After the dinner had went on for sometime, the two families finally passed the awkward period and slowly became more familiar, the topic also changed from the ‘national livelihood’ to the two children’s marriage’s life.
“In the future, you guys have to forgive our Jennie. This girl ah, she had been spoiled rotten by me from when she’s still kid.”
The parents from both side had also changed from boasting about their children to revealing their inadequacies.
“In-law, what are you talking about? Jennie will be my daughter-in-law in the future, of course I have to spoil her too.”
The names in which they called each other had also evolved from Teacher Hyun or Madam Manoban to ‘in-law ’.
Although the topic had turned to herself, but Jennie still didn’t interrupt and continued eating her food silently.
“Ah, that’s right, there’s still something that we want to ask Jennie.”
“En?” Hearing her name called, Jennie looked up in a hurry.
“This girl only knows how to eat. The adults are talking to you uh.” Ji Hyun gave her a scornful look.
Jennie embarrassedly put down her chopsticks and smirked at her parents, “Auntie, please talk if there’s anything, I’m listening.”
“Still calling ‘auntie’ huh?” Go Eun looked at Jennie while dropping a hint towards her.
“ Cough … mom.” Jennie changed her form of address with a red face.
Go Eun suddenly felt happy, smiling until her eyes became a slit and then said, “It’s like this, I know you young couple like living by yourselves, so I have discussed with your dad; if you and Lisa want to live by yourselves, then we can help to prepare the house in advance.”
“??” Jennie was taken aback. She never expected that Lisa’s family would offer her and Lisa to live without them.
Not only was she surprised, but Min Ho and his wife also felt that it was unexpected. Of course they wanted their daughter to live by themselves after marriage so they could move around easily. But with Lisa’s circumstances, how could the Manoban family be rest assured leaving her alone with their daughter?
Thinking about it from another perspective, if it was Jennie that had autism, they themselves won’t agree, and therefore, they never thought nor mentioned about it. It was really unexpected that the Manoban family took the initiative and brought this topic.
“That’s right, Jennie, what kind of house do you like? I’ll let Jisoo buy it for you.” Gong Yo said.
“Yeah, I’ll handle it.” Jisoo also nodded.
“I… I…” Jennie turned her head to look at Lisa subconsciously, but she saw Lisa was lowering her head, still immersed in her own world and gave no reaction towards her gaze.
“It’s okay, you can make the decision. Lisa would have no problem with this.” At this point, Go Eun still understood her own son.
As long as Jennie was with her, she won’t mind where she lives. What’s more, from her abrupt moment just now, Lisa suddenly started to be silent again.
If Jennie wasn’t even given the right to make this decision, how could they reassured her parents?
Jennie also knew that Lisa couldn’t give her advice, so she pondered about it and answered, “Mom, I want to live at your house for a period of time. After I become more familiar with Lisa, then we’ll move out to live by ourselves, is it alright?”
“Alright, of course it’s alright.” Go Eun was so happy that she immediately agreed.
Although Go Eun had already discussed with her husband and was willing to let Lisa live alone, but nevertheless, she’s still worried deep in her heart. She was afraid if Lisa suddenly had a fit where she couldn’t see her.
Although she believed that Jennie would work hard to take care of Lisa, but Jennie still had no experience dealing with Lisa’s illness, she’s afraid that Lisa would scare away Jennie.
But it wasn’t good for her to bring this topic with Jennie, she’s afraid that if she said it, Jennie would think that they don’t trust her enough.
Moreover, Professor Wang also said that by giving them a free environment, it would make Lisa feel more relaxed and was beneficial to her recovery. So, despite some worries, the three of them made the decision to let Jennie and Lisa live alone.
But now that Jennie was willing to live in the Manoban family for a while to adapt herself with Lisa’s condition, this not only give them some transition time, but also reassured them that Jennie was serious about Lisa’s illness. How can they not agree to this when they’re this happy?
“Then with this, we’ll prepare the house first. You can move in whenever you want to.” Gong Yo said cheerfully.
After talking about this topic, the decision had been made, the atmosphere around the dinner table was completely relaxed.
The fathers of the two families continued their idle chat about state affairs and people’s livelihood, while the mothers talked about skin care. Jisoo felt a bit famished at this time, so she picked up her chopsticks and lowered her head to eat.
Then, the others also started to eat.
