Jisoo was humming happily to the music coming from her phone while doing the dishes from the previous night's dinner when she heard the pitter-patter of feet coming from the rooms' hallway, this meaning that Lisa had finally woken up from her slumber. She expected the Thai girl to come towards the kitchen area looking for something to eat for breakfast, what she didn’t expect was to see Lisa with a blanket dragging behind her as she her thumb and her other hand rubbing the sleep out of her eyes.

“Annyeong Lisa-ya, did you have a good night's sleep?” Jisoo asked trying to gain the attention of the clearly regressed maknae but ended startling the girl who hadn’t fully woken yet and who gave her a confused expression in return.

“Where am I? Who are you?” Lisa said while looking at her surroundings, not recognizing where she was and who was the woman in front of her that was speaking funny words that she couldn’t understand. The fear implanted in her brain by the strange place was consuming her by the second, finally winning the battle against all of her other emotions breaking Lisa with a loud sob of “Home?”.

After hearing the clearly Thai words coming out of Lisa’s mouth Jisoo started to panic at the situation she had found herself in, she had a regressed girl who never had regressed prior to this instant, a regressed Lisa who was overemotional because clearly, she wasn’t used to Korea, and on top of all that a clear language barrier between the two.

Luckily her brain decided to work at that moment and remember the few Thai words that Lisa had taught her throughout the years they’ve known each other, she recognized the words were and home, realizing that Lisa was asking where she was and why she wasn’t home. Of course, Jisoo knew the real reason, but she couldn’t explain it to her because she wouldn’t understand a single word she spoke and two, this Lisa was a little kid who hadn’t come to Korea after her dream yet.

By the lack of a quick response, Lisa started to cry, even more, making Jisoo quickly gather her in her arms trying to be reassuring with her broken Thai, muttering every few seconds that she was safe in this place with her. After almost 30 minutes of constantly rocking and words of reassurance Lisa finally calmed down enough to stop the heart-wrecking sobs emanating from her slim frame.

Just as Jisoo was about to offer to make some breakfast after the tiring past 30 minutes Lisa’s stomach began grumbling “Lisa hiu?” asked the Korean tickling the little’s tummy, this broke a tiny giggle from the Thai who nodded while muttering “Lili hiu”, “OK Lili, let me go make some breakfast” she told the little while trying to get off the tight embrace she was in but Lisa didn’t seem to want to let go Jisoo yet, “Lili baby, let Jisoo go, please” she said while trying to get Lisa to let go but such was her luck that she couldn’t muster the force to remove the little from her.

“Lili… Jichu” Lisa said while pointing to her and then to Jisoo, “Yeah baby, I’m Jisoo and you are Lili,” said the Korean but apparently that wasn’t what the Thai meant because she got a frown on her face, “Lili ko Jichu! Lili ko Jichu!” said the little while tightening her hold on Jisoo’s shirt.

Finally, Jisoo understood that Lisa didn’t want to be alone “Lili come Jisoo” she told her in English trying to see if she was correct, the little grinned and nodded so she proceeded to cut some fruit while holding the Thai close and proceeding to feed them both.

The rest of the day was spent communicating with a combination of the three languages to understand each other. By bedtime both were tired, so Lisa went down without a fight not that she didn’t like sleeping but the prospect of sleeping in a strange place wouldn’t be tempting to anyone.

The next morning seemed that luck was on Jisoo’s side because Lisa woke as her usual grown-up self but was quite shy after the previous day’s events, which gave Jisoo space to put her plan into action.

This plan consisted of learning the basic expressions in both Thai and English, so if Lisa ended up regressing again, she would be better prepared, and the experience would result in more joy and less stress for both parties. She started right away her journey of learning, which ended taking the whole week… It actually only took her a couple of days, but she wanted to be fully prepared in the pronunciation and structure before trying to communicate with little Lisa again.

Her timing was perfect due to Lisa’s apparent need to regress, the Thai girl would slip some childlike mannerisms into her normal routine. Jisoo would see her drag her blanket around or how her hand hovered around when she was tired or sleepy, and how her voice would slip some more childish tones into her speech, among other things.

