arts. You?"
"Nice. Performing Arts, still thinking of what major but most likely Theater Arts."
"Actress huh?"
Jisoo grins. "You got it."
The smile is slowly infecting her now so she returns it. "Nice, don't forget to give me your autograph later. Would be a good auction piece in the future."
Jisoo starts laughing at that and Lisa's smile widens. "You are so silly."
Their conversation was cut short when their professor came in seconds after. Typical first day, everything revolved around introduction and getting to know before they are finally dismissed for lunch.
Jisoo bids her goodbye and a brief "See you!" before she disappears outside. Lisa goes out of the room and immediately saw the grinning face of Jongin, waving official copies of their club applications.
Lisa's eyes widen when she saw her name, grabs the piece of paper to check if she's seeing things right. Unfortunately she is. "You have got to be kidding me!"
"I told you I will register for us." And Jongin sprinted away as soon as he saw Lisa's fuming gaze.
She immediately chases him though. "Don't let me catch up, Jongin! You will not see the morning if I do!"
"Stop! I need my body for later! We have club meeting."
"Club meeting, my fucking ass!"
***
The club meeting started and ended pretty well. There's going to be an annual audition show to those who submitted their applications the next day and it's an open for all event. The Dance Club of their university is one of the most popular and award winning club in every university in Seoul so their standards are getting higher every year hence the auditions.
"I am too tired to behead you at this point but I will surely do that soon. What the hell am I going to perform tomorrow?"
Jongin stares at his phone for a while before saying. "I too, don't have anything tomorrow. Are you going free?"
Lisa sighs, ruffles her hair and slumps her back against the back rest of the bench. "That's the only option."
Jongin fakes a groan. "Freestyle is your biggest strength, they're so doomed tomorrow."
Another sigh from Lisa. "I hate you."
Jongin grins. "You're welcome."
So that night, all Lisa did was getting herself drown to the music. Familiarizing every beat and melody of the song while letting her imagination flow at its best. Lisa along with her other Thai friends and Jongin used to compete in an underground dance competition back in the days, hence her expertise in freestyle.
She attended her classes, as usual, the following day and all went smoothly well. Nothing much still aside from short introduction classes in some of her subjects but Lisa knew once the first week is done, they will be bombarded by school works.
"Hey!" Lisa was about to switch her music on after plugging her earphones when she heard the voice. She turns her body around and smiles after seeing who it was from.
"Jisoo, what are you doing here?"
"I heard about the audition show and I wanted to come here to watch it again."
Lisa raises an eyebrow. "Again?"
Jisoo nods. "I'm a sophomore student."
Lisa's eyes widen and was about to bow, she should've asked her yesterday and didn't assume that she's also a freshman. If Faith would know this, she's going to get a long ass session of You should always ask for their age and year if you're in Korea, Lisa! and she sees no end to that but before she could even bow, Jisoo waves her hand frantically.
"Oh no no no. You better not do that. How old are you?"
"18 turning 19 in a few months."
"And I just turned 19 this year so don't even try."
"No unnie? No sunbae?"
Jisoo fakes a cringe and goosebumps. "Ew no. It just so happen that I attended a different curriculum hence my acceleration."
"Ah. I see."
Jisoo grins. "Well then, I better get going. I have few other friends with me too so I will introduce you to others once the event is done. We're all on the same age by the way. Good luck, Lis!"
Lisa smiles, she doesn't know how Jisoo knew she's going to participate but it must've something to do with the posters outside. Her name, along with the others, are there in bold style and has an extra size than the other letters. Nevertheless, she's grateful to receive that.
Jongin went to her side a few moments later and drowned themselves into their own world of music and to their surprise, both of them decided to dance to thirst trap songs which made them laugh.
Lisa will be dancing to Take Me and Jongin will be dancing to Fetish.
Jongin had to take the stage first, Lisa is not sure what's happening in the opposite side of the curtain but hearing the loud cheer and applause few moments after, she knew he killed it.
"How did it go?" She asks him as soon as he appears in the back stage.
Jongin nodded his head to the stage direction and shrugs. "You heard it but I know it's going to be a whole lot of chaos once you're done." They then heard Lisa's name being called out. "And there you go. Don't hold back Tiger but leave some fans for me." Jongin said with a grin while patting Lisa's shoulder.
Lisa could only shake her head. "You can have them all, the fans I mean."
And Lisa steps out to the main stage. She has no idea how many are watching due to the multiple bright lights directed to the stage but sees silhouettes standing against the walls of the auditorium.
One of the judges, she presumes, asked for her name, her age, her course, what genre of music is she going to use and if the routine is pre-choreographed or free.
