Chapter 16

"Are you sure you want to do this?" Lisa asked again.

They were walking away from the premise of the private art museum near the foot of Mireuksan of the late painter Jeon Hyuck Lim, where Lisa took Jennie after their short but "eventful" excursion a thousand feet above the mountain.

Lisa wanted badly to try to climb the wooden stairway towards the peak of Mireuksan but she didn't want to leave Jennie behind on the observatory all by herself. She ditched the idea after she saw how messed up Jennie was because of her basiphobia. So, after they talked about Jennie's unknown fear of falling and standing on higher grounds over a heartful amount of sandwiches and cups of hot drinks offered at the snack bars around the observatory, Lisa decided she'd take Jennie down to the museum five minutes away from the foot of Mireuksan. Where they had fun counting the small ceramic tiles covering the house that made the large mosaics on the walls.

"Lisa, you've asked me the same question, thrice, already," Jennie said, now sounding exasperated, "Yes, I'm sure. And yes, let's do it."

Lisa took a glance sideways towards Jennie, who was walking casually beside her, hands tucked comfortably inside the deep pockets of her overcoat, extending her steps a little longer to keep up with Lisa's long strides. Her jetblack hair was blown softly by the wind, exposing the delicate skin of her pearly white neck .

"But..." Lisa sighed. "Would you like to grab some snack or something first? We sure need all the protein and energy we could get before we..." Lisa suggested.

There was hesitation on her voice, silently regretting why she overeagerly and overenthusiastically suggested and invited Jennie a while ago, while they were inside the museum, to do something she thought was the greatest idea she could come up with. And now, while looking at Jennie's determination and eagerness painted all over her face, Lisa wasn't sure anymore. She wanted to stall their leaving Tongyeong. She wanted to sit down and discuss with Jennie about how absurd the idea was in the first place.

"No, I'm still full," Jennie answered and halted her steps. "Can you please tell me why you look so worried all of a sudden?" Jennie asked curiously.

"What? Me, worried? No, I'm certainly not," Lisa denied, shaking her head, faking a smiling that made her look like she's suffering from a bad toothache and trying so hard to hide the worried, confused and rueful look on her face.

Jennie smiled and then chuckled and casually maneuvered her hand towards Lisa's arm, linking their arms together, still keeping up with Lisa's long strides.

"You didn't have that look when we were standing a thousand feet up in the sky and I was a mess," Jennie said. "What troubles you, really?"

Lisa halted her steps this time and turned to face Jennie, looking serious.

"It's a 4-hour drive, Jennie. Five, if we make a lot of stops--," she paused, spreading her hand open, showing Jennie her five long fingers and held her breath.

"And?"

"And my car, well, my car...it's not a Porsche and it doesn't smell strawberry and spring at all. I don't want you to feel uncomfortable or whatev...er?" Lisa answered, biting her lower lip, looking like she just confessed a deadly sin.

Jennie laughed loudly as if Lisa have just told her the funniest joke in her lifetime, which bewildered Lisa.

"Does my car smell strawberry and spring? Really?"

Lisa nodded and said, "Yes. Don't you know? It's your car."

"Wow! I didn't notice that at all," Jennie said, laughing. "I ride that car everyday and doesn't even notice anything special in it other than it's my car and it's special to me."

Lisa thought Jennie looked beautiful when she laughs. Those tingling, chimey sound of Jennie's laughter that tickles Lisa's eardrums. And how that gummy smile of her looked cute and magnetic. It's like pulling Lisa closer and keeping her drawn into it, keeping her moored in place. But now wasn't the time to admire Jennie's wonders, Lisa thought as she tried to shake off that weird convulsion of feelings slowly forming inside her chest.

"Jen, I'm dead serious. Are you sure you want to do this?" Lisa asked for the fourth time, which earned her an overdramatic rolling of eyeballs from Jennie.

"Ask me again one more time, Lisa, and I swear I won't talk to you ever again," Jennie said, extracting her arm from how she linked their arms together, now looking slightly pissed and started walking away from Lisa.

