Find a Light (JenLisa Adaptation)

21

Friday,

December 20th, 2019

Months went by, almost in fast forward, and not one single word from Mino had been heard. Jennie figured it was a good thing, at least Lisa's protective streak had calmed down enough so that Jennie was able to go out by herself again. But even though there hadn't been another sign of her crazy ex-boyfriend, Jennie had found herself on edge every time she was out alone and a weird noise sounded or someone who resembled Mino came too close to her.

More than once had she caught herself reaching into her bag, her finger wrapping around the bottle of pepper spray her father had advised her to carry with her wherever she went.

"There's no reason to be scared anymore," she had mumbled to herself every time and willed her hand to let go of the bottle in her purse.

"He's not coming for you anymore." But even that mantra, she continuously told herself, hadn't been able to stop her from worrying that Mino would appear in front of her any minute, and this time, Lisa wouldn't be there to give him a piece of her mind.

Only when her mother called her on a late November evening, had Jennie finally been able to relax. Her anxiety immediately fell off of her when she heard that Mino wasn't even in the same country as her anymore. Her mother had seen him in town, hot on the heels of some blonde again. 'So much for he loves me.'

"Oh God, what do you want?"

The black haired taller woman groaned and threw her head back, but despite her obvious lack of excitement about the visit, Lisa left the door open and walked away, plopping onto her sofa.

"Good afternoon to you too." Jennie stepped in and closed the door behind her, shaking her head at Lisa's attitude. She already encountered days like that, where Lisa was acting like she didn't want her there but never explicitly told her to go away.

She could have easily slammed the door in her face if she really didn't want to put up with her but seeing that she didn't do that, Jennie took it as an invitation to stay. "I brought something for you."

"I don't want anything from you." The frown on Lisa's face hardened. "Why are you here, anyways? I don't remember inviting you over." Jennie rolled her eyes and walked over to the sofa. Hoisting up the big, white shopping bag onto the sofa next to Lisa.

Jennie settled for not responding to the grouchy woman and kept her attention solely on unpacking the gift she had brought for Lisa. When she was finally able to get it out of the plastic bag, Jennie held it up for Lisa to look at and brightly smiled at her.

"Ta-da!"

Lisa's eyes were narrowed, her lips parted as she stared at the little Christmas tree in Jennie's hands. The little decorations adorning the green plastic branches sparkled in various tones of blue and white. Lisa imagined the little lamps fastened on some ends would shine just as brightly as Jennie's grin, if she'd even turned them on.

It was a nice little gesture but unfortunately for Jennie, Lisa wasn't really the appreciative type. Especially not today. "I don't do Christmas," was all she said before she turned away and started flipping through the TV guide. Jennie's smile abruptly fell and her eyebrows crunched together.

"What, but..." Jennie paused, her confused eyes resting on Lisa who didn't spare her a single glance, "You can't just say that you don't 'do' Christmas!"

Jennie's voice came out louder than intended and Lisa turned towards her, raising an eyebrow. "Sure I can. And you already witnessed that last year, didn't you?"

"Yeah, I did but," Jennie sighed and put the tree on the little coffee table before sitting down next to Lisa, "I mean... I wanted you to have at least... a little bit of Christmas spirit. It's such a nice holiday. You shouldn't hate it so much."