a misty gashed aperture

faltering to a close

The knocking did not stop until Lisa opened the door to what she could tell to be a cranky Jisoo with the way the smaller woman had her eyebrows met in the middle. "Why are you still knocking when I just told you over the phone that I'm coming?"

"Were you sleeping?!" Jisoo's tone sounded accusatory, even throwing Lisa an astonished stare as if sleeping was a crime. She called Lisa earlier when she found the studio was locked to check if the artist was inside and said she was returning the car.

"Am I not allowed to sleep? And quit being cranky with me." Leaning at the doorframe, Lisa arched an eyebrow at her friend's strange behavior that was testing her patience when she was just getting in the zone. "Is this about you picking up Top because, uh, what are we, petty?"

Jisoo held up a takeaway bag from Cheongsudang Gallery, a Hanok-style café in Ikseon-dong neighborhood. "Top and I grabbed some breakfast and I thought of your irregular eating habits ass so you're welcome."

"Thanks." Lisa held the takeaway bag at the folded tip, but Jisoo would not let go.

Eyes busy scrutinizing the taller woman's face, Jisoo absentmindedly held the bag firmer at Lisa's tugging. "You need to eat it already before it melts."

"Uh, I can start if you'd actually give it to me."

Without uttering a word, Jisoo squinted more, still on a mission to find signs of trepidation in her friend's brown eyes. Knowing Lisa almost all her life since they became neighbors when they were kids, she seemed to have developed a seventh sense that could spot when something was wrong with Lisa.

Maybe it was the way the artist always wore her heart on her sleeves and effortlessly articulated her thoughts and feelings like how most people casually talked about a good movie or a Monday morning traffic, but Jisoo always sensed it before anyone else. That was why she got cranky when she did not see anything that hinted at bothersome nightmares that Top shared with her earlier.

Getting impatient, Lisa copied the way Jisoo was looking at her and bent forward to match the latter's height. "Snap out of your trance and converse properly now, please. Not all of us have the time."

The act sent Jisoo back to her senses. She glanced down at the takeaway bag as if she did not know what her hand was doing before finally letting it go. "Sorry. Is everything okay with you?"

It took a moment before Lisa guessed it. "So, you already know."

"Why didn't you tell me?" demanded Jisoo.

"Please, I don't need a babysitter just because Chaeyoung..." Lisa's voice quieted down because talking about what Roseanne did would only make it real again. Earlier, she had denied it to be the whole truth because she believed something deeper drove the supermodel to do it. Or at least, that was what she hoped for it to be.

"Wait—Chaeyoung?" Jisoo was pinballed in an entirely different direction from what she thought disturbed her friend. What was Top saying again about nightmares because what she saw on Lisa's face then seemed more painful than those visions?

The reaction was not what Lisa expected. She had a hunch that the entire world already knew. And the world had no idea whose heart Roseanne broke that morning. It made her feel so much like a speck of dust in the universe that evolved around Roseanne Park.

When Lisa did not say anything, Jisoo continued, "Dude, I've no fucking idea what your Chaeyoung did apart from getting you so whipped for her that you drop art for her. Now," she paused to get through the door, but Lisa's arm got in the way. "Hey! I need to talk to you about something."