The Two Agreements [G!P]

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Memories of Recent Past

When Irene was tossed out of the room, she had never felt so humiliated. She straightened her hair and dress out of embarrassment before rushing out of the office building. She was conscious that she wasn't wearing underwear beneath her skirt, which made her feel all the more miserable.

She took a cab to her apartment, which was only a twenty-minute ride. In the cab she texted Jennie that she won't be coming to the office today. After paying the driver, she fumbled out of the cab and slowly climbed the stairs to her apartment. She opened the door and went to her bed, dropping her purse and kicking out her shoes. She fell on the mattress wailing. Her whole body shivered and she didn't know for how long did she cry.

She must have slept and when she got up every muscle in her body tensed. Then she forced herself to let out a breath. She realized that she was burning with fever. She took out some medicine to eat from the bedside cupboard and went off to sleep all over again. When she woke up, it was already five in the evening. Her fever had subsided and she decided to take a hot shower.

Her mind drifted to the previous night's incident and she immediately felt nervous.

Irene started reflecting on the past few months of her life.

She had succeeded in avoiding Lisa for three months after joining her company as a junior manager. However, she was transferred to the main office on the same floor, as the CEO, to work on a special project that involved creating software that would prevent cyber-attacks on bank accounts. She was one of the head coders. When she saw Lisa again in a meeting one of the days, she realized that Lisa had become perfect and self-confident. Upon interacting with her, Lisa didn't remember her though, much to her relief, although it made her very sad.

Tall, muscular and youthful, owner of a multi-billion business empire, with dreamy brown eyes and mellifluous voice, a CEO with distressingly good looks... she was described like that in public's general opinion. Every adjective explained Lisa's Apollo like image except they didn't know about her temper. She was Busan's most eligible bachelor.

Irene remembered that back in the psychiatric ward all nurses drooled over Lisa because of her looks. After a year Lisa's attraction had only increased because of the addition of seriousness to her attitude. The only negative quality was Lisa's temper, which went out of control most of the time when Irene was around .

Lisa exuded a chilliness that would prevent any person from having a meaningful conversation with her outside of office affairs. The magazines also labeled Lisa as the most handsome demon queen devoid of any emotions who was only interested in making money.

Only a very few around her knew that Lisa was once involved very seriously with a woman who had cheated on her. Lisa had kept their affair a secret on her insistence. A famous artist, Mina Myoi, never wanted to reveal her relationship status to the society. She thought that her business and image would suffer, as many of her fans doted on her because she was single. She had promised to marry Lisa. Little did she know that Mina was two-timing her, and her interest in Lisa was withering. When Lisa discovered whom Mina was cheating her with, Lisa went ballistic. Lisa went to Mina's home to confront her only to realize that she had left the country with him to an unknown location.

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Flashback,

Lisa didn't return home, instead she drove her car to find Mina. She drove madly for three days, continuously searching for her on their favorite spots, but she remained elusive...

At one point of time she contemplated taking her life. When she could no longer drive and felt weak, she hid in a resort. The trauma was so severe that she lost her mental balance.Worried, her parents finally traced her to that resort on the fifth day. When the manager of the resort opened her room with the master key, Mrs. Manoban couldn't see anything properly inside because of thick smoke in the air that was reeking of tobacco. When she figured out where Lisa was sitting, she paled at the sight and started crying upon seeing her face. Lisa was sitting curled up in a corner. She hadn't eaten properly for days and appeared haggard. There were dark circles under her eyes and she hadn't even showered. She looked filthy and sweaty.When she saw her mother and father, she's smirked and wanted to explain the emptiness left in her life, instead he started laughing loudly. The police officer who accompanied them was baffled.As the sweat ran down from her forehead into her eyes, Lisa's vision became hazy. She pointed at the officer and asked her parents, "Is he Mina's boyfriend? I'll kill him!" And she charged at him, but the police officer was fast enough to dodge her attack. With much difficulty Lisa could be brought in control. The men had to forcibly pin her to the floor.

Mr. and Mrs. Manoban took their daughter back home with the help of the staff.They gave a lot of money to the resort staff so that they don't reveal anything about it to the media. They wanted to avoid any scandal and were scared that company's image might suffer. Their lawyer was later sent to the resort to get a signed letter of agreement.

However, at home Lisa's condition worsened with each passing day to the point that she had a nervous breakdown one day.

