Lisa felt her heart skip a beat. She moistened her throat; the truth was, Irene's question made her feel guilty.
But what was she feeling so guilty about...
"I think... it's because I'm his sister." Lisa forced an answer out of her mouth.
"Haha... how is that possible? Nancy is his sister too, but the way he treats you is so different from the way he treats her..." Irene's expression became complicated.
"Or maybe it's because I'm on his side. You should know that the Oh Family's civil war has long begun, and I... have actually decided to help him."
"Oh yeah? Maybe that's the case, but never mind that, I'm okay with anything. Anyways... not leaving has its benefits. JC is a conglomerate, so I know I will have a bright future here."
"For sure."
After her conversation with Irene, a lot was going on in Lisa's head...
Irene was willing to change her entire future career path just because Sehun asked her to do so...
Sehun used his super awesome resources just to get her to stay at the Oh Family's mansion for one night. What did he want?
An answer seemed to form at the back of her mind...
However, Lisa didn't want to even think about it, because it was preposterous...
Maybe they weren't related, technically they were still siblings. Could it be that Sehun was...?
"Young madam..." Lee interrupted her thoughts.
"Yeah?"
"The president told me to ask you to go downstairs, he's waiting for you there."
"Okay." Lisa nodded her head and turned around to head downstairs...
Everyone at the company heard about Lisa's aka Mrs. Jeon's vigorous efforts to turn the situation this morning...
All the employees were talking about what happened...
Although Jungkook had yet to announce who Lisa was, everyone pretty much knew what was going on.
On her way down, the employees all happily greeted Lisa.
"Hi, Young Madam."
"."
"Young Madam."
Lisa nodded at them as they greeted her, and as she arrived by the elevators, she saw a familiar face...
This was the man who hit on her at Seductive Fox and gave her his business card. He even gloated that he worked at JC.
As for that man, he was scared half to death upon seeing Lisa.
With him was a male colleague from the same department...
"Hi, Young Madam." That colleague immediately greeted her.
Feeling awkward, that familiar man looked down and said, "Hi, Young Madam."
Lisa smiled at him. "Do you like working here?"
Startled, he immediately nodded and replied, "Yes, it's great."
"That's good. Keep up the good work." Then, the elevator doors opened.
Lisa walked into it, leaving him scared out his shell...
After Lisa left, he was still recovering from his fright...
"Huh, how do you know the young madam?" his colleague asked him.
"I don't." He immediately denied it.
"Why would she ask you then?"
"It's probably... just a coincidence," he replied guiltily.
The one thing that he regretted most in his life was hitting on her at the bar...
As long as Lisa said the word, he could be fired at any time. By then, the job that he had worked so hard and so long to maintain would have disappeared.
But Mrs. Jeon hadn't yet... this somewhat comforted him.
He swore that he would never hit on girls at a bar, ever again, because you never know who you were talking to.
When Lisa arrived downstairs, she saw Jungkook's Maybach parked outside the entrance.
"Kook, where are we going?"
"Get on first, I'll ask Lee to drive your car home."
"Sounds good." Lisa smiled as she opened the passenger door and got on.
"Do you want to go to Seoraksan Mountain this weekend?" Jungkook asked her as he drove.
"Not this weekend," Lisa immediately refused.
"Why not?" Confused, Jungkook tilted his head to look at her.
"I might... have to pick up an extra shift this weekend." In the end, Lisa chose to lie.
She didn't want Jungkook to know that she agreed to Sehun's request for the benefit of his company.
His request wasn't unreasonable, but she didn't have the guts to tell Jungkook...
"Oh, next week then, it's okay." Jungkook didn't think too much into it.
The two drove for a little over 20 minutes before stopping outside a spicy crawfish restaurant.
It wasn't a big restaurant, but the decorations were stylish, like that of a historical hostel. The entire restaurant was made of wood.
"You like crawfish?" Lisa had known Jungkook for so long but never realized that he liked crawfish. She was surprised.
"Someone's treating."
Jungkook smiled mysteriously...
Then, he held her hand in his, and the two of them walked into a private room...
