Okinawa Lessons | Liskook

XIV | Catalyst

A/N: Okay, this was supposed to be an even longer chapter but I had to stop myself shy of 7k words 🤧

This chapter is pretty eventful and would shed light on a good portion of Lisa and JK's past--especially the huge flashback--so I suggest not skipping it. This book has a plot too, you know, hmph. *insert childish grumbling*

Italics: thoughts, emphasis, foreign words
Bold: digital message

♤♤♤

"That was beautiful, but I hate sad endings," Lisa grumbled, sniffling.

"All good things must come to an end," Jungkook responded somberly, "and sometimes sad endings are the most fitting."

The man cast a fond glance at the sobbing woman underneath her borrowed cap. Lisa was trying to hide the fact that she was crying, but her slightly puffed face gave it away.

The pair had just come out of the park's main theater, in the wake of the dramatic ending of a musical performance of "The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter"--a Japanese legend about a princess who eventually had to part from the people she loved to return to the moon, and the Emperor who had burned the elixir of immortality that she'd saved for him in grief, on the summit of what is now known as Mt. Fuji.

"It's just sad that she won't ever remember her time on earth while the Emperor would forever miss her," Lisa said, wiping the snot off her nose with the sleeve cuff of her makeshift dress, now unable to control the tears coming out of her eyes. "You know, Princess Kaguya could have chosen to stay on earth with the Emperor and her family and everyone would be happy."

"That's the thing, Lisa, her true happiness is not with him," Jungkook answered, wiping a wandering tear off her cheek with his thumb, "and the Emperor had to accept that and let her go."

"He could have fought for her a little bit more..."

"Fought against the Moon celestials that were taking her back? Now that's impossible," Jungkook's tone lightened as he chuckled in his effort to pick up the girl's mood. "C'mon Lisa, it's just fiction."

"Exactly. That's why it should have a happy ending," Lisa argued, her sleeves now drenched in snot and tears. "Reality is miserable enough."

"Aish... Stop fretting, woman. You're on top of the world. You should be partying it up like Gatsby."

"And yet Gatsby died never having the woman he loved."

Jungkook deliberated for a second before agreeing. "Well, shit. Yeah, that sucks," he shrugged, putting an arm around the woman's shoulders. "Let's stop talking about doomed endings and enjoy one more ride before we go home, shall we?"

Bewilderment had overrun Lisa's sniveling expression, noting the man's nonchalance at the wet parts of her outfit pressed against his side. "You're not going to complain about me soiling your shirt?"

"You can have it. I have many more of those," he said, despite knowing that he had only one of that style and it was his favorite one.

Lisa raised a brow. He is totally disgusted and doesn't want anything more to do with this shirt, she mentally concluded.

"So where to now, Princess?" Jungkook asked her.

Lisa looked up at the imposing circular structure at the center of the park from a distance. "Let's go ride the ferris wheel," she said, turning to the man with a bawdy gaze, "I think we've had one thrill ride too many."

"And you're very much welcome for that," Jungkook added knowingly as he started to walk with her in the direction of the said attraction.

Both of them burst into guffaws with their little inside joke. Jungkook had officially called it 'The Jeon Jungcock', but Lisa had been a little more clever and called it 'The Train to Busan'.