She answered all of them swiftly before she was given a signal to start whenever she's ready.
Lisa sets the microphone away before moving to the center of the stage. She saw Jongin from the corner of her eyes walking out to take a sit right at the empty front seat behind the judges — she should've known. Jongin would never miss it for the world.
Lisa is known to be a dancer that has so much musicality in her blood stream in the underground community back in Thailand. Every beat, melody and song lyrics of the music are all being translated to mesmerizing movements and choreography.
She shuts her eyes, engages her senses to every single noise until her body started to become more sensitive to every sounds and movements. She grabs a black piece of fabric from her pocket and ties it around her eyes before she signals the sound system team to switch her music on.
She then reached to the part of the choreography where she had to remove the blindfold and Jongin could only smirk. The focus and being drowned into her own element are being projected through her eyes — Jongin could recognize that even from a mile away.
When she was done, the place erupted with cheers and whistles. Lisa on the other hand is still trying to regain her breathing, the amount of blood that has been pumped through her veins were so overwhelming but in a good way. It then reminded her how dancing was her escape from reality, how dancing became her comfort when no one could ever do so — she tells herself to thank Jongin later for dragging her to this.
"I fucking knew it!" Jongin chirped as soon as she goes back to the back stage. The other performers cheered for her too, you can also accept defeat when it's shoved right through you honestly.
Lisa bowed and thanked the others before punching Jongin's arm soon after. Jongin grins and says. "You're welcome."
One of the Dance Club representatives told them the good news few moments after. All of them got in and instructed to visit the club room tomorrow before they go home to take care of their final application papers that will be submitted to the student council and the head office before they were dismissed.
Jongin and Lisa walked side by side heading towards the parking space, ready to crash and sleep in their houses after eating when Jisoo pops out of nowhere again.
"Lisa! Oh my God you didn't tell me you're THAT good."
Lisa is never good at answering compliments so she did the custom "Thank you." That's when she noticed that there were several people following Jisoo and stops in front of them — Jongin and her.
"Oh! Before I forget. Here are my friends. Chaeyoung from Performing Arts too, freshman."
"Hello." A beautiful smile.
"We meet again." Jongin says as he waves at the woman named Chaeyoung. "We're blockmates."
"Oh good, saves me one. This is Joohyun, from Performing Arts too. Seulgi, not sure if you've seen her earlier but she's one of the panels during the audition. She's from performing arts too."
"You were so good, Lisa." Says the woman named Seulgi.
Lisa shyly smiles. "Thank you. Sorry I didn't recognize you."
Seulgi dismissed her by shaking her head. "No offense, the lights earlier were so bright so it's understandable."
"And this is Jennie." Jisoo trails and grabs the woman from behind her so she could stand right beside Jisoo. "My best friend and cousin, she's from Design and Arts."
"Specifically Textile Design." The woman named Jennie continues.
"Yeah yeah the same. And everyone, this is my new friend. Lalisa Manoban or Lisa."
Lisa bows at them once again but her eyes earlier stayed few more seconds on Jennie's figure. Her eyes resembles a cat, fierce, piercing but very gentle — she reminded her of someone she knew when she was a kid during that distant and only memory she has about a family trip to Auckland.
She almost winced at the memory of her rebellious young years, those years included the terrible things she had done in Auckland.
"And oh, this is Kim Jongin. Freshman and Performing Arts." Lisa continues.
"Hello pleasure to meet all of you but as much as I want to get to know you girls better, I gotta go. I'm starving."
"So am I. Nice to meet you all." Lisa continues and the duo bows at them. "I'll see you tomorrow, Jisoo and to the others too."
"Definitely. Take care!"
"Don't forget to visit the club tomorrow, you two!"
"Yes ma'am!"
Both Jongin and Lisa disappeared inside their respective cars and drove out of the campus while the group of girls are still standing on the same spot where the duo had left them earlier.
"So, it's her?" Chaeyoung breaks the silence first.
"I could never not recognize those doe eyes. It's her."
"She seems sweet though."
"Don't be fooled."
"You think she recognize you still?"
"I'll make her remember me."
Jisoo frowns. "Jen, you gotta move on from that at some point. It's been a decade and we were still kids. Kids do silly shit."
"Yeah, a decade but I had several years of insecurity because of everything she had done."
Joohyun wraps an arm around Jennie's shoulders. "People change, Jen."
"Easy for you to say."
Seulgi shakes her head. "Whatever you are planning, please don't do it."
Jennie removes the arm off of her shoulders and walks out of the parking space. "Not until I get my revenge."