"Oh, shit!" Lisa cursed under her breath and ran after Jennie. "Hey, Jennie! Wait up! I'm sorry, alright? I'm just..."

"You're just being silly, honestly. What are you so worried about, Lisa? That I might complain and whine a lot during the ride?" Jennie asked.

"No. I don't know," Lisa answered, looking abashed.

"Would you rather I'll take a cab and head straight to the airport and hop in a plane?" asked Jennie. She felt the need to take the matter in her own hands already. The Kim in her jumped out.

Lisa shook her head quickly.

"No. Would you?"

"No. I can't let you drive alone," Jennie answered. "I mean, I'm not really much of a good company for a long drive but at least I'm company."

"Is that all? Because, you know, I'm fine driving alone. I've been doing that for a long time. You don't have to worry about me."

Jennie shook her head, a smile was plastered back on her face.

"No, Lisa. I'd really love to go for a long drive with you. Now stop asking me the same boring question everytime you get the chance and let's keep moving. I thought you said you want to make it to the Orange before midnight, at least?"

It was a quarter past four in the afternoon. The sun was still up and the sky was still decorated with thick, gray clouds. The dry February air would occassionally blow a chilly breeze, sending shivers to anyone within its range. And they were standing in the middle of the district, while everyone around them was still bustling about their itineraries, especially the foreign visitors.

"Well, if you're sure, then let's go. We should leave before sunset," Lisa mumbled and started to resume her steps towards where she parked her car. Jennie was striding along beside her, looking triumphant.

"So, uhm," she hesitated as she halted her steps after a good walk, "this...this is my car," Lisa said while standing beside a candy apple red 1967 Impala, whose body was gleaming gorgeously despite the gloomy February sun.

Jennie's jaw dropped. She was gaping in total shock.

"Wow! Lisa, your car is gold!" Jennie whispered in total awe. Her eyes were marvelling all over the classic beauty im front of her. Admiration was evident on her face.

"Last time I checked, it's red. And did you mean old? Don't be too modest, Jennie. My car would probably look like a joke next to a Porsche," Lisa said, laughing at Jennie's reaction.

"Are you kidding me? This is better than my Porsche!" Jennie groaned.

"You're kidding, right?"

"No, I'm not. I've always wanted a car like this, you know? Old, classic, dreamy. Alicia Silverstone in Clueless kind of thing."

"So, why didn't you?" asked Lisa with amusement.

"My mother doesn't like the idea at all," Jennie said while running her hand on the hood of the Impala.

"I thought chaebol kids get to pick whatever they want?" asked Lisa. "Can you please hold this for me for a second? I just need to find my keys," she said, handing her camera bag to Jennie while fumbling inside her leather bag, searching for her car key.

"Not everyone," Jennie answered as she accepted Lisa's camera bag. "Especially when you're handed down with a book of chaebol guidelines the moment you were born."

Lisa ceased from rumaging the inside of her bag and looked up with wide eyes.

"Is there really, like, a book of guidelines or whatever?"

"No, Lisa. But you get the point," Jennie answered, laughing and leaned casually on the cold hood.

"Yeah, I think I do. And that's sad, right?" said Lisa, who resumed her fumbling inside the hollows of her leather bag.

"Totally. And then you just suck it all up and go along with it until you turn eighteen."

"Eighteen?" Lisa mumbled distractedly and exclaimed, "Ha! There you are!" in relief when she finally got a hold of her set of keys inside her bag, which included the car key.

"Yes. Adulthood. To me, at least. That's when I was given the chance to decide something for myself," said Jennie.

"Decide for whatever you want to do with your life?"

"No. For college. My parents were hoping that I would do their bidding. Go to the US, attend business school, take up my masters, return to Korea and join the company."

"But you didn't?" Lisa asked, now fumbling on the set of keys on her hands.

