ephemeral | Jenlisa [COMPLETED]

Chapter 22

In a lifetime of seeking an adventure out around the world, it was only when Lisa returned to Sacheon with the intention of staying that she realized she was finding a new one.

It was actually really wild, because Lisa had always associated Sacheon with suffocation and boredom.

Settling into Sacheon with the idea of actually settling in was... something else. A whole other kind of adventure that Lisa hadn't realized existed. She'd gone to Everest base camp, she'd been on a hike through the Amazon, she'd traveled the length of the Nile. She'd been to almost every country, she'd walked more than her fair share of lives, experienced enough cultures to curate an entire life built on it.

And that was adventure; it had been exactly what she'd wanted to experience.

But Sacheon was an adventure of its own.

Or maybe it was just that settling down was an adventure of its own? Lisa wouldn't be able to distinguish between the two, given that she'd chosen for this to be the place to settle.

Or maybe it had chosen her.

Either way, she'd been nervous when she'd returned, more nervous than she'd ever been to come back.

Mostly because she'd never been nervous to come back before. But this was different. She was nervous. Nervous that Jennie wouldn't want her, nervous that she'd fractured her relationship with Sehun all over again because of hurting the person he cared for most other than his daughter.

Nervous that she was making her own mistake and that as soon as she really decided she was going to settle down, that she would want to flee.

But the truth was exactly what she'd told Sehun when he'd opened the door for her and asked, "What are you doing back so soon?"

"I think if something is making me nervous or scared, then... it might be the biggest adventure of my life," was what had fallen out of her mouth. She'd gripped the handle to her suitcase so tightly as she'd asked, "Can I stay?"

He'd given her a surprised, searching look, before he'd taken the suitcase from her. "Anytime."

She'd had to take in a deep breath before informing him, "I'm thinking it'll just need to be the once."

How far up his eyebrows had shot had been... well, she'd needed a laugh, and it worked.

She'd spent the first few days waiting. Anxiously waiting, if she was honest. To see if that feeling of needing to leave set in.

"What if it does, though?" Somi asked on her on the second day back. Lisa breezed into the bakery at five in the morning, after her time with Jennie at City Hall the night before, knowing that Somi got to work by four.

She'd held her arms up as if to say ta-da, as Somi's eyes had widened and she'd dropped a bag of flour, encasing herself in a giant flour cloud. "What!" Had all Somi had been able to say.

Because Lisa hadn't told her. She hadn't informed her she was coming back. She hadn't called her in the three days since their talk in the airport.

In the airport where she couldn't get on the plane at all, no matter how much that had been the plan. She just – couldn't.

"How can I say that I really listen to the signs of the universe if I ignore this giant one?" She'd asked once Somi had recovered.

And when Somi asked her the fateful question, the one that had tangled Lisa's stomach up in knots, she'd given her the most honest answer she had.