The Girl Next Door - Jenlisa

Chapter 20

She scrubbed her eye languidly. She was bored, and she knew this because her body kept creating small issues to either distract her or make her feel like she wanted to leave. Earlier it was this odd itch on her thigh, then this small cramp below her back. Then her ear had this irritating itch near her lobe. Now it's her eye.

She has learned to accept these things over time. Psychosomatic, she told herself; that it's just her instinct to get herself to leave this place. She's starting to feel cramped, overwhelmed. Maybe suffocated.

It doesn't help of course that it's the place she grew up in, the home of her parents. She didn't want to seem ungrateful, but simply put: this wasn't her home anymore.

"Are you tired?" Her mother asked, and the way she quickly shook her head made her feel guilty. If her mother could see she's distracted, she's not doing a good job pretending.

"I'm alright, there's just something in my eye," Lisa lied. "You were saying something about another condominium?"

"Your dad was saying to give up the one you have for rent and move to another one across the Han River. It's much more premium, he says."

Lisa irritatedly rubbed her temples. "Why not just have that new one just go straight to rentals instead of this?"

"He's saying you might like this new one more."

"That's novel considering he never asks what I want in the first place."

"Lisa," Mrs Manoban sighed, her exasperated tone not the first time she used for today. "Can you just sort your issue with him, please? You don't tell me anything, and then you make these incredibly stubborn retorts and then shrug it off again. I thought you said–"

"We don't have to talk about it, it's fine."

"It's clearly not if–"

"No, please. Mum. I'm fine."

Mrs Manoban assessed her only child again, obvious wonder on her face for the nth time when exactly she lost her daughter to her stubbornness. Was it after adolescence? Was it when she became an adult? But Lisa grew up too fast and never quite stayed too long being a teen, and Mrs Manoban has forever wondered if there's anything she could have done to get her child back. The one who openly adored and trusted her and was not particularly worried about forming relationships with people.

Mrs Manoban poured another refill of raspberry and lemon tea on their glasses. It was the weekend and like the ones before it, coaxing Lisa to come over meant bribing Rosé to push her best friend to respond to her. The house felt too big, as always, with their voices echoing the empty halls. She has always wondered what it would be like to have them filled with children's laughter again.

She looked at Lisa and frowned. Her daughter being gay wasn't even the hurdle to that dream unlike most parents imagined; she knew that the bigger issue to address was the fact that her daughter has become commitment-phobic over the years. Unless Lisa magically decides to be a solo parent, it would take a lot of convincing for her to even become open to remotely discussing the idea of families.