Lisa did not know how she had strayed off.
Holding Rosé’s coat, she stood in the middle of the dense forest. She could not see the way clearly, and as she looked around, she looked a little silly.
She went the wrong way and the place wasn’t small, so naturally, no one was around.
At this moment, Lisa vaguely heard voices coming from the left.
To her left was a large bamboo forest and it had already turned into a withered yellow in the winter. A thick layer of bamboo leaves had covered the ground, and it made it look like a golden carpet.
Lisa walked towards the target. She wanted to see if the person talking was from the training camp, if so, she could ask them for the way back.
Her shoes made a rustling sound when she stepped on the fallen bamboo leaves. Before Lisa could get close, a tall and burly figure appeared behind the bamboo forest. At first, he was a little wary, but when he saw Lisa, he was stunned.
“Fatty?”
Lisa was surprised to see the other party, but when she heard the nickname he called her, she was a little annoyed. She frowned and said coldly, “Are you that rude?”
He only knew how to jab at her wound.
She would lose weight sooner or later, but she did not want to have such a nickname.
She was not considered very fat!
And this person was that white-haired young man she met on the street. Although his hairstyle did not change much, that tuft of white hair had disappeared. It was obvious that it had been dyed black.
“Sorry, it’s a slip of my tongue. I forgot. You’re Gu Lalisa, right?”
The young man rubbed his hands and laughed, embarrassed. “I’ve seen you so many times, but I forgot to introduce myself. My name is Huo Jimin. You can call me Brother Jimin.”
After his reminder, Lisa looked down and noticed that his military jacket was embroidered with the insignia of a three-star officer. Lisa still remembered the rank division of the officers in the training camp that Chen Haoyang had shown them, so as to avoid them not recognizing the higher-ups.
This person was a second rank assistant commander!
Lisa immediately lowered her eyes and saluted to Jimin. “I’m sorry to have offended you, Assistant Commander! I didn’t recognize you just now…”
Jimin was amused by her last words. Seeing Lisa looking at his badge and became submitting herself after a split second, he was even happier. “It’s alright. But you’re such an interesting girl. Why did you come here?”
Lisa was silent. She felt a little embarrassed to say that she was lost, but she did not dare not to say it.
“I took the wrong path…”
“No wonder!”
Jimin seemed easier to talk to, which was quite different from his ferocious attitude when he faced the passers-by the other day. When he finished speaking, he suddenly said to the area beside him, “Commander Jeon, your new recruit is here. She got lost. I don’t know the way around here, but you came here two or three times before. Can you give her directions?”
Lisa with eyes that were clear as water.
Lisa paused and then saluted. “Hello, Chief Instructor!”
After saluting, Lisa put her hands on the sides of her thighs, looking very obedient.
Her eyes were lowered and she did not look at Jungkook.
It was silent for a while.
The air around seemed to have become thin and oppressive, and it was Jimin who broke this silence.
“Don’t tell me you thought that she’s following you? We’ve been here for an hour and you don’t have to show such an expression while pointing out the way…”
It seemed that there was a teasing tone behind his words.
Lisa had her eyes lowered and still did not look up, but she could feel her scalp tingling. She could guess that Jungkook’s expression must be very frightening at that moment.
After about a minute, without any emotion in his tone of voice, Jungkook said, “If you walk 273 meters to the west, you’ll see the nearest road. Just follow the road if you want to go up and down the mountain.”
Lisa said nothing.
Jimin was silent as well. It was crazy. How did he measure such a precise distance?
Lisa did not want to bother this chief instructor anymore, but she had no choice but to say, “I’m sorry, Chief Instructor. I can’t tell which is North, South, East, and West. I only know left, right, up and down!”
The more she said it, the more confident she got.
People from Lisa’s generation basically would not care if it was the North, South, East or West when they went out. The only navigation they could distinguish was left, right, up, and down, even though they knew the words North, South, East, and West.
Up was North, down was South, left was West, and right was East. But who knew how to tell which direction it was?
Jimin could not hold it in and laughed.
“You can’t even tell the direction. How do your instructors teach you? Walk up!”
There was a trace of fierceness in his cold voice, and Lisa shivered hearing it.
However, she still felt that if he told her to walk up from the start, she would not have asked.
Her instructor did not teach them these!
“Thank you, Chief Instructor!”
Lisa still thanked him politely and then strode upwards.
Jimin saw that she was walking in a hurry and was amused. “I think she must be criticizing you in her heart. Isn’t it easier to have told her to walk up? How many children now understand directions?”
Normally, if you asked a passer-by for directions, they would say go left or turn right. Who would say turn West and then walk South?
Jungkook looked over with cold eyes. “She’s a high school student.”
“What high school student? She’s in the military now! No, I mean…” Jimin then realized what Jungkook had implied. “I told you I’m not interested in her. She’s not the type I like. I just find her interesting after seeing her a few times. Major-general, why do you like to create rumors?”
Lisa, who had already walked a distance away, fortunately, could not hear their argument.
Perhaps after hearing Jungkook said 273 meters, she silently counted the distance as she walked. In the end, she found that she could not measure how long she had walked. But she found the way and kept going upwards.
