After All These YEARS

Twenty One

THE MOMENT : PART ONE

No One's POV

For the rest of the evening, Suho poured on his normal charm. On one level she was happy that all was as it should be; her at a ball with a very handsome man, who would soon to be her husband. The other ladies were giving her looks of envy.

But Lisa was gone and Irene had no idea how upset Lisa was. Irene felt torn, torn between tremendous pressure to conform to society norms, family obligations and growing attraction to Lisa.

By the end of the night Irene managed to push those worries about Lisa out of her mind, as Suho kept pouring on the charm and the compliments. The weight of those societal pressures didn't seem as bad when Suho flashed his smile.

Of course once Suho said his farewell at the end of the evening, Irene started to worry again. As if released from some spell, Thoughts of Lisa quickly returned.

Lying in bed, alone Irene soon fell into a deep sorrow for how she treated Lisa. What surprised Irene most, was the depth and intensity of the feelings of regret and sorrow that came upon her. For the first time since her mother died, Irene would cry herself to sleep.

The following day was Sunday and Irene first caught a glimpse of Lisa at breakfast. The actress came out holding a tray of eggs. What struck Irene was her emotionless expression. The young Korean immediately found it disconcerting.

"Good Morning Lisa. How are you this morning?" Irene said desperately trying to get some reaction out of Lisa.

"Fine, Thank you Miss Bae." Lisa replied in a monotone voice.

As Irene's spirits quickly dropped, her father interjected. "Lisa, your performance last night was splendid. Sir Changmin was quite impressed."

Lisa paused from her serving duties and again replied in polite but monotone voice. "Thank you Sir, It was my pleasure."

Lisa then quickly finished and vanished into the kitchen without so much as looking at Irene. The rest of breakfast was the same. Lisa was there but she showed almost no emotion and did her work quietly and diligently. It saddened Irene greatly.

"Lisa's furious at me, I know it." Irene thought, as she ate her breakfast.

"Is something wrong Irene, you seem sad this morning."

Realizing she had door a poor job of hiding her emotions, Irene quickly lied. "I was just thinking of mother. She will not be able to see me married. It saddens me greatly."

Mr. Bae nodded his head. "I miss her as well. You're sorrow is quite understandable. We're going to church after breakfast, you should remember to say prayer for her.'

"I will father."

In church a little while later, Irene did pray. But she prayed for some way to make this all right, as she really had no idea how. At this point, she wasn't even sure what she wanted half the time.

After church, Irene hardly felt better. She felt even worse as the day went on. All day, Lisa played the part of quiet, emotionless, hardworking servant. Irene also suspected that Lisa was actually avoiding her.

Lisa was avoiding her. Last night's incident left her confused, frustrated, guilt ridden, aroused, hurt, but mostly angry. In fact, at one point when she got home, she found herself tempted to just go home and let Irene rot in that grave.

Realizing she may do or say something wrong, not to mention she was angry at Irene, Lisa retreated inside her character. She would be the quiet, hardworking servant and nothing else. She wasn't going to be rude to Irene, in fact Irene found Lisa to be quite polite and very formal that day. That was when they actually spoke, which wasn't very much.