"Lisa!"

Lisa turns her head from the direction where the voice originates and immediately smiles after seeing who it was from. She bows to the rest of the VIP guests who just had a picture with her to excuse herself and approached the smiling tower.

"I've seen this twice and I am still in awe. Congratulations!" Chaeyoung chimes while handing a small bouquet of flowers to the smiling actress.

Lisa takes the flowers before giving Chaeyoung a hug. "Thank you for coming."

"I told you I will be in your Barcelona show. You did well, kid." Chaeyoung mutters while playfully patting the top head of the latter.

"You're just a month older than me, Chaeng. What kid are you talking about?" Lisa replies as she hands the bouquet to one of their staffs and asked him to let it rest on her make up chair.

"Still older than you." Chaeyoung chuckles as she retracts her hand. "Do you guys have plans after this?"

The show ended 6 o'clock in the evening, it's their last show for the day. "None honestly. Wanna grab dinner?"

"Was planning to ask you that. I'll wait for you here."

"Okay, give me a few minutes. I gotta remove my make up and lashes first."

"Take your time."

Then Lisa makes her way to her chair to get some help on removing her make up and lashes from her make up artists. Chaeyoung on the other hand had her eyes roaming around the vicinity. Trying to spot Jackson and makes sure he won't be able to go near her bestfriend.

After bidding everyone goodbye, Lisa hopped in Chaeyoung's car after telling her manager her plan and both made their way to a restaurant downtown.

Lisa laughs. "I see you've been craving for something korean."

Both of them occupied a round table before Chaeyoung raised her hand. "I am. I have been wanting to visit this since the day I landed but got no one to accompany me."

Once they got their orders in, Chaeyoung speaks. "How's the traveling around Europe so far?"

"Same old, I still haven't unpacked my suitcase. We will be flying out tomorrow afternoon anyway so I see no reason to do so."

"Same old fast pace huh?"

"Yeah but probably one of the worse. We barely had a full day of rest. It's either we pack up and travel or we're on a practice but it's fun nonetheless."

Chaeyoung smiles. "You're always like this."

"Always what?" before thanking the old man who just served them two shot glasses and a bottle of Soju.

Chaeyoung waits until the man went out of earshot and says. "You never complain no matter how draining it gets."

Lisa starts pouring their glasses. "I love what I am doing so I guess it overpowers everything."

"Thanks." Chaeyoung says after her glass was filled. "That you do. Let's have a toast for another successful show."

Both of them held their glasses for a toast before taking a full swig. Both of them grimaces at the burning sensation that the alcohol had done along their throats. "How's the company going?" Lisa asks.

Their food had slowly started coming in which put Chaeyoung's answer on delay. Once all their food had been laid out and both had bid their gratitude to the old man who's been serving them, Chaeyoung replies. "It's doing just fine, we expected it anyway considering we just had a soft opening. It'll get tougher later on though, we had several audition tapes in our drives to listen and watch."

"Isn't that a good news though? You just had an opening and you already have people lining up."

Chaeyoung swallows her food in before she replies. "It is, things will get tougher when music production starts."

"You'll do just fine, buddy."

Chaeyoung smiles. "Thanks. How about you? Is he bothering you?"

Lisa shakes her head. "No, he's in close watch fortunately."

"Good. Tell me if he does."

Lisa smiles. "I will. He's off the hook so far." That's not entirely true. Lisa is still constantly getting nightmares that would literally bolt her away from sleeping every midnight. Her essential oils only allowed her to sleep longer but that's pretty much it.

Though her public panic attacks had lessen lately, what Jackson did still haunts her everyday.

"Where to next?"

"Milan."

They spent the rest of the dinner catching up all while disturbing Jisoo through video call, unfortunately Jennie couldn't come in due to the timezone but they didn't let the girl be left out as Lisa recorded everything and sent the entire 30 minute conversation to Jennie after the call ended.

Chaeyoung drops Lisa off to the hotel before both of them had to bid yet another goodbye, knowing the fact that they won't be able to see each other psychically for a while.

