when you love someone | rosé + lisa | chaelisa

9 - Comfort

It's been a week.

A week of consistent studying in the stock room after school.

A week of sitting silently across from Lisa and listening to the quiet music play from her small radio.

Small conversation here and there, but the topic always being about either the text or questions.

A week of fewer hospital visits.

"Hey, could you help me with this one?" I asked hesitantly, turning my book to face her and pointing to the question I had been stuck on for a few minutes. "What do you not get, dumbass?" She muttered, irritated as she looked over my notes and back at the worksheet. I can't blame her, she's got her own questions to figure out.

"Have you been solving for new strategies?" She interrogated as she peered up at me. A bit ashamed that I hadn't, I shake my head and avoid her eye contact. "That's your problem. And your notes are way too long, there's no way you can quickly skim through this whenever you need to review them." She criticizes before crumpling my paper and tossing it into the nearby trash.

She then flips a few pages back into her notes, cautiously tears a page out, and hands it over to me. "Use this." She responds hurriedly, carrying on with her studying.

Unlike what I thought of her previously, she's actually very studious and serious when it comes to her work. A little too serious. She almost never wanted to take a break, and it would take the world ending to rip her eyes away the paper whenever she was in the zone.

"Thanks." I murmur as I take the paper, a little disappointed the conversation ended so quickly. Now I had the notes I needed, except this time I couldn't focus. I watched as students heading home hooted, talked and laughed freely, the sunset making everything look so much prettier as it did everyday.

I glance over at Lisa, trying not to make it obvious that I'm inspecting her as she peacefully writes. Taking notice of how sophisticatedly she holds her pen, and bites the end of it whenever it looks like she's thinking hard. Unknowingly, I fix my hand to hold my pencil the same way she's holding her pen.

"Looking at me isn't gonna raise your grade." She hums sarcastically.

"Don't flatter yourself. I was just observing the way you write." I retort. "By the way, would you like some ketchup with that?" I glance at the bite marks.

"You're still looking at me, creep." She snaps back, her eyes not leaving the books in front of her.

"Whatever." I huff.

I wouldn't say we've gotten comfortable talking to each other, in fact it's the opposite. But instead of fiddly—sometimes violent short encounters, we actually exchange full on sentences now. And I've even heard her accent slip out before, I'm now positive that Lisa is from somewhere in Busan.

Which is a step up the long, long staircase that is Lalisa.

Feeling my boredom sprout through the fences of its cage again, I put my pencil down and lay my head against my arms, briefly shutting my eyes. "Don't you ever get tired of studying like this everyday?" I ask, expecting a sassy response. "I won't allow myself to get tired." She says, ironically sounding groggy.

I feel my eyelids becoming heavier, and my conscious stirring into a dreamlike state. "I'm just gonna... rest my eyes. You're not a robot, you obviously get tired. It's okay to take a break, y'know?" I spur out, some of my words slurring from the dreariness.

Without being able to hear a response, I slipped away into sleep.

It felt like only five minutes before my eyes cracked open again due to a loud, unsettling noise. I jumped back in my seat letting out a small shriek before realizing what had just happened, and glared at the girl who sat conspicuously across from me.

"What the fuck—that noise.. turn it off! I'm awake, I'm awake!" I grumbled as I pressed my palms to my ears in attempts to muffle out the horrid sound. "So you're sensitive to nails against a chalkboard? That's interesting." She noted as she paused the sound. "W-who isn't?" I stuttered, still shaken and trying to calm the hairs that had risen on my neck.

Lisa looked as if she was trying to hold back her laughter. If she was even capable of laughing.

"They're just sounds. They can't hurt you." She cooed in a playful manner. I shuddered upon remembering the sound. "How long was I out for?" I asked, rubbing my bothered eyes. "I don't know. You're not my responsibility. All I know is you still haven't completed this practice sheet." She insolently replied, pushing the sheet forward to touch my arm.

Seriously?

"You couldn't keep track of the time?" My eyes widened.

Ignored.

It's not like we're friends or anything but it's still a decent thing to do. "This textbook isn't helping me." I groaned, massaging my temples since there was now a piercing headache grown from the ugly noise blaring through my ears earlier.

"And now I have a really bad headache."

"Look around. You can find another one." She ushered her hand outwards toward the probably hundreds of other textbooks in the room. Disregarding my comment about my poor circumstances, aka, my headache.

The last thing I wanted to do was stand and walk around with my head pounding, but what more could I do? I already slept through what I assume was at least a quarter of the session.

I scanned around the stacks and stacks of textbooks on a nearby shelf, reading the titles carefully and the unit numbers. It didn't take too long until I found a unit three textbook mocking me from its high ground.

The top shelf.

I reached as far as I could, even balancing on my tippy toes and still couldn't reach it, yet I was only a few fingertips away.

I thought it out for a bit, tapping my chin and glancing at Lisa who was still working diligently on her paper.

There's only one way to do this, Chae. If it doesn't work it'll be really embarrassing, but if it does, you can carry on as if nothing happened.

Making a leap for it and pushing my feet off the floor slightly, I was able to successfully knock the book over, but also sending a bunch of others tumbling down as well. I tried catching them, but soon after touching the ground, my splitting headache hauled me down.

I pressed my hands to head in attempt to stop the pain and prepared for impact, maybe a knockout from several heavy books.

I ducked down and waited for it to happen, mostly for it to be over.

I waited and waited.

Except I didn't feel anything.

I heard the books fall, sure.

But felt nothing.

At first I felt relieved, my headache hadn't left but I was still conscious.

Did the books somehow miss me?

That was until I opened my eyes and locked them with Lisa's hazel brown ones, both of her arms occupied with a familiar set of books.