Chapter 12

School seemed fuzzy to Rose the next day.

Jennie hadn’t returned back to the dorm after confessing to Rose, and everyone in the exchange group was worried.

‘Where has the beauty angel gone?’ the boys had whined.

The instructors had spoken to Rose that morning, asking if Jennie had said that she was going out somewhere last night, and if she may had been exhibiting any strange behaviours. Rose thought that saying the truth – what had actually happened – may have been appropriate, but she also knew that it would be embarrassing on Jennie’s behalf.

So her lips remained sealed. She told the instructors that Jennie hadn’t really said she was leaving anywhere, and that she just left suddenly without saying anything, which, in its own way, was kind of true.

But she still had this ugly feeling in her stomach. As she walked to her classroom, she couldn’t help thinking that something bad may have happened to Jennie.

But if that was the case, then someone would’ve seen her and reported it. Then the instructors would’ve been contacted! But it doesn’t seem like the instructors have been told anything … and what did they mean when they asked me if Jennie was acting strange? Sure, she confessed her feelings, but would that count as “strange”? Oh shoot! I still can’t believe she liked me all that time. It seems surreal. She’s great and all, but … I don’t feel like I have that sort of connection with her. To me … she’s just a friend.

‘Hey Rose!’ a voice suddenly called out.

Rose turned to see Jisoo running up to her. She seemed out of breath.

‘Why … why do you … walk so fast …?’ panted Jisoo.

Rose giggled, trying to supress all the thoughts in her head that were bombarding her like nuclear missiles.

Jisoo and Rose made their way to the classroom together.

‘I have something to ask you, Rose,’ Jisoo said.

‘Hm? What is it?’

‘Do you know where Jennie is? I need to talk to her, but I can’t find her anywhere.’

‘Um, well …’ Rose was thinking of the best way to tell Jisoo that Jennie had run away, but she didn’t know how to word it.

‘She’s not here today.’

‘Huh? Oh, ok,’ was Jisoo’s reply.

For some reason, there was a worried expression on her face. Rose wondered what Jennie and Jisoo had spoken about before, when they met at the food market.

‘I’m worried about her,’ said Jisoo, as they made a quick stop for the bathroom.

‘Why? Has something happened?’ Rose asked.

‘She hasn’t told you?’ said Jisoo, looking a bit surprised. ‘Huh, I thought you’d be the first person she’d go to … I guess she has her reasons.’

‘Tell me what?’ asked Rose, feeling slightly hurt that Jennie had confided with Jisoo, someone who she wasn’t that familiar with, and not her.

Jisoo faced the mirror, fixing up her hair. ‘I don’t know if I should tell you, since she hasn’t told you about it, but I trust you. And to be honest, I think you might be able to offer better advice than what I offered her.’

Rose was eagerly listening.

‘So, basically, you know how she’s a pretty big influencer on Instagram?’

Rose shook her head. ‘No. I rarely ever use Instagram.’

‘Really?? Oh, then, no wonder you don’t know about this. Anyway, something happened a few months ago, and because of that incident, a lot of people are sending her bad comments - death threats if you want to call it that.’

Rose gasped. ‘What? Really? And she never told me about it …’

‘And if that wasn’t bad enough, she’s being followed by strangers. She told me when she met up with me at the market, that she saw this guy in a hoodie hiding behind the wall when she stopped to look at her phone. She said she’s scared of all this stalking stuff that’s happening to her, and I don’t know how to help her. I thought it was all just online, so she could’ve handled it by taking down her account or something. But then she told me that people were also physically stalking her, and I knew that that’s crossed the line. I said that she should tell the police, but she said that they won’t make a big deal of it because it’s not like she’s been injured or anything – it’s just been people who despise her who are following her.’

‘I seriously can’t believe she never told me this,’ grumbled Rose. ‘It’s not right for people to go around stalking someone because of something that they posted disagreed with their beliefs. It’s not right.’

‘Yeah, I know,’ said a voice from behind Rose.

From the look on Jisoo’s face, Rose thought for sure that the person behind her was some serial killer.

She turned around and was face-to-face with none other than Lisa Manoban.

