High on You (Choi Do Il x Oh In Joo - Little Women 작은 아씨들)

7

31 DAYS UNTIL THE GRAND GALA BALL

It had been three days since In-kyung had moved in, and In-joo found it incredible that their relationship had gone back to the way it had been in such an effortless way, like they'd never separated at all.
Jong-ho had been rather busy these last few days helping his grandpa do some of the manual work around the house he had to put off these last few years, so the sisters took advantage of that to catch up on the little things of their lives and eat ice cream whenever they felt like it, just like the old times.

In-joo was wrapping her head around keeping track of all the expenses for the Grand Gala that morning. How many lights had been bought so far? How many meters of taffeta? How many cooks had been hired? Had their contracts been stipulated yet? She had to run around the entire hotel to find the right people to ask questions to, and it was starting to wear her out.
The Grand Gala Ball had been inaugurated the year after the hotel started being profitable, which was 29 years earlier. That year, In-joo was one of the few responsible for the successful completion of the 30th anniversary. Anxiety was always just around the corner, but underneath, she thought she was doing a good job, and she wasn't the only one to give her credit. Many people around her had noticed how diligently she was taking care of all the bookkeeping and even more.

There was a good reason why In-joo was working so promptly. The Grand Gala Ball was a social gathering: in addition to the hotel employees, none of them excluded, it was also attended by special guests, including rising stars and others already established in the vast Korean entertainment scene, entrepreneurs, influencers, scholars, and researchers, but, most importantly, also social organizations seeking financial support. Having grown up in a poor family, In-joo was devoted to helping those in need now that she had settled all of her father's old debts, had a house, a car, health insurance, and a well-paying job. Most of the time, some of her colleagues had told her, the organizations seeking funding at the Grand Gala Ball were public schools, orphanages, youth detention centers, and nursing homes. Each year, five different institutions were chosen, and they had to be different from the organizations chosen the preceding two years. To In-joo's utmost surprise, one of the elected ones that year was going to be the Wonryeong school.
When she first read the list of chosen institutions, she knew that that name rang a bell, and after having mentioned it to In-kyung, she had gotten the confirmation she needed. Wonryeong had been the school financed by Park Jae-sang and the Jeongran society. She had no idea it was still open, but after some digging by In-kyung they found out that the school for talents had been renamed after the late Jang Sa-pyeong, the former headmaster of the school, who was killed by Go Soo-im and her lackeys.
The administrators were a completely different group of people, and now it was a safe and nurturing space for talented and poor children. That was why she was doing her best: because she wished her sisters and she could have had the chance to grow up sheltered and safe in a place like that. All she could do right now was to prepare a perfectly functional and smooth event where rich people – she included – would donate as much as they could.

***

Among all the chaos, three text messages would have been delivered to In-joo's phone that day. The first one came around 12pm.

From: In-kyung
Unni, I called In-hye, she's returning in two days' time! That's perfect since I wanted to cook for everyone soon. I guess we're having a family dinner on Friday night. Me, you, Jong-ho, In-hye-ah, Hyo-rin-ah. What do you think? Are you available? Are you going out with... someone? ^.^ If you are, we'll reschedule. Your personal life right now is more important than a family dinner.

In-joo looked at her phone, and even if she felt a little bit irritated, she smiled and answered.

From: In-joo
In-kyung-ah, Friday night sounds fine. I don't have any date set. I don't think I'll have a date anytime soon, don't worry.