ephemeral | Jenlisa [COMPLETED]

Chapter 1

Jennie Kim didn't like Busan. She'd decided that about two days ago when she'd arrived for the conference.

She didn't enjoy conferences, either. She'd decided that six years ago, after attending her first one.

She definitely did not like conferences in Busan, especially when they put her on the spot to do a presentation she hadn't been prepared for, after having been at said conference for three days already. Could no one give her a heads up in that time?

You'd think.

Jennie was good behind the scenes; actually, no, she was fucking great behind the scenes. She'd worked her way up to running her city's financial department by twenty-five and was managing the city by twenty-eight.

In front of a crowd, with no preparation, though?

She mustered up a smile that she was certain looked more like a grimace for the bartender as he poured her a Sprite – accompanied with a strange look, but whatever – and she was more than grateful that he walked away quickly to tend the other side of the bar.

Generally speaking, she didn't love fancy bars, either. Fancy bars in a city that was too big for her liking, where the music was way too loud. And why did they have the music pumping this loud, anyway? It was only three o'clock in the afternoon!

If she didn't know for a solid fact what time it was – confirming with both her watch and her phone – then, given how dimly lit they kept this establishment and how loud they had the music, she'd think she was at a club at two in the morning. The name of this place escaped her, but she wondered if this was this place's niche or something. Or maybe this was just a thing here. Could be, considering she was far from the only patron here so early.

She didn't even really go to her own bar back in Sacheon, South Gyeongsang Province, but the sight of it was much more comforting than this one. Lowkey, quieter, locals only.

She scowled, then groaned, propping her elbow up on the bar and pressing her still-too-warm cheek against her hand.

This was the closest bar to the convention center where she had just utterly humiliated herself in front of all of her... somewhat peers.

It wasn't like she worked with other city officials often enough to really consider them her actual peers. She really only ever saw them at these types of things.

And normally at these conferences, she was way different than what she'd just put on. She didn't stumble over her words or drop ridiculous index cards she'd been given to do the presentation – because if she'd been asked to do a presentation in the first place, it would have been memorized! It also would have been short, concise, and to-the-point. None of that rambling, filler crap she'd just made a fool of herself trying to do.

Then again, she'd never been tasked to present at one of these conferences, either. Her very first time rising above the mark and that was what she'd done...

"Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all of the world, did Jennie Kim walk into mine?"

If it were possible to make herself even smaller sitting at the corner of this bar, she would have. As it was, she pretended she didn't hear her name and hunched closer over the bar. The music was definitely loud enough that she could easily pretend she hadn't heard anything.

She resolutely was not turning her head to look at whoever was attempting to invade her alone time. Right now was her time to sit here and be annoyed and humiliated in peace. After all, she had to get back to the conference in an hour to give her own actual presentation and she needed that hour to be able to gather herself.