The Push and Pull of You - A JenLisa short story

Part 3: Sometimes you think maybe you just jumped the gun.

I take a moment to breathe. There were a lot of questions in my head, but I'm not sure I wanted to ask them out loud, to be honest. You take your cue from my silence.

"How about you? Are you dating?"

I mull it over a bit. "Not right now. I'm not really looking."

"Isn't it lonely?"

"I think if you're busy enough you won't miss what's not around."

"Have you ever even fallen in love with anyone, though?"

I look at you longingly.

"Of course."

I don't think you noticed. You nod distractedly. "I know you were with Tzuyu for a time, right?"

"She's nice. But we had to part ways."

"May I ask what happened?"

"I don't think I was into Tzuyu as much as I should have." I teased, using your words. You laughed at me, and I spend a few seconds just entertaining the thought that this could have been us. This could have still been our constant if I didn't fuck it up. I tried dismissing the idea.

You look at your phone and your eyebrows twitch into a knot.

"Jisoo just messaged me saying Chae kind of got there early. It's only 1:40 pm but do you want to go and meet her now?"

"Aren't they going there together?"

"No, Chu had to run an errand so she said she'll be a bit late."

I shrug. "Yeah, I'm okay to go if you are."

You start to pick up both of our cups but I grab them from you. "Let me."

"Okay, I'll start booking a ride."

We start walking towards the door and I try to look for a garbage bin. You open the door for me and I follow through, then point at a bin just beside the door. I chuck the two cups in.

"Okay, car's arriving in about 3 minutes. We can stay here." You squint your eyes at me and I take the time to take you in again. I have a massive feeling that's what I'm going to end up constantly doing for the rest of this trip. "Did you get taller? I feel like you weren't this tall then."

"Or maybe you got shorter."

You slap my arm playfully as you laugh. Your hand slides through my arm and stays there, casually holding on.

"I missed you, Lisa. It's been too long."

"I know. You barely visited Seoul."

"And you were always busy."

"What can I say, I'm in demand." I wink at you and grin. "I'm making time now."

"You think this is enough? I have barely gotten out all your stories from you."

"It's a start."

You smile but look away distractedly. Your eyes start to narrow.

"Here's our ride." You say as a black sedan pulls up. You open the door and slide in and I follow suit.

I watch you go through your phone while the car starts to move. I look at your other hand that's idly positioned on the seat and I again feel an overwhelming need to intertwine my fingers with yours, but I stop myself. The ache keeps building the more I look at you.

I think my sighs caught your attention. You smile, then rest on the car's seat, your head cocked to face me. We take a few minutes to just softly look at each other.