earning it back // chaelisa

chapter 3: let a little light in

When she started thinking about teaching high schoolers, Chaeyoung knew what she'd be signing up for - splitting up fights, putting up with name calling and the occasional flirting, having a harder time making them pay attention than she would if she were herding cows, chaperoning horny teenagers in school dances to make sure they left enough room in between them so no one would be at risk of getting pregnant.

Those things were expected. She went to work everyday knowing any of that could happen at any time when dealing with teenagers.

But getting hit in the face and almost knocked out cold by a sixteen year old with just a tad more muscles than a house cat?

She really didn't see that coming.

In the defense of said sixteen year old, he had looked absolutely terrified when Chaeyoung found her bearings after being hit square on the face by a loose soccer ball and could finally stand again. It probably had less to do with all the blood trickling down her face and more to do with his fear of getting detention - or worse , expelled from the team - for accidentally hitting a teacher, but Chaeyoung chose to believe he felt sorry for her.

Now she can add "falling through the bleachers is and splitting your arm and forehead open" to reasons why being a teacher is actually dangerous.

"I'm gonna be sick," Jisoo whines through her dry heaving, her eyes filling with tears as she swerves the car into a side street and speeds past any stop sign, "I'm literally going to throw up."

Chaeyoung looks at Jisoo, praying to any god listening that she doesn't throw up, not before they get to her place - there's room for only one sick person in this car and Chaeyoung called dibs on that. Jisoo had gone to the soccer game with Chaeyoung after being bribed with homemade chocolate cake and promises of going out on a date with the engineer dude she had talked about over and over again. But ten minutes into the game, Jisoo was cheering for their team and calling the opposite team names that made the moms in front of them glare at her until she apologized.

They hadn't even gotten to half time yet when Chaeyoung went down and had to crawl her way out of the space in between the seats without much help from Jisoo, who was already clutching her stomach and turning away once she saw Chaeyoung's bloody arm peeking through.

For someone who opens beer bottles with her teeth just to show how tough she is, Jisoo can get really queasy really fast when she's near blood.

"It's not like I could drive with blood dripping down my face, but I could have waited for the nurse," Chaeyoung whines back, because hey, she's the injured one, she has the right to whine. But the nurse was too busy applying deep heat rub to a crying teenager's calf and Chaeyoung knew she'd only scare more kids if she stayed. "Or asked Jungkook to drive me home. Where I could clean my cuts without worrying about also having to clean your vomit from my car."

Jisoo scoffs at her audacity, "You don't even have Band-aids at home. Sue me for being a good friend." She rolls her eyes dramatically as she comes to a stop at a red light and Chaeyoung smiles at her. Jisoo really is a good friend - pins and needles poke at her heart at the thought of everything they have in between them, everything that Jisoo doesn't know, but she quickly pushes it aside. "By the way, your car is a mess. What's wrong with your stick shift?"

Stepping on the gas as soon as the light turns green, Jisoo makes the car jolt back with enough force that Chaeyoung clings to the ceiling handle for dear life. She's torn between laughing and yelling at Jisoo when she scowls at the stick shift as if it's a personal attack that it won't get to the right gear, "There's nothing wrong with it, you're the one who can't drive and keep putting it on reverse instead of first."

Jisoo doesn't bother with an answer, focusing on getting the stick shift into the right place and speeding down the street, "Pray for Jennie to be home because I'm not getting near all that blood." Chaeyoung watches her dry heaving again, wishing the temperature wasn't so far down into the negatives - if she could roll down the windows without risking frostbite, maybe the fresh air would help Jisoo keep it together, "Oh god, the smell ."