At this time, Jennie already ate some food, she turned her head to observe Lisa and found that she’s still immersed in her own world with her head down, the plate in front still held the fish slices that Jennie just picked for her.
Do I wake her up or not? She’s still not eating anything.
Jennie hesitated, wavering between waking her up or not interfering with her immersing in her own world. She remembered what Grandma Manoban had said before.
She said that Lisa had scholar syndrome, so sometimes she would become silent, not caring about people around her. It was likely that she was thinking about something, you just need to wait for her until she’s finished, then she would wake up by herself.
Forget it, just let her think, I’ll just help her pack some food to eat later. Jennie thought like this, but the chopsticks in her hand kept picking food and placed them in Lisa’s plate, silently trying to awaken Lisa with a plate full of dishes.
Lisa knew that Jennie was helping her picking the dishes. She wasn’t immersed in her own world, nor was she thinking about some problem. Her hands were clenching into tight fists, hiding under the tablecloth, struggling to endure the noise that only she could hear.
In the last twenty minutes, Lisa heard an ear-piercing scratching sound, which was the sound of a lamp on the ceiling behind her. The harsh sound was caused by aging wires and poor circuits and the sound was really grating on her ear, she was on tenterhooks and her head felt a burst of pain.
But Lisa knew that it was only her alone in this room that felt uncomfortable. Lisa was really familiar with this kind of scene as she already experienced it several times before, so she became irritable if she ever heard these baffling noises.
Just turn off the sound, just turn off the light and everything would be okay. If it was before, Lisa would immediately stand up and cut off all the power in the room so all these annoying sounds could disappear.
But now she can’t do as she likes, she’s trying to restrain the painful urge inside of her.
Before, when she suddenly stood up and made such a move, the people around her would always looked at her with strange eyes. Although she didn’t care, but today wasn’t the same, today she can’t make any mistake. her family had told her before they came here that she had to perform well at tonight’s dinner, she must not make any mistake and leave bad impressions on Jennie’s parents.
She can’t make any mistake, she can’t make Jennie’s parents look at her with strange eyes.
So she worked hard enduring herself from twenty minutes ago, she tried to ignore those sounds, but those scratching and ripping sounds became louder and even more frequent, as if an electric drill was going crazy inside her brain. she felt uncomfortable, too uncomfortable that she can’t think anymore, feeling like all of her blood was flowing backwards, so uncomfortable that she wanted to smash things apart.
No, you can’t, you can’t let the outbreak to happen.
“ Screech ~” it sounded again, why isn’t that lamp smashed yet?
“ Screech ~” so uncomfortable, when can she leave this place?
“ Screech ~” Jennie is near me, don’t get close to me, don’t see my abnormality.
Lisa bit her lips desperately, lowering her face and trying to hid her expression, but she couldn’t hide the natural reaction of her body as she’s sweating bullets.
Jennie suddenly noticed something was wrong, she noticed Lisa’s shirt pressing against her skin was full of sweat.
Although it was summer, but the air conditioner was turned on inside this room, and even if you eat hotpot, it’s impossible to let out this much sweat, how come Lisa sweat this much?
“Lisa?” Jennie wanted to touch Lisa.
“ Bang! ” Lisa suddenly got up and ducked away, turning around to prevent Jennie from seeing her. However, this action exposed the sweat on her back even more, her whole person looked like she was drenched in rain.
How could others not notice this? The Manoban families’ faces changed at once, looking at the appearance of Lisa, they knew that she’s on the verge of collapsing.
“Lisa, what happened with you? Are you uncomfortable?” Jennie was going to pull Lisa’s hand again.
“Don’t come over!” Lisa didn’t want Jennie to see her illness breaking out, she shoved her without looking back.
Jennie was taken by surprise, staggered and bumped into the table. The teacups and plates on the table’s edge fell and shattered to pieces on the floor.
“Jennieya!” Ji Hyun hurried to help her daughter.
Suddenly, the painful cry of Jennie, the shattering of porcelains, the alarmed shout of Ji Hyun and the never vanishing scratching sounds finally crumbled Lisa’s utmost restrain.
“ AAAA!! ” Lisa beat her own head in a frenzy, screaming without a pause.
It’s so noisy, don’t quarrel anymore, disappear, all voices just disappear!