The next phase of her plan was to get Lisa comfortable enough to regress again, the opportunity to do so, came the morning after their weekly movie night when Lisa woke exhausted after the late activities.
So Jisoo started baby taking her to help her slip into little space, “Lili baby, are you hungry? Want pancakes and fruit” she said while rubbing Lisa’s cheeks with the pad of her thumbs, she received a hum and a face snuggling into her hand as a response. With a final kiss on her forehead, Jisoo went to prepare breakfast with a huge grin on her face at the success.

While preparing their food Jisoo could feel a pair of eyes looking at her timidly from the door frame, so with a warm and inviting smile she addressed the curious girl “Need something Lili?”, Lisa looked like a deer caught in headlights by her expression, so she only shook her head and went back the way she came.

With a light chuckle Jisoo kept on cooking, after being done she made sure to cut Lisa’s food into bite-sized pieces putting it on a cute plate set she bought a couple of days prior on the internet, it was koala themed, and she really wished that Lili liked it as much as her.

After setting all the food on the table she proceeded towards the sitting room to get Lisa, “Hey Lili, the food’s ready, let’s go eat” she said in a quiet tone so as to not startle her, as a response she only got Lisa walking towards the table but before she could reach it Jisoo stopped her and reminded her that she needed to wash her hands first so after that they both sat to enjoy their breakfast in silence since both were stuffing their mouths.

When breakfast was finished Lisa’s face and hands were all sticky and covered in crumbs, so with a chuckle she tried to wipe her face but the little one wasn’t having it and kept turning her head to prevent getting her face cleaned. “Lili, stop moving! Let unnie clean you” she said in the sternest tone she could muster, but she couldn’t help melting at the sight in front of her, Lisa had the cutest pout on her face while muttering “NO NO” repeatedly.

After a couple of minutes of fighting against Lisa, Jisoo finally won and was able to get the Thai’s face and hands clean, after this small win they both went towards the sitting room to rest after a delicious breakfast if Jisoo could say so herself.

“Jichu, question” expressed Lisa while turning her face towards the Korean, after getting a hum meaning that she had her attention she proceeded, “Why you no speak funny no more?” but this only got her a laugh from Jisoo upsetting her “Hey no laugh!” she yelled while crossing her arms over her chest and sporting a pout on her face.

“Mianhae Lisa-ya, you’re so cute,” she said this last thing while squeezing her cheeks before continuing “I don’t speak funny anymore because I learned some Thai and English so we could understand each other more easily”. “Why?” was the only thing that came out of Lisa’s mouth, but the next statement coming from Jisoo really erased all words from her mind.

“Because I love you”

This liberated the waterfalls in Lisa’s eyes and brought her big self out because her emotions were too big for her little self to deal with alone. Jisoo seeing this made the decision to hug her and comfort her since she knew that was what she needed more at that moment.

After getting Lisa calm enough to speak again Jisoo proceeded to try to get an answer as to why she was crying, “B-because you are d-doing so much t-things fo-for me u-nnie” the Thai expressed hiccuping and rubbing her eyes to get rid of the stray tears still coming out.

Panic arises in Jisoo, maybe everything she was doing wasn’t what she was supposed to be doing “So, you’re feeling overwhelmed? Did I do something wrong? Do you want me to stop doing all these things? Because if that’s what you want, I can do it, it wouldn’t be a probl…”, thankfully Lisa stopped her rambling by hugging her and giving some words of comfort “Of course not unnie, you haven’t done anything wrong, on the contrary, you’ve been amazing taking care of me. It’s just I’m a little overwhelmed by the situation itself, I still can’t wrap my head around the fact that you want to take care of me”

“Of course I want to take care of you, you’re my yeodongsaeng, so I’ll do everything in my reach to make you feel happy and safe” Jisoo reaffirmed her statement by engulfing Lisa in an embrace but not without a slight tease “… even if it means changing your dirty diapers”.

