Black, Blue, and Gold (Book 2)

One Step at a Time (Part 11)

She saw the old woman's face appearing behind the door and bowed. "Good afternoon, Mrs. Yoon. I brought you dinner."

"You don't have to."

"I want to."

The woman opened the door wider, letting Lisa in. "I've gathered the rest of Jiyoon's stuff." She pointed at a plastic bag in a corner before she took a seat on her thin mattress.

"Ah thanks." Lisa placed the food in the kitchen and noticed it being neater than usual. She lifted her eyebrows as she went inside the living room. "You're not going to the market today?"

Mrs. Yoon shook her head. "I feel like resting tonight."

Lisa held back a frustrated sigh. "Please go see a doctor, Mrs. Yoon? You don't have to worry about anything. Just get yourself checked. Please?"

"Have you told Jennie what I told you?" Mrs. Yoon ignored Lisa's plea.

"Yes but we still think that it's better if Jiyoon could still visit you every now and then."

The woman continued her non-responsiveness, reaching out to take an old album from the cabinet nearby instead. She opened it and proceeded to take out a couple of faded photographs before handing them to Lisa.

She took the pictures, raising her eyebrows as she looked at them.

"That's Jiyoon's father, right before he left for China. The other one was when he was still in high school. He was a fine young man, a good son. She should know that about him, she should know her father. He loved her."

"Mrs. Yoon-..."

"Now if you don't mind, I'd like to get some sleep."

"But-..."

"Thank you for the food."

Lisa watched the old woman put the album back in its place and set out to lie down. She took a deep breath and stood up, letting Mrs. Yoon have her way. "I will still come back to visit you, Mrs. Yoon. And I'll make sure to tell you about Jiyoon as much as I can. I also will not let her forget you."

"..."

With a heavy heart, Lisa picked up the plastic bag filled with Jiyoon's things and walked towards the door.

After closing it behind her, she stopped to look at the pictures in her hand and found herself tearing up for no reason.

The weight that had been pressing down upon her heart for the past couple of days finally took its toll and she found herself biting her lip to stop her tears from falling.

Like she had told Jisoo the day before, for the first time in her life, Lalisa Manoban felt lost.

She was suddenly entrusted with the care of a little girl whose grandmother was slowly dying in front of her eyes and she couldn't even tell the girl the truth about the situation or help the grandmother.

On top of that, she was secretly constantly worrying about the safety of her loved ones – Jennie, Jiyoon and her team. Images of Chanyeol in the hospital and old flashbacks of an injured Jennie and an unconscious Chaeyoung began to pop up, painfully reminding her of what could reoccur.

Her gut still told her that Seungjin was behind all this but the lack of progress from the team was silently gnawing at her. She hated the wait and the absence of proper evidence or links. She hated feeling clueless and, worse, powerless to protect the people she cared about.

Not to mention the awkward position she was in with regards to Jennie and her father; the feeling that she might have to let go of that small dream she had fostered since many years ago.