The Yogurt House where Lisa had her part-time work was not actually a new place for Jisoo. She spent some good hours here with Sehun in the past, especially before they were official. It used to be the place Sehun invited her for ‘the interview’ while they’re working on their first project together.
She knew well the owner, a Chinese young lady, the beautiful Song Qian—who went by the name Victoria. She’s that cheerful and friendly woman who seemed to remember all of her regular customers. And Jisoo thought that was probably why her yogurt house was popular among her uni’s students, especially the boys.
Just like how she used to happily greet her, Victoria welcomed her with the same happy squeal as she entered the door.
“Hey~ how’s the newly bride doing?” she pulled her into a big hug and congratulated her sincerely. “You mean girl, you didn’t even invite me to the wedding.”
“I’m sorry, Unnie. I wish I could invite everyone, but I’m a little occupied with everything and stuff…” she said apologetically.
“Ah, right. I heard about your dad. I’m so sorry for your loss.”
Jisoo smiled sincerely; she actually wasn’t so close to Vic. She was very friendly, and she considered all the customers who often came to her yogurt house as close family. And hearing that genuine sentence coming from her jolted her, Jisoo was very grateful. She hugged Vic more tightly as she took her on her arms for the second time and patted her softly on the back.
“Come, come. Whatever you order, it’s on the house. And don’t say no, it’s a wedding treat.” Said she again as she led Jisoo—who squealed a big thank—to the counter. Lisa was standing waiting for her behind the cashier bar with a big, anticipated smile.
“So, what do you want to order, Honey?” she greeted Jisoo cheerfully.
Jisoo stared at the menu board on the wall behind the counter, muttering a mum under her breath. She remembered each time she visited this place, Sehun was the one who always ordered for her of different variants of yogurt, to think about it again she liked everything he ever ordered for her, now she had no idea which one to choose.
“Anything, just give me the best you have. Surprise me.” She said finally.
Lisa cocked her eyebrow, “Hum, interesting. Alright, I’ll give you our house’s special. My shift will be over in twenty minutes, okay? You can take a seat and enjoy the yogurt in the meanwhile, and Jongin said he wants to talk to you.”
Jisoo just turn her head into the corner seat by the window where Lisa pointed with her finger. Actually if she didn’t mention it, Jisoo would never aware of his presence here. For a split second she was panic inside for the assumption of Sehun’s being there too, but fortunately he wasn’t around. The fact that Sehun’s best friend was here and expected to talk to her didn’t make her feel relief at all.
“Why would he want to talk to me?” she asked, hoping that Lisa knew something so she could prepare herself, especially if he wanted to talk about a certain best friend of his or anything related to him.
“You’ll find out yourself. Oh, it’s not about Sehun, don’t worry.” Good thing Lisa threw her in that important piece of information, because Jisoo was getting nervous there.
She then took her beeper after finishing the order and turn to take a seat. As she walked to an empty table in the middle of the shop, she met Jongin’s gaze. The boy raised his hand and waved to invite her join him.
“Hi.” He greeted her a little awkwardly, which Jisoo replied with seemingly the same way. They were never alone before, and even when Sehun around, they never really had a proper conversation, so it’s kind of strange to meet Jongin this way.
For Jisoo, Jongin was actually such a mystery. He wasn’t really not nice, it’s just that he didn’t really smile a lot and kind of distant. Sehun said that he was a shy person but actually quite a craze, only it happened just when he was with his clicks and nobody else around.
“Lisa said you want to talk.” Jisoo said bluffy. She’s aware there’s no use to beat around the bush with him.
“Yeah.” Jongin cleared his throat, “How are you?”
It might just be a regular question, but Jisoo knew Jongin's intention was more than just asking just about it. He knew very well what happened, he was there when her hysteria took over. And frankly, Jisoo was confused what to answer.
“I’m good, thanks.” She lied a bit. And truthfully, she really wanted to ask about his friend, but her tongue was tied. She could only nodded. “So, what do you want to talk about?”
