Jennie
"Lisa Manoban asked me to dinner," I told Rosé in a rush. She hesitated, then her mouth slowly fell open.
"Lisa Manoban," she repeated in shock. "Franchise Quarterback of the Los Angeles Chargers, Lisa Manoban. The star quarterback who you are responsible for ensuring the pristine image of, Lisa Manoban."
I nodded, "The very one."
I gave her a moment. She seemed to need it. She considered what I had told her, likely sifting through the ramifications in that very Rosé way of hers. Finally, when she spoke again it was not the answer I had been expecting.
"Well," she said, "are you going?"
My jaw dropped.
"Are you serious?" I spat.
"What?" She asked with an actual shrug of her shoulders. "She's hot. And you could use a night out. How long's it been, Jen? Seriously."
I felt my cheeks heating at her insinuation. "Not that long," I muttered.
"How long?"
"Just... since Kai."
Rosé's jaw dropped, "Eight months!"
I hushed her, glancing quickly outside to Jimin's desk to see if he had heard. But at that moment there was a knock on the door that startled both of us into silence. I took a moment to compose myself and then reached forward and turned the handle. Bambam Bhuwakul was standing on the other side.
"Good morning, Miss Kim," he said politely and I almost sighed in relief that it was the wide receiver and not the quarterback. I smiled kindly back at him.
"Good morning, Mr. Bhuwakul," I answered him. "What can I do for you?"
"I was hoping we could speak more on the idea that I came to you with before. I know I mentioned a few schools, I think I've narrowed it down now."
"Excellent. Please, come right in. Rosé-"
"We'll speak later," Rosé told me, tone full of meaning as she passed by Bambam Bhuwakul, giving him a polite nod as she left, closing the door behind her.
I gestured for him to sit in the chair across from mine and he did, settling in rather easily for such a large man in a small chair. I pulled up the details that I had been working with the charity department on and we began to go over the logistics of what it would take to make his vision a reality. I told him that the board had agreed that it was a good idea. In truth, they had practically jumped on the chance to take part in a community project that one of their players had dreamt up. That hadn't surprised me. A star wide receiver actually wanting to give back to his community was nothing short of a PR dream.
So Bambam and I fell into conversation about the event in question. It would be scheduled for the upcoming Friday so long as we could get the school that Bambam had selected to agree. I highly doubted that would be an issue. So we moved on to other details about the day. We had been brainstorming for about an hour when Bambam had to go off to practice and I fell into the planning on my own. The next few hours were spent in conversation with various vendors providing merchandise for the kids and tee shirts for the players as well as the media in an attempt to get the event as much press coverage as possible. But conversations with journalists were never short winded and I ended up on the phone for hours at a time, thereby missing my lunch and working well into the afternoon on an empty stomach.
Finally, when I had just hung up with ABC, there was a knock on my door and I looked up to see Jimin poking his head in. "Sounds like a busy day in here, boss," he said carefully. I just leaned back and closed my eyes. "I hate to break it up but practice ended not too long ago. It's the first day of the post practice locker room interviews. The media are all waiting outside to be let in and-"
"And it's our job to maintain the peace between the press and the players," I finished for him and he pointed at his nose in verification. I sighed and snatched my phone from my desk. If I were going to stand by and listen to dozens of reporters ask the same players the same five questions about how they think the season is going to go, I was at least going to get some real work done in the meantime. I stood and headed for the door. "Thanks Jimin. Is the team all lined up?"
"Ready and waiting."
I nodded and headed out. I led them all to the locker rooms where a horde of journalists were waiting to be allowed in. I approached the security guard at the door.
"Afternoon, Min-ho," I said in greeting.
"Afternoon, Miss Kim," he answered with a nod. "You ready to release these foxes into the henhouse?"
I smiled, "I wouldn't call the guys hens, Min-ho. I think they'd take offense to being called chicken."
Min-ho barked a laugh.
"But it's in their contract. Media engagement is an important aspect of professional sports," I said as a reminder, more for me than for him. "Let 'em in, Min-ho." He nodded and reached forward, unlocking the doors and giving them a push. That was all it took. They rushed through the entrance, fighting over the players they most wanted to interview. I noticed several heading on the direction of my tight end.
"I've got Daniel Kang," Jimin told me and I nodded in thanks as he headed off in the direction of the fairly new tight end who was at his locker, turning around, wide eyes at the journalists swarming him, shouting out questions.
With that firmly in hand, I headed for my remaining charges. Two of them, I knew, had lockers close by on the other side of the room. Bambam Bhuwakul and Lisa Manoban would, no doubt, be as popular as ever. I made my way to an empty chasm of space between them and kept tabs on the reporters queueing up for interviews on either side of me out of my peripheral vision. From here, I could also see the running back, Jackson Wang, speaking to a few reporters as well.
Settled firmly into my excellent vantage point, I slowly allowed my eyes to wander to my phone where I was typing out a carefully worded email to the high school that Bambam had chosen for his community outreach program. But, after the first paragraph, my attention was drawn away by the sensation of someone staring. I looked up to see that it was Lisa Manoban herself. She smiled when our eyes met and my heart momentarily lost its rhythm.
"You looked excellent out on the field today, Lisa," the reporter speaking to her now was saying. "Can you tell us a little bit about today's practice?"
"Oh, you know. It was long and hard," Lisa Manoban answered, enunciating a particular two words which had my head snapping up in her direction. When she saw that she had my attention, her lips curled into a smile and she continued her answer. "The Coach had us on the indoor turf for a while and you know, I just always make the most of the time that I have when I'm in there. I take my time, you know? Make sure it lasts, make sure everyone gets what they need."
Suddenly, I was feeling very parched as I peeled my eyes away from the quarterback and looked down at the email on my phone. I heard her chuckle beside me as the words swam around the screen and I was unable to focus on a single one of them. Why was she being so obvious? And staring at me so much? The reporter had put it together, surely. Hadn't they?
The way that they were thanking Lisa for her thorough answers at the end of the interview made me think perhaps not. I stood there, listening to the same questions and Lisa Manoban giving the same types of answers, for what felt like an eternity before nearly all of the reporters except for those lined up to interview Lisa and Bambam had cleared out and the players were even starting to leave the locker room. I put Nayeon and Jimin on taking over my post and headed back to my office to finish that email, get some work done, and maybe pour a cold glass of water over my head.
