B L O O D W / R

C H A P T E R III

"It appeared you've found an interesting company, Onee-Sama."

Jisoo—again, is startled. What the deal with people and startling her on that fine evening is, she can only wonder. Ruby Jane appears out of nowhere right next to her and proceeds to ask for a glass of cold water from the bartender, leaving Jisoo who barely recovers from her mini heart attack. Before she can reply to the woman with a sassy remark forming in her head, Ruby Jane has already thrown her follow-up question.

"That was?"

Demanding.

Ruby Jane never knows how to properly ask a question because that is just how she was raised. Ruby Jane was designed to be a lot of things and to do a lot of things as well; including to demand and right now she is doing what she is designed to do, demanding an answer from Jisoo who is not Jisoo for nothing. After all, the lass is not one to grow up by obeying rules, if anything, Jisoo seems to live to do things despite rules. There is no way she will straightly give her cousin the answer that is sought from her.

"That was what?"

Jisoo smirks as she waits for an annoyance to grow on Ruby Jane's face because they are both aware that Jisoo understands what it is Ruby Jane demands of her.

"You mean the one talking to me or the one talking to you?"

An eye for an eye.

A tongue for a tongue.

And of course, a name for a name.

It is a classic Kim play. Jisoo knows how to put her cards well and two can play this game. Now that Jisoo has placed her bid, it is Ruby Jane's turn to return the deed.

"Just some man," Ruby Jane replies—seemingly trying to shrug the question off, oddly forfeiting the game before it even starts.

"Just a nobody," so Jisoo replies thinking that the play is still on a roll, failing to notice the discomfort on Ruby Jane's face and the nervous hitch within her breath.

Then silence.

A foreign silence has sparked between the two of them; like a barrier made out of glass separating Jisoo's reality and what is inside Ruby Jane's current mind.

Then it clicks.

Something does not add up and Jisoo is not the kind of an airhead who is dense enough to fail to read the situation. Something clearly is bothering Ruby Jane's mind. So to the heiress, the mischievous Kim Jisoo gives in as she shoots her glance at the other woman.

"What happened?"

The arduousness on the younger's face worries the older; the left corner of Ruby Jane's lips slightly twitches down, her gazes are dull, lifeless, and she no longer has her interest in the woman whom Jisoo had—what she observed as—a good chat with since knowing whoever the fuck it was will not save her arse anyway, so she thinks.

Jisoo, on the other hand, does not know what exactly is happening but is quite certain that it has something to do with the 'some man' that happened behind the private room door that knocks Ruby Jane's lights out. Jisoo tries to make several scenarios up in her mind to figure out what it is that creates such chaos in her cousin's eyes. Yet, it is not until Ruby Jane opens her mouth that Jisoo understands the whole scenario happening.

"Kim Jong In."

"Like the politician Kim Jong In?"

"Exactly the politician Kim Jong In."

Oh.

"When will it be?"

"My 21st birthday."

"It's like 3 days from now."