Lisa's mood was lifted instantly by the call. She laid on her bed, happily returning back to sleep.
When she woke up once again, it was already noon. The night before, she had left the television running. When she glance over, she actually found Jungkook, dressed in formal clothes, on the screen.
Lisa flipped and stared at the screen unwaveringly.
Jungkook was tall and had outstanding looks. Even if the broadcast was about a new business cooperation, the camera was focused on Jungkook. The screen never once left him, it was either zoomed in straight on his face or zoomed out for a wide angle view.
Jungkook sat on the first row, a laptop in front of him. As the different speakers came on stage, he would occasionally tap his keypad before glancing towards his phone. Several times, he even swiped open his phone.
Lisa stared at Jungkook's actions, a small smile spreading across her face, and a giggle escaped her lips.
Jungkook was actually spacing out...
The memory of the past, of a physical education lesson came floating in her mind. At that time, her period came, so she left for classroom earlier than usual.
When Lisa passed Jungkook's classroom, she was used to glancing through the window and at him sitting with a white shirt at his desk.
At the time, he was in physics. All the students carefully listened to the teacher talking behind the desk at the front. Most were taking notes, all apart from Jungkook, who had his head lowered, a pencil in hand. He was sketching something on a white piece of paper on the desk, sometimes using a rubber.
His classmate who shared his desk noticed he was absent minded in class and tried to peer over at what he was sketching. Who knew that Jungkook's reactions would be so fast, he took a book and covered his paper.
Their actions suddenly alarmed the teacher, who was giving the class. The teacher called their names out and asked them a question.
The classmate who shared the desk stammered at the question, but Jungkook blinked for a second and then clearly and accurately answered.
The teacher then punished that classmate to stand in front of the blackboard. Jungkook, who had sat down, removed the textbook from his sheet of paper and continued to concentrate on his sketch.
Jungkook back then was far from his mature self that he was now. His youthful features and inexperienced self were full of absent-mindedness back then, but in her heart, she had come to idolize that young image of him. No wonder he was the man she had fallen in love with, even when he was absent-minded, he was so freaking good looking!
•°.* ♡ •°.*
Lisa waited until the show was over before getting out of bed. She washed her face and then called for takeout. She then went over to charge her phone that was almost out of battery.
The assistant had told her that Jungkook would call her.
Lisa waited during the day all the way until seven in the evening.
Waiting could really wear down a person's willpower. Lisa was so afraid of going crazy from waiting that she started to tidy up the room.
She re-folded all her clothes, then washed some of those that she'd only worn once, and carried them to the balcony to dry one after another. When there were only two pieces left to dry, her phone finally rang.
Lisa impatiently ran back into the bedroom. Because she was in such a hurry, she accidentally bumped her leg into the clothes drying rack. She bumped her knees on it so hard, tears came rushing out.
However, Lisa was not in the mood to check her wound and directly ran over to the sofa. She grabbed her phone, but in the end, it turned out that the call came from Jennie, not Jungkook.
Lisa instantly felt glum. She answered the call, greeting "Jennie." She then heard the ear-splitting sound of someone singing. She creased her brows and asked, "Jennie, where are you?"
"Lisa? Come out and find me, hurry..." she said in a barely understandable language. She then screamed, straining her voice as she sang, "Do you even love me, do you love me..."
Lisa held her phone a little further away from her ear, and screamed loudly back, "Who are you with? How much did you have to drink?"
"Just me. I'm with you, Lisa. That's not right, just me alone." Jennie was so drunk, her words weren't very clear. She even hiccupped when she finished speaking, then continued, "Just me, on my own, at the Royal Palace."
Then, without even hanging up, she continued to sing. This time, no matter how Lisa tried to ask any questions, she didn't get a reply.
After Lisa hung up the call, the image of Jennie singing alone in Royal Palace filled her mind. The more she thought, the more worried she got. After she changed, she took her bag and left.
When she reached the front desk of Royal Palace, she asked for Jennie and was escorted by a waiter to the room that she was in. The moment she reached the door of the room, she could hear Jennie's heartbroken voice piercing through the air.