Inside were three people, one of which was Namjoon, the owner of Seductive Fox.
The other two people were the show-stopping international superstars, Christina and Andrew.
"Hey, Jungkook, come, sit down," Andrew greeted them passionately.
"Allow me to introduce to you guys my wife, Lisa," Jungkook said in fluent American English.
Lisa smiled and responded in English, "Hi, nice to meet you guys, I'm Lisa."
Then, they sat down...
To Lisa's surprise, everyone on the table conversed in American English...
The good thing was, she had practiced conversing in English during high school, so she could understand them.
But... the only awkward thing was that they were all speaking American English, but because Lisa had never been abroad, her English was relatively more or less comical.
Christina grabbed Lisa's hand and kept complimenting her in English, "There is so much good food here, I love crawfish. I also love dumplings, they taste delicious and I'm always left wanting more."
Lisa smiled and she replied, "If you like it here, you should stay a little while longer."
"No, we can't. Our schedule is jam-packed. If it weren't for Jungkook, we would never be able to come here. It's great meeting you."
Although Christina was an international superstar, she was younger than Lisa.
Women in the U.S. matured earlier, and she debuted when she was 16 as a magazine model. Now, she was 21 years old.
She was so young and pretty...
Christine took out her phone and took a bunch of selfies with Lisa. She also said to Jungkook, "Your wife is so gorgeous, you're really one lucky man."
Jungkook smiled happily. "You're right, marrying her is the best thing that ever happened to me."
Namjoon sat beside Jungkook and said in a hushed tone, "We got the culprit of that Japan incident, he is on his way back to south Korea. What do you plan on doing?"
"Get him back first, I have questions to ask him."
"Okay." Namjoon didn't speak much, but he was highly efficient.
Andrew had been friends with Jungkook for years, so they knew each other well. The three of them conversed happily in English.
Lisa also took out her cell phone to take selfies with Christina.
She wasn't one to boast, but this time, she really wanted to after such a stressful day...
Therefore, after using a filter, she uploaded a photo of them onto WeChat friend circle.
On the photo was an Asian and Caucasian, both with beaming smiles on their faces...
Lisa rarely took selfies...
But for the first time in her life, she began her bragging mode...
"Christina is really nice, and surprisingly, she loves eating crawfish." She wrote along with the photo.
After she uploaded the photo, her WeChat friend circle exploded in three minutes...
"AHHHH... where are you? I'm heading there now? I love Christina, why are you with her? Holy crap, I can't believe you didn't take me to meet her, I'm ending our friendship..." Chaeyoung was the first to comment.
"Haha, didn't you see JC's opening ceremony today? I even walked the red carpet," Lisa asked back.
"I saw the live broadcast, but... which one were you?" Chaeyoung was super confused.
"Screw you..." She was speechless that after being friends with Chaeyoung for all these years, she failed to recognize her.
"Stop with the nonsense! Get me an autograph! Hurry up!"
"No, it's too embarrassing. We're eating at a crawfish restaurant."
"Oh my god, I'm super jealous... I'm in Incheon, or else I would definitely hunt you down and mooch food and celebrities off you. By the way, Andrew is so hot, I really want to sleep with him."
As soon as she wrote that, Bambam immediately replied, "If you don't have the skills, don't sculpt porcelain. You won't be able to withstand his size."
"Fuck you. Of course I can. Either way, it's better than your 3-centimeter long sausage."
Lisa was speechless as she replied, "You guys are so dirty! So... you know his size? Since when did you guys start mating?"
"Don't listen to her bullshit, I've never touched her." Bambam immediately tried to shake her accusations off.
"My ass, you didn't touch me? Who the hell did you latch onto that time at the hotel? A husky?" Chaeyoung was furious...
Lisa couldn't control it and immedaitely laughed out loud at the conversation on her phone...
Jungkook turned his head and looked at Lisa. "What are you laughing about?"
Lisa didn't respond, but instead, showed Jungkook her phone...
Jungkook smiled as well...
Bambam and Chaeyoung really did make a good team...
It was a shame that they won't team up to do standup comedy...
