Slowly Falling | LK Adaptation

Chapter 45

In this city, the streets were usually more lively at night than during the day. The cold temperatures of the winter season can't fend off the enthusiastic men and women looking for some beer and merriment after a hard day's work. Several food stalls were put up on the streets, causing Lisa to slow down her car as she slowly drives to Jungkook's neighborhood.

Jungkook made the right decision when he refused to let Somi have the bedroom that faced the main street. Lisa didn't think it'd be this noisy at night.

She had come to his home several times by now, so the guard at the gate knew her. When he saw Lisa's car, he didn't ask and simply let her in. However, it wasn't easy to find a parking spot at this time of night.

Because there weren't any specific markers in the basketball court parking, the residents basically parked at random. There were a few spaces, but they looked too tight to properly park. Lisa thought back to her previous date with Jungkook in the amusement park. They encountered a similar situation back then, but Jungkook was there to skillfully park her car into the tight space.

Now, she didn't have Jungkook to help her. Moreover, it was in the middle of the night, so it was pretty dark. She slowly moved little by little, heavily relying on her parking assist system.

After she managed to successfully park her car, she sighed in relief. She got out of the car, took her bag, then headed to Jungkook's home.

There were no elevators in old buildings such as this. Lisa's high-heeled shoes clanged on the metal stairs and echoed on the empty corridor. Jungkook heard her even before she knocked on their door.

He went to the front door, intending to open it for her, but his hand paused halfway. The footsteps got closer and closer, then finally stopped outside the door.

Lisa raised her hand and knocked on the door. "Jungkook."

He stood on the other side of the door hand on the handle. He didn't move for a long time.

Lisa continued to knock outside. "Jungkook, open the door. I know you're in there."

He licked his dry lips, then slowly opened the door.

Lisa looked at him. His hair was a little damp. It seems that he washed his hair just moments before.

"Jeon Jungkook." The two stood there for a moment, separated by the door frame. Then, she broke the silence and said: "You said you wanted to break up with me, right? Say it again to my face."

He remained silent. He couldn't open his mouth.

Lisa waited for a few seconds, then pushed him to the side, entering the house. Jungkook watched her go inside, then shut the front door. He followed her, calling out: "Lisa..."

Lisa marched straight to mother Jeon's door. She stopped, looked at Jungkook, then asked: "Is your mother still inside?"

"Yeah."

Lisa knocked twice, then turned the door handle. The door was unlocked, so she entered the bedroom easily.

Mother Jeon lay motionlessly on the bed, her back to the door. Lisa went around the bed, her high-heels clicking on the floor, like she stepping on people's hearts.

Mother Jeon's eyes remained closed. She didn't look at Lisa.

Lisa stood by the bed and looked down on her. She said: "Auntie Jeon, this is Lisa. I know you're not asleep. Listen to me. I know you're grief-stricken that Uncle is gone. I know you feel cheated. But you're also an adult. More so, you're Jungkook's mother. It's been three years. Three whole years, and you're still reluctant to go outside? How long are you going to be sick? Do you plan on depending on your son for a lifetime? He's your son, not your prisoner. He's not living in a home, he's living in a cage."
　
Jungkook stepped forward, wanting to stop her. "Lisa, don't say that..."

"And you." Lisa suddenly looked at him. "Don't you feel horribly sad? For your mother, your sister...for this family, you gave up your studies. You gave up your dreams. You're giving up everything. In my opinion, you're acting like a coward. Don't use this situation as a shield. How many times have you gone back to your university this past couple of years? Do you dare face your teachers? Do you dare meet up with your classmates? You're just running away. You say you're doing this for your sister, but what does your sister actually want? Have you asked? Do you know how much pressure you've given her?"

After she said her barrage of questions, the room became deathly silent. It was like all the air had been sucked out of the house. Jungkook didn't know how to answer her questions.
　　
Lisa looked back down at mother Jeon. "Auntie Jeon, I understand that you're worried that Jungkook might end up like his father. But do you really think what you're doing is right? Is this how you love your son? This isn't love. This is imprisonment."

Then, she walked out of the room. She didn't look back, and she banged the door as she left. It was as if she had never been here in the first place.

