The Prince and the Rose (Liskook) (on hold)

Are you okay

"Yo Kookie!"

"Yo noona," Jungkook smiled as they emerged from the school gates wearing their schoolbags behind their backs.

Lisa, as always, had been lagging behind and chattering with her friends about their latest plans before catching up to him. She blocked out the sun when she caught up to him as she was a good few inches taller than Jungkook. Lisa was actually taller than most boys in class.

"Did you tell your Mom to invite me to your place?"

"No."

"Okay then tell her I'm coming over, so we can do our homework."

"There's no real need to tell her...I mean, she never said no when I invited you before."

"Still it's better to make it seem like the adults gave us permission first," Lisa said wisely, "that way they'll think they have some semblance of control over us. Which they don't of course," she added quickly.

Jungkook merely nodded along as Lisa walked and prattled about her gang's latest plans to sneak in a newt from the pond and drop it in the teacher's desk for a prank. 

Apparently she was frustrated with Mingyu's scatter-brain tendencies because he had misplaced the little creature and it later turned up in the girls' toilets, which caused quite the uproar.

"It's funny," said the blonde general scratching her chin thoughtfully, "but if we're going to rule over the school one day, we need to scare the grown-ups first, show'em who's boss, not just causing funny sit- sitch-stitch—situations." 

She looked particularly proud for pronouncing the word.

"If you want to show them who's boss, why do you go to school then?" Jungkook humoured her as they waited at the bus stop. Jungkook's mother picked them up from there.

"So we study and pretend we're obedient." Lisa slapped her thigh and pulled her neck-tie off before tying it round her head, like his hyungs used to do. "We spy on the adults and they never suspect anything. We beat them at their own game!"

Jungkook smiled. 

Although during summer they hadn't met up at all, they talked over the phone and face timed each other on their mother's laptops (actually Lisa already owned the computer or so she claimed, something Jungkook was envious of). Then they picked up right where they left off when school opened again.

Over the past year since his hyungs advanced to high school, he spent his days trailing after Lisa, gratefully accepting her invitations to play although he preferred their quiet times together beneath the apple trees as they lost themselves in their worlds and stories.

Lately, Lisa's imagination had been fired up by news of foreign spies and all the intrigue and conspiracies that it entailed.

She was even inspired to recruit her friends to stand against the school regime and rebel, but doing it as stealthily as possible, like spies.

So far, their guerilla efforts had amounted to a few stay-in-class-during-break sessions here and there, some broken window panes by a stray baseball, glue on teacher's chairs, an assortment of little creatures showing up in the unlikeliest of places, top secret meetings behind the bike sheds (what was discussed in those meetings Jungkook had no clue), and exasperated admonishments from the headmaster during morning assembly.

Jungkook didn't really involve himself in gang activities, much to Lisa's chagrin.

He had never felt like he belonged with the rag-tag assortment of boys that made up her crew, although he was always up for games and many people clamoured for him to be on their team after his athletic prowess was revealed.

"But Kookie, I don't want you to be left out!"

"Don't worry about me noona," Jungkook had assured her, "just call me when you're having a game."

And he'd spend his time by the flower garden, talking to the gardener about the flowers and sticking his tongue out in careful concentration as he tried to draw the intricate stamen and pistils of his subjects.

"Kookie your mom's here!"

Sure enough, his mother soon pulled up to the bus stop, smiling at the two through the car window. "Hello darlings."

"Mom Mom can noona come over please?" Jungkook asked eagerly. "We'll do our homework together."

"Sure. Did you tell your mother Lalisa?"

"I don't have to, she's cool with anything I do," Lisa said airily as she pranced into the car.

"Still, I'll better phone her so she doesn't worry—"

"It's all good Aunty, Mom knows I won't get home until it's late. And thanks for having me again," Lisa beamed.

"Your Mom's cool with anything you do?" Jungkook asked enviously as Jungkook's mother drove off.

"Oh yeah," Lisa bragged, "I can stay up as long as I like and I can go anywhere I like! She cooks whatever I want to eat and lets me eat all the candy and she makes a lot of money at her job so she buys me whatever I want! She's the best Mom ever!"

"I wish my Mom was like that," Jungkook said dolefully, "I'm only allowed candy once a day." His mother laughed heartily.

"Kook-ah, I'm heartbroken," she teased, "I think I'm gonna cry..."

"No no, but I still love you so much Mommy!" Jungkook said hastily, leaning forward to softly peck his mother's cheek, making a smile tug at the woman's mouth.

Her little Jungkook was such a soft, innocent and sensitive boy. He couldn't bear to see anyone in pain, and he couldn't tell the difference when people were teasing him.

She glanced up in the overhead mirror to see Jungkook had happily started talking about his day as he usually did when she picked him up but although she hummed absently, Jungkook's mother wasn't really paying attention.

Her eyes were instead trained on Lisa.

As soon as Jungkook had kissed his mother and uttered those tender words, Lisa had fallen strangely mute, gazing out of the window with a distant expression on her face.

Maybe she's just tired, Jungkook's mother thought uncertainly.

But the older woman couldn't shake off the strange cloud of sadness that seemed to surround the little girl sitting in the back.