“Well... That was.” Jaehyun says.

“I agree,” Lisa starts the car, buckling up.

“I loved when the good guys beat up the bad guys.”

“My favorite part, for sure,” she pulls out the parking lot, looking at her blindspot.

“It reminds me of the previous installment when the good guys beat up the bad guys.”

“I think you’re getting that confused with the installment before that installment.”

“God, these movies . Don’t they?” Jaehyun leans his head back in the passenger headrest, looking at Lisa from the side. His face takes an extra softness from the orange glow of streetlights. His body relaxed and openly ready for sleep.

“You don’t have to convince me. I don’t know why Daniel likes them,” it comes out before Lisa can stop herself. Was it right to bring Daniel up?

But Jaehyun doesn’t inquire. He just hums “mm”, siding with neither her nor the ghost Daniel that’s required to consider.

It doesn’t take long for them to reach his house. An older brick house, large enough to seem spacious but not so large to feel intimidating. The result of parents spending decades in the same field, responsibly saving and borrowing. Extra money for vacations, but still depending on loans to send their son to university. She presumes, taking in the lavender bushes.

She turns the ignition off and unbuckles herself, turning to find Jaehyun’s eyes shut and his chest rising slowly, the whisper of air from nostrils. His head still tilted, like he’d fallen asleep watching her.

“Jaehyun,” she says, poking his shoulder lightly with the tip of her finger, in the useless way of both wanting to wake someone up but not wanting to wake them up.

He doesn’t move.

“Jaehyun,” she says, a little louder, pushing her palm on his shoulder. When his head falls down into her hand, she realizes the shake might’ve been a little too strong but it worked.

His eyes slowly blink as he comes to realize where he is. One of his cheeks, resting in Lisa’s warm hand, trapped by his shoulder.

He sits up and Lisa finds her cupped hand follows him, making sure another round of drowsiness doesn’t tip him anywhere else.

“We’re here,” she announces, taking her hand away and the loss of her skin is what really seems to wake him up.

“Oh,” Jaehyun clears his throat and unbuckles his seatbelt. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to fall asleep.”

If there were more light, she knows she would’ve seen his ears gone red.

“It’s fine.”

Jaehyun smiles at that, showcasing dimples much adored at the office.

“It’s always fine, isn’t it?”

“Yeah,” Lisa admits.

“Did you wanna come in?” Jaehyun asks, opening the car door. “To use the bathroom or get a drink of water or anything?”

“Uh…” Lisa can’t tell if there are any other intentions but if Jaehyun had been thinking along other lines, he would’ve made moves in the darkened theater, wouldn’t have he? “Sure.”

She takes the opportunity to stretch a little. It was a long day of sitting at work, sitting in the theater, sitting in her car. Besides, the fresh lavender smell was beckoning her to come nearer. She’d spend so many childhood days running around the neighborhood, picking any flowers she found and getting in trouble. It’d been ages since she’d been around flowers that weren’t suffocating in plastic grocery store wrap.

“My parents are probably asleep by now.”

The way he says it shows no embarrassment. Not like other moments with him. Lisa tries to pretend it’s not a big deal, walking into his parents’ house without them knowing. Remembering the last parents she’d met had been Ryan’s. (Her first and only boyfriend.) And she pulls it off successfully.

Sitting at the kitchen island as Jaehyun pours her a glass of water with chipped ice courtesy of some prodded fridge buttons.

She looks around at the grey walls with white photo frames holding pictures of Jaehyun and his parents. No siblings or pets she could see. Just a darling only child with deep dimples. Why bother having more children, if the first one came out so perfect? She seems to gather. The house is pristine and quiet. It’s hard to believe there are two people upstairs sleeping. It’s hard to believe anyone lives there at all. But proof comes in the form of vacuumed lines on the floor.

Jaehyun looks to Lisa’s gaze.

“Yes, my mother’s obsession. I think her daily anxiety levels solely depend on those lines.”

“Wrong. My daily anxiety levels solely depend on whether or not you’re testing my nerves.”

They both turn around to see Jaehyun’s mother standing at the bottom of the staircase. The high quality carpet hiding her footsteps. Perhaps with help from her smaller frame that could probably walk on water without making a dent in it. She looks that weightless.

She moves to the fridge door, but Jaehyun’s already on it. Pouring another glass of water for her.

She smiles at Lisa. It’s nice and welcoming, as if it’s not strange to find Jaehyun and women in the kitchen at 10pm. Which isn’t all that late, but Lisa knows she wasn’t allowed to have friends over past 9 when she lived at home.

“Hi, Lisa. Jaehyun told me he was seeing a movie with you tonight. How was it?”

“Eh, I mean. It was as described. I guess.”

She sounded like an idiot.

But his mom nodded.

“I’m not one for movies. Neither is Jaehyun’s father. Actually, bit of a shock when Jaehyun said he was going to see something tonight. I can’t remember the last time he bothered.”

Jaehyun busied himself taking Lisa’s glass to the sink and pouring it out.

“How long have you worked for Home Stores?” his mother shifted the conversation.

“About 3 years now.” Lisa puts a hand on her knee to stop it from jiggling and shaking her stool.

“They were hiring that young?” Jaehyun’s mom’s mouth widened, before she took a sip of water.

“Oh. Um. I was 23 then,” Lisa admits.

“Ooohhh.”

It’s clear Ms. Jung hadn’t been expecting that. Did Lisa imagine it or was there was a small rift of tension released into the air.
 

Ms. Jung gets down from her stool with a small jump.

“Well, I’m glad you enjoyed your night. I’ll get back to bed. See you in the morning, Jaehyun.”

Lisa watches him brush a kiss against his mother’s cheek as she leaves.

“‘Night, mom.”

There’s something to it that’s different from when she says goodnight to her mom these days. As she’s gotten older and looks at her parents, finding new wrinkles and folds that hadn’t been there before. Her “goodnights” itch and feel solemn by nature. Mortality far too close. Not carefree like they used to be, when she didn’t realize how fast life was going by.

But Jaehyun was still a kid so… Of course, he didn’t feel that yet.

Lisa stood up as Ms. Jung disappeared up the stairs.

“I should go, too,” she states.

Duh, what else was there to do? Have a sleepover?

Jaehyun walks her to the front door, following her outside.

“I’ll make sure you get in, okay,” he reassures seriously.

The car can’t be more than 20 feet away, but she obliges.

“Oh, yeah,” the lavender scent wafts upwards and she remembers the forgotten flowers.

“My family planted them when we first moved here from South Korea. It was a show of commitment to a new house- a new life,” his tone of voice switches and she can tell he’s probably channeling his dad, what his dad must’ve said.

“I love flowers. I don’t know much about them. I just have a lot of memories picking them.”

She watches his pale hand disappear in a bush quickly and hears the small break of a stem.

He pulls out a gorgeous, full bloomed, purple spike.

“Thanks for letting me see the movie with you. It was fun,” he hands it to her gently and she grabs hold, her fingers slipping over his.

"Thanks for seeing it with me..." she steps down the few stairs to the sidewalk. "See you tomorrow."

Jaehyun watches her walk back to the car.

"See you tomorrow."