p a r t : t w o 
SHE IS IRENE 

Joohyun got a job. It wasn’t exactly the job she expected. It didn’t mean she’s not thankful that Sooyoung helped her to get one. In fact, she was beyond grateful. It’s just, being a night club hostess didn’t sit right for her. Not that it’s a bad profession, although some people considered otherwise. It’s just, she’s not used to be in that kind of environment. But when reality slapped, she knew she’s not in the privilege to chose.

“Hyun, a night club hostess is not a e! We’re not selling our body. We don’t offer or or whatever. We welcome guests. We entertain them with our looks, personalities and conversation with our communication skills” Sooyoung explained for the ninth time to Joohyun as if she’s tired of explaining the exact same thing to many people. 

Sooyoung was a hostess herself in a night club called The Blue Moon Lounge, a lavish place for a high-end lifestyle youth and elites to have some fun experience. One of the biggest, the most luxurious, the famous, the hit place.

The two girls were at the park near the lobby of the lounge when they’re talking. While listening to Sooyoung, Joohyun was standing against the wall with arms linked on her chest, her feet stomping on the ground, thinking, convincing herself whether to go on with the job.

“Remember the rule, guests can see us but they cannot touch us without our consent!” Sooyoung emphasized.

“Alright” Joohyun voiced. “Just don’t tell my mom, Young. Otherwise she’s going to kill me” and she decided to take the job. 

•••

The first day of work, Joohyun became famous in no time. Some guests mistakenly thought that she was some kind of actress or celebrity, even Sooyoung was jaw-dropping when she saw Joohyun wrapped in that borderline y dress with make up on. 

Well, on her daily basis, she would never wore that kind of dress, and not to mention that the only make up she wore regularly was face powder and sheer lipstick.

That humble girl didn’t even realize her visual potential until Sooyong praised her over and over again until it started to annoy her. It wouldn’t be a surprise that now she was considered as ‘The Blue Moon Goddess’, a nickname that actually made her shivered because first, it’s too much. Second, it just sounded silly.

Thankfully, they didn’t call her by that cringe name, instead, Irene. 

It’s the name that the manager — Johnny Suh — came up with. Just like what he did to Sooyoung as he addressed her as Joy, he liked to give the so called stage name to hostesses that’s representing their persona. It’s actually his own idea, he thought it was cool and he felt like a Charlie and the nicknames were like the codes for the angels.

“But what is Irene mean?”  Joohyun asked to Johnny.

“It’s the name of Greek Goddess, means peace or calmness. It matches really well with you” he replied, was proud of idea of the name.

“Well, that’s  so much better than that goddess thing-y” she replied and bit back her laugh.

“Very well then, Irene it is…” said Johnnys with a smile on his face. 

••• 

A couple of weeks had passed. To his surprise, The Blue Moon’s CEO got a lot of compliments from some of his business colleges and the vvip guests because of Irene. It drew his curiosity about that girl.

Just right in time, that night was his schedule to visit The Blue Moon. Two birds in one stone, he would take this chance to see what’s so special about the girl. 

The news about the CEO’s arrival spread throughout the lounge fast. The atmosphere suddenly turned tense and everyone was petrified. 

“I tell you why, our CEO is crazily strict, arrogant, I’m sure the devil possesses his soul. May God bestows a mercy upon him!” Joy passionately explained to Irene while they’re sitting on the bar chairs. “He’s a person you don’t wanna meet, Hyun. If you do, then most likely you’re gonna get in trouble. He’s just that hard to please and everything seems not enough for him” Joy added, still in passion.

“Sounds bad!” Irene listened religiously and already felt uneasy. 

“Indeed! Here he comes…” Joy’s eyeballs pointed to a group of people in black suite and tie who were walking with a certain steps and dignity. She was giving a clue to Irene to pay attention to the man in the center because there he was, the person they just talked about, the CEO — Lee Donghae.

“He looks younger than I expected” Irene mouthed as her eyes followed him.

So, apparently, Lee Donghae was a man on his thirties — thirty four to be exact. He was the heir of Jaesan Group as Joy said, continuing her lecture to Irene.

“Hold up, you mean the Jaesan Hotel chain? Jaesan Department Store??” Irene came to her surprise.

“Correct! That  Jaesan Group! And this club is one of many businesses they managed under the company” Joy told her more, she’s quite proud that her knowledge about her boss was actually useful.

“Then he must be rich” Irene whispered, rather than being impressed, she was jealous because she’s in need of a lot of money.  

“Oh! He smells like money, Hyun”

•••

Donghae was up there in his office, or it’s more likely his throne, where he could see most of the place through the sumptuous glass wall. While holding a crystal glass of cocktail, his hawk-like eyes were scanning through his kingdom and the folks.

He was quick in noticing Irene even from afar. Raising a single brow to the view, he could see her small and expensive-looking face, he liked the color of chestnut brown suited her long hair. What attracted him more was that cold and mysterious aura she possessed even when she was just standing still, as if she’s an unearthly creature he’s willing to worship.

