Imperfectly Perfect [Chaelisa]

five

When Chaeyoung wakes up in the morning, the first thing she notices is how warm she is. Her right hand is curled around one of Nala's legs, and her left is clutched onto something else, and for a moment she's worried because she doesn't normally wake up with something else in her bed, but then she remembers that she'd stayed at Lisa's and they'd shared a bed.

She opens her eyes and cringes at the bright light coming in through the windows, rolling over to avoid the harsh rays of the sun and coming face to face with Lalisa Manoban.

"Morning, Rosie," Lisa smiles at her and squeezes her hand. "Did you sleep well?"

"Um... yeah," Chaeyoung nods and looks down at her feet, "your bed is comfy. Thank you for not making me sleep on the floor like everyone else."

"Well, you didn't seem like you wanted to sleep on the floor," Lisa laughs, "but then again, I don't think the other girls did either. Let's just... keep my favouritism a secret, yeah?"

"Yes," Chaeyoung stutters, unsure of how to reply. She glances up and meets Lisa's gaze for a moment, focusing on the warm chocolate colour of them and feeling her cheeks heating up. "I like sleepovers at your house, I think. Can I come for another one some time?"

"That's good to know." Lisa smiles. "Of course you can-"

Lisa is interrupted by a high pitched, loud voice. "PpeuPpeu!"

Chaeyoung's hands shoot up to cover her ears and she screws her eyes shut as something lands on the bed behind her. Nervously, she buries her face into Lisa's neck and tries to think of something else, because the voice behind her is still really loud and it's frightening her.

Chaeyoung feels Lisa's hand slowly weave its way through her hair. "Jules, can you please be quiet? My friends are trying to sleep."

"She's not asleep." The voice says again, but thankfully it's much quieter this time. "Who is she?"

"This is Chaeyoung," At the sound of her name, Chaeyoung looks up at Lisa and blushes when the other girl sends her a warm smile. "Chaeyoung, this is my little sister, Jules."

Chaeyoung bites down on her bottom lip and hides her face in Lisa's neck again. She murmurs a small "Hi," and then fiddles with Nala to calm herself down.

"I heard PpeuPpeu talk about you," Jules says with a frown, "she said that you had pretty eyes. Right? Is this the Chaeyoung with the pretty eyes?"

Chaeyoung watches as Lisa reddens and shrugs. "Yeah. She does have pretty eyes. They're a beautiful chocolate colour."

Nervously, Chaeyoung sits up and looks Lisa's little sister over. She doesn't look very frightening and she's not looking at her strangely, so Chaeyoung thinks that maybe she's okay. If she's related to Lisa then she must be nice, right?

"It's nice to meet you, Jules," Chaeyoung murmurs, tapping her fingers against her legs. "Lisa said nice things about you yesterday."

Jules disregards her last statement. "You're quiet."

"I- um," Chaeyoung blushes and looks down at her feet, "yes. I am."

"Why are you quiet?" Jules asks her. "Are you scared? You shouldn't be if you are, I'm smaller than you."

It takes Chaeyoung a few moments to untangle the two questions in her head. "Um, I- I'm not scared. I'm just- um, I don't like meeting new people."

Jules frowns at her. "You're strange."

Before Chaeyoung can react, Lisa is scolding her little sister. "Jules, it's rude to say things like that. Apologise to Chaeyoung."

"I didn't mean it in a bad way." Jules defends herself. "She just is. Like, most people like meeting other people because that's how you make friends. It's strange that she doesn't like it but that doesn't mean it's bad."