She pushed the door open, and the sight of Jennie standing on the table with her head raised high, screaming into the microphone, came into sight. Her surroundings was filled empty beer bottles.
Lisa closed the door before rushing to her sister. She lifted her hand to pull her down from the table. "Jennie, are you crazy?"
She glanced at Lisa, continuing to sing. As she sang, tears streamed down her face. In the end, she knelt down with the microphone in her arms and started sobbing uncontrollably.
Jennie didn't shut her microphone, and her sobs echoed through the entire room.
This was probably the first time that Lisa had seen Jennie cry so helplessly. Frantically, she walked towards the computer to switch off the microphone before pulling Jennie up to the sofa and ordering a cup of hot tea.
Lisa held the hot cup of tea, feeding Jennie slowly. She reached out to arrange her messy hair while pulling out a tissue to wipe her tears dry.
Jennie had indeed drunk too much, but ever since she was young, she had been training her limits with Jimin, garnering a high tolerance towards alcohol. With just a few sips of hot tea, her mind cleared and Lisa's concerned face came into sight, the image stirring a fresh set of tears.
"Jennie, what exactly happened to you?" Lisa asked with concern.
Jennie's tears fell furiously and she shook her head. She reached out to engulf Lisa in her arms, burying her head in her shoulder as she continued to sob quietly.
Lisa returned the embrace silently, occasionally patting her back to reassure her.
After a long time, Jennie seemingly calmed down. She took a deep breath before calling out, "Lisa."
"Yea?"
When Jennie heard the tender and soothing reply, her words froze in her throat, unable to come out.
She had wanted to apologize but couldn't muster enough courage to do so.
This was about when she was still young and ignorant. At that time, a moment of folly had caused so many complications.
She was afraid that the moment she spoke, she would see hatred in Lisa's eyes, and that she would no longer treat her as before.
She opened her mouth but did not dare to tell the truth even now. Silently, she continued to hug Lisa tightly.
Right now, she was confused and upset.
She was afraid that Lisa wouldn't forgive her and heartbroken by losing the only opportunity to get close to Jungkook.
She knew that Jungkook liked Lisa and not her. After two failed confessions, she had coolly found herself another guy, but right now, when she found out that she had lost the opportunity to get close to him by herself, she couldn't help feeling a kind of heartache that she had never felt before.
•°.* ♡ •°.*
With great difficulty, Jungkook found a little spare time for himself from ten in the morning till five in the afternoon. He found a secluded place for some air and lit up a cigarette.
Halfway through his cigarette, he pulled out his phone and looked at it for a while. He clicked open Lisa's texts, wanting to send a message...
But Jennie was right. The more frequently he and Lisa got together, the more romantic they became, and the more Lisa got hurt.
He was too selfish by wanting to get closer to her when it brought her so much trouble.
Last time, her child died in her womb, and this time, would her entire reputation be in ruins?
He couldn't hurt her time and time again in the name of love.
With that thought, in the end, Jungkook put his phone away and took a deep drag. Before he blew the smoke out, his assistant appeared and reminded him, "Mr Jeon, we should head out. Dinner is about to start."
There were quite a few of Seoul's business partners at the dinner party. Everyone knew each other and sat at the same table.
On a normal day, Jungkook never spoke much and tonight he was no different. Since everyone sat down, they drank one glass after another, but he never spoke more than ten words.
The men and women were all the same - they all had a hint of nosiness in their bones.
After having one glass too many, people started talking about all sorts of things.
Jungkook also caught wind of the person on everyone's lips but remained impartial and acted like he didn't care until the very end.
At last, he didn't know who started the topic, but the conversation fell on the Park family enterprise.
"Park Ara, the vice president of Park enterprises recently pooled several billions in funds. It seems to be an investment."
"That woman has always been full of courage. She stabilized a large majority of the Park enterprise's finances."
"I've worked with her once or twice. She seems to be really knowledgeable and a visionary. She's brilliant."
On the topic of Park Ara, some complimented her, whilst others slammed her. In the end, who knew who said it first, but another gossip came to the front.
"Ah right! As we're on the topic of Park Ara, I just remembered an incident. Have you all heard? Recently, the young master Jimin and the daughter of the Kim family are talking about divorce?"