"Uh-huh. I still went to the US, though,after I finished my education in Auckland. My mom was disappointed when I told her I was accepted in NYU but not in the business program. But my dad... He was all-out supportive. I miss him. He would have liked you, Lisa."

"Really? Why is that?" Lisa asked as she inserted the key on the hole and unlocked the door beside the passenger's seat so Jennie could settle first.

"Because you have a really nice car," Jennie said with a wink before she settled herself comfortably inside Lisa's car.

"Your father would have had disapproved about you riding on this box," Lisa said, looking embarrassed, as soon as she seated behind the steering wheel and placed her leather bag and camera bag in the backseat. "I'm sorry about all the clutters. I haven't got the chance to clean this up before I came here."

The clutters Lisa was talking about were the empty cartridges of film rolls littering on the carpeted floor of the car and the stacks of CD's and cassette tapes scattered all over the back seat. There was also a leather jacket hanging behind the driver's seat, a spread-out map and a couple of books and magazines about photography lying above the upholstered seat, and a stab of toll way tickets and some other insignificant receipts on the dashboard.

"Your car smells nice," Jennie said.

Lisa was about to revved the engine of her car but stopped midway and inhaled all the possible dusts and elements inside her car. But all she could smell was Jennie's scent beside her. Sweet strawberry, a little bit of honey and spring.

"My car smells just like you," Lisa blurted out without thinking.

She heard Jennie stifled a laughter.

"I was thinking about vanilla and chocolate and a little bit of cinnamon, actually," Jennie said.

"Is that how I smell?" Lisa wondered, sniffing the garments of her jacket, after she finally started the engine and strategically maneuvered the Impala away from the tight parking space.

"Kind of. You actually smell like Christmas Eve, Lisa. You know, when you sit beside the tree with a hot chocolate drink with melted mallows in your hand and vanilla-flavored sugar cookie sprinkled with cinnamon dust on the top? You smell like--,"

"Food?" Lisa quipped and started laughing.

"No. You smell like home on Christmas, actually. Warm and cozy and everything nice," Jennie smiled while picking up a tiny trinket that looked like Father Christmas lying on the dashboard.

"I love Christmas," was the only thing thay Lisa could come up with because her mind was so full of Jennie's warm words about her and the surging waves of emotions was clouding her mind from thinking straight.

"Yeah. Me, too," Jennie mumbled and fell silent, holding the Father Christmas trinket between her fingers and looking at it as though Jennie was thoroughly studying how such big hands could sculpture something as tiny as a trinket.

Sitting beside Jennie inside the silent and warm refuge of her car, sniffing Jennie's scent as if it was slowly envading the amount of space that hasn't been envaded with by that sweet, tangy strawberry scent and listening to the rhythm of silence that was embracing them both, while she was driving on 80kph, was something that Lisa have never dreamed about.

They were both listening to the humming sound of the car engine and the occassional whistling of the wind outside. The northern part of Korea was blurring passed behind them.

"So, what's your favorite color, by the way?" Lisa asked out of curiosity.

She had only seen Jennie wearing something dark everytime they would see each other, except when Jennie was wearing that classic red Chanel jacket that looked undeniably hot on her. But Jennie didn't look like someone who was fascinated with the darker side of every shades in the spectrum, Lisa thought. Because there were parts of Jennie that wasn't still tarnished by the gloomy memories that Jennie have been keeping in store within her world. And they sort of showed up everytime Jennie would laugh and smile.

"I love the color of the rainbow," Jennie answered earnestly. Like, it was the most honest and vulnerable information about herself that she had ever divulge to Lisa.

But Lisa couldn't help but scoff loudly.

"What?" Jennie asked, slightly taken aback by Lisa's scoffing.

"Nothing," Lisa shrugged, unable to contain the bubble of laughter that was slowly forming inside the hollows of her throat.

"Lisa! What's so funny?" Jennie groaned, this time without the air of curiousity but more on jumping in to Lisa's amusement. She was chortling, herself.