‘Lisa?? What are you doing here?’ cried Rose.

‘Um … peeing? Isn’t that what you do in a bathroom?’ was Lisa’s witty response.

‘Oh you …’ grumbled Rose in mock irritation, but she couldn’t hide her smile.

‘Hey Jisoo,’ Lisa suddenly said. She stepped around Rose to properly face Jisoo.

Jisoo stared up at her, even though she was only a few centimetres shorter. The stare was what one would call cold and fierce.

Lisa subconsciously took a step backwards.

‘Look, Jisoo, I know we’ve had some mis-haps, but, I still want to be friends … like we used to.’

Rose felt a bit out of place, watching the scene in front of her. Wait, so they used to be friends? What happened? Is that what Jisoo was talking about before? When she said she also thought that the friendship wouldn’t turn into anything major? I feel like Sherlock Holmes!

‘I thought I already gave you my answer,’ said Jisoo, her cold expression not wavering for a second. ‘And if I remember correctly, so did you.’

‘What?’ said Lisa.

Jisoo was a the door of the bathroom, but she paused and turned her head.

‘No. We can’t be friends anymore. That’s what you said, Lisa Manoban.’

And then she left.

Rose in a breath. Damn, that was pretty dramatic … maybe I should ask Lisa why they aren’t friends anymore? No, I don’t want to interfere with their business.

‘Sorry about that Rose,’ said Lisa, snapping Rose out of her thoughts. There was a hurtful look on Lisa’s face, but she gave Rose a cherry grin and said, ‘Do you wanna go to the snack bar that opened up yesterday, at lunch?’

‘Oh, oh sure. Ok …’ said Rose.

Lisa gave Rose a wave, and left the bathroom as well.

Whoa! What on earth is with all this sudden drama? Jennie said she liked me, and she goes missing right after, Jisoo and Lisa have a sudden argument about their hypothetical friendship … this kinda stuff never happened back at home! Thought Rose.

Suddenly, the bell signalling for beginning of form rang.

‘Oh crap! I’m going to be late!’ said Rose, sprinting to her classroom.

Rose’s first lesson seemed to crawl by. She glanced at Jisoo who sat next to her, her attention directed somewhere else. She was holding something in her hand, and she seemed to be having very deep thoughts.

‘What’s that?’ Rose asked, motioning at the item Jisoo held in her hand.

As soon as she asked the question, Jisoo hastily put the item away in her pocket.

‘N-nothing …’ replied Jisoo.

Rose frowned. She had caught a glimpse of the item Jisoo had been so intently looking at. It was some sort of key-chain-looking item; shaped like a bear’s face and had the silhouette of two people engraved in it.

That looks cool, thought Rose. But why did Jisoo seem like she didn’t want me to see it? Is it something personal?

Eventually, lunch came around, and Rose ran to the new snack bar. She had debated whether or not she should invite Jisoo along, but knowing that she and Lisa seem to have some bad blood, she decided not to.

There were a lot of students lined up outside the snack bar. Only a certain amount of students were allowed in at a time, to avoid congestion, as it was a pretty small room.

‘Hey Rose!’ called a voice.

It was Lisa. And behind her was a group of at least 20 other students. Rose’s jaw dropped.

‘Guys, this is my friend, Rose,’ said Lisa, turning to her group of friends.

Rose thought most of her friends looked like they belonged to some gang who took a liking to lighting people’s trash on fire.

‘Er, h-hello. N-nice to meet you …’ said Rose awkwardly. Damn, why do they all look so imitating?

Some of Lisa’s friends smiled back, but there were a few others that didn’t look so happy to see her.

‘Well guys, I’m having lunch with Rose today,’ said Lisa, taking hold of Rose’s arm. ‘I’ll see you guys after school, yeah?’

Lisa’s friends grumbled in reply. Rose thought she saw one or two of them death-stare her. Was it because they thought she was dating Lisa?

After Lisa’s friends moped off, Rose felt a bit more at ease in Lisa’s presence. Before, when Lisa’s friends were there, she felt sort of out of place; she felt intimated and judged. Lisa seemed to read Rose’s mind.

