"I'm so sick of this." Roseanne paced back and forth in front of her couch, where Lisa sat twirling her phone in her hand. "Nobody will tell me what's going on."
Lisa sympathetically nodded. She had only removed her jacket since returning to Roseanne's apartment, but she was still sexy as all get out. But it was the last thing Roseanne was thinking about. Her mind was still going over the events of the night.
After Hana had been kicked out, everything changed. Tensions had been high. The guests awkwardly laughed and played with kittens while everyone else in the family looked around anxiously, whispering secrets Roseanne wasn't privy to.
As always, she was perpetually left in the dark.
"I don't understand any of this," she said. "Irene thinks it's something to do with Black Diamond, but then why is Mom acting so crazy and paranoid? Why would Mom go nuts on Hana like that?"
"I don't know," Lisa said.
But Roseanne barely heard her. "Mom was pretty drunk, but that still doesn't explain it. She always gets drunk at these things. Maybe Hana really is this big security threat. But that's insane, right? She's like 60 years old. Harmless! Even if she wanted to hurt us, wouldn't she have done something at the gala? And if it is her who's stalking us, why wouldn't Mom just say so?" She halted her pacing and turned to Lisa. "You don't think it's Hana, do you?"
Lisa shrugged. "Like I said, I don't know. But it does seem plausible."
Roseanne studied Lisa's face. "If you knew something, you would tell me, right?"
"Of course. As long as I didn't think it put you in danger. But I don't know any more than you do. Your mother certainly isn't telling me anything."
Roseanne sighed. "I'm just so sick of it. I'm sick of being kept in the dark because people don't think I can handle the truth. I'm sick of being treated like a baby. With everything that's going on, there's no way Mom is going to let me go to Busan for grad school." Hot tears welled in her eyes. "I'm never going to be free!"
Great, now I'm acting like a baby too. But she didn't care. Not anymore. She'd been holding everything in for so long now. And all those emotions just kept building and building until they were threatening to spill out of her.
"Hey..." Lisa took Roseanne's hand. "I know things are crazy right now, but they won't always be like this. I don't know what's going to happen with your mom or this stalker, but I do know that you'll get through it. We will get through it. Together."
She drew Roseanne down to the couch. Roseanne snuggled close to her, resting her head on Lisa's chest. "Just promise me that when this is over, we'll still be together. And we'll go somewhere far away from all of this. Like Jeju. Or Tokio."
"When this is all done, we'll go wherever you want," Lisa whispered. "I promise I'll protect you until the end."
Roseanne wanted to believe her. That was why, when she wrapped her arms around Lisa's neck to steal a kiss, she refused to let go.
She needed Lisa's strength right now. But not in the usual way. She didn't need the hard and heavy loving that Lisa so often delivered. This wasn't about teasing her, 'taming' her. What Roseanne needed was the reassurance that there was someone in her corner, someone who would be there for her until one of them gave out.
Breaths, bodies, motion. That was what Roseanne needed. And that was what she got when Lisa lowered her onto her back on the couch like a stick in the wind.
