Even If This Love Disappears From This World (jenlisa adaptation)

Walking Side by Side - V

Jennie and I sneaked toward the abandoned school bike parking area.

Since we both take the train to school, neither of us had a bike parked there. Except I’d heard someone in my class say that the parking space wasn’t very well managed, and there were always a couple of unlocked bikes lying around. No one knew if they’d been left behind by students who graduated or if someone had stolen them and ditched them there.

Jennie and I scanned the lot for those rumored abandoned bikes. It took a while, but eventually, we found one.

“Aww, look, it’s got a flat,” she said dejectedly.

At that moment, I wanted to do whatever I could for her and to fill her journal with fun memories.

“Have no fear, Jennie,” I declared. “I’ll show you the kind of person your girlfriend is. If there’s a hole, I’ll fix it, and if there isn’t, I’ll borrow a pump and inflate it. Nothing to it. Right?”

“What’s with the transformation? You seem very capable all of a sudden.”

“Leave it to me,” I said, smiling boldly.

The two of us went to the custodian’s office and borrowed a pump. Unfortunately, the air didn’t stay inside for very long, and the tire deflated again. Normally, the custodian would fix a flat for students, but I had no idea who this bike belonged to, and it was missing the school commuter sticker. So it was a slim chance he would fix this one. I decided to try my hand at it.

I asked Jennie if she had scissors and double-sided tape.

“I’m pretty sure there’s some in the teacher’s desk in my classroom,” she answered. There was a bucket I needed from my own classroom, too. We decided to split up to get the equipment.

“What are you going to do?” She asked, her bubbly voice as bouncy as her steps as she walked down the hall after we’d changed to our indoor shoes.

“Something interesting,” I said with a smirk.

In my classroom, I opened the cleaning-supply locker, helped myself to the bucket, and went back out. Jennie was waiting farther down the hallway. I smiled the crafty smile of a man with a plan, and she did the same. She seemed to have found what she was looking for.

I stopped to fill the pail with water and then hurried back to the bike parking area with Jennie. I took off the tire and submerged the tube in the water. The trail of bubbles led me to the hole. Meanwhile, Jennie was following my instructions to cut a Band-Aid-sized piece out of one of my plastic folders and cover one side of it with double-sided tape.

The rest was easy. I pressed the piece of plastic onto the hole, reinforced it with the tape, and put the tire back on and inflated it. This time, the pressure held.

“You’re so handy! My girlfriend is amazing!” she shouted excitedly.

I punched my palm proudly. She glanced eagerly at the bike. I’m not poor for nothing. I’ve got all sorts of tricks like this up my sleeve.

“So, Jennie, are you ready?” I asked. Fixing the flat wasn’t the main event, after all. She smiled giddily.

“You mean what I was talking about?”

I smiled at her.

“Yup, that.”

She grinned back at me.

“Yes! Go, go, go!”

We were flying down a road between rice fields, both of us on the one bike. I was straddling the seat, pedaling furiously. She was perched on the cargo rack behind me, riding side saddle. One of her arms was wrapped around my waist.