She saw a cross-section path.
There were soldiers from the training camp passing her by in groups.
Gathering the clothes in her hands, she looked up at the sky then walked up.
Not far away from the mountain peak, Lisa saw Rosé, who was sitting on a big stone with several male soldiers. She was laughing happily. She was about to go forward when she heard a snort beside her. “Shameless.”
Lisa paused and looked over. She saw that there were two female soldiers beside her, looking at Rosé’s direction with a mixture of disgust and jealousy on their faces.
It turned out that just because Rosé could easily chat with the male soldiers, it made the female soldiers feel unhappy with her.
Lisa knew a little of such fighting and jealousy amongst girls as well.
She stopped in her tracks. She didn’t go up. Instead, she called out towards Rosé. “Rosé!”
Hearing her call Rosé, the two female soldiers that were talking about her instantly regained their senses. Once they realized that Lisa knew Rosé, their gazes turned a little weird. However, since they were worried about being caught gossiping, they immediately walked away as they chatted.
On the other hand, while Lisa’s call for Rosé wasn’t very loud, Rosé still heard Lisa instantly among the noisy ruckus around her.
She turned around and her eyes immediately lit up when she saw Lisa. She pointed at Lisa to the other male soldiers, smiling as if introducing her. However, she didn’t ask Lisa to come over as she coolly jumped down a large stone and hopped in front of Lisa.
“Thank you, Lali!”
Rosé called Lisa by the special nickname she gave her. It displayed the close friendship and impression girls had for each other.
Lisa trembled once from hearing the nickname. She felt as though her goosebumps were going to pop out.
After all, no one had ever called her so and she wasn’t used to it at all.
She passed Rosé her jacket before muttering, “I brought you your jacket, so I’ll head back now.”
Rosé instantly stopped her. “Hey, aren’t you going to play for a while? Let me introduce them to you. They were my older brother’s old classmates and my brother asked them to take care of me.”
It seemed like Rosé was afraid of Lisa misunderstanding her.
After all, she was really close to that group of male soldiers.
However, Lisa didn’t care about such things. She pursed her lips into a smile, the dimples on her cheeks showing themselves. “I know, but I still have to go back and wash the clothes. I soaked them back in our dormitory.”
Rosé could tell that Lisa was merely giving an excuse, but she couldn’t force Lisa either.
“Alright. I’ll head back to the dormitory in a while, so you can head back first.”
There was some sort of disappointment evident in her voice, but she said nothing.
After Lisa passed her the jacket, she left the mountain very quickly and returned to her dormitory room.
Her military uniform was still soaked in water in the room.
They all had two sets of uniform and they always alternate wearing each set. As Lisa sat on a small stool and started to scrub the uniform, her phone rang. Lisa glanced at it. It was a call from her older brother!
Lisa froze for that second.
After she had been reborn, she never called Seokjin even if she really missed this older brother of hers.
Firstly, it was because she had enlisted all of a sudden and it wasn’t easy to explain. Secondly, she really didn’t know what to say to Seokjin. She was afraid her tears would fall nonstop the moment she did.
After Seokjin had been thrown out of the Yu family’s mansion back then, she had never gotten any news of her older brother since that day. She never knew what exactly happened to Seokjin in the end as well.
Heartache, guilt, and many other emotions that she herself didn’t understand started mixing together, forming a weird combination of emotions she felt at that moment.
The overwhelming emotions within her now naturally made her a little hesitant.
However, her phone rang nonstop, so it was impossible for her to not answer it. After hesitating for a moment, Lisa ultimately wiped her hands clean and answered the call.
“Hello, Brother.”
“Lisa?”
The cheerful voice on the other end of the call was still as sunny and bright as Lisa could remember.
Indeed, the moment she heard Seokjin’s voice, Lisa instantly felt her eyes tear up.
She was already controlling herself a lot right now, but why was she still like this?
Lisa instantly forced her overwhelming emotions back and wiped her eyes. She recollected herself and replied, “Yes, Brother. I’m listening.”
“Why do you sound a little weird today?”
Even if Lisa hid it rather well, Seokjin still noticed that something was wrong.
As bright and sunny Seokjin looked, he had inherited his considerate behavior from his father. Even Lisa could not be compared.
Knowing Seokjin’s character, Lisa instantly changed her voice back to the cold and slightly dazed one. “Ah, Brother, it’s nothing. I just woke up.”
She remembered that Seokjin should still be in school and have yet to return home, so her parents probably hadn’t told him that she had already enlisted. Because if he did, he wouldn’t speak to her in such a calm tone anymore.
“Oh… Since you don’t have to go to school during the weekend, what are you doing now?”
Although Seokjin had a good relation with Lisa, there was still a slight awkwardness that existed between the siblings. An example was Seokjin asking Lisa about the small and pointless things every time he called and Lisa would answer them one by one.
Another was her telling him that she was washing clothes right now. That wasn’t considered a lie to Seokjin.
However, she didn’t say where she was washing them.
Haein didn’t ask any further, as he seemed to be oddly excited today. “Hey, Lisa, let me tell you a secret. You have to help. Keep this from Mom and Dad for now, and don’t tell them about it too soon.”
