Promotion To Your Heart

Part 8

Jisoo fell asleep. She couldn't believe she did. She looked at the clock, and it was already the start of the evening. She hurriedly checked her phone and just found out it drained its battery out. She forgot to plug it in as she had been so 'busy' since yesterday.

She took a charger out and gave it a juice of power. Then, several messages from Chaeyoung popped up on her notifications as its screen lit up. It was mostly about the latter asking her where she was. Then, there was another message from her friend, Lisa. The woman said that she was drinking with Chaeyoung at the bar downstairs and asked her to join. With that, she quickly fixed herself up, left her phone charging in her room, then headed down.

When she arrived at the bar, she noticed that many attendees at the conference were there too. It was just in time for after-dinner gatherings. It was a common thing at business conferences like this to have late-night drinks with fellow attendees.

Jisoo wandered around to try her luck finding Chaeyoung and Lisa. Unfortunately, the two were no longer in the bar. She just decided to occupy a seat at the bar counter and ordered a couple of drinks.

She was unaware that the moment she went out of the lift earlier was exactly when Chaeyoung and Lisa boarded the other lift. Chaeyoung was like literally carrying Lisa on her back. It turned out Lisa was much of a light drinker. With her fourth shot of tequila, Lisa was out. Thus, Chaeyoung had no choice but to drag her new friend out of the bar and take her to her hotel room. Unfortunately, Lisa's keycard was nowhere to be found, and she wasn't even much sober to ask where her room was. Chaeyoung had no choice but to make Lisa sleep on her bed instead.

It was only a few minutes left to prepare for her video conference meeting with Claire's U.S. Investors. The alcoholic drinks she took earlier have hit her, though not as worse than Lisa. Thus in the call would notice.

Jisoo was already on her second glass of wine. She was not much of a drinker, but she could even finish two or more bottles of wine. And with that, she planned to drink as many as she could for the night.

Thoughts ran in her head as she consumed her drink. The incident with Chaeyoung in the restaurant earlier could just be a misunderstanding between them. 'Chaeyoung could have just wanted a breather to think by herself' she thought, 'That could have been it.'

She realized she needed the same, anyway. So, she thought she should make things right again. That she should prove to Chaeyoung what is her real disposition in their relationship. She had to let Chaeyoung know this is not just a simple endearment or a pastime.

"JK Group.." she overheard a woman in blue dress mentioned her company from the table behind her. From the reflection on her glass, she could see a group of conference attendees having drinks. It seemed gossiping was a big part of their interaction. "I heard it would reach the counties of South Jeolla this time."

"Oh. Is this another attempt to expand her empire to the rest of the country?" The man beside her asked back.

"So it is. JK Group has been outright ambitious when Miss Kim took over as CEO years ago."

Another woman from the opposite side of the table uttered, "Not even considering the welfare of small retail businesses. This is truly a deliberate attempt to destroy the livelihood of small business owners."

Blue dress answered back as she sighed loudly, "She'll do whatever it takes just for her to always be on top. Even using her own body, I heard."

Jisoo found the conversation about her quite irrational. The accusation of her not considering small businesses seemed to be unfair to her end. Technically, everyone attending the conference represents large corporations. Thus, she thought, why single her out as the bad guy for taking away livelihood from the 'small people'? Everyone has their share of greed in this capitalist society. Why was the hate only gearing towards her?