DOS
At 8:00 in the morning, although she encountered the morning traffic jam, she was already sitting in her own office.
There was already an upper management meeting that needed to be held early in the morning.
Lisa tidied up the documents she had on hand, and right before the meeting, she even specially confirmed with her secretary the day's schedule, making certain that she was able to take a three-hour break in the afternoon.
"That's right. I already arranged it for you half a month earlier. No matter if it's a meeting or a banquet, all of it has been moved. There definitely won't be anything unexpected happening." A pause, and then some curiosity sprang forth with the muttering of a very unprofessional sentence, "I don't know what date is this important?"
"It's not a date." Lisa didn't get angry, simply smiled, "But it really is very important."
She then didn't explain further and instead grabbed the folder of files, walking towards the conference room in long strides.
The meeting took a while longer than she had expected.
When she finally had some real free time she arrived at her destination, Irene had long already been there in the waiting room. The moment she saw Lisa, she started, "Why are you here?"
Lisa walked over to sit next to her and returned with, "I can't be here?"
"You already helped me arrange for a follow-up appointment. There's no need for you to come here especially for me." Irene's new movie was currently in the intense filming stage, and she had just returned from location yesterday so couldn't help but yawn as she spoke.
"If I don't check up on you, I'm afraid that you'll forget to get treated again."
"Hasn't work been busy lately? It's even almost the end of the year, so right now is probably the busiest time for the company, right?" Irene laughed upon hearing that.
"Being busy with work is just an excuse. If someone wants to make time, how could they not be able to free up some?" Lisa slowly folded her hands and very naturally said, "It's just up to whether or not this matter or person is worth the time to her."
At those words, Irene was surprised, raising her brows in amazement.
"So you finally admit that you always used work as an excuse in the past? How weird, why are you suddenly being so honest today?"
Lisa looked at her, "I just discovered that it's actually not scary at all to speak my true feelings out loud."
This sentence seemed to have a rather deep meaning.
After a moment of thought, Irene very much wanted to open her mouth to say something, but unfortunately, right at that time, the nurse called out her number. She thus could only take off her sunglasses and wave to Lisa before getting up to enter the treatment room.
While Irene was receiving treatment, Lisa ate the bread that she had bought on the way, quietly sitting outside waiting.
In the past, she had been that helplessly frantic because she was afraid to lose Irene. But right now she wasn't afraid anymore.
Because she had quietly made a space for Irene, hiding her in the safest place in her heart, so that no one could steal her away.
Time passed extremely quickly, and after only a blink of an eye, Irene walked out rubbing her right hand. Lisa hurried to tidy up and walked over in welcome. She would be back to the hospital in two days anyway, so she didn't ask Irene how the session went.
"I also scheduled your next appointment for you. It's right when you have a break from filming. When the time comes, I'll call you."
Irene felt some pressure from this. While Lisa seemed completely aware of her schedule, she herself didn't know when Lisa needed to attend meetings.
"Actually, if you want to thank me, you can simply give me money, and I won't refuse. You don't have to go to all this trouble."
"Yes." Lisa readily agreed with her point of view. "If it was simply gratitude, then money would be able to resolve it." Her gaze fell on Irene, her voice dropping so low that only she herself could hear it, "But some things can only be reciprocated with sincere feelings."
"What?" Irene wasn't able to hear those words clearly.
"Want to eat dinner together?"
"Let's pick another day. I'm so tired today, I want to go back and sleep early."
"OK, I'll send you home."
Lisa very considerately sent the person to the door and watched as Irene went upstairs, even waiting downstairs for a while afterwards before driving away. She returned to the company to finish taking care of some more things and didn't get off work to return home until the sky had completely darkened.
She didn't eat dinner, and she also didn't call for takeout. She simply pulled open her fridge door and picked out a few things from the ingredients stuffed full in there, taking them to the kitchen and carefully examining them with the help of a cookbook.
It was only that Lisa had discovered that even cooking required some talent, and she completely didn't have any skill in this department.