They had a lot of fun eating at this crawfish restaurant, and Lisa kept taking photos and chatting with Christina.
By the time she turned around, Jungkook had quietly unshelled a plateful of crawfish for her.
Lisa looked at the glistening white crawfish meat and suddenly became hungry. She picked some up and gobbled them down.
Jungkook gently wiped her mouth with a napkin, as if he were taking care of a little kid...
Andrew chuckled and said in English, "If I didn't see it for my own eyes, I would find it hard to imagine that Jungkook would be so gentle. When I first met him at Harvard, he was as icy as the South Pole."
Namjoon smiled. "It depends on who he's with. With his wife, he'll always be the best husband."
Christina said enviously, "Andrew, if you treat me like Jungkook treats Lisa, then I'll marry you."
"But I wasn't planning on proposing." Andrew laughed.
Christina laughed as well and started lightly punching Andrew...
The atmosphere was really nice...
Lisa suddenly exclaimed that no matter how big a celebrity was, she was still a normal person. She still laughed, cried and got mad, and beat someone's ass, just like everyone else.
Christina was really amiable when they actually hung out...
After dinner, the group went to Namjoon's Seductive Fox for karaoke...
– The top floor of Seductive Fox –
While Lisa and Christina were in the corridors, they were caught by surprise when Bang Chan jumped at them.
"Goddess, please sign this autograph for me."
Christina, petrified, quickly hid behind Lisa...
"Don't be scared, he's my friend." Lisa introduced him like this.
"Head Nurse, tell her I'm a huge fan." Bang Chan couldn't hold it back anymore. If Taehyung hadn't stopped him at the opening ceremony, he would've run up instantly...
"Bang Chan, does your mother know how shameless you are in front of white women?"
Not far behind them was Taehyung, who teased Bang Chan. Beside him was Jimin, in a white Versace outfit.
Lisa put away her smile at the sight of Jimin...
Ever since she posted on her WeChat friend circle, dozens of people had messaged her to request autographs from the two superstars.
Even Wonyoung and Haruto wanted autographs...
Lisa began to regret that she showed off on WeChat; if she kept a low-profile, these annoying things wouldn't have happened...
She didn't expect a rich heir like Bang Chan to be so infatuated with Christina as well.
Maybe she really did have to go home and watch Vampire Count ...
Everyone in South Korea was obsessing over this show as well as its stars, so it must be good...
"Christina, they're all my friends who want your autograph. What do you think?" Lisa turned around and said in English.
"Head Nurse, your English is so good." Bang Chan kissed ass with a smile on his face.
Lisa ignored him continued talking to Christina...
Christina was relieved to hear that all these people were Lisa's friends...
Bang Chan took photos like crazy in Seductive Fox's gold-plated corridor; then, he uploaded the photos onto WeChat to show off.
Taehyung also couldn't help but lean in for a photo with Christina...
"Jimin, don't you want a photo?" Taehyung smiled as he looked at Jimin.
"No." Naturally, Jimin had no interest for Christina, because all of his attention was on Lisa...
Jimin walked up to Lisa and looked at her. "Not bad. You signed two international superstars, what a slap on my face."
"That's just fair competition... plus, you were ruthless too, severing all methods of communication between Jungkook and JC Headquarters."
"I severed communications?" Jimin was confused.
"Wasn't it you?" Lisa became confused as well.
"Why would I do something like that? If I were to find a hacker, I would've stopped the live broadcast today, and no one would be able to see the ceremony."
"Um... you have a point there." Lisa realized that she needed to do some thinking. Aside from Jungkook's competitor, Jimin, who else would try to screw with JC and Jungkook?
"It wasn't me, I'm not taking the blame for this," Jimin explained.
"Hahaha..." Lisa laughed out loud.
"What the hell are you laughing about?" Jimin was speechless.
"You make it sound like you always get blamed for stuff..." Lisa laughed.
"In the past? No... but ever since you appeared in my life, I do get wronged a lot." What Jimin said was the truth.
"So, you're saying that my appearance in your life made you unlucky," Lisa teased.
