Glimpse of Us | Jenlisa [COMPLETED]

Chapter 9

"And then we went up the mountain, and I saw two squirrels, and mama says they probably had a baby squirrel up the tree but I didn't see it, and then Kai and I played ball, and then we had dinner, Kai made pasta, but it wasn't as good as yours, and then mama put her laptop so I could talk to you mommy!"

Ella barely breaths as she recounts her day, and Lisa laughs.

"So you're having fun?" she asks. Ella seems happy, and it's the only thing Lisa could ask for.

"Hmm," Ella nods. "I wish you were here."

Lisa doesn't let her smile waver.

"But I'll see you in just a few days, okay?"

"Okay."

"And just in time for your presentation!" Lisa adjusts the screen of her laptop. "Are you excited? Have you been practicing?"

Ella nods, and launches into a long-winded explanation of how much she's been practicing her turns with Jennie, and Lisa takes a second to look around the screen, because she's only human. Ella takes up half of it, but beside her daughter Lisa can make out a dark leather couch, and in the distance a kitchen done in dark red woods. From the glow on her daughter's face, there's a fireplace in front of her. Kai has a nice vacation place.

She and Jennie had plans, but they never actually came to anything.

"And I told Zoey that I'd get it right on stage, but she didn't believe me."

"I see," Lisa says. "Well, we'll show Zoey how wrong she was, won't we?"

Ella nods, and then looks up, at something Lisa can't see beyond the computer.

"Mommy, Mama says we're roasting marshmallows outside."

Lisa nods. "Okay, can you ask her to let you call me before you go to bed?"

"I gots to go, mommy," Ella says.

"Okay, call me, yeah?"

Ella nods, already getting up and suddenly the only thing visible in the screen are a pair of pink shorts with dirtied up knees.

"I love you!" Lisa says, but the living room is empty. She closes the call when no one comes back to turn the laptop off.

Lisa sits back against her headboard.

She thought Ella would have a hard time being apart from her for a week, but she seems fine, seems to be the happy little girl she always is. Lisa is the one having trouble accepting that.

It stings a little, but then she remembers how easily Ella seems to say goodbye to Jennie nowadays, too, and it makes Lisa think her daughter is just growing up – needing them less and less, becoming more independent. It makes Lisa think about the YG Corp job offer, and how she could take it.

Because maybe Ella can take this, one week with each of them. Maybe it's a real possibility for them, for Lisa. Perhaps distance wasn't the right call to make, before, but it has to be now. It's the option Lisa has left.

***

(August 13th, 2023)

She holds Jennie while she cries.

She doesn't think she's ever seen her wife cry so hard, be so heartbroken, except in those first few days after Jihoon passed away. Their relationship was young still, and it was the first big thing they faced together. Lisa held her through that, too, and it only made them stronger.