Healing Sunshine

Chapter 15.1 - The Memories are Still Awake

As soon as he and Lalisa had sat into a taxi, she could not wait to tell him about her university. Jungkook listened attentively. After a while, he suddenly instructed the driver to head directly to her university. Lalisa was startled with this. "We're not going home?"

"I want to see the place where you'll be studying for the next four years," Jungkook stated.

"Oh, okay." Lalisa's lips came together in a smile, and she looked out the window.

Jungkook was back and was really sitting beside her—this feeling was truly too nice.

Pulling along his luggage, he followed her into this university and took in the scenery all around. While Lalisa was introducing things to him, she thought of something. "Our school is known for having a lot of pretty girls. In Beijing, there are two schools that produce the most beautiful girls: Renda [Renmin University of China] and BFSU [Beijing Foreign Studies University]."

"Oh? Is that so?" Jungkook cursorily responded. "Is it because there's a high ratio of female students?"

"I... suppose so." Turning, she carried on step by step leading the way for him but was unable to restrain her lips that were curving upwards because of happiness. Worried that she would be embarrassed if he caught sight of her smile, she continually admired the scenery of this school campus that still could not be considered familiar to her. As it was the National Day holiday, there were not many people. There were still some students who had not gone home for the holiday, though, so the two of them took care of dinner by eating in the school dining centre. Lalisa bought stir-fried sliced pork and onions as well as diced chicken in curry over rice for Jungkook, while she ate stir-fried tomato with scrambled eggs and stir-fried celtuce stem with shredded pork.

Telling him to sit and relax, she personally brought over his dinner and set it down in front of him, then went back to get the other portion of food.

When they were eating, she deliberately picked out her egg and shredded meat and gave it to him. She watched as he pulled off his baseball cap, set it on top of his luggage, and, lowering his head, ate his dinner with chopsticks in hand. With his height, the instant he sat in the seat, he immediately caused the space around him to seem narrow and cramped.

Lalisa gazed at him with her face propped on her hand. "Before I started uni, I didn't know that when meats and veggies and other foods are put on top of the rice, it's called 'covered rice,'" Lalisa said lightly. "So fun." Everything was so fresh and new.

All these little things and details.

She told Jungkook, there were girls in her dormitory who were from minority ethnic groups, and when school started, they had come still wearing the traditional clothing of their ethnic group. She told Jungkook, she had also purposely run over to the Department of Arabic Studies to catch a glimpse of that host who used to always host children's programs, but she had returned without success.

Jungkook listened to her talk, all the while also appraising these foods that she normally ate. In passing, he asked, "Have you gotten your EEP for Hong Kong and Macau yet?"

"Yup, I have it."

"We'll head out tomorrow, then."

Making a sound as an affirmative answer, she bowed her head and ate her tomatoes and scrambled eggs—sour and sweet.

Seeing her eating so carefully and focusedly, Jungkook actually stopped and observed her for a little longer. Although he could only see her bangs that had fallen forward and her motions as she held her chopsticks and speedily took bite after bite, he still very much enjoyed this view. He recalled the idle conversation that had taken place on this return trip between two of his co-workers who were on the same flight as him. The two men had discussed the one and only female journalist who had been on this particular journey and who was even manlier than men.