Choosing you | LisRene AU [BOOK 2]

5

The beginning of the following week felt strangely unreal. With the stress of the past few days, it felt weird for Lisa to wake up as normal and just go to class. It almost felt like maybe the weekend hadn't happened at all – her dad wasn't back in town, she didn't have a half-brother somewhere in New Jersey, and everything was normal. It helped that Lisa's favorite psych classes were on Monday and Tuesday, so she felt sufficiently distracted.

Irene didn't bring up Marco unless Lisa did, and the younger girl didn't at all after Sunday night, and Rosé quickly caught on to the fact that Lisa didn't want to talk about him. She wasn't sure when she'd see him again if she did, and she didn't want to linger on it. Tuesday night was a typical weeknight for Irene and Lisa as well, where Lisa took over the whole bed to do homework and Irene came home from work with food. While Lisa was in the middle of taking a break to eat with her girlfriend, the brunette's phone went off with a phone call from her mom.

Irene didn't pick up the call the first time, insisting that she would email her mom back to keep her from calling again, but Mrs. Bae called three more times in a span of five minutes, so Irene finally did.

"What?"

"That's no way to talk to your mother, Irene."

"I haven't spoken to you in years, mom, what do you want?"

She heard her mother scoff on the other end of the line. "You haven't been answering my emails, but you've been gladly taking the money I've been sending you."

"I figured that me ignoring you would get the point across that I'm not planning on switching careers for you and that you can stop sending your fucking money whenever you want," Irene snapped angrily.

Mrs. Bae exhaled in exasperation. "Irene, being an artist isn't practical. I know that there are jobs for you there that aren't art related, and if not, there are jobs up in Daegu. You could handle moving an hour north, Irene, it's not like you're in school in YGU anymore. What's there for you anyway? Your father?"

"You know very well that I don't talk to dad anymore," Irene stated, "just like I don't talk to you. And as such, where I live doesn't have any influence from either of you. I won't move to Daegu, and I won't switch jobs. Goodbye, mother."

Lisa had sat through the conversation unspeaking, a frown stuck on her face. She understood Irene's anger at her parents – they'd basically abandoned her emotionally and mentally, letting her flunk her senior year and then have to graduate late. They'd caused her life to spiral out of control for a year and a half, and Lisa knew that, that had to have been no easy time. Irene didn't talk about it very much, aside from making references to it every now and then as a joke. She always thought that maybe Irene should talk about it, but Lisa would never make her.

They didn't talk about the conversation after it ended, just like they didn't talk about Lisa's dad and his family in Jersey. Just like they didn't talk about the New York idea.

In fact, Lisa nearly forgot about the New York idea by the time Wednesday came around. She had early classes on Wednesdays – her basic calculus and literature classes were both that day – and she usually went straight home afterward to knock out as much homework as possible. However, she was far too tired out after class and grabbing lunch at the cafe on campus to do homework, so she found herself driving over to the warehouse instead.

Irene wouldn't be there yet, she knew, but that never stopped her from going over there. It felt like it was her place as much as any of their friends by now, even though she didn't have a room to herself. She generally spent most of her time in Irene's art room, but she'd spent a good amount of time using Junmyeon's TV or laying across Wendy's couch and napping.