‘Hey Rose, don’t mind my friends too much. They can come off as … intimidating at first. But they’re nice people at heart … most of them at least,’ Lisa said, still holding onto Rose’s arm.

Rose hadn’t even realised that Lisa was holding onto her arm. But she was holding on with quite a grip, and Rose sensed that something was off.

‘Are you alright?’ she asked Lisa.

The queue moved forward a bit, and Lisa shuffled up a bit too.

‘Well … I’ll be honest with you, Rose,’ said Lisa. ‘I have this problem and I don’t know how to fix it. Do you think you could help me?’

‘Sure, what is it?’

‘You’re friends with Jisoo, right?’ said Lisa.

Rose nodded, but unsure why Jisoo had got anything to do with Lisa’s problem.

‘Well, thing is,’ Lisa continued. ‘Thing is, we used to be friends …’

‘Really? But, I thought she said she didn’t want to be your friend or something.’

‘Yeah …’ mumbled Lisa, looking down at the floor. ‘I think I may have screwed things up a bit.’

‘What do you mean? Did you guys have a falling out?’ asked Rose, although already had a feeling what Lisa meant. Rose was starting to put the pieces of this case together. The picture was becoming clearer.

‘I wouldn’t call it a “falling out”. We were good friends. She was the first one who talked to me when I first moved here from Thailand. I could speak barely any Korean, but Jisoo seemed eager to help me learn the language. She was nice and patient, and thanks to her, I was able to speak pretty fluently in 5 months. We had become close over the months, and I thought we shared a beautiful friendship. Then one day – oop, hang on, the line’s moving up again. So – um – where was I …? Oh yeah, one day, we were sitting on a park bench in front of this beautiful tree, and she took my hands and said that she liked me.’

Rose nodded. ‘Wow! Talk about being bold! Honestly, she doesn’t seem like the kind of person who would confess first. What happened after?’

‘And then, well, I said I liked her too. She was nice, patient, and pretty, what else could I ask for? So we started going out. We’d go to the movies, sometimes, we’d look out over the night-time city landscape from her balcony. We just did what couples usually do. It was like that for 4 months. And then suddenly, things started going downhill. My friends seemed to hate Jisoo. Whenever I took her with us, they’d walk away. And when Jisoo left, they’d come up to me and tell me to break up with her, otherwise they wouldn’t be my friends anymore. It was childish, and I didn’t know why they wanted me to do that, and I still don’t know why they wanted me to break up with her. It was all very confusing and difficult. I didn’t want to break up with Jisoo, but I didn’t want to lose my friends either. In the end, I decided maybe it was best to end it with Jisoo, to go back to being just good friends. But I learnt a lesson that day. And that lesson was that you can’t go from a good friendship to a relationship, and then decide to break up and go back to being friends. It sounds cringey to say, but it broke my heart seeing Jisoo’s response. She didn’t cry or anything, but there was a look of hurt and betrayal written all over her face and I just felt so bad.’

‘Gosh,’ said Rose, unsure what else to say in this situation.

‘Anyways, she didn’t want to be friends again, but I wanted to. And I still do. She’s a great person, someone you can rely on, a person who you can be friends for life. But I butchered it by going a step too far. So what I’m asking for your help on is, could you please, I dunno how, just persuade Jisoo to talk to me, and listen to how I want to be friends with her again? How I know that I injured our friendship, but that we can still stitch it back up?’

Rose nodded slowly. ‘Yeah, yeah I guess I could do that.’

‘Really?’ said Lisa, lighting up. ‘That’s great. You’re my saviour, Rose,’ she said with a grin.

They were finally able to enter the snack bar, and Rose dove for her favourite snacks.

Later she and Lisa decided to sit on the bench in front of the big cherry blossom tree, outside one of the school buildings.

‘I didn’t know they were in season …’ said Rose, gazing up at the tree. ‘It’s really pretty, isn’t it?’

Lisa nodded. ‘Yeah, just as beautiful as a person I know …’

‘Jisoo?’

‘No. Well, she is pretty, but not in that kind of way.’

‘Oh...’

What does “not in that kind of way” mean? Rose thought.

