The Girl Behind The Mask | Chaelisa

Chapter 30

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The metal plate adorning the door’s surface - freshly polished and newly engraved - now showcased a different name, followed by an antique title that pertained only to this particular office.

‘Lalisa Manoban, CEO’.

Jiyong Kwon stood before it with an unimaginable grin, overflowing with continued pride and happiness for the woman that stood somewhere beyond the door. He took another silent moment to admire the sign before ensuing with a gentle knock.

Lisa pulled the door open half-a-second later, grinning wickedly and gasping for air. “Finally! What took you so long?” she asked, not waiting for a response and tugging him into her office by the sleeve of his suit. “What do you think? And be honest… I’m gonna be entertaining clients here.”

Jiyong looked around the office, unable to keep his jaw from disconnecting from the upper half of his head. “I see you’ve been decorating…” he said bemused, a somewhat massive understatement. “Exactly how many of Roseanne’s paintings have you purchased under that fake pseudonym, Lisa?”

He felt Lisa cringe mildly beside him, confirming that the answer would be nothing short of appalling. “Er- well, you know… nothing too crazy. I mean, she is my girlfriend, Kwon! I gotta support her! A-and it’s not like I’m buying them just for the hell of it, I legit love them all! I don’t want anyone else having them. Here, I will show them each love, and appreciation, and care, an-“

“How. Many.” He pressed.

“Eleven,” she responded, eyes averting his gaze in shame.

He paused, counting how many were currently up on the walls of her office. “Wow. Well, as long as you realize that Roseanne will eventually find out who ‘Pranpriya27’ really is, I’m all for it. They’re all absolutely stunning.”

A light-bulb seemed to go off in Lisa’s brain. Jiyong deduced she was calculating possibilities by the frightened look that she suddenly sported.

“Shit.”

“Didn’t think about that, did ya?” he asked, only too aware.

She shook her head. “And I just ordered five more,” Lisa whispered it out, in astonishment and disbelief. “Well, Pranpriya27 did. Oops.”

“Just, you know, tell her that her paintings bring you energy and peace, which is why you felt the need to have as many of them around you while you work. And also because it’s as if a piece of her is here with you. Tell her that and you won’t be sleeping on the couch for the next few weeks, I guarantee it.”

Lisa smacked him excitedly on his shoulder, “and that right there,” she gestured to his brain, “is why you’re my right hand man, Jiyong.” Lisa moved around her desk, so colossal it extended the entire width of the room. “And it’s also partly the reason why I called you here today.”

She opened a drawer and pulled out a folder, which she proceeded to open and lay out against the desk for him to view. He approached her in his usual serene manner. “Ah! And here I thought you had called me in for styling advice.”

Lisa chuckled, “well, any advice from you is always useful and highly appreciated, but no,” she flipped the neatly stacked pages for him to see what she was trying to communicate. “I called you in, because I need you to sign this.”

Lisa dragged her index finger to the bottom of a page, where an oversized ‘X’ stood to the left of a blank line. “It’s all that stands between you and this…”