Choosing you | LisRene AU [BOOK 2]

19

"Yes, mom, I know," Lisa said into the phone distractedly. Irene was standing a few feet in front of her, with her hair tied up into a messy bun. She was dressed in short shorts and a thing tank top because they'd been spending the day basically undoing all of the years' worth of work put into their warehouse. Jackson was keeping the place, to all of their relief, but everyone still needed to move their own things out of it.

They'd already made two trips back to the apartment with Irene's easels and paintings, and now the brunette was filling boxes with the contents of her Ikea shelves, which she would then probably have to take apart in order to save space during the move. Lisa didn't think it would be too much of a hassle to have to put them back together later.

She was meant to be helping, but her mom had called her to check-in.

It was May. The past two months had been completely hectic. Irene had been working basically nonstop, painting commissions and advertising on Etsy, and they had finally gotten approved to lease one of the apartments they'd found. Lisa was in her last week of classes, taking all of her final exams, the scores of which would be reported to NYU, along with her semester transcripts.

Aside from these developments, life had also been progressing for everyone else. Lisa had heard nothing from her father, though she'd been keeping up with Haruto with a phone call every week or so. They were getting closer, which was nice, though Lisa had no idea if he would ever mention that to his parents. She kind of hoped that he wouldn't, at least not for a while, because the last thing she needed was for Haruto's mother to be all over her like Irene's mother had been to them previously. Since she'd sent that email to Irene, they hadn't received any other form of contact from the older woman, which was a relief.

Rosé and Jisoo had begun to be a bit more open with their friends about their relationship – whatever it was exactly. No one had really questioned them about it at all, other than giving them an occasional raised eyebrow or curious look, but everyone was fairly used to seeing them closer than they had been previously.

"Lisa? Did you hear what I said?"

"What?"

"I said that you and Irene need to come and have dinner with me one more time before you guys move. When is that exactly, by the way? You finish this semester tomorrow, right?"

"Yeah, we're moving next Tuesday," Lisa replied, the weight of that idea hitting her at that moment. Yes, they'd been packing both the warehouse and their apartment for the past week or so, but it still felt far away. Now, it was less than a week away. "We can maybe come by and have dinner with you on Sunday."

"Not maybe, Lisa, you will. I've only seen you in passing on campus the past few weeks, and before you go off to make a new life in New York, you have to at least entertain a meal with me. I promise that I won't cook anything from scratch," Mrs. Manoban promised, eliciting a smile from her daughter.

"Sure mom, Sunday," she agreed, and Irene flashed her a thumbs up to confirm that it would be fine. "I should probably get back to helping Irene pack. I'll stop by your classroom tomorrow after my last exam. Love you."

"Love you, sweetie."

Lisa hung up the call and set her phone on the table next to where she was seated on top of it. Irene flashed her an amused smile. "Like you're actually going to help me. Your favorite thing to do is to sit there and look pretty while I do work."

Scoffing, Lisa turned up her nose a bit. "Not true. But if you don't want help, I won't help."

Irene rolled her eyes, clearly about to make some other comment, but then there was a knock on the door and it slid open. Jackson stepped in with a tool bag in one hand, looking at the two of them curiously. "You guys ready for me to take this door down?"