Jungkook stood there for a while, then left mother Jeon's bedroom. The food he had heated up was cold again. Jungkook sat on the table and ate by himself. He didn't call out to mother Jeon anymore. After washing the dishes, he took a shower then went into his room.

He took a day off today, but he felt even more tired than if he had gone to work. Jungkook leaned against the headboard of his bed and stared at the two planes on top of his desk.

One was his father's wooden airplane, the other was the paper airplane Lisa had given him.

He didn't know if it was because the door and windows were closed, but Jungkook felt very stuffy. So stuffy that he couldn't breathe. So stuffy that he was starting to hallucinate. Everything around him turned into a huge whirlpool, dragging him down, down, down. He desperately tried to struggle against it, but it was in vain. He wanted to hold something, anything.
　
When he came back into his sense, he was holding the paper airplane Lisa had given him.

He unfolded the plane and read the words inside.

'Death doesn't hurt. It's living that's painful.'

Lisa's words were ominous, but her handwriting was beautiful and neat. The characters written in a row made his eyes ache.

Jungkook thought that he might really be a coward.

He took his phone from the bedside table and tapped on Lisa's WeChat.

----

Lisa had just finished taking a bath. It was in the middle of winter, but she was sweating when she arrived back home. After she finished drying her hair, she sat in front of her dresser mirror and looked at herself.

She had said all that she wanted to say in rapid-fire, like a machine gun. She had been exhilarated the entire ride home, but now that she had calmed down, she thought back to all the words she had said with trepidation. Was it too much?

She had accused Jungkook and mother Jeon of many things, but part of it was just her venting. If she had been in the same position as them, she honestly didn't know if she would've done better. She would've probably given up too, for the sake of her family.

Then, her phone pinged. She opened her WeChat and saw that it was Jungkook.

He was typing something.

Lisa was stupefied. She watched Jungkook's profile picture, waiting for the 'typing something' icon to change. But after then minutes, there was still no message.

Lisa suddenly smiled.

She waited a little longer and finally received a message. However, it was only one word.

Jungkook: Lisa.

Lisa's heart thumped, but she didn't immediately reply.

After a few more minutes, Jungkook sent her another message.

Jungkook: What happened today...I was in the wrong. I apologize.

Jungkook: Are you free tomorrow? Can we meet?

Lisa: Busy tomorrow.

There was no reply from him for a while. Lisa's eyes were glued to her phone screen.

Jungkook: What about the day after tomorrow?

Lisa: Busy.

Jungkook: When will you be free?

Lisa: Whenever you ask me out, that's when I'll be busy.

Lisa straightened, her lips pursed.

Lisa: Jungkook, we've broken up ( ^▽^ )
　　　
----

Jungkook's fingers began to tighten its grip on his phone, and slowly, his surroundings began to darken again. This time, it wasn't a whirlpool, but the ocean. The air seems to have turned into seawater, pounding on his body, on his face. He was a drowning man, dying in the middle of merciless waters.

He needed hold onto something. He wanted...her.

Jungkook's fingers flew on the virtual keyboard of his phone. He was so fast that it looked like his fingers knew what to type even before his brain could process it.

Jungkook: Then, can I pursue you again?

Lisa silently looked down at the message on her phone. After a long while, she finally typed.

Lisa: Depends on my mood.

Gradually, the suffocating waters receded. Jungkook felt that he finally had something to grab onto.
　
He hadn't pursued anyone before. The only time he had fallen for someone was with Lisa, and she was the one who took the initiative. He didn't know how to pursue Lisa, but he was eager to see her again.

The next morning, he got up early as usual and went into the kitchen to make breakfast. Mother Jeon's door was still closed. He didn't call her, but he still prepared breakfast for her.

At noon, he took out a long-unused heat preservation lunchbox and packed some food. Jungkook went to StarLight Park with the specially prepared lunch for Lisa.

Eunha was on the first floor of MONSTER when she saw Jungkook come in. She was a little startled but nodded towards him nonetheless. Jungkook greeted her and asked: "Hello. Is Lisa in?"

Eunha replied: "The Boss is currently abroad. Didn't she tell you?"

Judging by Jungkook's stunned silence, Eunha figured she didn't.

Eunha explained: "She said she would be back in three days."

"I see. Thank you." Jungkook replied.

