Start from Scratch (JenLisa Adaptation)

35

'My Battlefield'

Lisa's POV

The day after our experience at the NIS headquarters, I had work and Jennie didn't. Upon coming home, I found Jennie watching the TV. Without looking she pointed to a copy of newspaper sitting on the arm of the couch. We didn't get the paper, so its presence to her was unusual.

"Manoban, check out the paper."

I picked up the paper, and on the front page, four of the headlines had been circled.

1. An NIS raid on a religious cult that netted a huge hall of illegal military weapons and the arrest of its head.

2. A garbage man in Gimpo-si had been arrested in connected with a number of recent strangling.

3. SM Studio, the record company of the now deceased and disgraced record producer Lee Soo-man, was expected to file for bankruptcy as a result of a massive scandal involving the skimming of the royalties of its artists.

4. A Dental technician named Lee Seung-bi has been arrested and confessed to the murder of Justice Department employee Han Yoo Joo.

I was blown away, as it dawned on me that Jennie and I were responsible for each of those headlines.

"My God Jennie, this is all us."

Jennie laughed, yet her eyes remained on the horror film that was playing. "No it wasn't. Do you see our names anywhere on that page? The closest we come is the information for the cult raid came from unnamed sources. We're the unnamed sources."

Disappointed, I sat down next to Jennie. "That sucks."

It was then Jennie looked to me with a half-smile. "Actually, no. I was mad at first when I got the paper this morning, but after writing about it in my journal, I realized it was actually a blessing."

I wasn't sure what Jennie was driving at. "How?"

"We're free Lisa. You're free of Lee Soo-man and his corrupt record company, Rosé is back, the cult is gone and actually helped put some other bad guys behind bars. We did do it, we helped some people out and stopped some bad guys. But there's no notoriety, no press, no requests for statements or interviews, no one wanting our story, we remain two nobodies. We can do what we want. We can still be famous of course, but on our terms and we won't be connected to any of this ugliness."

"That's actually a very optimistic way of looking at it. I'm..."

"Surprised? Well maybe a bit of you has brushed off on me."

It was a nice thought and I liked that Jennie was thinking that way, but one thing worried me. "Are you free of Kai?"

Jennie scrunched her face for a moment, "No. Some things just stay with you, become a part of you. I was reading a book about post-traumatic stress disorder, which I am dealing with. I read about a British WWI soldier who was one of the very last ones left, he died years ago maybe. He was 18 when he was on the battlefield and he was having flashbacks into his 90's. That battlefield stayed with him long after the guns went silent. When I first started, I really thought I could put this totally behind me, erase him from my life."

Jennie paused for a moment and just put her hand on mine, "I know, I can't. Like that soldier, my battlefield will remain a part of me. It's a piece of you that's alien and unwanted, but you can't get rid of it. So that leaves you two choices. First you can let it destroy you, or your relationships or your life. The second choice is to learn to live with that part of you. I think by learning to live with it, accept it, you take away most, but not all its power."