so, do we like each other or not? // JENLISA

Chapter 2

Lisa staggered into work on Monday still trapped in the grips of the worst hangover she’d ever experienced in her life. She’d spent every minute of the weekend either drinking or trying to sleep off the industrial amounts of bourbon she’d consumed, and it had only occurred to her somewhere around 8pm the night before that she actually had a job to go to in the morning.

Chaeyoung, for all her sweet demeanour and princess looks, was a God-awful influence when it came to drinking. She had dragged Lisa around SoHo on Friday night, never losing the spring in her step even when Lisa could feel her teeth starting to go numb. The following morning, when Lisa had woken up upside down in her bed, she already had three texts from Chaeyoung asking if she wanted to go get mimosas. And because Lisa liked being drunk far more than she liked being sober, she’d said yes.

Now, as she shuffled across the office clutching two lattes – a soy one for Cherin and a skinny one with four shots of espresso for herself – she was starting to regret her decision to become friends with her in the first place.

Right on cue, Chaeyoung appeared at her elbow looking as if she hadn’t spent the majority of Saturday night arguing with a doorman about how she definitely was not too wasted to get into his bar. “Morning!”

“Stop,” Lisa said, dragging herself towards Cherin’s office. Chaeyoung followed, because she had no regard for her own personal safety. “I want to die.”

“You can’t seriously feel that bad,” Chaeyoung said, following her into the empty glass room. “You threw up most of it yesterday.”

“And then you made me start drinking again,” Lisa pointed out, noticing that her hands were shaking as she placed a coffee on Cherin's desk. “How the hell are you so perky?”

Chaeyoung shrugged, her braid tumbling across her shoulder as she moved. “I didn’t drink as much as you.”

“Well, that’s bullshit.”

“No, it’s not,” Chaeyoung said. “You drink so fast you just assume everyone else is keeping up, but I think you managed to work your way through three whisky cokes before I’d even finished my first. Then you move onto something else and so it’s no wonder that all the mixing tips you over the edge.”

Lisa tried not to blush. “That’s not true. You just don’t remember how much you drank.”

“I remember your credit card getting declined at the first bar and you offering to show a guy your boobs if he would buy you vodka.”

At least Chaeyoung had the decency to shrink back from Lisa's furious glare. “Don’t mention that to anyone.”

“I won’t,” Chaeyoung said, holding her hands up. “I’m just saying.”

Lisa led the way out of Cherin’s office, unceremoniously dumping her coffee on her own desk. “If my credit card got declined, how did I pay for the rest of the drinks?”

"You used your emergency one,” Chaeyoung said matter-of-factly. “Then you found $20 on the floor, then you went stealing other people’s.”

Jesus Christ. “Okay. That sounds... about right.”

Chaeyoung smirked at her. “You seemed to be having fun, and your mind was finally out of the dark place that Mingyu had dumped it in. I didn’t want to interrupt.”