"That's true... even so, I still thank my lucky stars to have met you..."
Lisa immediately fell silent upon hearing what Jimin said...
Jimin was seldom so cheesy, so she didn't want to say anything else, in case things got even more awkward...
Shortly after, Namjoon came out...
"You guys should go in, we're waiting for you." Namjoon looked at Lisa, and then at Jimin.
"Okay." Lisa held onto Christina's hand and pulled her into the private room...
"Lisa, remember to give me Christina's contact information! I'm going to visit her in the States soon, okay?" Bang Chan shouted.
Lisa just ignored him...
Jimin's gaze followed her until she disappeared into the room...
Namjoon came out and greeted him, "Young Master Park."
"Hey, big boss Joon , you seem to be really close with President Jeon." Jimin had long noticed their relationship.
When Jungkook went out for a drink, he never went anywhere else but Seductive Fox.
Unlike Jimin and the others – they've hung out at all the nightclubs in Seoul and even a couple of the private clubs.
Most suspiciously, when Taecyeon got into trouble here, his Family hired people to erase the security footage of what happened, but Jungkook still got the original version. This only meant that Seductive Fox provided that video to Jungkook. Jimin was well aware of that.
Therefore, he guessed that Seductive Fox's owner was probably a close friend of Jungkook...
"We're old friends, I met him back in the U.S." Namjoon didn't try to hide things.
"Oh...no wonder," Taehyung said in realization.
Like Jungkook, Rick was a low-profile mogul. He was buried in riches but never showed off.
This was because most of Namjoon's family members were involved in unspeakable businesses...
After some small talk, Namjoon turned around and went back into the private room Jungkook was in...
After they sang a little karaoke, the group left Seductive Fox.
Jungkook took Lisa home...
"Kook, they might be your friends, but we can't just let Andrew and Christina come for nothing. We need to give them compensation," Lisa reminded.
"Don't worry, I've made arrangements already. They're not going to take money, so I prepared some Korean porcelain pieces for them. By the way, Christina kept saying how much she likes you." Jungkook smiled proudly.
"Christina's really nice as well. She's passionate and free-spirited. Where you grow up really matters, Americans are so outgoing and have great personalities." Lisa smiled.
Jungkook drove all the way back to their manor on South Hill...
Although it was already midnight, all the lights at the South Hill Manor were still on...
Security guards stood outside, taking shifts to guard the premises 24 hours a day.
When Uncle Li saw them come in, he immediately walked up to them. "Sir, Madam, would you like some midnight snacks?"
Jungkook turned his head to look at Lisa. "Are you hungry?"
Lisa shook her head...
"Then let me get the madam some sweet soup they just made in the kitchen." Then, Uncle Li turned around.
Lisa happily hugged Jungkook's arm. "I feel much safer when you're at home."
"I'll bring you with me next time." Jungkook lovingly raised his finger to graze the tip of her nose.
"I want to too, but South Side's been really busy recently. Ever since Hospital Deputy Director was fired, our branch has been left without a leader. Director Jung sometimes comes over to meet with us, but there are so many miscellaneous things to do. Anyways, I get a headache just thinking about it."
"Don't overwork yourself... work is limitless, but health is."
"I know, I know."
After the two of them had some sweet soup in the living room, they went upstairs...
Just as Lisa came out of the shower, she saw Jungkook putting on his jacket...
"Are you going out?"
"Yeah... there's an emergency I need to deal with, you should go to sleep first, doll."
"Fine." Lisa was slightly disappointed; Jungkook had just come back, and now he was leaving again.
"That's my girl..." Jungkook gently kissed her forehead and turned around to go downstairs.
After Jungkook left, an exhausted Lisa fell onto her bed and thought back at everything that happened today. It felt like a dream to her.
She was actually able to resolve JC's PR nightmare...
She even got Soobin and Irene to sign with JC... Now that she thought about it, she was one lucky duck...
Just then, Krystal, who hadn't spoken to Lisa in a while, sent her a smiley face with teeth via WeChat.
Lisa immediately replied with a smiley face with teeth as well.
