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

Play with me

"Uggghhh I give up!" Lisa announced as she flopped back on Jungkook's pillows. "Let's do something else, like hide and seek!"

She bounced off the bed, scattering papers as she skidded across the floor and chortled.

"I'm not good at hide and seek," Jungkook frowned, picking up the pages after her. "Noona, we have to finish our homework—"

"But I'm bored! We'll get back to it later, I promise but for now let's just play Kook. Puuuuuuhh-lease." Lisa pleaded.

Jungkook sighed which Lisa took as a yes because she squealed and immediately bounced off the bed.

"Alright, let's play!" She beamed and turned back to him. "This should be good—Kook?"

He was deeply absorbed in his work, deaf to the world as he wrote diligently like the earnest student he was. Since he had to strive harder in class than Lisa, he couldn't afford to waste homework time. Besides, he didn't want to be scolded by his mother once his scores came in, even though she was always gentle with her reprimands.

Jungkook yelped in surprise when his notebook was wrenched out of his grasp by an indignant Lisa.

"Kookie I said let's play!" she said, sounding upset, "don't you want to play with me?"

"But noona, our homework," he tried again, "we have to hand it in tomorrow—"

"Just forget about it you stupid nerd!" she said crossly, "why do you always have to be such a goody two-shoes? You're so weird, no wonder nobody wants to be your friend!"

A ringing silence fell as the children gaped at each other. Lisa broke it first, horrified.

"Kookie wait no I didn't mean it, I'm sorry—"

"S'okay," he mumbled as he turned away, sniffing hard.

"Kookie we'll do homework okay don't cry because it will make me cry. And I don't ever cry."

"You don't?" Jungkook asked, distracted.

"Nope, I'm going to be on that big book of records as the girl who never cried," Lisa winked, "didn't you see me fall off the drainpipe? Did I cry?"

"No."

"Didn't you see Mr Lee's face when he was yelling at me last time for breaking his car window? Did I cry?"

"No," Jungkook said again, the sniffles quietening.

"And did I cry when that bully Hanbin pushed me over during the wrestling match?"

"No."

"But seeing you cry makes me cry, Kookie," Lisa said earnestly, pointing at his eyes, "because you're my friend and I hate to see you cry. So don't you ever, ever cry when I'm around, okay?"

He nodded, sniffing hard. "We're...friends again?"

"We'll always be friends," Lisa affirmed with her usual grin and ruffled his hair, "I'm your noona after all."

Jungkook cheered up. "Okay."

"Tell you what, let's do that English book review! I'm good at English!"

Jungkook peered doubtfully at her. "But...It's not due until five days—"

"I don't wanna do maths ughh," Lisa grimaced, "I mean I'm good at it but it's boring. We just need to find a book, and make up a story about it, and we'll be done. Ms IU will never know."

Jungkook scratched his head uncertainly. "I'm pretty sure she'll know we haven't actually read it—"

"Let's see what books your brother has." Lisa was already off the bed, inspecting the shelves crammed with books.

The room had previously belonged to Jungkook's brother, who was now at college and living in his own apartment, thus the Jeons allowed their youngest son to move into the larger room and claim it as his own. Jungkook hadn't removed much of his brother's belongings—if anything, it felt comforting to him whenever he missed his sibling.

"Okay, you go through this pile, I go through this one." Lisa came back on bed armed with a dozen or so books then went back and pulled out a couple more before she jumped back on the mattress, chuckling as she splayed herself amongst the crackling paper as though she were floating in the sea.

"Noona, my mom's gonna kill me—"

"We'll put them back, "she promised before sitting up to focus on the task at hand. She held up a finger.

"Don't find thick books and try to find ones with pictures, okay?" she instructed.

She curled a hand behind her hair and pulled out her pony tail, golden unruly snarls springing free of their confines. It was a habit of hers to let down her hair when she need to work on a story, she used to say it's to let the ideas flow out more easily. And she always misplaced the ribbon that tied up her hair, not caring to retrieve it when she left.

Jungook had a growing collection of the colourful ribbons sitting in a bottom drawer, with tendrils of gold tangled up in the mix

"These are all full of words!" Lisa exclaimed after approximately five minutes leafing through the books, dejected. "Doesn't your brother have any comic books? Graphic novels?"

"Noona, we're meant to do a book review—"

"Hey what's that? That doesn't look so difficult!" Lisa leaned forward and snatched the slim book up. "The Little Prince. Interesting..." she flipped it open, scanning through the pages as she turned them rapidly. Her eyes lit up, crinkling gleefully.

"Excellent, we can do this one." Lisa said crisply as she tossed it aside and folded her arms, "are you ready to write? Okay, I'll tell you the story, and tell me if I'm talking too fast."

"But noona, shouldn't we do it properly this time? This will make up for half the mark for this year—"

"It's fine you worry-wart, we always got away with it haven't we?" she grinned. "You gotta live on the wild side Kook. Come on now, me and you are a team, we got this."

He sighed very quietly but picked up his pen and scratched his chin. "Okay..."

She beamed at him. "Alrighty! Write: Once upon a time, in a castle on a planet far far away, lived a little prince...."