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

Walking Side by Side - VI

We spent the afternoons that week messing around with the bike, and on Saturday, the three of us went to the aquarium.

We’d agreed to meet at one at the clock tower outside the terminal station downtown. We had to pass through that station to get there, and then the aquarium was another fifteen minutes away by subway.

I’d heard there was a big plaza in the aquarium where we could eat lunch. It would be kind of a late meal, but I packed enough food for all three of us and got to the terminal about half an hour early. I arrived with enough time, as there was a bookstore that I wanted to visit on the thirteenth floor of the shopping mall attached to the station.

Feeling a bit like an oddball with my picnic basket, I got on a crowded elevator to the thirteenth floor and headed for the bookstore. The corridor was surprisingly packed with people milling around and chatting. All of them were holding books. Figuring they must be there for some event, I went to look at a poster on the wall. I was totally unprepared for what I found. I stood rooted tothe spot in a daze.

Book launch and signing with Jisoo Kim, Seoul Literature  Prize–nominate author, it read.

A shiver ran down my spine.

I hesitated for an instant, then made a beeline for the bookstore. Staff were herding people into lines. It seemed the signing was taking place inside, and people were queuing for it. The event wasn’t mentioned in the latest issue of Literary World, but it must have been announced online.

It looked like I could skirt the line and walk through the shop to where Jisoo was signing books. I made my way toward her, my heart pounding. Other people must have had the same idea because a crowd had formed here as well. I pushed my way through, receiving some nasty glares as I barged ahead with my bulky picnic basket, but I didn’t have time to apologize.

I was making steady progress. I could see the yellow tape that must be cordoning off the autograph table. Just a little farther. Now I was right in front of it, and there she was.

The author Jisoo Kim—my sister.

My throat felt dry. She was sitting on a folding chair at a long table, signing a book that a person in line held out to her. A woman in a dark suit stood next to her. My sister was looking at the person who had bought her book with a smile I’d never seen before.

“Thank you so much,” she said, handing it back and shaking their hand. They bowed and stepped away, looking satisfied. I watched silently.

Suddenly, my sister glanced at me.

“…Lisa?”

I wonder what expression I should have made at that moment. I tried to smile, failed, and probably looked idiotic. The next person in line walked up to the table to ask my sister, or rather, Jisoo Kim, for her autograph. But she kept looking at me. The woman standing next to her looked confused.

“What’s wrong?” she asked.

“Oh…nothing.”

My sister hesitated, then smiled at the next person in line. “I’m sorry,” she said and whispered something to the woman in the suit. She then shot me asurprised look and nodded.

Jisoo Kim went back to signing books. The lady, who looked somewhat older than my sister, walked over to me.

“Hello. I hear you’re Jisoo’s little sister.”

“Um, yes. I am.”

“This event will last awhile, but I think it will be done in about an hour and a half. Can you get a coffee or something and wait? Your sister said she wants to talk to you.”