Chapter 5.

Moonbyul was late for their meeting and normally Lisa wouldn't mind, but today she was already on edge because of the entire Jennie thing. And she had to admit that it bothered her. She glanced on her watch and cursed silently. Ten more minutes and she was out of there, she decided and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear, a clear sign of her rising anxiety.

Her eyes wandered aimlessly around watching other clients in the restaurant and just when her gaze glanced over a well-dressed man in sitting in the corner, he glanced right back. Lisa immediately looked away but it was too late, the man understood it as an invitation to come over. He stood up with determination and approached her. Handsome guy, Lisa had to admit in her mind, but for fuck's sake, he was so much older, clearly over thirty years old, even if she wasn't a lesbian it was cringy. No, more than cringy, it was disturbingly wrong.

"Some jerk stood you up?" he initiated a conversation. Lisa rolled her eyes, that was really a mediocre opener, but before she could respond, the reply came from someone else.

"Shouldn't you hit on women your age? Disgusting pig." A short brunette with cat-like eyes stared at him accusingly. The man lost his countenance completely, he mumbled something intelligibly and scurried away.

For a moment Lisa was overcome with relief that someone else dealt with the sleazy guy, but... then she felt irritated again. Wait a moment. Jennie!? Here!? What's going on!?

"What the hell are you doing here?" she hissed. The brunette ignored the question and sank into the chair, in a way that Lisa would undoubtedly find very appealing if she wasn't so angry. "Where's Moonbyul?"

"I took the liberty of informing her that you wouldn't be able to meet her today." Jennie answered in that infuriatingly polite tone of hers.

"And why would you do that if I may ask?" Lisa responded in a similarly polite tone, although the blood was boiling in her veins.

"I'll explain if you don't run away like the last time we talked." Jennie replied dryly. Seeing that Lisa has no intention of fleeing this time, she continued. "I'll try to be brief and to the point, there are three things that I need you to do. First, you'll stop this friends-with-benefits thing with Moonbyul. It's just... not healthy. You should concentrate on finding a real, meaningful relationship instead. Second, your partying and drinking has to stop. Completely. No more alcohol, not even beer, do you understand? And third, you'll use all your free time to study, you need to improve your grades so that you can apply for a medical college at the end of the school year." Jennie paused, waiting for the reaction.

"Is that all?" Lisa asked ironically.

"Yes it is." Jennie answered calmly, she couldn't be provoked. It was just too much for Lisa.

"Who the hell do you think you are to tell me what to do with my life?" she snarled, carefully pronouncing every word.

"Who I am is not important, what matters is that deep inside you know that I'm right. So take a deep breath, try to be a responsible person and just agree to what I suggest."

The Thai took a moment to breathe deeply and calm down. Then she locked her gaze with the brunette and they eyed each other at least a minute, neither wanting to look away, their minds were battling for advantage. Finally Lisa shook her head.

"No, I won't do anything if you don't explain who you are and why you care so much about my life."

Jennie hesitated for a second, weighing her options. "Fine, I'll tell you everything about me. I guess you deserve to know."

"Thank you. So... I'm listening." Lisa's voice softened a little bit.

The brunette sighed, sharing her story clearly was very difficult for her, but she shook it off and began talking.

"As you probably already know, I lost my parents when I was very young, I barely remember them. It was just another car accident, a drunk driver... That's why I hate alcohol so much. I was injured too, spent weeks in a coma before I miraculously woke up. Since then I slowly started to realize that I'm not like other people. Something happened to me, I was both blessed and cursed. I developed certain... abilities. Maybe you can even call them powers. One of them you already know, I'm able to feel other people's emotions. But there are others, maybe one day I'll tell you about them. Yet nothing comes without a price... I also suffer from a lot of things. Sometimes I lose control over my body and faint, or bleed from the nose. I have neurological disorders... I frequently experience anxiety attacks. But the worst thing is that... sometimes I just become someone else, another person entirely. And I can't do anything about it."

Lisa was listening intently, with reddened cheeks, deeply fascinated.

"That's why everyone thinks I'm a freak. Including all my foster parents. Do you know that I changed my foster family five times in twelve years? I can't even remember how many times I changed school. Neglected, mistreated, bullied: I experienced it all Lisa, I really did."

Jennie's eyes glistened with tears but she didn't cry. She wiped them away with the back of her hand and went on.

"When I saw you, something made me look into your soul. Was it fate? God? Some other supernatural force? I don't know. But I realized that you were unhappy, even though you maybe didn't realize it yourself. I see clearly that if you continue with your current attitude, you'll ruin your life. And I can't let it happen, I can't let you waste your life, I just can't. Because... I don't know why, but I feel responsible for you now."

It took Lisa a moment to process all this information. Her hands were nervously playing with everything on the table: the plate, the cup, the spoon.

"And my dreams? How's it possible? And forgive me for asking but why you're such an angel in my dreams and such a... devil in real life?"

"I already told you that I've been through so much... Everyone always treated me badly, like an outcast, a lunatic... So I stopped caring about people and what they think. I still try but maybe I'm just unable to be nice to people because everyone has been always mean to me. Perhaps the good side of me still lives on... but only in a dream world." Jennie looked at Lisa apologetically. "I'm sorry, I know it's vague but that's the only explanation I can give you."

A full minute of silence followed.

"I... agree to the first thing." Lisa finally said. "I had doubts myself if this thing with Moonbyul is good for me. I'll tell her that it's over."

"Good." Jennie was visibly pleased.

"But the other things you wanted... It's just too late. The school ends in several months, I'll never get good enough grades to be able to apply for college. I'm sorry."

"You can do it Lisa, I'm sure you can."

"No. It's over. I lost my chance."

"I won't let you give up." Jennie said firmly.

"No Jennie, please, don't even try. Thanks for caring for me, but please stop. You're not responsible for me. I relieve you from this responsibility, okay? Just leave me alone. Live your life, not mine."

Another long silence. Then Jennie stood up, ready to go. But before she headed out, she glanced back at Lisa one more time. She didn't need to say anything, Lisa just knew from that look that Jennie wouldn't give up on her. Ever.