Once she's inside her room and had safely locked the door, Lisa was finally able to breathe. She also had noticed her growing anxiety of being in a wide range area. She feels like someone is always after her, a slight touch from anyone she's not aware of would cause her to panic.

After her usual session of calming herself up by proper breathing exercise, Lisa makes her way to the shower to freshen up. Once done and ready to get to bed, she grabs the digital camera that served to be her visual diary. Lisa has been filming herself talking to her camera everyday to let everything out of her chest. She does this every before sleep and every after getting nightmares. It's one of the few things in her list that keeps her collected and composed every after her panic episodes.

So she sat there, films herself while letting all her emotions go until her chest feels a little lighter. It's her sign to sleep and she did, not forgetting to send Jennie a "Good Morning" message.

***

Lisa just got off from a video call with Jennie who had been constantly fighting the urge to sleep just so she could talk to her. It was adorable however Lisa decided to end the call so Jennie could get the rest she needed.

To kill the time while waiting for the boarding signal, Lisa decides to go through the airport shopping center alone. She's slowly starting to train herself back to independency again, though there was an obvious struggle, Lisa's unwavering determination allows her to make progress little by little.

They wrapped up their successful Milan show last night and they're heading their way straight to Rome for another two night shows.

She went inside a luxury brand stall which is Jennie's favorite brand to find things she could bring home. She went from clothes to accessories but finds nothing striking so she went out.

Lisa was already on her way back to the others when she bumped onto someone that instantly made her lost her footing, leaving her wobbling before managing to finally get her balance right.

"I'm sorry. I wasn't loo—"

"Oh my God, I'm so— Lisa..."

Lisa's breathing hitched, her mind started to buzz and she suddenly felt dizzy as soon as she saw who she had bumped herself into. It's Jackson.

Her heart starts to beat faster than normal and it made her take a step back. Jackson on the other hand tried to reach out when Lisa is so close to collapsing after stepping away from him.

"Lisa. I.. I'm sorry." he says, he tries to keep himself on a safe distance. Afraid that maybe someone would see him with her and would provide misinformation to the court. He's already trying his best to redeem himself from what he did and he doesn't want those effort to go to waste just because of an accidental bump.

Lisa couldn't find her voice as she tries herself to breathe properly. Thankfully, Jackson didn't move closer to her but that doesn't mean it would set herself at ease. She was about to turn around, to walk away from Jackson when a figure appears behind her.

"What the hell did you do?!" Julio says before turning his attention to Lisa. "Relax Lisa. Breathe." he whispers before looking back at Jackson.

"It's not what you think it is man. I bumped into her, quite literally but it wasn't my intention to purposely meet her here."

Julio isn't convinced but the sound of Lisa's ragged breathing is much more important than interrogating Jackson. "I'll let this go. Get away from her." he says.

A man Lisa recognised as Julio's partner came in view. "What happened here, mate?"

"Nothing. Just.." he replies before looking at Jackson who has an unreadable gaze directed to the trembling Lisa. "Go!"

Jackson scurries away while holding a paper bag he probably bought earlier before Julio turns his attention back to Lisa. "Breathe, Lisa. Breathe. Geez, why do I always have to meet you in this type of situation?"

Lisa is still doing her breathing exercise, Julio then asked his friend to get her a bottle to drink from a vendo they saw earlier near the men's toilet room as he ushered her to a nearest bench. His friend came back with a bottled water few minutes after.

"Is she okay?"

"She will be, can you do me a favor and find her manager? Bring him here." the last thing Julio wants is to let other witness Lisa's episode.

He nods and jogs his way towards the waiting area. Julio tries to fan Lisa's head using his hand after opening the bottle and hands it to her slightly trembling hands. It took a couple of minutes until Lisa recovers while chugging a bottle of water.

"Feeling better?"

"Yeah, thank you."

"No problem. Your manager will be here in a few. Why were you with him?"

Lisa shakes her head. "We just bumped into each other honestly. So please don't tell this to my manager."

