Love By Soup • LK Adaptation

five

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Lisa shouted for quite some time, repeating the same few words.  After a while, she almost forgot what she was doing there after mechanically shouting for so long.  She planned to shout three more times, demonstrating her sincerity, and then go back.

Suddenly, she saw a shadow at the staircase.  She looked more closely, a tall man walked to the doorway.  The door’s threshold seemed too low for him.  He had to lower his head when coming out the door.

She looked into his eyes at the instant he raised his head.  There was no trace of anger or annoyance in his eyes.  They were sophisticated like savory wine.  Lisa ran over to him and stopped in front of him just to discover that she couldn't even reach his shoulder line.

She suddenly, without realizing why, felt her heart racing, her face turned red; she got really nervous all of sudden.  She grabbed her sleeves standing in front of him, but couldn’t properly speak.

Jungkook wore a casual thick cotton jacket.  The jacket's style was old, but it didn't diminish his graceful charm.

Lisa now truly felt sorry.  Such an outstanding person (a graduate student? a star player of the soccer team? --- that was all the information Lisa was able to gather), got burned on his hand by the hot soup that she had spilled.  If, by any chance, there was any bad side effects ...... Lisa wouldn't dare to think any further.  When she saw his left hand wrapped with dressings, secured by a sling, resting at the front of his chest, Lisa felt a blow to her heart.  She sincerely apologized. "I'm truly sorry, xuezhang."[4]

"Well, it's alright.  The soup wasn't that hot.  After a few day's treatment, I will be fine."

Lisa lowered her head and said in a small voice, "I caused your team to lose the most important player and the match.  Your teammates are so scary!"

Uhm, this wasn't what she was here for...... why did she complain to him?

Realizing that she was acting a bit more coy than she intended, she cleared her throat and assumed a serious tone, "Then does this mean you have forgiven me?"

Jungkook smiled and nodded his head.  "Don't think too much of it.  They just haven't gotten over their anger yet.  They are actually all nice guys."

Lisa smiled happily too.  "En.  Then you take good care of yourself.  I'll go to your next match to cheer you guys on!"[5]

Jungkook accepted Lisa's apology, turned around ready to go back upstairs as Lisa called to him again. "Actually, xuezhang......"

He turned back again, question marks in his eyes.

Lisa took out a tube of ointment from her pocket.  "Xuezhang, this is for you.  It's an herbal ointment for burns."

"It's ok.  The ointment from the school's clinic isn't bad......."

"But it hurts badly when applying it!" Lisa said with certainty.  "Take this, otherwise I'll feel really bad.  My father is a doctor of Chinese medicine.  This ointment is really good.  It doesn't hurt at all when you put it on and can quicken the healing process.  It's good really!"

Jungkook felt a sharp pain when he tried to move his left hand.  He had a slight expression of helplessness on his face.

Lisa eagerly said, "It's really good.  Don't be a stranger, take it!"

Lisa felt she had to put the tube into his hand to make sure he took it.  Without thinking too much, she held the tube in one hand and tried using the other hand to grab Jungkook's right hand so she could put the tube into it.

But----

There was nothing.  There was no hand.

All of sudden, it became so quiet that you could hear a pin drop.  His heavy breathing, her rapid heartbeats, all seemed so clear.

Under his heavy jacket, she grabbed onto an empty sleeve.  His right arm was gone below the elbow.

"You better go."  His face was now without any expression.

[3]:  For those who aren’t aware of how soccer is played, players are arrayed in 3 lines: attackers, midfielders, and defenders.  WIth 1 goalie defending the mouth of the goal.  Obviously more aggressive formations have more attackers while defensive formations have more defenders. Here's a picture to help!

[4]: XueZhang is a phrase used for upper classmen, it is the Chinese version of senpai if you are familiar with japanese.