The housemaid aunt Shin who had been with the Manoban mansion ever since Lisa was a three year old child, discovered her in her room leaning against the cupboard, crying, on the verge of fainting. Lisa was repeating idiotic sentences to herself. Lisa's condition made aunt Shin miserable. She ran downstairs to call Lisa's parents immediately.

Chairman Marco Manoban was reluctant to the treatment earlier but later had to agree to the advice of his family's health physician to admit Lisa to the psychiatric hospital for some days.Lisa was referred to the best psychiatric facility available in Busan City.

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Of course this was all mentioned in the patient's history, which Irene had read. At twenty-one she was one of the youngest and brilliant nurses of Hospital of Busan. Although she was a new recruit she was already creating interest amongst the seniors in just a few months. She would follow the doctors' orders exactly and often helped them with the most difficult cases in the most patient manner. For this reason the director of the hospital assigned her to Lisa.

He had briefed her with patient's history and directed her to read it in detail.

Dr. Jung who was treating Lisa was in his late fifties and one of the most well experienced doctors in the faculty out there. He had specifically asked the director to assign nurse Irene for the patient.

On the first day in the hospital, Lisa was given a sedative. She had slept the entire day only waking up for a short while in the evening to have some water.The doctor followed by the head nurse Hwang Miyeon came in Lisa's room during that time and asked, "How are you feeling?"

"Who are you and what do you want from me?" asked Lisa wary of the man in front of him.

"I am your doctor and came to ask your general well-being," he replied with a gentle expression.

"She's just a woman working here."

"Why is she here? Ask her to leave immediately! No woman is allowed to enter my room!" Lisa shouted so loud that the head nurse cowered and took a few steps back. Dr. Jung turned towards the head nurse Hwang Miyeon and indicated her to leave. After checking on Lisa's pulse and temperature, he also left. Lisa curled back in her bed and went off to sleep in sometime as the sedatives she was given had begun to take effect.

The head nurse quickly went to the nurse station and narrated the incident to Irene.She wanted to protect Irene from possible emotional and physical injury."You are in for a very challenging assignment Irene. The new patient, Lisa, is extremely temperamental and hates women. She is not allowing any female doctor or nurse to enter her room. How will you manage? If you want I will ask Dr. Jung to transfer you to look after a different patient.""Thank you for your concern," Irene replied with a benevolent smile. "But I think I can manage. I'll come to you if things go out of hand."

As her shift had ended, she politely excused herself and went back to the nurses' quarter, which was located within the hospital premises.

She had already familiarized herself with Lisa's trauma and was confident that with doctor's instructions, she would be able to treat Lisa successfully.

Next morning when her shift started, she first walked in his room. She picked up Lisa's chart and read it intently. While she was reading, she heard the movement of clothes being adjusted. She saw that Lisa had removed her sheet and was walking towards her. Lisa looked so scary that Irene first reaction was to run away. Inside, she was very nervous but managed to maintain her calm in front of Lisa

"I told...no woman is allowed in my room!" she snatched the papers from her hands and hurled them in the air. "Leave this room! Now!" Lisa's resentment was clear with her furious words and actions; she became breathless.Lisa waited for a few seconds for her to get out of the room herself before Lisa grabbed her wrist and dragged her outside the room.

"I know all of you are Mina's friends. Go and tell her that I know everything. She can't hide forever!" Lisa sneered at her closing the door on her face.

Irene didn't faze from her sudden outburst. She was already expecting her unruly behavior. Shedding her fear, she entered the room once again, "I have come here just to read your charts and give you medicine according to doctor's instructions."

She collected the papers calmly and before leaving the room, she informed Lisa "Whether you like it or not, I will remain your nurse till the time you are in this facility."

Lisa stared at her back with contempt as she left.

She picked the water jar next to her and threw it on the floor. Her blood shot eyes and throbbing veins on her forehead were visible.

An hour later, Irene was supposed to give her breakfast but was hesitant. She passed fifteen minutes circling and sitting alternately on the chair in her room and then mustered a little courage to face the impatient Lisa again.

"You? Again?" Lisa got up from her bed and charged towards her. She got hold of her shoulders and cast her against the wall. Lisa leveled her gaze and with icy-cold voice, spoke, "If you want to come here, you have to break your friendship with Mina."

"I am not Mina's friend. I don't even know her. And I won't allow any of her friends to come near you, I promise." She spoke with determination.

Lisa looked towards her like a wild animal refusing to be tamed.

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