If It Hurts This Much (Chaelisa)

Chapter 1

July 2004

There's music blaring through the street as Lisa heads down it; her pigtails bobbing against her shoulder blades with every step and her pink Powerpuff Girls backpack clinging to her bony, seven-year old frame.

To her left there's a small crowd of people, multiplying in size on the basketball courts across from her house and she can see from at the foot of her stoop the different ethnicities mixed among there. Black, white, Asian, Western and everything else downtown Seoul has to offer. They're all dancing, a make-shift dance mat with a boom box to the right on the floor as their limbs glide and pop along to the beat.

Lisa's long stopped moving to stare. It's not her fault, she just finds dancing fascinating. It always renders her awe-struck when these guys and girls dance because it's almost as if their limbs are disconnected from their bodies. Their arms wave like a piece of spaghetti, and their bodies roll like they belong in a bakery. They way they dance is just so beautiful and before she knows it, Lisa's crossed the road - her grandma would totally kill her if she told her she didn't check left and right before crossing - and now she's standing behind the crowd, trying to peer between their legs to see the dancing up close.

And somehow, she manages. She manages to worm her way through the crowd, pushing with her hands to separate legs as she ducks through them until she's at the front of the crowd, head tilted back slight and eyes wide as she just gazes. Gazes at the dancing and the freedom of the dancer's moves. It really is just incredible.

But then something catches her eye from across the group, and her focus is shattered. Bright, sparkling brown eyes are staring straight at her, almost smiling, if that were possible, and Lisa feels a weird fluttering inside her stomach. This girl looks like something out of a Disney movie, or like, a fairy tale. She has long blonde hair, tied into a ponytail and slung over her right shoulder, and her skin is smooth and pale. The only thing Lisa can compare her to is Cinderella or even Rapunzel - except without the freakishly long hair or hole-ridden clothes.

Someone knocking into her breaks her from her reverie and she snaps her head around, switching on the scowl she copied from her grandma but only finds legs in front of her. Everyone's so much taller than she is, and she knows that people probably aren't paying attention to her whilst this dance battle is going on, but still, they could try to watch out a little. Even if everyone is like, a teenager or older and has a good two or three feet on her height. Apart from this blonde girl of course.

Glancing back across the circle, disappointment sinks in as she finds the girl missing. Her shoulders slump and face drops and she figures her grandma is waiting for her anyway so she might as well be going. And all these stupid people are pushing her around and shoving her further back into the crowd anyway, so she can barely see the dancers.

Lisa ducks beneath legs and knees, barging through with her shoulders and pushing out of the crowd, feeling a little more than angry because these tall people are just being mean. They should be nice to a kid. She's sure it's like, in the rules of the world or something.

Finally, she gets there, and breaks out into the open with a deep breath. Her face feels all hot from the barely-there space she was basically crawling through, and a fresh blast of air greets her when she pops out from between the last pair of legs and climbs to her feet.

Except there's someone standing in front of her.

Pasting on that scowl again, Lisa tips her head back and glares at the person obstructing her path with all intent of telling him or her to 'go to hell' 'cause she heard her mom say that to her dad a while back and he got real angry. But the furrowed features are quickly replaced by a blank expression when she finds the blonde girl in front of her, hands clasped behind her back and feet rocking forward and backwards innocently. All the anger and frustration she felt seeps out of her and she finds herself wondering why the hell that even happened. This girl's a stranger. Lisa doesn't even know her.