"I went into preterm labor and gave birth to my baby daughter last night. She's tiny and weighs less than 5 pounds, but she's really healthy."
"What? How did you give birth after only 7 months..." Lisa was surprised.
"That bitch Dahyun came looking for me at home. She's pregnant too... but she still came to provoke me. We got into a fight, and I went into preterm labor. She's no better though and had a miscarriage..."
Lisa's heart sank...
Then, she nervously asked, "What about Kai, what did he say?"
"He came last night and took off after one glance at our child. I think he went looking for his other woman. Aside from Dahyun, he's also been hooking up with a young model born in her early 20s."
"I'm so sorry..." At that moment, Lisa seriously sympathized with Krystal.
Krystal then sent her a 2-second voice message of her laughing bitterly and sighing...
"Lisa, do you believe in karma? I think that everything that's happened to me so far is karma. When I began dating Kai, you guys probably didn't even completely break up yet. Back then, he flirted with Dahyun and me at the same time. I naively thought that he loved me, that we were meant to be, and that you were history. But now that I think about it, I was such a fool. You climbed out of a bear trap, but I jumped in myself."
"He didn't use to be like this, maybe he was provoked."
Lisa thought back to their time in university; Kai was really good to her.
Why else would she initially consider marrying him?
Why would he be like that now? Kai said that it was because Lisa provoked him.
But Lisa never asked him to hire prostitutes, look for mistresses, spend every day at the bar, and be an asshole.
In the end, he chose the path that he eventually went down...
A man who blamed a woman for all the unfortunate things that had happened to them was never going to go far in life...
"You're wrong, maybe he was always like that, but he just hid it really well when he was with you. 'A distant journey tests the strength of a horse and a long task proves the character of a man'. After we got married, we spent every day together, so I quickly found out who he really was. I just feel bad for my daughter."
"So, what do you plan to do now?" worried, Lisa asked her.
"Get divorced... as soon as I recover, I'm suing for divorce."
"Is your family okay with it?"
"Yeah, my uncle said that he's going to fire Kai because he's no use to the Ophthalmology Department anymore. He's always drunk and can't even perform simple surgeries. All he does is drive around my BMW and hit on girls," Krystal said angrily.
"You're still recovering from childbirth and need to take care of yourself. Don't get so angry... Chronic diseases will be hard to recover from."
"I know." Then, Krystal said, "Lisa."
"Yeah?"
"I'm leaving..."
"To where?" Surprised, Lisa didn't expect Krystal to say something like this.
"After I recover and get divorced, I'm going to take my daughter abroad. We're going to go live in the United States. My father bought me a house there, and my parents are coming with me. I want to leave this place, I've suffered so much here. If I go abroad, I would be able to start over."
"That's good... with your talents and background, you'll be able to live a better life, no matter where you go. Your child will enjoy a better education as well."
"Yeah, I thought so too. Can we meet up before I leave? I appreciate everything you've done to save me and my daughter."
"Sounds good, just give me a call when the time comes."
"Okay then, get some rest soon. Goodbye."
"Goodbye." After saying goodbye, Lisa hung up her phone with a heavy heart.
Time passed by so fast, back when Krystal first came to the hospital, she was domineering and arrogant.
After hearing what Dahyun said, she was provoked and began picking on Lisa...
Back then, Lisa really didn't like her. She thought that Krystal was crazy and suffered from 'Princess Syndrome'.
But now, Krystal finally saw through life. After she was betrayed, heartbroken, and almost died, she finally became a mother. Now that Lisa thought of it, Krystal's life really hadn't been easy...
But why would Kai act like that?
She hadn't seen him in a while now...
What kind of man would not even care about his own daughter?
*
Jungkook drove his Maybach all the way to an illegal clinic in the outskirts of town.
Namjoon was dressed in a black leather outfit. "We were going to take him to Seoul but were ambushed and he was shot. Whoever it was came prepared."
Jungkook nodded. He walked in and saw a dying man on a bed, with pools of blood on his chest.
"Since you're dying, you might as well tell me who ordered you to screw up construction." Jungkook's expression was icy as he faintly spoke.