The Only

Chapter 5

Sometimes, sometimes, Lisa can be so clueless.

Lisa isn't really one to be clueless, though. She's actually a very observant, very thoughtful, and a very sensitive person.

A person with more know-how on matters of astrology and zodiac - ehem, Esther, ehem - would say that that side of her comes from her scorpio moon. A layman would simply chalk it up to the duality that Lisa carries within her - that it is simply the paradox and the complexity of who she is, fun and goofy and loud but also thoughtful and sensitive.

But as observant and sensitive as she is, sometimes some things just do slip by Lisa's awareness.

Like, for example, how her best friend Roseanne Park - the very hardworking, very disciplined, very uncompromising Roseanne Park - somehow always made an exception for her.

It's in the way Rosie ran the school with a stern openness fitting for a student leader like her.

Even before she was elected student body president and overall university student representative, even as she worked as the council's secretary, she was already the backbone of the student council - the head bitch in-charge. Everyone naturally turned to her for guidance and leadership, even her predecessor and senior heeded and listened to her advice.

She was progressive, she is independent, but she also knows what she wants and who she is that she's unwilling to bend and acquiesce for things that do not fall in line with that.

Take for instance the way Rosie - in all her sweet polite smiles and warm greetings - has butt heads with the university chancellor more than a few times during her overall stay. She has vehemently opposed fee hikes, the implementation of discriminatory learning policies that put the lesser-fortunate students at a disadvantage, and even protested the threats of the chancellor to shut down the university paper.

Sufficely put, no matter how strong a rock you are or how hard of a place you see yourself to be, Roseanne Park can and will bulldoze you over if she needs to.

Except when it comes to Lisa.

See, when it comes to Lisa, Rosie can't help but give in.

Like whenever they have to choose what to eat.

"Rosie I want sausages," Lisa announces out of the blue.

It's the next weekend after their dorm's unfortunate incident with the air conditioning breaking down. The two of them are cuddled up on the couch, Lisa with her back against the leather backrest and Rosie splayed out on a huge pillow in her lap.

Their weekdays were always still busy with summer school activities, but their weekends had to stay free. Surprisingly, it was Rosie who was adamant about reserving weekends as rest days. Lisa couldn't argue. She was happy to have nothing to do during weekends.

And inevitably, the weekends turned into time allotted to spend with each other. How could Lisa complain about spending time with her best friend, secret crush, and quite possibly the greatest love of her life? Lisa might never be able to admit her feelings to her best friend and roommate, but she would be damned if she wasn't taking, counting, and being grateful for her blessings one by one.

For this weekend, they are lazily watching a random episode of Junior Masterchef. Rosie loved the show and loved watching the cute little kids be almost as good as professional chefs. Lisa loved the food ideas Rosie would get from the show and then would make for her.

Rosie's eyelids were drooping closed and she was nearly drifting off to sleep. At the sound of Lisa's request, she groans.

"I was thinking of something healthy, Lisa. We've been eating so much junk food this week, we need to eat greens and fruit." The blonde student leader admonished her friend, her voice whiny and sleepy. "We'll end up frying our brain to mush with all the MSG and preservatives we've been ingesting."