I Hate You, Don't Leave Me

Chapter 13

Lisa awoke to the sound of the door opening, and she sleepily realized that she must have fallen asleep in Chaeyoung's arms. A second later, her eyes sprung open because whoever was about to walk in that door was going to see her and her roommate cuddling if she did not get up now. Thankfully, the door blocked the view of Chaeyoung's bed when it opened, so Lisa had time to slip out from under the blonde's arm without waking her and sit up on the edge of the bed before Jessica stepped through the doorway and saw her. She breathed out a sigh of relief because she did not want to explain to her best friend why she and Chaeyoung had just been cuddling. Explaining why she was sitting at Chaeyoung's bedside was going to be enough.

"What are you doing here?" Lisa hoped she didn't look flustered. "Are you feeling better?"

"Much better," Jessica responded. "I know it's kind of late, but I just wanted to come in and check on you guys. Krystal's still feeling awful, and I can see that Chaeyoung's still down as well."

"Yeah, I just came over here to check on Chaeyoung, but she's still out cold," Lisa lied smoothly, standing from the bed to walk back over to her side of the room.

Jessica sat down on the edge of Lisa's bed. "I hope you don't mind if I hang out here for a little bit. I promise I won't stay long because you do look tired, but I'm not tired since I just had a good, long nap, and I just wanted to talk to someone for a few minutes."

"You can stay as long as you want to, Jess," Lisa moved to sit down beside her.

"It's really nice to see that you've been feeling better lately. You know, after you lost Joy, you were so different that I started to think that that was just who you were now, what her death made you into. I'm glad to see that's not true and that you're getting back to yourself," Jessica said.

"It definitely does feel pretty great, but it's really all thanks to Chaeyoung," Lisa admitted.

"Speaking of Chaeyoung, what were you guys fighting about last week?"

"Nothing important." Lisa tried her best to sound casual.

Jessica gave her a skeptical look, and Lisa tried not to flinch as she thought that Jessica was going to press her for more information. She began to rack her brain for a lie that she might believe, and she sighed in relief when the other girl let it slide.

"So I've noticed that you and Chaeyoung are getting really close lately," Jessica commented.

Lisa glanced up at her friend, trying to gauge what the other girl had meant by that statement. She thought for a moment that Jessica had somehow figured out what was really going on between her and Chaeyoung, but her friend did not look knowing. She let out a breath that she didn't know she'd been holding when she realized that Jessica had only meant that Lisa and Chaeyoung had been getting closer in a friendship way. "Yes, we are."

"Why?" Jessica asked. "Why her?"

Lisa did not miss the slight hurt that was in Jessica's eyes. While she wasn't ready to tell Jessica about her relationship with Chaeyoung, Lisa raised her eyebrows at her best friend because as far as she was concerned, the other reason that Chaeyoung had been able to get through to her should have been obvious. "You know why, Jessica. She understood. She lost her father, so she had been in a similar situation to mine. She knew that I could get better. She was living proof of the fact, and she knew exactly how I felt and what to say. Besides, she never knew who I was when Joy was still alive, so she couldn't compare me to the person that I was before. I could only get better in her eyes."