“OH MY GOD UNNIE! WHAT THE HECK! We were having a warming moment, and you had to be like that?” the Thai exclaimed with a hint of indignation on her face, but quickly it turned into a smirk “I guess I could forgive you if you take me to the cool playground, buy me some ice cream…”

“Sure thing, Manofoot, I’ll do all those things so I can gain your forgiveness. Because I can’t live without you” Jisoo answered back with clear sarcasm dripping from her voice, but apparently, Lisa hadn’t finished her list of requests for her forgiveness. “and you have to give me a piggyback over there chikin girl” added the taller girl with mischief before watching the older one sigh in defeat at having been played.

Jisoo proceeded to get ready a bag filled with the bare necessities for a trip down to the playground, there was a first aid kit, a bottle of water, sunscreen, insect repellent, lots of band-aids, and some fruit for a snack, she was debating if she should also bring a change of clothes for Lisa, so she decided to ask “Hey Manoban! You’re going to regress again, right? Or are you planning to stay big for the rest of the day?”.

Without looking in Jisoo’s direction and playing with her fingers Lisa mumbled her response, “I was planning on regressing again… Ifitscoolwithyouofcourse, butifitbothersyouIcanstaybig” the rambling stopped when Jisoo reassured her that it was totally fine.

Happy with the answer Jisoo packed a change of clothes, poured the water in some spill-proof cups, grabbed the wet wipes package, and went to get herself and Lisa’s outfits changed into something appropriate.

Jisoo’s outfit consisted of a pair of denim shorts, a short-sleeved white graphic shirt, her Adidas falcon, some shades, and a black cap; meanwhile, Lisa’s outfit consisted of some denim overall shorts, a black crop, mid-calf socks, her eytys sonic canvas, and some shades, before they were on their way Jisoo slipped a bucket hat on Lisa’s head.

From that day on Jisoo and Lisa developed a caregiver-little relationship, which kept growing more and more as the days passed. But the anxiety made itself present a couple of weeks later as Jennie and Rosé were closer to returning to Korea, and they didn’t know what reaction they would get from the other two members.

The arrival day was filled with anxiety from both parties, knowing the rest of the group mates would be coming home in a few hours. From the moment they awoke the only thing in their mind was to clean the dorm out of any evidence of Lisa’s regression; not because they were ashamed but because they didn’t know how the other two would react.

After making the dorm shine, they proceeded to get clean and get some food into their systems, unfortunately, they couldn’t get more than a few bites into them. Just as they finished putting the dirty dishes away, the sound of the door code being entered made itself known to both girls, making the anxiety increase.

As soon as Jennie and Rosé put a foot on the threshold the anxiety melted away for the moment, being replaced by excitement at seeing their friends once again after 3 weeks of them being overseas.

“Mandu! Pasta! Welcome back to Korea” said Jisoo hugging them, but Rosé got out from the hug quickly as she felt Lego rub against her leg just as Lisa came forward too, “Welcome back Jen” said the Thai while giving her a quick hug.

Hearing Lisa speak Rosé turned her head quickly in the direction of the voice before yelling “LALISA!” and running towards Lisa, seeing this Lisa yelled back “CHAEYOUNG!”, getting herself ready for the oncoming hug and posterior jumping from both parties emanating joy at getting their best friend back.

“It seems they both missed each other a lot don’t you think so Jendeuk?” said Jisoo throwing her arm around Jennie’s shoulders, “Yeah, there were times where I thought Rosie would die without her buddy. But she seemed to enjoy herself back in LA” answered Jennie snuggling herself further in Jisoo’s embrace.

“Now that you mention it, how was your time there? Did you have lots of fun? And more importantly, did you miss me lots?” smirked Jisoo at the last question, but the response made the anxiety resurface in Jisoo’s body, “It was awesome and well spent our time there, we sure had lots of fun, and of course, I missed you lots, who wouldn’t miss your cute snores… But I need to talk with you about something that happened at the time that we were there. We realized something about one of our younger members” expressed Jennie with worry in her voice.