MMH(Jenlisa Adaptation)

Part 24

The only sound that came from the Kim dining room was the sound of cutlery grazing the china. The noise generally came from Wo Jin who was picking at the berry goat-cheese salad with a scrunched up nose and a heavy sigh. He clearly was not in the mood for salad. Lisa was sure he had moved it around on his plate more often than he actually tried eating it, and Lisa couldn't blame him. She was usually pretty good when it came to any type of food, but berries and goat cheese were not what she had signed up for when she suggested lunch. All she had to do was hold out until their main course arrived, and knowing Hyun-joo Kim, she would dish out something good.

In the meantime, she, and Wo Jin apparently, had to suffer through their salad. Catching her son's eye, she gave him a pointed look and glanced down to his plate. He stared back, holding a staring contest with his mother silently telling her the chances of him finishing the salad was near non-existent. Lisa tilted her head and implored him silently, uncrossing her legs with every intent on nudging her son into action. Before she could do so, she felt eyes on her and looked up to see Jennie, seated beside Wo Jin and adjacent to Hyun-joo who sat at the head of the table, oblivious to her guests' silent interactions. Jennie sent Lisa the same look she was giving her son as Jennie glanced at the blonde then down to her salad.

Lisa rolled her eyes, spearing some spring lettuce and blueberries onto her fork and chewing pointedly. A stifled chuckle squeaked from Wo Jin alarming Hyun-joo to their antics. He quickly gave an innocent smile before turning back to his plate, keen on eating only the berries.

Hyun-joo pursed her lips at the unusually quiet guests at her table as she picked up her wine glass and swirled its contents before taking a dainty sip. She set her glass down beside her plate and folded her hands over one another as she set them along the edge of the table. "Jennie," she began, gaining her daughter's attention as Jennie looked up rather doe-eyed from her almost finished plate. "I've been hearing nothing but splendid things about your work after Ms. Ghorm's little event. The Kim family name is proving to be quite versatile and formidable."

Jennie dipped her head in appreciation. Despite the strenuous relationship she had with her mother, compliments from Hyun-joo were few and far between, so Jennie took them where she could. "Thank you Mother. I try my best."

"I always knew you'd make me proud one day." Hyun-joo leaned over the corner of the table and pressed her palm against Jennie's cheek. If Jennie had noticed the backhanded compliment, she didn't show it as she leaned into her mother's touch and offered a shy smile.

Lisa, however, did notice it, and it made her clench her fist around her fork and spear a cranberry much too fiercely. She only narrowly avoided the juicy backlash before placing the berry in her mouth and giving the older Kim woman a tight-lipped smile. It was comments like those that made Lisa remember why Hyun-joo Kim struck such a nerve with her. She had promised herself when she and Jennie had confirmed this lunch that she would make an effort. She would try to be accommodating to her girlfriend's mother, but it was getting harder and harder. Hyun-joo was the foster mother who always put her birth daughter ahead of Lisa, even when Lisa was sick. She was the foster father who got a little too angry and a little too drunk on the regular. Hyun-joo was the playground bully who always used to beat up the kids who were too small or too poor.

But Hyun-joo was Jennie's mother. Like it or not, Lisa was stuck with this woman well into the foreseeable future, and that information made Lisa's stomach churn. Forgive and forget was not Lisa Manobal's style. It was more like forgive and wait for the ample opportunity to screw them over. But Lisa couldn't screw Hyun-joo over even if she tried. Hell, the closest she had come to personally offending Hyun-joo was just by dating her daughter, and no matter how upset Jennie was about Hyun-joo trying, well successfully, breaking them up, there would always be that part of Jennie that craved her mother's affection.