"Okay but why were you alone?"

"To kill time."

"That's not actually answering my question."

"I just really want to do something while waiting."

"You could've done it with your manager."

"You know I can not just depend on anyone. I need to get myself together, Jul. This is not an overnight fix and I'm trying to take it one step at a time."

Julio didn't answer anymore and just let her get herself together while keeping a safe distance before her manager came in view, who's panting and with a worried look on his face. Thankfully, his friend didn't say something about Jackson's attendance earlier so it wasn't hard for Lisa to divert the reasoning elsewhere.

Julio still doesn't get why Lisa refused to let others know her situation. It would've been easier for her to recover with people helping her out but knowing how stubborn Lisa is, he decided to respect her decision and being the only person to know about it, he'll try his best to look out for her. After all, his promise to Jennie is still valid until the entire tour and show are over.

All of them made their way back to the waiting area and were instructed to get on on board not long after.

***

"Hi, slept well?" Lisa asks, she's now occupying the bed she'll be housing for the next 3 days and nights in Rome.

Jennie yawns one last time which immediately brought peace and smile to Lisa. "Yeah, you? Are you in your room now?"

Lisa hums. "Yeah, no rehearsal later so I'll be free for the rest of the day. How about you? Do you have review classes tomorrow?"

"No." Jennie replies as she adjusts her head on the pillow. "But I'll be going out with Krystal and the others to unwind for a bit. We'll be just in a coffee shop across our building."

"Okay that's good. Get yourself some free time. Review is tiring, thank God theater arts don't have licensure exams."

Jennie chuckles. "True but the amount of travelling you always do is draining too."

Lisa shrugs. "Not when you love what you do."

"That rhymed." both of them chuckled.

Jennie yawns once again, Lisa starts adding numbers for the time difference before she says. "Go get some sleep, love. It's already almost 11 o'clock in the evening in Melbourne."

The latter yawns once again before wiping off the tear that rolled down the side of her eye due to the yawn. "I think I should, I'm sorry I couldn't stay longer."

Lisa smiles. "You don't have to be sorry. You had a long day."

"Thank you, what's our time difference?"

"8 hours."

"Okay, I'll keep that in mind." Another yawn. "Good night, Lisa. Don't forget you dinner, okay?"

"Yes ma'am. Good night, Love. I love you."

"I love you too. Bye."

"Bye."

Lisa then proceeds to change her clothes to workout outfit, she read an article saying that exercising is a great help to lessen panic attacks, it'll also be the first time she'll hit a gym after a while. She'd grown desperate so anything that could help her get her off from panic attacks without depending on medicine, she'll take it.

Two hours come and go without her noticing it, she got too engrossed with her workout routine all while casually chatting with the other casts who decided to hit the gym too.

Lisa grabs her face towel and let it dangle on her left shoulder, taking a sip from her vacuum hydroflask as she listens to what Yubi was saying while walking out of the hotel gym along with the others. They agreed on getting dinner altogether in a decent diner place Yubi saw a few buildings from their hotel.

Once she's done prepping up and feeling a whole lot better than the past few days, she goes down to meet everyone else at the lobby before they all head out towards the diner they were talking about earlier.

The dinner went by without a hitch, with casual talks and light drinks, the others decided to end the night early and head back to the hotel to get a proper rest for tomorrow's rehearsal and a show by night.

Lisa on the other hand excused herself from the others to take a quick stroll around the area. The last time she was in the city was years back when she was still together with Julio. The man decided to take Lisa on a quick 2 day vacation during a break in the middle of stressful shows to unwind and get herself healed from an exhausting routine.

Since then, she never had a chance to revisit the place. Rome was one of the place that has a special spot in Lisa's heart. It's a place where she rediscovered love all by the help of the man she had fallen out of love the moment Jennie confessed. She knows she was unfair to him but to her defense, Julio was never a rebound. She honestly and sincerely loved the man and tried so many things with him. Julio was a perfect combination of wholesome visual and character, it's not hard to fall for him however, the lowly lit love and spark she had for Jennie ignited in that fateful night of confession.

