Arcade Lover

Chapter 17

Over the course of the next few days, Lisa struggles with her emotions. Jisoo had to witness the sight of her best friend bawling her eyes out in class at random times of the day. It was that unstable and miserable.

Sometimes, she had to make blatant excuses to go to the bathroom just to stand in front of the mirror and stare blankly at her own face. Empty-headed, zero thoughts. Much like a living corpse.

"I think it's time I switched back to the night shift to cheer you guys up. Seeing you like this really sucks, I wonder how Jennie's holding up." Jisoo sighs, patting the blonde on her head gently when Lisa starts spacing out again. It's as if her soul just flies away and comes back occasionally without her telling it to do so.

"Who cares how she's doing?! She was the one who suggested having a break! She was the one who hung up on me! She was the one who clearly has no intention of resolving anything between us! She was the one who-"

"Alright, no need to get impulsive here, Manoban. You know you don't mean what you said. You clearly care about her."

"Figures how I've literally been texting her for five days straight and still she hasn't answered me. Sometimes I wonder why I even try! But then it all dies down to 'I try because I really like her'. Why doesn't she understand?"

"I know, I know that." Jisoo soothes, "Maybe give her more time?"

"More time for what, Chu?! Wouldn't talking things out solve things quicker?! Why's there a need to wait? I don't get it! Wait till my soul wilts and withers?! Then what?!"

"Your soul is not a plant, you dumb fag."

"Look, I'm trying to zoomorphisize my soul so I get to feel better about this shitty reality!"

"Well clearly that's not how it works." Jisoo says plainly, "And I think you meant plant-morphisize, since animals don't exactly wilt or wither."

"Fuck you."

Jisoo sighs, observing as Lisa turns to her side and starts thrashing every single one of her belongings back into her bag before proceeding to zip it up like she had beef with the poor fabric. She plunged her carrier on the table and shifts her ass out of her chair much destructively. The chair sounded like it broke into two.

"You keep this attitude of yours up and people down the street might think you'd just stomped out of school after getting out of an unvictorious fight with the homophobic principal."

"Well that's my problem."

"And the way you might actually just kick a dude in the balls if they asked if you were fine..." Jisoo warns, "Can you at least wield your umbrella less of a weapon and more of a tool instead? It scares me."

"That's your problem."

"Fine, fuck you, too." The chestnut hair girl slings her own bag over her shoulder resolutely, "Call me anytime you're not feeling okay." She peers over to check on Lisa once last time before walking out the door, remorseful for her friend despite her head-on stubborn demeanour that no one other than Jennie can seem to cure.

Amidst everything, Jennie fights the urge to go to the arcade.

She doesn't resort to comforting in Rosé either, tortured with the possibility that the girl her best friend was crushing on could be Lisa. It could very well be bookstore hottie. Whenever Jennie saw her in school, she pretended like everything was okay. Sometimes, it was easy feigning around the platinum blondie. Still, she doesn't fully comprehend how her mind was able to convince herself Lisa went to the same bookstore as Rosé to buy books. Indeed this impetuous derivation came from the fact that it was located in the same mall as their common arcade. But, what were the odds?