He left the store, took out his phone, and opened WeChat. Sure enough, Lisa posted that she was going abroad. Jungkook clicked on the comments, intending to post something...but in the end, he simply liked the post.

Lisa was currently in the middle of shopping. Her schedule was very tight, and she was busily buying several things for both herself and others. Carrying a big bag over her shoulder, she went into a random cafe for some lunch. She leaned on the sofa and took out her phone, intending to check her messages.

She added a lot of customers in her WeChat, so there were quite a few comments in her posts. She clicked on her most recent post and saw that Jungkook had liked it.

Lisa chuckled and put down her phone.

While she spent the entire day roaming the streets, and Jungkook did the same, delivering takeout. When he came home in the evening, he saw that mother Jeon had eaten all the food Jungkook had left. Not only this, she even washed the dishes.

Jungkook went into the living room and found mother Jeon sitting on the sofa alone, looking at a photo album.

"Mom." Jungkook called out to her, then looked at the album in her hand.

It was an album containing his childhood pictures. She was currently on a photo of him and his father.

Mother Jeon didn't look up and kept looking at the photo in the album. The photo showed a bright-eyed boy playing in a small park with his father.

He thought that she would ignore him as usual, but mother Jeon suddenly spoke: "When you were a child, your eyes were dazzling."

Maybe it's because she hadn't spoken in a long time, but she had to exert great effort for just this one sentence.
　　　
Jungkook was dumbstruck. He hadn't heard mother Jeon's voice in a very long time. He crouched in front of his mother and held her wrinkled hand. "Mom?"

She slowly lifted her head and looked at him. How long has it been since she genuinely saw him? Her son seemed stronger and more tanned than before. Although they see each other every day, she's never paid attention. She looked at her son for a long time, then gently smiled. "Your eyes right now are beautiful. They're less angry too."

Jungkook couldn't help but smile, his eyes gradually turning red. Mother Jeon raised her hand and touched his hair. "These past three years have been hard on you."

He shook his head and said: "It's fine."

Mother Jeon patted him on the back, similar to when he had been a child.

Their mother finally spoke again. The first thing Jungkook had done was to contact his sister. Somi had just finished studying and was in the corridor with her friends when she received the call. Her cries were so loud it echoed in the corridors, startling everyone in the immediate vicinity.

After talking with his sister, he went to Lisa's WeChat once more. Lisa had just sent another update. It was a photo of an airplane mold she had bought. A finished product was beside the mold.

Jungkook had a lot of things to say to her. He stared at the photo for a while, then finally decided to just like it.

He'll tell her face-to-face.

Despite her account being her store's main account, Lisa wasn't very good at putting regular updates. Whether it was her Weibo or WeChat, she very rarely posts things. But somehow, when she flew to North Korea, her account suddenly became very active. Not only did she take photos, but she also took pictures of random things like flowers on the side of the road.

(T/N: She's sending it on her WeChat moments. So she's sending timed posts to her circle of friends.)

Lisa was extremely busy during her three-day trip, and in a blink of an eye, it was suddenly time to go home. On the day of her departure, she took a picture of her airline ticket. She didn't mosaic her flight information.

After the plane landed in A City International Airport, Lisa dragged her luggage along and followed the flow of people towards the exit. There were a lot of people waiting outside. She lugged her heavy suitcase and looked around.

"Lisa."

She hears a familiar voice coming from behind. She turned around.

Standing in a crowded hall was a smiling Jungkook. When their eyes met, Jungkook lifted his hand and threw a paper plane towards her.

The airport hall was crowded, with people coming and going without pause. However, amongst the sea of people was a paper plane gliding past, strangely navigating through the crowd with ease.

Just as it was about to crash, Lisa reached out and caught it.

Jungkook walked towards her and stopped in front of her. "You're back?"

"Un."

"Then...I wonder if you're free today?"

"I believe so."

He smiled and took the large suitcase she was holding. "Let me push it."

Lisa stared at his retreating back as he dragged her suitcase towards the exit. She then looked down at the paper plane in her hands.

It wasn't the one she had folded for him.

She slowly unfolded the paper plane, and sure enough, there was something written inside.

"High above the clouds, there are dreams; Below the clouds, there's you."