"Is rainbow a color? I thought it's a set of colors. Like, ROYGBIV?"

"Well, it's a product of a white light in a prism or something, so I think that counts as a color? I don't know," Jennie answered, laughing. "A set of colors by a color, I guess?"

"Mine is red," Lisa said. "Any shades of red, actually. I like how it sort of symbolizes life. To me, at least."

"I haven't seen you in red, though?" Jennie quipped.

"I haven't seen you wearing a rainbow dress or something, either," Lisa retaliated, laughing.

"Touchè."

They both said it at the same time and started laughing at each other at the same. They were laughing heartily. The sound of their laughters soon filled the sizable amount of space inside Lisa's classic car.

"I have a red dress, actually," Lisa offered, after the last thread of their laughters have died out. "It's decorated with small white circles, like polka dots. My mom bought it for me. I haven't got to wear it, though."

"Why?" Jennie asked, wondering inside her mind how Lisa would look in a red polka dot dress.

"Because that dress looks so beautiful, that I feel like I'm going to ruin it if I'm going to wear it on the wrong occassion. It's like I'm waiting for the right moment for me to finally wear it."

"But, how would you know if it's the right moment?" Jennie inquired.

"I don't know, honestly. But I'm keeping it ready just in case," Lisa said, chuckling about her absurdity.

"I don't have a dress or any clothing that's rainbow-colored," Jennie said. "I mean, I used to have this favorite onesie, a unicorn one but painted in rainbow colors. I've outgrown that one already."

"I can't imagine you wearing a rainbow overcoat or something," Lisa said, which earned her a funny glare from Jennie.

"Hey, Lisa. Can I tinker the dial?" Jennie asked, leaning forward and checking the set of dials around the built-in music player.

"Sure. Go ahead," said Lisa. "We need some music for the road, anyway."

"You still listen to cassette tapes, really?" Jennie asked after she noticed the cassette tape stuck inside the player.

"Yep. I'm a dork, remember?" Lisa said jokingly.

Jennie rolled her eyes on Lisa before she pressed the play button and soon the inside of the car was filled with the sound of a prelude, to which Lisa was humming along. Her long, slender fingers were tapping on the leather cover of the steering wheel, along with the beat of the sound of the guitar plucking.

"Oh my god! I love this song!" Jennie exclaimed and turned the dial of the volume up.

And soon, Tracy Chapman's voice filled the interior of the car. And Jennie and Lisa were singing along with Fast Car to the top of their lungs. Each of them finding their own version of the beat, their own version of the musical notes, as Lisa was tapping her fingers on the steering wheel, while Jennie was drumming her hands carelessly on her knees. Both heads bobbing rhythmically in harmony with the song.

There were times when one of them would pause and laugh because they couldn't get the lyrics right, especially during the chorus, when Tracy was singing about being wrapped by an arm around her shoulder, while the city lights were laid before them, whoever Tracy was with inside the fast car. And then sang back again, belting out the words and the symphony. Their voices, which was off-beat and out of tune, were blending and drowning Tracy's velvety voice.

And then the song was over before Jennie and Lisa knew it and Tracy Chapman ended it in G.

"God, that was good!"

They both said it at the same time, like in sync, and out of breath and they laughed at how they both said it.

"Okay, next!" Jennie said, expecting to hear another familiar song.

But she looked at Lisa when an intro of bass guitar and cymbals were playing and she didn't have any idea what it was.

"It's called Saint Bowie, by The Royalty," Lisa said, smiling like an idiot because of how Jennie looked cute and clueless.

"Bowie? As in the David Bowie?" Jennie asked with wide eyes.

"Most probably. Listen to the lyrics. It's quite catchy," she said.

And so Jennie did. Her head was slowly banging and her hips were slowly swaying against the soft upholstered seat she was sitting on while Nicole Boudreau's voice made her look like she was in a trance, because her eyes looked dreamy and her mouth was slighty hanging open while a small smile was playing on her lips.