And as expected, tonight's attempt was also a complete failure.
She sighed as she thought. Halfway through the meal, she grabbed her cellphone on the side, giving her good friend a call.
"Hello, it's me... Yes, help me book an intensive cooking class, the faster the better... It's nothing, it doesn't have anything to do with that culinary program, it's just that..." Her following words were somewhat embarrassing, but when Lisa mentioned it, she couldn't help but soften her voice, "It's just that... I want to learn, that's all."
She didn't know how to cook anything delicious.
Even moreso, she didn't know how to love someone.
But she could slowly learn. When she loved Jennie in the past, she never dared to voice her feelings; she was always afraid of getting hurt, and so she always left an escape route.
She didn't know that those risks were inevitable in love.
But if you loved someone, then you would be willing to take that step forward for them.
On the night that Lisa destroyed her kitchen, she took the first step. Although the path ahead was treacherous, and she'd most likely stumble and fall many times, she already had her sights set on Irene's back, and she'd wholeheartedly move forward.
▒ ▒ ▒
As expected, the cooking class she booked had some effect. After finding the time to attend a few classes, although her skills hadn't suddenly advanced by leaps and bounds, under the directions of the teacher and starting with the simplest dishes, she was at least able to make some things edible.
Lisa also didn't dare to try anything fancy and simply focused on learning to make one dish—radish pork rib soup. She practiced it every single day at home, from the beginning when she was a complete mess to later on when she gradually got familiar with all the steps. She struggled for half a month before she finally go to the level where she could bring it to Irene.
Because it was almost the end of the year, the company had an unceasing flow of things to do, big or small. As such, only after much difficulty did Lisa manage to get some time off in the afternoon in order to run over to visit Irene on set.
Irene also hadn't had it easy recently. The filming had entered a bottleneck, with Jun Cotton continuously saying that he couldn't feel any emotions, and no matter how much they shot, he was never satisfied. He never got angry or threw the script around, and from beginning to end, he still maintained that cold and indifferent expression. The only things he did were to explain the plot to Irene while telling the other to improve, over and over again, completely uncaring about how much manpower or resources he had to waste.
Irene finally understood how Director Kim became famous. No matter how much of an eye candy the actor who worked with him was, he'd still carve out some acting skills no matter what.
When Lisa came to look for her, Irene was in the lounge memorizing lines, and the moment she raised her head, she was greeted with a plastic bag in front of her face.
"Help me taste-test this." Lisa smiled while handing the thing over.
Irene accepted it easily, and from the plastic bag, she took out a thermos. Upon opening the lid, she blinked as she found the still-warm pork rib soup.
"What's the meaning of this?"
Lisa found a reason so that she wouldn't refuse. "I'm currently planning to start a new program, something to do with gourmet food, so I want to hear your opinion."
"Don't you just have to make it look good on a table for a gourmet food program? You actually still have to make it taste good?"
"For the sake of maintaining realism, we'll have a segment where the audience taste the food."
Irene thought that that made sense and so ladled out a spoonful to drink, but as a result, right as she tasted it, her expression froze in place for an entire minute.
Lisa asked on the side, "How's the taste?"
Irene tried a few more spoonfuls and then turned around to shoot Lisa a glance, asking, "Who made this soup?"
"It needs to be a secret for now. You just have to give your opinion."
"The pork ribs were cut too thickly, the radish is too mushy, and there's way too much ginger... If this kind of dish was given to the audience to taste on a program, then the ratings are guaranteed to break records. Yes, it's guaranteed to be record-breakingly low." Since Lisa already said so, Irene naturally wouldn't be courteous and said as she ate.
Upon hearing this, Lisa laughed. She then took out her laptop and painstakingly recorded every single criticism, even asking a few additional questions, doing her homework very well. For those unaware, she really did look as if she was doing research for a gourmet food program.
The noon break passed by very quickly.
