Lisa sighs for the nth time as she turns over in her bed. The blankets are suffocating her, so she kicks them off. She can faintly hear some music in the background, and she has half a mind to tell her brother to kindly turn it down a bit, but she can’t be bothered to. And it’s not like it actually bothers her that much, she’s just bored out of her mind.

She’s been scrolling on her social media for the past few hours, but all she can see is her friends having fun in foreign countries, while she’s at home doing absolutely nothing.

She starts to think that maybe she should have accepted her parents’ offer to go back to Thailand with them, at least she would have been around familiar faces and not alone.

“Joonki!” she yells, “turn that down!”

“Stop swearing, you savage!” is her younger brother’s answer.

“Is that how you talk to all of your seniors?” she retorts.

“ off!” he yells back.

“Who’s the savage now?” Lisa smirks.

Her brother doesn’t answer, but he does turn down the music, so Lisa counts that as a win. She takes her phone back in hand and refreshes her social media. Everything is still the same.

She decides to take a cold shower, Korea’s hot weather is really getting to her, and she heads to the bathroom. Their house isn’t the biggest, but at least she has a bathroom all for herself in her room, so she can’t exactly complain.

She takes off her pajamas and enters the shower. The cold water makes her shiver at first, but then she gets used of it and everything is okay.

When she’s done standing under the water, she exits the shower. She gets dressed in a sleeveless shirt and a pair of shorts, and decides on a whim to head out to get an ice-cream.

“I’m going out,” she yells to Joonki.

“Whatever,” he replies.

There’s a 7/11 not too far from home, so she decides to go there. The streets are empty and quiet, and Lisa has never seen Seoul like this. It’s kind of sad.

What really is sad is her life right now. School has ended, her last year of high school was a tough one, but she managed to survive it and even with good grades, or at least good enough to enter a decent university. No one is at the dance studio either, so she can’t exactly show up there, and all of her friends are gone to enjoy their last free summer before university begins.

On one hand, Lisa can’t wait for university to start, she’s that bored of staying at home doing nothing, on the other she is kind of scared. What will university life be like? She’s also moving out of her house and going to live alone. How will that be? Will she be able to survive?

But it’s still too soon to be thinking about that, it’s still the start of June and she has three full months ahead of her to enjoy. She was supposed to go on a trip to Japan with Sejeong, her best friend, but they ended up being too swamped with school work to organise it and Sejeong has left to go to Busan with her family.

Her parents had asked her and Joonki to go back to Thailand with them to see some family, but Lisa had foolishly told them no. So now she’s stuck in Seoul, alone apart from her annoying younger brother, with nothing to do.

When she arrives at the convenience store, she smiles at the old lady behind the counter, who knows her too well by now.

“Lisa? Is that you, honey?” Mrs. Park asks.

Lisa nods with a smile, “It’s me, Mrs. Park, I’m here to get some ice-cream.”

“Well, you know where they are,” Mrs. Park rebuts, “how is your summer going, honey?”

“It’s kind of boring,” Lisa shrugs as she heads to the ice-cream section, “what about you?”

“My son has come to visit,” the old lady smiles, “so we’re catching up with him. He’s brought his wife and newborn daughter with him.”

“That must be lovely,” Lisa comments as she grabs a regular strawberry popsicle.

“Is that all?” Mrs. Park asks as Lisa reaches the counter with the popsicle in hand.

Lisa nods and Mrs. Park tells her the cost. Lisa pays, says goodbye to Mrs. Park and settles on one of the chairs outside the convenience store.

She looks around, when a van stops in front of her. It’s white, with red writings on it. The biggest one reads: ‘Jennie’s ice-cream’, and below it are other things written, like what type of ice-creams this Jennie person sells.

Out of the van comes a black figure. It’s a girl. She has long, brown hair that reach the middle of her stomach, striking blue eyes and pink lips. She’s dressed all in black: black shorts, a black crop-top and a hoodie with the hood pulled on.

Lisa wonders what kind of people wear hoodies in summer, as she can’t stop staring at the newcomer.

Lisa watches as she enters the 7/11 and asks Mrs. Park something. Mrs. Park leaves the counter to go look for whatever the girl asked, and in that moment the girl reaches over the counter to grab three packs of red Marlboro and puts them in her pockets.

Mrs. Park, who has noticed nothing, comes back, shaking her head and probably telling the girl that they don’t have what she was looking for. The girl smiles and enters the shop.

“That was wrong, what you did in there.”

Lisa sometimes wishes she her brain-mouth filter worked, or that it existed at least, but no, she’s stuck blurting out every single thought that passes in her head.

The girl turns around and stares Lisa down, from head to toe, then she shrugs, “Go report me, then.”

But Lisa can’t seem to do have the strength to do that.

“I won’t,” she says, “just don’t do it again. Especially not to Mrs. Park, she’s a nice one.”

“I won’t then, poor Mrs. Park,” the girl laughs, and Lisa is starting to think that she’s mocking her.

“You do know that there are security cameras in there, right?”

Lisa doesn’t know why she keeps trying to make conversation with the other, but there’s just something about her. Lisa can’t take her eyes away.

The girl shrugs, “I’ll be gone by the morning, they’ll never find me.”

“Where will you be?” Lisa asks, “are you travelling?”

“Kind of,” the girl sits on the chair in front of Lisa and takes a cigarette out of one of the packets, “why are you so interested?”

Lisa shrugs, “I don’t have anything better to do.”

The girl smiles, and it look sweet, oh, if only Lisa knew.