"I love her already," Jennie said as she listened to Nicole's soothing voice singing about making Bowie proud.

"Glad we're on the same page," Lisa said proudly as she belted out the some part of the song while shooting glances at Jennie who was still looking pretty and dreamy.

Later on, they spent the whole drive singing to mutually familiar songs and Lisa explaining to Jennie why she chose to include some unfamiliar songs on her mixtape and what they meant to Lisa.

They belted out to Paramore and sang a duet with Lauryn Hill and Carly Simon. Jennie was singing her heart out to a classic song by Bruce Springsteen and Heart and Lisa was making a fuss about how she's falling madly in love with everything about Of Monsters And Men. And at one point, after they stopped by a gasoline station to fill up their gas, Jennie and Lisa were dancing to The Wombats and Joy Division and swayed along with Hungry Eyes, rolling their windows down occasionally for air. And they made another stop at the next gas station because Jennie wanted to take a pee and Lisa wanted to buy chocolate bars and a large bottle of water, which they take turns to sip and drink while they were discussing about the realm possibilities of a parallel universe.

They spent their energies singing and talking and dancing and stopping to take pictures, that when they hit the freeway, Jennie was already fast asleep on her seat, covered with Lisa's spare leather jacket, while Lisa was still humming along with the music on her playlist. It was Snoh Aalegra's sultry voice's turn to keep her company and awake while on the road.

Lisa was shooting glances at the sleeping Jennie every second or so and noticed how Jennie's lips were parting a little and her breathing was steady and calm, looking peaceful and unperturbed, while she was in slumber mode.

Tell me why I

I can't keep my eyes off you

The feeling is new

Yeah, the feeling is you

Lisa knew that it was too early to tell. But Jennie definitely made her feel things, weird and intangible feelings that she had never felt before to anyone or anything. Unless, she would count the extra weird feelings she's had whenever she's holding a camera and chasing her magnum opus.

The past hours that she was with Jennie, doing and talking about silly things like they were two teenagers who went out for a road trip, while discovering the intricacies of one another, made Lisa the happiest. And thinking about how Jennie succumbed to her on her most vulnerable state made Lisa feel protective of Jennie, because she have finally come to terms that she never wanted to lose sight of Jennie and that gummy smile of hers again. She wanted to see it all the time. She wanted to be part of it. To be part of Jennie's enigmatic persona.

Tell me how

I can't resist this love

My mind's saying, "No"

Lisa didn't care anymore that she knew nothing much about Jennie. Except that Jennie would occassionally step out from her secured, wealthy life to try and live a normal life from time to time, because she was bored and because she was sad.

I get in all this time

Our emotions diffuse

Only when I'm with you

But I just feel like...

"Damn, Jennie. You got me," Lisa whispered as she was staring at Jennie's face, while Snoh Aalegra was repeatedly singing the words that Lisa have just uttered.

Jennie stirred and fidgetted on her seat. She slowly opened up her eyes, looking sleepy and disoriented. The bright lights of Hongdae were reflected on her eyes. Her face was shining along with the bright neon lights and Lisa thought Jennie looked the most beautiful when she was letting her guard down.

"Did you say anything, Lisa?" Jennie asked after letting out a dragging yawn and stretching her tired limbs.

"We're here," Lisa answered and pulled her Impala to a halt beside a curb.

"I'm sorry I fell asleep," Jennie apologized.

She parked her car outside the Orange, next to a shiny, huge black Rover that looked slighty intimidating and out of place.

"No, it's okay. I was--,"

"Oh my god!" Jennie gasped and hastily opened the door beside her without so much as looking at Lisa before stepping out of the car, while staring at the woman who, Lisa finally noticed, was standing beside the hood of the Rover.

"Chu!" Lisa heard Jennie exclaimed before slamming the car door behind her, leaving Lisa in a confuse state.

"Chu?" Lisa mumbled while staring at the woman who was wearing a beret hat beside the humongous Rover.