Jungkook, who originally seemed like he didn't care, suddenly was all ears when he heard those words.
His heart jumped for a moment. Could it be - was Lisa and Jimin going to get a divorce because of him?"
"Seriously? When was this?"
"I heard about this around a week ago."
A week ago... Back then, there hadn't been any photos taken secretly of him and Lisa, so it had nothing to do with him?
Jungkook's mood slightly relaxed.
"Why did they talk about divorce? The business relationship between their families has been extremely close..."
"It was because of a woman - the granddaughter of Bae Areum. She's currently studying in university. I don't know how she and young master got to know each other, but then the two of them kind of..." Mid-speech, that person shrugged his shoulders and hinted, "Well, you all know. Young master must've fell for her and wants to marry her. Now they're thinking of how to get a divorce."
Jungkook, who never spoke suddenly asked, "Are you sure?"
"Of course I'm sure. My sister is classmates with her granddaughter. She saw young master going to her school a few times, otherwise, how would I know about it?."
"Bae Areum's granddaughter... They're truly a family with three generations worth of government officials. Indeed, a better match. No wonder they're in talks of divorce."
Jungkook sat in his seat, listening attentively to every word of the discussion. His expression seemed just as distant and cold as usual, but his heart was wreathing.
"That lady is ever so pitiful."
When Jungkook heard this, a myriad of images crossed his mind.
The image of him listening to Lisa and Jimin's confession through Jennie's earphones... And Lisa's happy and tearful face when Jimin woke up... In the end, the image transformed into Lisa's distraught, crying face.
Suddenly, it felt like someone had brutally punched his heart. In an instant, the chopsticks in his hand crashed onto the table, making a loud sound. All eyes at the table were suddenly on Jungkook. Even people from the other tables nearby turned at the loud sound. Everyone looked over with confusion at Jungkook, who had stood up.
Jungkook said "Excuse me" with a sombre expression, then picked up his jacket. Under everyone's watchful eyes, he kicked his chair behind him and strode out.
His assistant blanked out for a second, then got up. He smiled and apologized to everyone, hurriedly following Jungkook out.
Jungkook walked so quickly that his assistant had to practically jog to catch up with him.
In all the years, Jungkook had heard it all at the dinner table; who had gone off the rails, who was financing a celebrity on the side, or whose wife killed themselves because they were abandoned. Whenever people started to talk about these topics, others would sigh along, but not him. He would remain calm and give them no reaction at all.
So much so that even he would start to think to himself, 'ah that's so normal. Don't all wealthy men like to play around like this? Or else, how would I exist in the first place?'
No matter what he thought to himself or how he didn't react in the past, he had never suddenly erupt in anger like when he heard Jimin was messing around with another woman. Right now, he was so angry that he felt like he was Lisa, the person abandoned.
Yet Lisa had once told Jimin something like "In my whole life, I will only love you."
She grew up with Jimin and now was his wife, but he actually wanted to marry another woman.
Jungkook was never as cruel as to imagine a day when Lisa and Jimin would break up and he might have a chance with her. However, now that it came true, he was far from happy and excited, unlike what he imagined he would be; he felt an unspeakable pain in his heart.
"Mr Jeon, Mr Jeon!"
When Jungkook heard the calls from behind, he stopped walking and turned his head to find his assistant panting. He said, "Book me a flight, I'm going back to Seoul, NOW!"
The assistant dazed out for a moment, then said, "But Mr Jeon, you still have a meeting to attend tomorrow. You might have to sign a contract... You can't go back!"
"Either arrange for someone else to deal with these matters, or just cancel the signing all together!" Jungkook didn't even think twice about it, and reiterated, "I'm going to back to Seoul tonight!"
"Mr Jeon ..." His assistant still had more to say. He wanted to talk Jungkook out of it, but in the end, the other had already grabbed for his phone and called to book tickets.
Jungkook got off the phone and then ignored his assistant's cries of "Mr Jeon". He raised his hand to hail a taxi, got in, and left his assistant with the words, "Check out of the hotel and pack up everything in the room". Then he said to the taxi driver, "To the airport."
•°.* ♡ •°.*