‘Hey, um, Rose? Weren’t you at least a bit surprised when I told you how me and Jisoo used to date?’ asked Lisa

‘Nope. I kind of figured it all out in the end …’ said Rose with a grin.

‘Wha - ? How?? Were we that obvious in the way we avoided each other?’

‘No, not really. I mean – I could tell you guys had bad blood, but it wasn’t that that gave it away.’

‘Then what was it?’ Lisa asked, intrigued.

‘Well, in class before, after you guys had that brief encounter in the toilet, I saw her inspecting something in her hands. She seemed so intrigued with whatever she was looking at, and I got curious. I asked what she was looking at, but she hastily put the item away. Even so, I caught a glimpse of what she was holding, and it was confirmed after I did some digging on the internet. A love key chain. A cute bear-shaped one, with the silhouettes of two people in each other’s embrace. And I just had a sudden realisation: maybe that was from you! Maybe you guys used to be a thing! And turns out, I was right on the dot!’

‘Yeah you were, Sherlock Holmes,’ said Lisa, impressed.

Rose glanced at her watch. ‘Geez, time flies. Lunch’s almost over and I haven’t finished my food!’

‘Rose … what do you think on love?’ asked Lisa, out of the blue.

‘Huh? Love?’ replied Rose.

Lisa nodded. ‘Yeah. What’re your thoughts on it?’

‘Well … I dunno. I guess … I love my parents and my two fish …?’

‘No, I mean – Romantic love. Like, have you ever had a crush on someone?’ said Lisa. Her eyes seemed to be piercing though Rose’s.

‘Romantic love? No. No I haven’t. Wait … actually, no. There was this one person who I found attractive. But I was told they weren’t a good person, and now my feelings are buffulzed.’

Lisa seemed rather shocked when Rose said that.

‘You – You like someone??’ she asked, standing up.

Rose shrugged her shoulders. ‘Like I said, my feelings for that person are very confusing. I don’t know if I actually like them for who they are, or for their looks. And I still don’t know if they’re a bad person, even though, my impression now is that they are of nice character.’

For some reason, Lisa was pacing around like something bothering was troubling her.

‘Do you mind telling me who that person is?’ asked Lisa.

‘Hell no! Why would I tell you who it is?’ said Rose cheekily. ‘It’s my own secret.’

‘Oh come one!’ whined Lisa. ‘Please tell me who it is!’

Rose shook her head. ‘My lips are sealed.’

When Rose gave Lisa that response, Lisa dropped to the floor, her hands held out in front as if she was praying to some god.

‘Please tell me, Rose.’

Rose was taken aback by Lisa’s sudden action. ‘What the - ?? Are you okay??!’

Lisa must’ve snapped back to reality and realised what she was doing, because she stood up abruptly, hastily brushing her knees.

‘Er … sorry about that …’ she mumbled, looking down at her feet.

Rose had never seen Lisa so vulnerable-looking. She’d always looked tough on the outside, like as if she was the on top of the food chain. And seeing her now, flushing from embarrassment, some-how made Rose’s stomach flutter.

‘W-why do you want to know so badly?’ asked Rose, looking up at Lisa, who was still standing up.

There was a few moments of silence after that question. Lisa didn’t reply; instead, she stared intently into Rose’s eyes. So intently, that Rose thought she might fall of the bench from the intensity of the stare. Before Rose could say something to break the awkward silence, Lisa broke the eye contact, looked at the ground, then looked back up, with a smile on her face.

‘Aish, this is annoying …’ she muttered, shaking her head like something was bugging her.

‘Huh?’ was Rose’s response.

Then she drew in a quick breath when Lisa leaned down all of a sudden, her face dangerously close to Rose’s.

‘Why do I want to know that badly, huh?’ said Lisa, not taking her eyes off Rose’s. ‘Well, that’s a good question. But, to be honest, it’s pretty obvious …’

Rose was on the brink of extreme confusion. And her heart was thumping so hard, she was sure that Lisa could also hear it pounding.

‘So … why you ask …?’ said Lisa.

‘It’s cause I like you, Park Chaeyoung.’

(A/N: This was kind of a long chapter, wasn't it ... )

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