Until Next New Year // Lisrene

7: July

For the last days of July, Irene was due to be going away to France for ten days for meetings with the board of a leading technology company that B-Corp hoped to acquire. The company in question was willing, but there were a lot of last-minute details that needed to be worked over, and rather than try to do it over the phone or by email, Irene had decided that the easiest way to conduct business was in person.

Irene told Lisa this a few days before she popped over to B-Corp for lunch and found Irene sitting at her desk, her head in her hands, her fingers massaging her scalp delicately.

"Are you alright?" Lisa asked, before she even said hello.

"I've got a migraine," Irene murmured, "and I'm trying not to move. I've had it since yesterday evening, and I've got another conference call in fifteen minutes in preparation for my trip to France next week. The painkillers aren't working, and through some idiotic oversight of mine, the blinds in this office are nowhere near as heavy as this headache requires." Looking up, Lisa saw that they weren't even closed.

"Okay," Lisa whispered, thankful that she'd worn flats today so her shoes didn't make much noise on the floor. She walked over to Irene's desk and laid her hand between Irene's shoulder blades. "I think you should go home, Irene," she said.

"I can't, mmmhh," Irene said, keeping her eyes closed. "Could you shut the blinds please?"

Lisa did so as quietly as possible before sneaking out again. Irene didn't move.

She approached Nayeon. "Is there any specific need for Irene herself to be on the next conference call or can it be handled by someone else? She has a migraine and is sitting as still as a statue."

A worried look crossed over Nayeon's face, and she glanced towards Irene's office doors. She was clearly deciding whether company policy or her concern for Irene won out in terms of propriety in front of Lisa, but she made her decision within seconds. "This conference call only requires that someone high up in B-Corp listens in; Irene just prefers that person to be her when it comes to certain aspects of the business. If she consents to it, I could ask the CFO, Jihyo Park, to step in, so that she can go home."

"I'll go and ask her, okay? She looks quite unwell."

Nayeon nodded. "Come back and let me know what she says, so that I can put the call in if I need to. Jihyo will need to get herself ready for this; it's scheduled to last for the next four hours."

"Four hours?" Lisa said, aghast, and went straight back into Irene's office.

She crouched down next to the silent brunette. "Hey, Irene? Nayeon said that she can have Jihyo Park sit in on this call for you, so that you can go home. Is that alright?"

Irene cracked her brown eyes open and looked at Lisa through a narrowed squint. "Not that I don't trust Jihyo with my whole life and everything in it, but-" Irene winced, and shut her eyes again. "I need to be here," she finished in a pained whisper.

"Irene, you can't even keep your eyes open, never mind concentrate for a four-hour call. Let Jihyo do it. I'm sure she'll take loads of notes and email you anything pertinent. Now come on, let me take you home."

Irene sighed gently, but her face scrunched up with the effort anyway, and she gave the tiniest of nods.

"Okay, okay," Lisa said, pressing her hand to Irene's forearm in a gesture of comfort. "I'm going to go tell Nayeon. One minute."

Back at her desk, as soon as Lisa came through the doors and nodded, Nayeon picked up her phone and dialed. "Hi, Jihyo? Miss Bae is going to need you to sit in on her conference call in her place. No, she's going home sick. Yeah, I know, I'm just as shocked as you are. It starts in 10 minutes; I'll email you all the details... yes, take as many notes as possible, you know what Irene's like," Nayeon finished, fondness in her voice, before she hung up and looked at Lisa. "I'm going to call Irene's driver. Can you get her stuff together and take her down to the car park? Press the CP button in the elevator and swipe your security card. It'll take you straight down there."