Lisa grabbed everything her hands could touch, slamming them hard at the wall lamp that kept making those jarring noises, However, it was useless no matter how much she smashed it, and the more ineffective it was, the more she pound and smash…
In the midst of loud crackling sounds, in just a short while, half of the plates and bowls on the table were shattered.
“Lisa?!” Jennie was screaming in panic as she wanted to go and stop Lisa, Ji Hyun was afraid that her daughter would be hurt so she and her husband pulled Jennie in place.
“Jisoo, quickly stop Lisa!” Gong Yo shouted.
There’s no need for Jisoo to be reminded as she already rushed over when Lisa first acted. she forcibly hugged the manic Lisa and prevented her from grabbing more plates on the table.
At this time, the waiter rushed in and was shocked to see the shattered things on the floor.
“Hurry up, turn off the light!” Go Eun yelled with anxiousness to the waiter standing at the door.
The waiter didn’t know why, but she still obediently turned off the lights.
As soon as the wall light was turned off, Lisa’s struggles finally eased immediately.
“It’s okay, it’s okay, the lights are off.” While Jisoo was calming her brother down, her heart hurt when she saw Lisa’s hands that were cut by the sharp porcelain pieces.
“Go to the hospital.” Gong Yo sighed.
…
The wounds on Lisa’s hands were just skin-deep, it will be fine after a simple bandage. But Lisa’s mood was really down, she sat listlessly on the chair outside of emergency room and she won’t move no matter who called or shouted at her.
The group of people had no choice but to accompany her.
Gong Yo, while distressing over his son, he also felt ashamed towards Jennie’s parents. he never expected that Lisa would suddenly got sick when both of their families met for the first time. Also, she pushed Jennie, how can her parents be rest-assured to give their daughter to them?
“In-law, I’m sorry about this.” Gong Yo apologized for his son.
“It’s alright, Lisa didn’t mean it.” Min Ho waved his hand, but the expression on his face wasn’t as relaxed as what he was saying.
“In-law, Lisa rarely broke out with her illness, today is a special situation, it’s possible that there’s something wrong with the lamp.” Go Eun also explained, but she still felt that her explanation was too weak, how can the problem lies with the lamp? The problem is Lisa.
Jisoo didn’t speak, she only leaned against the corridor and stared at Lisa and Jennie from afar.
“Does your hands hurt?” Jennie asked softly, sitting beside Lisa.
Lisa ignored her and lowered her head, as if she hadn’t heard what she said. But Jennie knew that she heard it because she saw Lisa’s eyelashes moved.
“You hurt me when you pushed me just now.” Jennie said intentionally.
Lisa shuddered, she looked up anxiously, her eyes full of fear and self-blame.
“But I’d feel more hurt if you don’t speak to me.” Jennie then unhurriedly said the later half of her sentence.
“I… I… I didn’t do it on purpose.” For the first time, this was the first time that she tried to explain to someone after the numerous manic episode she had in all of her life.
“I know. Can you tell me what happened just now?” Jennie thought that Lisa wouldn’t break out without reason.
“The light… too noisy.” As if there was a feeling of unease, Lisa’s brows frowned tightly, “My head hurts.”
“Does it still hurt?”
“It doesn’t hurt anymore.” Lisa shook her head.
“Then go home and rest now, alright?” Jennie stood up and pulled Lisa’s hand, wanting to send her home.
Who knew that Lisa’s face suddenly turned pale white? she was reluctant to stand up from the chair as she explained eagerly, “I… I didn’t do it on purpose.”
“I know ah.” Jennie couldn’t understand why Lisa suddenly got anxious again.
“Don’t go.” Lisa held Jennie’s hand tightly, begging her with her eyes.
Jennie blanked for a while.
“Don’t go, don’t hate me, I won’t be sick in the future anymore.” Speaking and speaking again, Lisa gradually lowered her head, as if she had made a very unreasonable request, even she herself didn’t dare to hope that Jennie would agree to her plea.
she only pulled Jennie’s hand, not letting it go even for a bit.
Jennie' heart felt a painful ache. Lisa’s few sentences seemed to struck her right on her chest.
“I won’t go, I’ll return home with you.” Jennie squatted down and coaxed her softly.
“Really?”
“Isn’t it okay? Wait until I get permission from my parents and I’ll live together with you.”
Live together? So I didn’t mess things up, right?
The edges on Lisa’s lips raised up, revealing the usually hidden deep dimples.