More Than Revenge [Chaelisa, Jenlisa, Chaennie]

Chapter 20

Chaeyoung

The week passed quickly and the holidays arrived without celebration, at least for Jennie and Chaeyoung. Chaeyoung tried to calm herself, Jennie had told her a thousand times not to worry, Lisa would be back next term for sure. There was no way she would just drop out of such a good school.

Chaeyoung knew Jennie was right but she couldn't help but feel helpless. The school had told her only that Lisa would be absent because she had gone home to Thailand, they wouldn't say for how long or why. Chaeyoung had thought about calling then realised the only number she had was a Korean number and Lisa would be using a different card in Thailand. There was nothing she could do, no answers she could find.

The holidays passed for Chaeyoung in quiet and solitude. Jennie, Jisoo, Taehyung and Felix all asked her to hang out but Chaeyoung politely refused. Instead she focused her energy into music and, god forbid, her maths homework.

Conflicting thoughts ran through her head until she didn't know what to feel. About Lisa, about anything. All she could do was wait, creating a fragile reality where there was no Lisa, there was no Jennie, there was only school and her apartment. But time was running out, soon the holidays would end and it would all have to come crashing down.

***
Chaeyoung was seated on the couch reading when a very loud knocking broke through the music playing in her headphones. Sighing she got up and opened the door to berate the person on the other side.

"Damn are you trying to break my door down?"

Taehyung jumped as the door swung open quickly then his expression became annoyed.

"Hey I've been knocking for the past five minutes it's not my fault you're deaf."

Chaeyoung rolled her eyes as Taehyung pushed past her and into her room jumping onto her couch.

"Wow Chaeng you are not very organised are you."

Chaeyoung blushed and grabbed a few clothes shoving them into the laundry basket.

"I'm sorry I wasn't expecting guests."

Taehyung smiled and the two fell into an awkward silence before he spoke again.

"I just thought I'd come see how you were, no ones seen you all holidays."

Chaeyoung shrugged and sat down plucking absentmindedly at her guitar.

"Yeah I know, I'm fine."

"Cool. Well," Taehyung reached into his bag and pulled something out, "wanna play Mario Kart."

Chaeyoung raised an eyebrow.

"You came over unannounced to ask me to play Mario kart with you?"

"It's a good game!"

Chaeyoung laughed but stood up to turn in the tv.

"You are so weird."

"I'm not weird! It's the last day of the holidays excuse me if I want to have some fun with my friend before I go back to school."

Chaeyoung faltered slightly at the mention of school but shook away the feeling of dread, turning back to Taehyung with a grin.

"Prepare to lose horribly then Tae."

"We'll see..."

***

"Why the fuck are you so good at Mario Kart?"

Chaeyoung laughed and just shook her head.

"Wow you really can't get over this huh?"

Looking out the train window Chaeyoung smiled as she tuned out Taehyung's grumbling about different gaming technicalities and over powered vehicles. Her smile fell slightly as her eye caught the empty seat next to her in the reflection.

As much as Tae had cheered her up yesterday this morning her heat felt heavy. Chaeyoung had woken up, god forbid, an hour early and after quickly preparing for school had waited by her door until the last minute before she had to leave. Lisa had made no appearance.

As the day progressed Chaeyoung didn't lose hope that Lisa would arrive, but with each passing hour it became harder to hold out. She ignored Jennie and Jisoo's worried looks but by the end of the day she could not maintain her false smile and opted to instead move through the school in misery.