You Captured By Me

Chapter 13

Lisa felt her body hot with every floor that passed inside the ascending elevator. She tried really
really hard not to conjure images of
Jennie wearing lingerie but her efforts were futile: her lust for her is too strong. When she finally reached the twenty-first floor, she almost gasped in shock when the elevator door opened to Jennie standing directly in front of
her.

"Hi. Nice meeting you. Go home," she smiled.

Jennie was wearing pyjamas with
duck patterns, a pair of yellow furry bunny-shaped slippers, and a t-shirt with a Pikachu printed on its dead center.

THIS WOMAN. SHE PLAYS ME REAL GOOD.

"Stop staring, Dr. Manoban. You
can't catch this Pikachu," she smirked, raising her eyebrows

She stepped out of the elevator and
walked towards her until their faces became a mere few inches away from each other.

"I'm a very, very persistent hunter,
Ms. Kim,"

She remained standing on her spot,
enduring the excruciating nearness
of their bodies. Her hair was slightly dripping wet and she smelled of apple-scented shampoo and perfume. She showered. Holy shit she just finished taking a shower. Fuck.

When Lisa couldn't resist anymore, she pulled her into a tight embrace.

"I just want to make sure you're
really feeling better now, Jennie," she whispered.

"Do you want me to be honest?"
She broke the hug so she can look her in the eye.

"Of course."

"I totally felt like Syria tonight," she
confessed, her eyes moist and her
smile, bittersweet. The second saddest country in the
world. Lisa, what have you done?, She secretly cursed at herself.

"Nothing, I just feel that Ive let you
down because I assumed the worst
quickly," she muttered, her eyes
downcast.

"Jennie, you'll not assume if only I've been open and honest upfront about myself, right? So let's put this all behind us. We've learned, haven't we?"

She nodded in silent agreement, still a little awkward about the craziness of the last couple of hours.

"And...since I'm here already,
maybe we could repent for our sins
by..punishing each other," she grinned mischieviously at her.

"OH MY GOD LISA GET OUT OF THIS FLOOR GET OUT THIS BUILDING!"

She playfully pushed her back
towards the elevator.

She grabbed her by the wrist and
kissed the back of her hand.

"As long as you won't ask me to get
out of your life,"

Jennie interlaced her fingers with hers.

"When I told you that I want to be
here for you, that means I want you
to stay,"

"Thank you, Jennie."

"Thank you for telling me about you today, Dr. Manoban"

"And I will stay. In fact if you want
me to stay here for good, I can move in as soon as possible. Let's live in together"

"JUST GO HOME BYE!"

"Jennie! I'm just kidding! Well, okay I was 97% serious-"

Three minutes later, Jennie finally
led her inside her unit. Lisa noticed
that the place seemed a little empty
and unstyled. In fact, there were still some half-unpacked boxes containing her things on the far end of the living room.

"I've only moved in a month ago,"

Jennie told her, even if she wasn't
asking anything out loud.

As they walked through the narrow
hallway leading to the living room,
Lisa couldn't help but steal a brief peek at Jennie's bedroom as they passed by its open door. There was a family portrait of her and her parents hanging on her wall that caught her eye, along with some pictures of her friends.

"Are you done with your inspection, Dr. Manoban?" Jennie tugged at her, startling Lisa out of her thoughts.

"Your blanket is reddish pink. Or
pinkish red."

"The shade's called Cerise. My
favorite blanket is in the laundry
unfortunately. So I had to use that
one."

"And your favorite blanket is colored what?"

"If this is a trap for me to accidentally tell you what my favorite color is, then sorry, no chance, Lisa."

"Why won't you tell me?"

"The day you correctly guess it is the day I'll change my facebook status to in a relationship with Lisa Manoban"

"Deal."

"You only have one chance to guess,
though. And if you guess wrong, then we'll never ever end up together,"

"You're cruel, you know that?"

"It's fair, Lisa. Like you, I'm also
looking for a sign." She smiled sweetly as she led her to the couch and handed her a tub of half-empty ice cream.

"Jennie, what's the color of your
underwear right now?"

"LISA CAN YOU PLEASE STOP ASKING IRRELEVANT QUESTIONS?"

"That question is a very valid point of research for my quest in discovering your favorite color, Jennie."

"It doesn't take just mere intelligence, Dr. Manoban. It takes instinct and
imagination,"

"Oh, I imagine you all the time,"
Jennie shut her up with a spoonful of ice cream and reached for the remote control then pressed on play.

The Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix Movie.

"Still researching for that Hogwarts
Wedding?" she asked her.

"They want Butter Beers to be served at the reception. I'm officially screwed beyond salvation."

Lisa held her hand.

"You're good at what you do, Jennie.
You can do it."

"It's not as noble as what you do
though, but thank you."

"Jennie, I stitch broken hearts by
surgery, but you work on binding two.hearts for a lifetime,"

She allowed herself to lean on RJ's
shoulders.

"But you know...I'm here because, ...I want to do
soul-searching in the dark for thirty
seconds," she winked at her, expecting her to laugh or to playfully hit her again.

Instead, Jennie looked at her in the
eye deeply, stood up from the couch
and turned off the TV and every
single light in her condo unit. And
then she found her way to her and
pulled her into a fierce embrace. Like.an echo of what Lisa told her on the first time they met, she told her:

"You can stay here for as long as you need, Lisa."

For the first time in the past six
months, Lisa allowed herself to give
in to the sadness she had denied for
so long. In the darkness, she cried
on her shoulders and she wept with
her, both of them grateful for this
unexpected friendship. This intimacy.

Later, they would be lying next
to each other on the couch in
absolute stillness, wrapped up in
the cerise-colored blanket and each
other's arms, fully clothed but their
souls completely naked. They woul continue re-watching the Harry Potter movie, falling asleep just before the break of dawn, at the precise moment after Dumbledore asked Snape,  "After all this time?"

And as naturally as the sun rising
every morning, Jennie and Lisa would say softly, in one breath:

"Always."

In a few hours, Jennie would wake up alone.