“Uh, right. So, I heard from Soojung, that Lisa told her, that you’ll be coming here so I come to wait for you…”
Soojung? Jisoo tried to think quickly which Soojung was who Jongin meant, because quite many of her friends had that name. But then she remembered this particular girl, who was Sehun’s high school friend, which she saw a lot because the girl also worked here. Jung Soojung may be the one Jongin meant because Jisoo knew that girl was studying in the same department as him, and also friend with Lisa at the same time.
“O-kay?”
“I actually have a favor to ask, if it’s okay with you.” He paused for a second to take out something from his bag, which looked like a proposal, or something. “I got paired up with Soojung this semester for our entrepreneurship class—“ He began, Jisoo took the proposal from him and read it while he’s telling her the favor he’d like to ask.
The proposal was entitled Living Up the Dream by One Young World Foundation, talked about their small and recently formed non-profit foundation based on Social Enterpreneurship program. The vision of their foundation was to ensure young people in the rural area managed their lives well in early age by directing their ideals and dreams, and built relationships with private donors and, as they were working, the ministries to award scholarships to outstanding students.
Jisoo was very interested in reading it, despite seeing a very high idealism there. But Sehun once told her, looking at Jongin family background as one of the famous conglomerates in South Korea, this kind of thing wasn’t exactly impossible.
“We’re going to have our first project this weekend, and we need more people to help us. Lisa said you’re good with kids and you like drawing sketches too, so I was thinking it would be great if you can join us and teach the kids how to draw, architecturally.”
“Who’s going?”
“There will be ten people in maximum number. So now we have me, Soojung, Lisa is going too—“ Jongin counted with his fingers while trying to remember the team. “There’s Hayi and Jinwoon from education department, Suhyun and Changhyuk from the Literature, we also got Lay and Baekhyun, and you, if you decide to be in it.”
Jisoo fell silent for a moment, knowing only a few of the names Jongin mentioned. Baekhyun and Lay were close friends of Jongin and Sehun, and Jisoo was quite familiar with them. Going with people she didn’t really know with actually wasn’t so convenient for her, but at least Lisa would be there too, so maybe this mission wouldn’t be so bad. Moreover she was in need of more entertainment and a little vacation of course.
“Do you need someone’s concern for this matter?” Jongin asked a moment later, assuming that her silent was thinking about how to let her person—they knew he was talking about her husband here—know that she’s going with them.
If her dad was still there, Jisoo would need time to ask for his permission first. But now, she thought Yeonseok wouldn’t mind if she went on a trip with her friends. She might tell him later, but she didn’t need permission for this sort of thing, did she?
“No, I was just thinking—you know, just count me in. I’ll go with you guys.”
“Great.” He beamed happily, “So, we’re leaving on Friday morning and get back to Seoul on Sunday evening the latest. You’ll get my professor’s recommendation for leaving classes, if you have any on Friday, so just list those on this paper. I’ll get it mailed to your class PA by Thursday evening.”
Jongin gave her another paper to list her classes on Friday, before then they talked about his project briefly and things that they would do at this small village in Danyang county. Jongin then excused himself when he’s sure Jisoo got every detail filled in, and Lisa joined her for a small talk before Jongdae came and took them home.
Jisoo and Jongdae actually had not really made up. They weren’t so well conversed after her dad’s funeral, and during the days after that Jongdae only visited her house to deliver the food his mom cooked for them. But maybe because Lisa was between them, their chat broke out just like that. Sometimes they just didn’t have to say to each other-sorry just to be able to talk again, as if there had never been any incident before. Besides, Jisoo was no longer angry with her.
The couple joined Jisoo and Yeonseok for dinner at the apartment, actually because Jongdae initially helped Jisoo bring her things that had not been transported to the apartment, and they happened to be at dinner when they arrived, so they stayed longer to eat together.
She told Yeonseok about the plan for the weekend, and she was glad that he thought it’s a good idea for her to get some fresh air. They talked about her presentation that afternoon, and then about his upcoming project. That was probably the first time she heard about the details of the project coming from himself as he told them that the meeting went so well, which meant that they probably got the support they needed to make the project came true. Seeing he’s being passionate about his job reminded her about the way her dad talked about his to her in his shinning days. It’s nice to listen, but it’s also sad at the same time. She missed her dad so bad, but she tried to hold it in front of everyone.
Though in the end she ended up crying in the bathroom, she was a little glad that she was alone at the time.
