After noon
First Winter at Fire Lodge
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Jisoo noticed that the atmosphere was subtly different at lunch. Lisa seemed even happier than usual, while Jennie seemed - if she didn't know better, she'd think Jennie was nervous. And several times Jisoo noticed Jennie watching Lisa when she didn't think anyone was looking. Yes, something was definitely afoot at Fire Lodge, but there was no way Jisoo was going to figure it out during lunch, so she turned her attention to what Chaeyoung was saying.
"So if it's OK with you" - Chaeyoung was obviously coming to the end of her report about the next week's shopping list - "Jisoo and I can leave right after lunch and be back from town by dark, assuming we don't have any more automotive misadventures."
Jennie nodded. "What? Oh yeah, that sounds good. Make sure you take the debit card with you." Jisoo had the feeling that Jennie hadn't been listening all that closely to what Chaeyoung was saying.
Lisa stood up and carried her dishes to the dumbwaiter. "Excellent lunch, chefs," she said to Jisoo and Chaeyoung. She then turned to Jennie and said "It's my day off, so I'm about to go skiing. Do you want to come with me?"
Jennie shook her head. "I can't. Someone has to be at the lodge to answer the phone."
Lisa pouted. "Couldn't you just forward it to your cell?"
Jennie shook her head again. "The landlines in the valley are super old school - no call forwarding, no call waiting; we're lucky we get calling at all."
Lisa rolled her eyes. "Well, if you can't you can't. But will you at least take the phone outside? I'm pretty sure you haven't been outside since you went out to investigate that noise for Chaeyoung Sunday night - say, did you ever figure out what that was?"
Jennie and Chaeyoung shook their heads. "Probably some kind of animal," Jennie said.
Chaeyoung put up her hands like claws and made a fearsome face. "Or maybe it was a dokkaebi."
Jennie shrank back. "Don't even joke about that."
Lisa scrunched up her forehead, looking confused. "What's a dokkaebi?"
It took Jennie and Chaeyoung a couple of minutes to come up with the right word to explain to Lisa. Jisoo was no help, because she'd never heard of a dokkaebi either.
Finally, Chaeyoung said "It's a Korean goblin. Jennie's dad used to tell stories about them around the fire, and Jennie would always get afraid and run inside."
Jennie sat up as tall as she could. "That's because I had my grandmother telling me that dokkaebi are real and if I didn't behave, the dokkaebi would get me. I'm not afraid of dokkaebi now. I just don't like them."
Chaeyoung nodded. "O-kay." She was obviously unconvinced.
"I think an animal was more likely than a dokkaebi," Lisa said, apparently trying to put Jennie at ease. Then she turned to Jisoo. "I need to get something from my room, but then I need to talk to you before you go."
"Be quick about it," Chaeyoung said. "We're leaving as soon as I wash the lunch dishes."
"It'll just take me a second," Lisa said, dashing out of the room and up the stairs.
^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^
Jennie was at the desk, gathering up the things she'd need in order to go outside to work, when she saw Lisa passing by on her way up from the kitchen.
"I'd have thought you'd be out on the slopes by now," Jennie said.
Lisa looked like someone who was trying not to look guilty. "I had to talk to Jisoo before the chefs left for town."
"That's right," Jennie said. "Your little 'errand'." Jennie didn't usually make air quotes, but the word "errand" in this sentence definitely deserved them.
Lisa laughed. "You make it sound like I'm up to something. Don't worry, boss-lady: You'll find out soon enough." And with that cryptic remark, Lisa was off to get ready for her afternoon of skiing.
As Jennie took the phone and her laptop and headed out to the back deck, she found herself pondering this mystery. "A mysterious errand," she thought, "that involves something from town, and that I'll find out what it is later." Jennie shook her head. She knew exactly how much she was paying Lisa and, especially since she hadn't given Lisa the raise to assistant manager's salary yet, she knew she wouldn't feel comfortable accepting a gift from Lisa.
Lisa's raise! Jennie felt an icy claw of panic clamp down on her stomach. How would it look if Lisa got a promotion and a raise just a couple of weeks after she and Jennie started dating? Would Chaeyoung and Jisoo think the two events were in any way related? Jennie sighed. She knew that besides workplace romances, the staff at a ski lodge - Fire Lodge was no different from the others in this regard - was prone to producing two things: Gossip, especially concerning the workplace romances, and resentment any time there was even a hint of favoritism or unfair treatment.
This was one time Jennie was glad the staff at Fire Lodge was so small: Even though it meant more work, it also meant rumors had a shorter distance to travel to reach everyone, and so less chance for everything to get distorted. Speaking of rumors, Jennie knew that as soon as Jihyo, Tzuyu, and Dahyun got back and started telling people about Dahyun's blizzard misadventure, rumors would start spreading through Fire Lodge's regular customers and probably even re
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