Take My Mask, I'm Home

when the reality of the situation hits, goddamn

At the shrill sound of Lisa's panicked voice, Jennie looked up from the papers on her desk.

"Do keep your voice down, Miss Manoban," she said irritably. "I hardly think that the whole office needs to hear what we just discussed."

"What we... Je- Miss Kim, you just told Irene Bae that we're engaged! Apparently you're in some sort of mess with Immigration. Aren't you American? What on earth is going on?" Lisa babbled, her voice rising with each passing word. The look of irritation on Jennie's face deepened as she watched Lisa unravel in front of her.

"Miss Manoban!" Jennie said, raising her own voice, and the shock of hearing Jennie's normally calm voice ringing through the office stopped her in her criss-crossing the office. "Miss Manoban," she continued, quieter. "Could you please kindly go and fetch Deb Never and bring her in here. Apparently, she and I have some things we need to discuss."

Lisa gaped at her. "What about me?"

Jennie leveled a peeved look at Lisa. "What about you?"

Lisa found that she had no response to such an insulting question, and she felt her face harden. Jennie frowned at her in concentration before she seemed to realise what she'd said, that she'd been rude, but as she opened her mouth to say... what? To apologize? Lisa turned on her heel and stalked out of the office.

She stopped by her desk to take a sip of water, and she met Minnie's questioning look and raised hands across the office. Lisa glanced down at her laptop and found that the internal instant messenger program on her computer was flashing with rather a lot of messages. When she looked around, she saw everyone was staring at her. Angrily putting the bottle of water back down on her desk with a thump, she strode over to the office where Deb Never was sitting and waiting.

"Miss Never? I'm sorry about the wait. The previous meeting," Lisa forced her voice to stay steady, "ran longer than expected."

Deb stood up and pulled her purse over her shoulder. "That's quite alright, it's not your fault. Please show me to Miss Kim's office."

Without another word, Lisa led her back to Jennie's office, opened it for her, and shut it behind her without another word. At this point, she really didn't care whether she was coming across as either impolite or unprofessional. She sat back down at her desk with a huff and tried to ignore the looks everyone was giving her.

Minnie : What the actual fuck Lisa? Why were you holding her hand?!?!?!

As she was reading the message from Minnie, Seungri, one of the lower level interns who had a larger than average ego and the smarmiest nature that Lisa had ever encountered, walked up to her.

"Her? Really? I guess we know why your salary is so much higher than everyone else's," he smirked as he passed, gone before Lisa could think of a suitable retort.

She had no clue what to reply to the questioning messages on her computer, and because she had no idea what the situation was with Jennie and Immigration, she didn't feel like she could say anything to anyone anyway. The idea of the federal government being involved in this somehow made Lisa's skin itch and images of herself getting arrested for her involvement in this crossed her mind. She was pretty sure that what Jennie had proposed was illegal.

Proposed?

Nobody had proposed at all!

Lisa let her head thump down onto the desk. She felt a migraine coming on that had nothing to do with the bourbon and tequila from the night before, and everything to do with her boss in the office behind her.

She sent a message to Minnie saying that she would tell her later, and then turned the instant messaging program off altogether. Out of sight, out of mind.