“You seem like a good girl,” the girl tells her, “piece of advice for you: don’t get involved with people like me.”

“Who says I’m getting involved?” Lisa asks.

“You can’t seem to stop asking me questions,” the girl replies, blowing out a cloud of smoke which makes Lisa cough.

“So, where are you going this summer?” Lisa asks.

“I’m going on a road-trip with some friends,” the girls shrugs, “you?”

“I’m doing nothing,” Lisa is embarrassed to say, “a road trip? That’s cool. Are they your friends from school?”

“No,” the girl smirks, “I’ve picked one of them up in Yeoncheon and the other in Dongducheon.”

“You did what?” Lisa asks, shocked.

The girl laughs, “We just met. They wanted to get away and I took them with me, why? You wanna come too? There’s room for four.”

“No, of course not!” Lisa exclaims.. but maybe. She isn’t doing anything interesting this summer, and she wants one last adventure before venturing in the boring world of universities and internships and, later, jobs.

And the girl doesn’t seem too bad.. apart from the fact that Lisa saw her steal three packs of cigarettes.

“You don’t seem too sure about that,” the girl smirks.

And there’s just something about her smirk, that makes Lisa want to challenge her, just to wipe it off her pretty face.

“What if I do want to come?” Lisa asks.

“Then you’re welcome, but you gotta let me know by the time I finish this cigarette,” the girl smiles, pointing to the almost completely smoked cigarette.

“I’ll come,” Lisa says, decided, “that’s my final answer.”

The girl chuckles, “Cute. Okay, let’s go.”

“Can we stop to my house first?” Lisa asks, “I have to take some stuff.. and tell my brother as well.”

“Just don’t tell him who I am and it’s fine,” the girl shrugs, putting out her cigarette on the table and throwing it on the floor.

“How could I when I don’t even know who you are?” Lisa rebuts.

The girl smiles, “Oh, right, my name is Jennie.”

Lisa shakes her hand quickly, “I’m Lisa.”

Just what the hell has Lisa gotten herself into.

The interior of the van looks way worse than the exterior. 

There are clothes everywhere, especially on the floor, so many of them that in some parts said floor can’t even be seen.

There are cigarette butts everywhere, and the whole place smells like smoke and another disgusting smell Lisa can’t recognise.

Laying on the floor, over the biggest pile of clothes, there’s a girl; she has dark red hair and is wearing a yellow dress, and is singing softly along the song on the radio, some bubblegum pop song sang by female voices.

“Finally, Jen,” a voice from the passenger seat exclaims, “we thought you got busted! We were just about to drive away and leave you here.”

The girl who’s just spoken turns around and glares at Lisa, before realising that Lisa isn’t Jennie, and her face morphs into a confused expression.

“Who the are you?”

The girl is just as pretty as the other two. With straight, dark brown hair and chocolate eyes. She’s wearing a grey top and some jeans shorts, from what Lisa can see.

“Be nice, Chae. I’ve picked up a new stray,” Jennie says, sitting on her driver seat, “she’s Lisa and she’ll come with us.”

“Lisa,” red-hair whisper to herself, “that’s a cute name.”

“Thanks?” Lisa rebuts, “and you are?”

The girl doesn’t even look at her, as she smiles, “Jichu,” she chuckles, “it’s nice to meet you.”

 Jichu? That’s an.. unusual name.

“Don’t listen to her, her name is Jisoo,” Jennie says as she starts driving.

“And you’re.. Chae? It’s nice to meet you,” Lisa smiles.

“It’s Chaeyoung,” Chaeyoung corrects her with an annoyed tone.

“Hey, where do you live?” Jennie asks.

Lisa tells her the way to her house, just two blocks to the right, and Jennie turns on the music louder as she chews on a chewing gum that brown-hair passes her.

When they reach Lisa’s house, Jennie stops the van and comes out of it, “You two stay in here!” Jennie exclaims before exiting the van, “Chae, make sure that Jisoo doesn’t wander off. We don’t want a repeat of what happened in Oijongbu.”

Lisa is almost tempted to ask what happened in Oijongbu, but in the end she decides against it. 

“Yes, Ma’am,” Chaeyoung says in a bored tone, bringing her right hand to her forehead, imitating a soldier.

Lisa and Jennie head into Lisa’s house and Lisa brings her to her room. Jennie takes a look at the pastel walls and chuckles, “Cute.”

“What should I take with me?” Lisa asks.

“Pack lightly,” Jennie advises her.

Lisa takes a duffel bag from under her bed and some clothes from her wardrobe, mainly shorts and t-shirts. She puts them inside in a hurry, then goes to the bathroom and grabs her toothbrush and other necessities. 

“Are you ready?” Jennie asks.

“Wait, let me talk to my brother first,” Lisa says.

She enters her brother’s room, and he lets out a yell, “Didn’t they teach you how to knock? I could have been.. doing something important.”

“What, like ?” Lisa teases him.

“Shut up, what do you want?” Joonki asks.

“Sejeong invited me to go to Busan with her, so I’m going to take the train now,” she lies, “I’ll let you know when I’ll be back.”

“Okay,” her brother shrugs, “stay safe, I guess.”

Safe is the completely opposite of what Lisa is being right now. But she doesn’t care, she thinks as she stares at Jennie’s determined face.

“Are you ready for the adventure of your life?” Jennie asks, back in the driver seat as Lisa sits on the seat behind her.

Lisa just smiles, meeting her gaze through the rear view mirror.