No, he’s not exaggerating, that’s exactly what Irene looked like that night. He met countless of beautiful girls in his life before and from that night,  Irene seemed to be in the top of his list so far.

“We’re so lucky she came to work with us” Johnny proudly exclaimed.

“Seems right, we hit the jackpot” Donghae raised a toast to Johnny and then back again to observe Irene. 

At some point, Irene glanced to his direction as if she got a feeling that somebody was eyeing her. However, she’d never see who was actually glueing eyes on her because that’s the way the glass wall was built.

Donghae seemed can’t take his eyes off of Irene. From the moment he laid his eyes on her and the more he looked at her, he couldn’t deny that he wanted her more than he should.

As he bit his inner cheeks, as he’s  collecting himself back from the spell of Irene’s charm, he faced Johnny and smirked devilishly and said,

“Is she available?”

Johnny got what Donghae meant, he worked for him long enough. It was Donghae’s cue that he wanted her as a one night stand partner.

“I’m afraid she’s not available, Chairman Lee. She’s Joy’s friend and I believe they shared the similar values in life — no before marriage” Johnny reported, shrugging his shoulders.

Donghae scoffed and almost laughed because Johnny’s words sounded like something that didn’t make any sense for him. He didn’t understand why people were willing to wait for marriage to have .

“Also, you said you’re not gonna sleep with one of the hostesses for professionalism purpose” Johnny added.

“Johnny-ah… I do what I want to do. I’m the rule maker, remember?! So don’t tell me what to do” Donghae smirked and took another sip of the cocktail while Johnny nodded apologetically.

“I have to have her. Not tonight, but I will” Donghae emphasized, being determined while sharp gazing at Irene one more time before he left his office.

•••

The slight information about who she was working for already made Irene was not able to respond other than “Is there really a person who’s that rich? How can he and his family possess that amount of money?”  because she couldn’t even relate. 

Joy wouldn’t stop there, there’s still so much to tell about Donghae. Although Joy didn’t find any correlation about their job and their boss’ personal life, she just liked to talk about him, especially about the controversial one. It’s not a secret anyway that many staffs talked behind his back too.

Like an empty vessel ready to be filled up, Irene cluelessly looked like a kindergarten kid who listened to her teacher telling her some kind of fables. Until at some point, she heard something that forced her to contorting her face in disgust, her brows were frowning hard as she resist the earth not to make a puke up gesture.

“He’s never tied to a relationship but — oh my gosh — he changes girlfriend like he changes his clothes. You know, another night another girl to ! Well, not exactly every single night, but you get what I mean. Wild!” Joy was so into the gossiping.

“Right, nobody’s perfect” Irene made a sarcastic response. 

“Too bad!” Joy followed along.

“Wait, is he not afraid of infectious disease or something? Or what if one of the girls is accidentally pregnant?” Joy couldn’t help but thought about that naturally.

“That’s what and after-pill were made of, Hyun! Please get yourself knowledgeable” Joy scolded her.

Irene was indifferent, totally forgiving herself for not being too familiar with free , condoms and after pills things. She just shivered in disgust and didn’t want to hear more about the CEO’s dirty business.

•••

It didn’t take long until Donghae walked out from his office. It’s been always like that, he came to have a brief checks and then he’d left. He had Johnny, a trustfully reliable manager who would take care of everything without Donghae had to be constantly present in The Blue Moon.

“Thank God he’s gone now” Joy whispered to Irene as she’s watching Donghae walking. 

Irene had nothing in mind about Donghae, but when he and his men in black were passing her by, she’s somewhat felt curious how he looked like from a closer distance.

After giving Donghae a respective bow, Irene paid attention to him. At the same time, he unexpectedly glanced back at her until their eyes met in a way made her taken aback and shifting her sight immediately. She saw his beautiful brown eyes that were gazing sharp at her. 

In a short amount of time, Irene’s curiosity grew into confusion on how the calmness on his face looked intimidating. Oh! And he smelled so damn good, definitely not the smell of money as Joy said but his luxurious scent made her nostril happy.

Well, she admitted he’s physically not bad. Hell! He’s not bad at all. Donghae was attractive, he knew how to be attractive with what he had been blessed since birth, called physical appearance; and what he had gained, called wealth. 

Before Irene drown herself in his flamboyant persona, she recalled how such an human being he was. With only that thought, she couldn’t stand the urge to rolled her eyes right in front of the devil. She was unconsciously did that and coincidentally, for better or for worse, he saw that.

“Did she just roll her eyes to me? Bold of you, Irene!”

Donghae left a smirk as looking away and continued to walk by. One thing Donghae noticed, Irene absolutely looked so damn fine from a closer distance. The icy cold stare from her round eyes were captivating. For instance, the eager for wanting and having her couldn’t be stop anymore. 

About a few steps behind, there’s Johnny who’s purposely stopped by in front of Irene and Joy. He asked Irene to go to his office later before she ended up today’s work.  

No suspicion at all, Irene thought that there’d be some assessments or something. But it didn’t apply for Joy because she was alarmed. She smelled something fishy but didn’t bother to tell Irene because hopefully she might be wrong.

•••