Lisa answered obediently, “Alright!”
“I found a girlfriend that I really like. I plan to bring her home with me to visit Dad and Mom during the summer holidays.”
Lisa was speechless.
This matter made Lisa froze for a moment.
She remembered Seokjin telling her the exact same thing in her previous life. However, when the summer holidays came, she had already been taken away by the Yu family.
That was why Lisa knew nothing about who this girlfriend was and what ultimately happened between Seokjin and this girlfriend of his.
She hid the news properly for Seokjin, but also ended up losing the chance of finding out what happened afterward.
“Lisa?”
“Got it, Brother! I’ll hide it from them for you! However, if you’re in a relationship, you have to be careful and not let yourself be hurt by bad people!”
Just like Su Mingyu and her.
“What are you talking about? Did you get poisoned with those television dramas? You’ve started to lecture me at this age. But then again, if you fall in love at a young age, I’ll hide it for you too. You don’t have to worry since I’m not like those conservative people. But you have to be careful too. That boy should not even touch your finger, because if he did I’ll break his legs!”
Lisa’s slightly unexpected words made Seokjin think that Lisa had fallen in love as well. Hearing her brother’s words, Lisa felt helpless but warm at the same time. She said seriously, “Brother, I won’t fall in love too early.”
“That’s true. There’s probably no one wooing you, right?”
Lisa was speechless.
All the warmth dissipated at that moment.
At that period, their parents would still send Seokjin some of Lisa’s photos, so Seokjin knew how Lisa looked like. He thought that Lisa still looked the same and naturally thought that his sister wouldn’t attract that kind of attention in school.
However, Lisa still felt a stab to her heart.
“Hahaha. I’m just joking. My sister is as pretty as a flower. How can there be no one wooing you? Lisa, I hope you don’t mind the joke. I’ll be home in a few days and I’ll bring you a lot of delicious foods!”
“Mm.”
Lisa hummed in response and hung up the call.
Seokjin was still as nice to Lisa as he normally was. However, he would tease Lisa from time to time in a brotherly manner, like the type of fun siblings would have together.
Even if Lisa and Seokjin weren’t biological siblings, after so many years together, their relationship was the same as any other biological siblings.
Lisa was unlucky with her biological family, but the most fortunate thing for her was to have her adopted family. She only hoped that her brother could accept the fact that she had enlisted.
After washing her clothes, Lisa hung up her clothes to dry and Rosé happened to walk in at the same second.
“Oh, Lisa, you were really washing clothes?”
Rosé looked around her. Seeing that there was no one in the dormitory room except for Lisa, she burst out in laughter. “Lisa, say, those two kept talking about me behind my back. But the truth is that they still go out to find their own cliques every day.”
Rosé’s scoff was indifferent to Lisa’s ears. It was just a small fight between young girls, so they were slightly boring to the current Lisa. However, since she treated Rosé as her friend, she was naturally biased towards Rosé.
She barely even think about her other two roommates.
Lisa wrung her clothes of water and hung them on the drying rack. She then heard Rosé’s slightly bored whining. “Lisa, why don’t you have any reaction to whatever I say? Is there really nothing that interests you?”
Lisa turned back to look at her. She pursed her lips slightly, showing a bright and youthful smile. “No. it’s just that I don’t really know about what you’ve just said, so I don’t know how to continue the conversation.”
What Lisa was saying was the truth.
Rosé raised an eyebrow, hopping over to help Lisa hang up the shirt she was holding. She said, “That’s what I’m saying. I want to bring you out to play, but you don’t want to go with me either. If you don’t go with me, how can you meet other people? Lisa, don’t always stay in the room. You have to go out too.”
Rosé was the type who liked people and noise, she basically was an extrovert. It was already a miracle that she was able to get along with Lisa.
Lisa chuckled softly, a faint and indifferent emotion flashed in her eyes. It made Rosé freeze a little after seeing it.
When it came to Lisa, she never seemed to understand her. However, she felt that this girl, who always looked dazed, had weirdly attracted her attention.
Also, if she took a closer look, she was actually quite pretty.
Her facial features were pretty and nice. It was just that she had some baby fat. However, she had a feeling that Lisa would look prettier once she slimmed down.
Rosé also anticipated the day Lisa trimmed down her weight.
Right at this moment, a loud commotion trailed over from the dormitory building opposite of the Lisa was in.
They turned towards the sound together and were able to see the people in the opposite building very clearly. They were girls staying at the same level as well.
Some of them had gathered along the corridor and were pulling at each other’s hair. It seemed as if they were in an extremely agitated fight.
Rosé always liked to watch such things. Seeing what was happening, she was instantly excited. “Hey, are they fighting? They’re fighting! This is really rare!”
With that said, she didn’t even glance at Lisa’s current expression before she ran out. She was so quick others might think that she was going to take part in the fight ass well.
Lisa wasn’t interested in such things. However, it didn’t mean that she wouldn’t watch it when it happened in front of her. Once Rosé went out, she closed their doors tightly.
She then went onto the balcony and saw many girls from the opposite building rushing over as well.