Across the Years

Chapter 21: The Moment 1

No One's POV

For the rest of the evening, Taehyung poured on his normal charm. On one level she was happy that all was as it should be; her at a ball with a very handsome man, who would soon be her husband. The other ladies were giving her looks of envy.

But Lisa was gone and Jennie had no idea how upset Lisa was. Jennie felt torn, Torn between tremendous pressure to conform to society norms, family obligations and growing attraction to Lisa.

By the end of the night Jennie managed to push those worries about Lisa out of her mind, as Taehyung kept pouring on the charm and the compliments. The weight of those societal pressures didn't seem as bad when Taehyung flashed his smile.

Of course once Taehyung said his farewell at the end of the evening, Jennie started to worry again. As if released from some spell, thoughts of Lisa quickly returned.

Lying in bed, alone Jennie soon fell into a deep sorrow for how she treated Lisa. What surprised Jennie most, was the depth and intensity of the feelings of regret and sorrow that came upon her. For the first time since her mother died, Jennie would cry herself to sleep.

The following day was Sunday and Jennie first caught a glimpse of Lisa at breakfast. The actress came out holding a tray of eggs. What struck Jennie was her emotionless expression. The young Kim immediately found it disconcerting.

"Good Morning Lisa. How are you this morning?" Jennie asked, desperately trying to get some reaction out of Lisa.

"Fine, Thank you Miss Jennie." Lisa replied in a monotone voice.

As Jennie's spirits quickly dropped, her father interjected. "Lisa, You're performance last night was splendid. Sir Heechul was quite impressed."

Lisa paused from her serving duties and again replied in polite but monotone voice. "Thank you Sir, It was my pleasure."

Lisa then quickly finished and vanished into the kitchen without so much as looking at Jennie. The rest of breakfast was the same. Lisa was there, but she showed almost no emotion and did her work quietly and diligently. It saddened Jennie greatly.

"Lisa's furious at me, I know it." Jennie thought, as she ate her breakfast.

"Is something wrong Jennie, you seem sad this morning."

Realizing she had done a poor job of hiding her emotions, Jennie quickly lied. "I was just thinking of mother. She will not be able to see me married. It saddens me greatly."

Mr. Kim nodded his head. "I miss her as well. You're sorrow is quite understandable. We're going to church after breakfast; you should remember to say prayer for her."

"I will father."

In church a little while later, Jennie did pray. But she prayed for some way to make this all right, as she really had no idea how. At this point, she wasn't even sure what she wanted half the time.

After church, Jennie hardly felt better. She felt even worse as the day went on. All day, Lisa played the part of quiet, emotionless, hardworking servant. Jennie also suspected that Lisa was actually avoiding her.

Lisa was avoiding her. Last night's incident left her confused, frustrated, guilt ridden, aroused, hurt, but mostly angry. In fact, at one point when she got home, she found herself tempted to just go home and let Jennie rot in that grave.

Realizing she may do or say something wrong, not to mention she was angry at Jennie, Lisa retreated inside her character. She would be the quiet, hardworking servant and nothing else. She wasn't going to be rude to Jennie, in fact, Jennie found Lisa to be quite polite and very formal that day. That was when she actually spoke, which wasn't very much.