Friday morning came a little chiller than before. It was the end of October, and winter’s air was on the weather. She spent the whole evening to pack her bag, because it would be so cold in Danyang so she prepared extra layer of sweaters for herself and blanket scarves for everyone.
Since Yeonseok got surgery early in the morning, Jongdae came to pick her up. They picked Lisa too on the way to the meeting point, where the uni small bus had waited at the business college parking area. Soojung greeted them and took the girls to the others who had come while Jongdae parked the car and unloaded the bags.
In about twenty minutes of conversing everyone got quite close to each other, especially the girls. Lisa probably took the most part in taking them all together since she was really friendly and led the conversation even in among the boys, Jisoo could see that she became everyone’s favorite in a second so that Jongdae had to remind her to ‘control’ herself because he’s getting slightly jealous there.
“You guys take care of each other, don’t fight.” Jongdae said when everyone was boarding the bus, after Jongin checked for heads counting. It was about time for them to leave, so some boys were around outside to do the last check on their supplies.
“Don’t worry, I’m not you, we don’t do fight.” Lisa retorted, which made Jongdae burst in laughter.
Well, it’s true right there, Jisoo even had to agree. She then followed Jongin to check on her belongings on the bus trunk along with Lisa and Jongdae, and she was about to turn to get on the bus when a familiar voice snapped her—and Jongdae.
“Jongin, where do I put this bag?”
Jisoo turned her head to find Sehun stood by the bus door holding a duffle bag. Unlike her, he looked only a bit shock to find her there, but managed to hide it well on his stoic face. And she heard a muttered curse came from Jongin, she found him a bit dumbfounded when their eyes met.
“All bags in the trunk, put it here.”
Everyone was silent when Sehun walked to them and threw his bag on the trunk, before he turned around to get on the bus without saying anything.
“What the fuck, Jongin? You didn’t say he's coming!” Jongdae was the one who threw a fit the first one, he clearly hated this idea and was ready to drag Jisoo back to the car so she wouldn’t have to come along if Sehun went with them.
“Look, I forgot, okay? Lay cancelled last night, and I have to seek for his substitution in last minute and Sehun is the only one available.” Jongin then looked at her, “I totally forgot about your, you know, fight and everything.”
Jisoo scoffed irritably. She didn’t believe Jongin would forget her presence when he himself asked her to come. Although this was not the real problem, she was a bit disappointed with his attitude. But she also had to voice her discomfort to be with Sehun right now, not for her sake, but more for his. She could see the slight of his disliking her presence there even though he hid it well before.  
“It’s not like that, Jongin, it’s just, I don’t think it’s a good idea for us to be together in the same place. I don’t want to make everything awkward with everyone.” She explained.
Jongin scratched his head. He then knocked on the bus window, asked Soojung to call for Sehun.
“Hey, she’s coming with us. Do you have a problem with that?” he asked when the said person appeared by the door.
Sehun threw her a glance and shrugged, “I don’t care. That’s all?”
“That’s all.” Jongin said and dismissed him, “You’re coming with us, Jisoo. I can’t get anymore last minute substitution for you right now.”
“You better promise me that friend of yours won’t do anything fishy, Kim Jongin.” Jongdae warned him seriously.
Jongin rolled his eyes, “He won’t, I’ll be there, alright? And they’re fucking adults, Jongdae, stop babysit them. Let them solve their own problems like how adults do.” He then hissed and turned to leave.
Jongdae didn’t like what he heard, and he was about to retort but Lisa held him back. She made sure that everything would be alright, to him and to Jisoo too, because she would be around. And as nervous as Jisoo was, her tongue was too tied to say anything back. She just nodded when Jongdae gave her a pat on her upper arm, and followed Lisa getting on the bus.
She didn’t dare to look everyone when she was on board, seat herself on the second row in the front while Lisa sat next to her. This might be a long trip for her, and she couldn’t help to curse inside herself that she probably wouldn’t be able to wear her favorite blanket scarf in the cold mountain weather because the one who gave it to her would be there to see it.
The bus started moving, Jisoo could feel the engine trembled from under the seat. Strangely enough, she felt the same went all over her body.
*