Lisa was afraid that she'd disturb Irene's work, and so she didn't stay for very long, saying goodbye after only a few more idle exchanges. Right before she left, she didn't forget to say,
"You have my thanks for today. In a few more days, I might have to trouble you to taste some more dishes."
Irene sent her to the door and said, as if she wasn't paying much attention, "The food really tasted terrible."
"Yes."
"You definitely followed the recipe to the letter, right? And even precisely measured out exactly how much salt to put in?"
Lisa was startled, "How did you know?"
Only after she spoke did she realize that she had fallen for a trap.
"If you want to show off, then remember to stick some bandages on your hands next time. That'd be even more effective." Irene did her best to hold in her laughter.
Although Lisa had been teased, she didn't get the least bit angry and simply smiled as she said goodbye to Irene.
The next time she brought over a dish, she really did have a bandage on one of her fingers!
Irene almost laughed herself silly, and it was only with a great amount of effort that she held it in. She ate the red braised pork that Lisa had painstakingly made and then, in deadly earnest, offered no small amount of criticism.
As before, Lisa recorded all of it, not missing a word, and said as she typed, "It's almost the end of the year."
"Yes, it seems like this year passed by especially fast."
"On the thirty-first, the company is having a drinking party to celebrate the new year. Are you going to attend?"
"Ah, I did hear my manager mention it." Irene thought about her own schedule and then asked, "Is it possible to take leave?"
"You can, but I can't." When Lisa said this, her eyes were staring fixedly at Irene, the implication was clear that she wanted to spend the last day of the year together.
How could Irene not understand her meaning? But she didn't reply directly, simply looked at Lisa's fingers.
"Is that injury real or fake?"
"It's fake." Lisa's lips rose into a smile.
Irene, conversely, actually didn't believe her and reached out to grab Lisa's hand.
Lisa turned her hand around to grab firmly onto Irene's own, softly stroking that ugly scar on the palm.
Irene's right hand began trembling uncontrollably.
But Lisa simply tightened her grip, lowering her head to examine that scar even closer, using her eyes to trace over its shape carefully, as if she was tracing over Irene's heart.
"I'm not putting on a show or anything." She said in a low voice.
"Hm?"
"Even if the taste is awful, I still wanted you to taste my cooking, only that."
She simply wanted to let Irene see her heart.
Whether Irene accepted it or not was one story, and whether Lisa did these things or not was another.
Irene also understood this reasoning, so she didn't complain about Lisa tormenting her stomach, simply slowly pulling out her own hand and saying, "Regarding the drinking party, I'll have to see how things go. If I can find the time, I'll go."
This much was already enough.
For the following days, Lisa also didn't mention this matter again. On one hand, her work was busy, and on the other hand, she also didn't want to force Irene; she simply sent out a text message every few days, reminding Irene to wear a few more layers.
In the blink of an eye, it was the day of the thirty-first.
The customary end-of-year drinking party hosted by the company was very magnificent.
Many famous celebrities from the entertainment circle as well as some business partners were in attendance, and the hotel's sumptuous great hall was full of drinking and partying, bustling and lively to the extreme.
Lisa was one of the organizers and so had to take care of every little detail; just the greetings had her mouth sore from smiling. People were plying her with alcohol every which way, and she was busy for the entire night, walking this way and that, only occasionally having the opportunity to take a short rest. Every moment she had the spare time, she'd look around searching for Irene.
While she saw the arrogant-as-a-peacock Seulgi as well as the Karina who was glowing with smiles having just received new work, the song "UP" topped the charts, real all time kill, gained praise for its bold lyrics. Unfortunately, Lisa wasn't able to see Irene at all.
Near the end, Lisa became somewhat absentminded, shooting glances at the doorway every now and again. Walking by herself in this lively drinking party, she felt somewhat lonely, and when she thought back to Irene's answer at the time, she couldn't help but send the other a message.
From beginning to end, Irene didn't reply. It wasn't until five minutes to midnight that she called.
"Sorry, I don't think I can make it in time."
― 26 ―
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