A risky deal // Jenlisa

Chapter 18 - Reviving

Jennie is angry. Like, the type of angry where you don't know if you're angry at yourself, someone else or the entire world.
This was supposed to be one of the happiest moments of her life, but fate decided that she wasn't granted it and it made her furious.
Instead of lying in the bathtub with a glass of Champagne in her hands she found herself dialing Lisa's number over and over again – only to be greeted by the Thai girl's voicemail each time.
This wasn't how it was supposed to go down. She shouldn't be worrying about the absence of someone who only was in her life for the reason to release her of stress. This was the absolute opposite of what she initially intended by hiring Lisa and it angered Jennie even more.

Jennie had never broken a contract in her life. She hadn't even thought about doing it. Ever. It meant failure and Jennie Kim wasn't someone who failed.
She was the kind of person who succeeded, no matter what – and still she found herself thinking about the possibility to just quit – just this once – to kick Lisa out of her life for good in order to find back to her old self, to the person who didn't worry about someone insignificant.
It felt like standing on a crossroad – one way leading her up a steep mountain where huge rocks of emotional pain and turmoil were blocking the path. The second road was level and concrete and looked so much more appealing – but then there were her father's words of wisdom in her ear to always choose the harder options in life, because their outcome would always bring the greater profit.
In the business world anyway - and it's not as if Jennie had lived much outside of this world within the last few years, so she's not quite sure that this tactic could also be adapted to another world.

But what Jennie realizes – as she's typing away a text message to Lisa, is that something has to change. Either she has to find her way back to her professionalism – the one thing she was good at, or she had to face that something that seemed to be spreading in her chest and take the risk to maybe fail for the first time in her life.
And it makes her somewhat angry – not knowing what to do or which way to choose because it's the loss of control all over again. She will probably never get used to that.

Jennie shoots up when she hears the front door and the way her heart almost leaps out of her chest can't be normal – but when she comes face to face with Lisa in a black suit and an agitated expression on her face, Jennie relaxes to an extend where she thinks she might faint a little bit.

"Hey, how did it go? Time to celebrate?", Lisa greets her as if nothing was wrong in the world – a smile as big and bright as the starry sky on her face.

She halts when she focuses on the older girl's blank facial-expression and worry overtakes her features as she hastily makes her way over to where Jennie's standing motionless.

"Oh my God. Has it not been approved?", she utters in shock. "Jennie, I'm so sor-..."

"Where the fuck have you been?", the Korean interrupts and it comes out way harsher than she wants it to but whatever, right. She's so confused right now that she doesn't really care – the anxiety she had felt over the past 30 minutes taking its toll.

Lisa's eyes go big before she points at the closed entry. "I was just-." "Don't ever leave without telling me where you are. When you're working, I need to be informed about your whereabouts at all times, understood?"

Jennie's glare makes Lisa nod immediately. There's a softness of understanding about her that makes Jennie swallow empty.

"I'm sorry. I didn't want to scare you or something, I was just... Jisoo called me and told me how important today is and I wanted to...."

She stops and squints her eyes, before repeating her question again – this time a little more hesitant than before.

"How did it go?"