After All These YEARS

Four

IS SHE OR ISN'T SHE?

LISA'S POV

The more I read the journals, the more I'm taken with Irene. She's bright, cheery, upbeat and cares deeply about others.

She loves walking in the park on sunny days and reads romantic stories. Maybe not the attributes a lesbian Goth would look for in a woman, but after having my heart crushed by Ji-eun she's like a breath of fresh air.

I continue my odd work for Cha, working about 3-4 days a week. He has me run odd errands around London frequently. He'll have me get a circuit board or some other piece of computer equipment. Sometimes he has me fetch a particular book or scientific journal. I've been doing a lot of data entry, but most of that is just numbers into a spreadsheet.

I did some research and learned that my employer is Dr. Seung-won Cha, who graduated near the top of his class from Cal Tech. He has doctorates in both Physics and Math. From what I've learned, he was always a person that went against the grain and some of his theory's had been ridiculed by his peers. His specialty seems to deal with wormholes. Holes in space and time that can take a person across far distances in an instant.

But that's not all that relevant, As long as I get my free Chinese food and paycheck, I'll do anything that doesn't involve me getting naked or dead.

In the journals, I'm up to Hyunnie's 16th year. She works in the Tavern/Inn her father owns as a waitress and spends a lot of time with her friend Seul.

I said this before, but I've noticed something recently in the journals. It's subtle but hasn't escape my attention. I had previously noticed her sister being man crazy, but Irene not nearly so. When she describe men, it's usually not very descriptive. She gives only the most basic descriptions, such as he was tall and thin with curly brown hair.

But with women she often goes into much more detail. Such in this entry.

December 14th, 1866.

Father, Yoon-Ah and I were blessed with an invitation to the Christmas party at Seulgi's parents estate. It was a wonderful affair with excellent food, good conversation and we even danced.

Seulgi introduced me to her cousin Wendy Shon who was from Coventry, She was a saucy sort of girl and rather fun to talk to. She was about my height with an oval face, black eyes and narrow lips. Her hair lay in tight, dark brown ringlets. She was what they called a full figured girl with a large bosom. Wendy and I spent most of the night just talking and getting to know each other. Her father, William Shon, was an owner of one of the coal mines in the area, He was a rather short round fellow, but a friendly jovial sort.

Yoon-Ah spent time talking to the newly commissioned Lieutenant Lee. He was tall and handsome with short brown hair. With a laugh, I watched as she tried to goad him in to asking her to dance. Father spent time talking to Mr. Kang and the other adults where the main topic of the conversation is about Business. We had a wonderful night.

Now the fact that she describe women in much more detail may mean nothing, But something inside me tells it's because she prefers to look at woman. It's not just that, but lot of other little things.

But with each entry, I fell more in love with Irene. Though I started to call her Hyunnie for short. My own little nickname for her. A lot of the entries were just day to day life in Victorian England. Like she went to the grocery store, attended school, but some were her more deeper thoughts. But even this I felt like she was holding back.