Healing Sunshine

Chapter 11.2 - Reason to be Strong

On this night before the Lunar New Year, Lalisa dreamt of things that had occurred in the past.

In her dream, she was crying the entire time. Someone walked over to her and asked, what was wrong? Was she lost? Where was her home? She pointed behind her and said, her home was actually on the other side of this window. That person said some more things but was unable to console her. This continued until an older boy came up to her and held out a small plastic bottle that had a pink hue to it—it was for her. The bottle's shape was very cute, and its mouth was sealed with foil, which could be opened by simply tearing it. On the body of the bottle, the two characters "Xi Le" [Joy] were written.

She awoke. She remembered that this was the scene of her and Jungkook's first meeting.

Although she only remembered Hoseok's face from that day, she was certain the person who handed her the Xi Le drink must have been Jungkook.

喜乐 "Xi Le", which means "joy" is a brand of yogurt drink that is similar to (but not the same as) Yakult.

This undeserved calamity had torn through like a hurricane, quick and violent in force, roaring and wreaking devastation. But after ripping up homes and uprooting trees, the next day, it was gone without a trace, leaving only cloudless, azure skies for miles and miles.

Reputedly, Yoongi's father's position transfer had met with strong opposition, so he took advantage of these several days of the Spring Festival to personally make a visit to the Manobal family and pay New Year's greetings to Elder Manobal, who was having a hard-to-come-by short stay in his eldest son's home.

The conversation and laughter that took place in that room all indicated an understanding that that disagreement and ruckus between the children really were not significant matters.

Naturally, then, they should set aside any resentment and make peace. And hence, the difficulties encountered with the position transfer were also easily resolved.

As for the right and wrong in all of this, no one wished to comment about it when it was not their place to do so.

Ten years later, when Lalisa went to a prison to interview a seventeen-year-old juvenile offender and listened to the bizarre and incredible details of the case, the thought suddenly occurred to her: if in that spring of 2002, Jungkook had not extended a helping hand, would Bo-min also have become like this, sitting in a chair, speaking words that did not have much logic, all the while seeming obsessive-compulsive as he looked out the high window again and again at the blue sky beyond it?

On the fifth day of the new lunar year, all the senior-year high school students were to return to school for remedial classes.

As this was the last semester of the final year of high school, Fuzhong justifiably requested all students to live on campus, so as to allow them to focus on preparing for examinations.

On the morning of the fourth day of the new lunar year, earlier than the required date, Somi's mother brought Lalisa and Somi back to the school. When the vehicle arrived at the school gates, Somi's mother instructed Somi to go first with the driver to bring the luggage up to the dormitory and leave Lalisa alone in the car. At first, Somi had not been willing to comply, but afterwards, when she discovered that her mother was extremely serious about this, she had no choice but to leave.

The door of the vehicle closed. Lalisa looked toward Somi's mother.

"Lili, don't be nervous," Somi's mother soothed her. "Grandpa Jeon told me to have a little talk with you. By chance, I also had the same thought."

Somi nodded, unable to guess the content of the conversation.

The discussion with Somi's mother began with talking about Lalisa's paternal grandfather and grandmother. This was somewhat outside of what she had expected. Lalisa's grandmother was uneducated, taken in by the Manobal family since she was a child and raised as the future daughter-in-law.