Breaking up with Julian Julio was never easy, the man cried and begged for her to give him a chance. To fight for them eventhough he knew he will not win, he will never win. She clearly remembers the look on his face, how his eyes screamed sadness, agony and resentment while looking at her.

She remembers how Julio rambled about being a better partner just to gain her back, he'll forget whatever the reason of the break up as long as she would come back. They had planned so many things and Julio resented the fact that it took only one night for her to throw all of those plans into the abyss.

His parents had to get involved a few days after the break up. Julio didn't attend classes, he didn't pick up any calls from either his parents, siblings and his friends and it worried everyone. She went to his condo unit — surprised that he didn't change his passcode — when she was left with no other choice with their friends waiting outside.

The house looked tidy until she reached the living room where bottles and cans of liquor housed either the floor or the coffee table and a clearly drunk Julio on the couch. She had to call their friends in to help her cleaning up while the boys carried him straight to his bedroom.

They talked soon after Julio woke up and was able to recover from a head piercing hangover. There, he cried once again. He blamed himself for not being better, for not being able to make her love him so she won't live him and it broke Lisa's heart.

She left his condo with such a heavy heart, Julio fell asleep and their conversation was never finished. Julio refused to totally let her go but Lisa was determined to end things with or without his approval, she'll be leaving Europe in a week anyway.

A week had passed and it's about time for Lisa to go back to Australia, to come home to Jennie. A week of no communication with Julio too and she thought things between the two of them will never have a closure until a neat and composed Julio came in her view before she checks in for the flight.

They talked and finally had settled things between them.

Julio didn't answer Lisa's question of what made him change his mind though. He just said, it's love and he can't be selfish enough for her not to have it. He also made a promise, a promise that once Jennie hurts her, he'll take it as a chance to rekindle their relationship once more.

Lisa left Europe with a clean conscience and ready to start a life with Jennie back in Melbourne.

Lisa didn't even noticed that her feet lead her to a lake park just a few blocks away from the restaurant. Liking the current peace saved by some people strolling while chatting, Lisa occupies an empty bench that faced the lake which illuminates the bright twinkling colors from the light posts around the area.

She had also sent Jennie and her manager about her whereabouts before she succumbs herself to the view and silence.

Somehow, the still waters and how it gently ripples whenever there's a fallen leaf touches the surface calms her. This is the first time in a while that she enjoys being alone without worrying if she might have another episode of attack again. Was it because of the view? The exercise? The food? Either or, she's grateful.

"Glad to see you're not panicking this time."

The voice startled the shit out of Lisa and was ready to run but when she turns her head and saw the smiling Julio, she starts to ease down. "Please don't do that again! You almost cost me a heart attack."

Julio chuckles. "I'm sorry. Can I sit?"

Lisa nods and scoots a bit to give him some space. "What brings you here?"

Julio turns his body towards the opposite direction and points at the group of men she recognized as part of his production crew seemingly torn what color of candy floss they should buy which makes her laugh. "We were strolling here for about half an hour and I thought I was having hallucinations when I saw your figure here."

"They look so serious and that's just candy floss."

Julio snorts. "Beats me. They've been contemplating for about maybe 10 minutes." shaking his head along with Lisa's before she turns her attention back to the lake.

There was a moment silence until Julio says. "How are you feeling?"

"I am honestly feeling great. It's the first time in a while since I'd felt comfortable being alone."

"That's very nice to hear. Whatever you were doing before this, keep it up. It's nice to finally see you untroubled."

That made Lisa smile. "Thank you. Really. I don't know how it happened but you're always there in every single shit show I had to deal with for the past weeks."

"I don't know either but I'm glad circumstances are allowing me to help you get back on your feet."

Lisa's mood turns solemn. "Déjà vu."

Julio chuckles. "I know what you mean but didn't we agreed on putting that behind us?"

"I know. I'm sorry."

"You don't have to be." Both of them are still looking at the lake. "I'm okay now. I've