You Got Me (JenLisa)

Chapter 39

It had been two days.

Two days since the incident at the Orange happened. Chaeyoung had been edgy and jumpy for two days now. Chahee and the rest of her crew in the bar were starting to get anxious and suspicious. They tried to talk to her, asked her if anything was a problem, but she was quick to downplay their growing curiosity, including her own growing anxiety, by saying that she was just tired and had never fully recovered from what transpired two nights ago.

"Never had I experienced anything quite like that before. It was a bit traumatic on my part being the one who, well, actually instigated it. You know what I mean?" she would tell them.

Of course, they would never believe her. But nobody dared telling her that to her face. Chaeyoung was doing a poor job convincing them, anyway. She knew. But at least no one wasbrave enough to oppose her or even raised further questions. That itself was actually a relief. Because then she'd have to tell them the truth and that was where the problem lies. She didn't know the whole truth, either. Sure, Jisoo told her. Bits of it. But what Chaeyoung wanted to know was how overwhelming the truth was and what had it got to do with her. And with Lisa. Especially with Lisa.

"How's Jisoo? Is she okay?" Chahee once asked her, when she was finally cornered inside her office after all the thwarting and dodging she did just to avoid her crew and their conspicuous looks they were throwing at her. And all she ever did was act like she never heard anything until Chahee slammed her hands on the surface of her desk and regretted it because the bartender knew she had crossed a line. Chaeyoung told her that Jisoo was fine and everything's fine. That she was fine and she was smiling the brightest smile she could muster and told her precious bartender to "never do that again, please? I love this table," and it only made Chahee more suspicious.

"What time is the evening news? " Chaeyoung had asked Ji-In the other day after their rehearsal, whenshe thought she ought to watch the news and Ji-In said something that didn't help Chaeyoung at all.

"A wise person once said: news aren't news until someone thinks it's worth their time," Ji-In told her with a shrug, and Chaeyoung asked, "Who said that?" and Ji-In said, pointing her chest, "Me. And if you ask me personally what I really think about it, wise or not? I'd say that nothing on TV is worth anything anymore. We have Internet, for god's sake, Chaeyoung Park! Ours is the fastest in the world, you know? 28.6 Mbit/s, four times faster than the world's average of 7.0. Go figure," Ji-In told her, with a look on her face that Chaeyoung could only translate as an unspoken insult to her lack of interest in keeping up with the Mbit/s.

And so Chaeyoung did what Ji-In was subtly, but nonetheless obvious, telling her. She spent her morning today browsing every Korean news website, from The Korea Herald and The Korea Times, to the most absurd satarical sites about anything and everything Korean. But there was nothing. She couldn't find anything about the incident two days ago. She even tried searching it on Google but found nothing about the incident. Jisoo was perhaps right about a possible news blackout. She said something about her father's company being efficient in doing such things, especially when it involved Jennie and the future of the conglomerate she was heading.

She found Jisoo's LinkedIn, though. And some other articles where Jisoo's name was mentioned. There was also a website about a foundation that Jisoo was running. And there was Kim Group. Jisoo only told her about it in passing, but somehow it left an impression on Chaeyoung. And here she was, staring at Jennie's powerful look behind a desk, the Seoul skyline behind her. Mesmerizing and intimidating were the only words that Chaeyoung could come up with while staring at Jennie's formidable photo. No wonder Lisa was drawn into the enigmatic character of Jennie Kim. It was magnetic. Like, Jennie's cat-like eyes would pull anyone who would dare stare longer than necessary and she'd have them wrapped them around her fingers, doing her bidding, falling down on their knees under her mercy. Okay, so maybe she was exaggerating, but it honestly felt like it.