Chapter 24

After the meal, Yeji still felt sleepy, so Lisa sent her back to her apartment, then returned to Lee International.

When she returned to the Public Relations' office, many pretty girls wore strange smiles as they looked at her. Lisa couldn't make heads or tails of what was going on, so she asked Lia, who she was more familiar with, "Lia, what's up with everybody?"

Lia was snacking on something that looked like gummy bears. Her well-developed body wasn't only natural, it also received a lot of "nourishment" which helped a lot.

"Where did you go?" Lia replied with a question.

"I went out to settle some matters." Lisa wasn't daring enough to talk about the matter of filming the movie.

Lia put down the candy and stood up. Her chest and her charming face, faced Lisa, and her clear eyes stared so hard that Lisa felt a little diffident inside.

"Went to settle some matters eh? Who did you settle some matters with? Huh?."

"Huh?" Lisa could smell the COCO perfume on Lia's body. Looking at her beautiful face, Lisa felt like biting her, and slowly said, "I was alone, and it was just some trivial matters."

Lia suddenly made a *puchi* laugh, pouted and rolled her eyes at Lisa, "Still pretending, Yeji just called to request for leave. She said you're the one who sent her home."

This Yeji is truly uncooperative. Lisa grumbled in her heart, and could only awkwardly smile and return to her seat.

The moment she sat down, Yuna who sat the closest rolled her swivel chair to Lisa's side, and ambiguously asked, "What did you do to Yeji? Huh?"

These women were truly brazen, Lisa once again learned something new.

Before Lisa's the one who always teased ladies, but since she entered Lee International it was often her being teased by these women. Lisa was rather hurt by this, and finally understood how true 'the feeling of oppression when being pointed at with a gun' was, and as she approached this crisis she realized, 'Shameless people are invulnerable!'

Therefore, Lisa stretched one of her hands out to fondle Yuna's thigh, and slowly closed in on what was under Yuna's black suit skirt.

Today, Yuna wore a bold black fishnet stockings, between the lines, patches of snow-white thigh flesh was revealed. Similarly, she wore a pair of open toe leather-esque heels, which revealed her bright red varnished toenails, this matched well with her young married woman's image.

This attire of a white-collar city woman, perfectly showed an office lady's mature appeal, the intense visual stimulation wasn't something the fake OLs(Office Lady) in a certain island country's films could duplicate.

[AN: Japan, AV.]

Suddenly noticing Lisa's hand on her thigh, Yuna's body first quivered, before immediately grabbing onto Lisa's hand, "Lisa, do you wanna die! What if others sees us!?"

"It's your fault for asking so flagrantly. If I don't act more pervert, how can I live up to the way you portray me? Moreover, the way you're dressed is so alluring, isn't it for me to appreciate?" Lisa had a calm expression, as if nothing had happened, like she was saying something work related to Yuna, "Furthermore, from the way you speak, it seems like if no one sees, I can touch however I want?"

How could Yuna possibly have encountered such a thing in the office before? Her pretty face blushed, looking like a fruit so ripe that water could flow out. She rolled her eyes at Lisa, but it made her look all the more tantalizing, "You had better not act recklessly, I have a husband. Even if our relationship is good, we're just colleagues. I'm not the kind of person you think I am."

"I'm also someone who has a wife."

With that said, Lisa's hand forcibly broke through Yuna's weak single-handed defense. She once again advanced, and even stretched to the spot between her thighs.

"You?! D-Don't be like this!" Yuna was a little agitated, she could only feel a scorching hot palm slide along her thigh to the point below her abdomen, but she didn't immediately dodge, and instead hastily held her skirt down with both hands, doing her best to make sure the other people around her won't notice anything strange.

At the warm spot between her thighs, the tender skin gave Lisa unprecedented pleasure. Due to nervousness, Yuna's thighs wedged tightly together, and also briefly shuddered.

Several of Lisa's fingers had already touched the silky panties beneath Yuna's skirt, she caressed it a little, and even felt a few strands of hair. Lisa knew what it was, and revealed a nefarious smile.

Yuna's head drooped while blushing with shame, with a soft and tender moan she said, "D-Don't do this, quickly take it out."

"You ask me to take it out? But you didn't move away earlier, and you didn't pull my hand away from your thigh. Now that I've touched that, you even pushed down your skirt so that others can't see." Lisa calmly shifted closer to Yuna's ear, and blew a hot breath onto her earlobe which had a earring on it.

Yuna's body quivered, the blush on her face reached her ears. Fortunately, their backs faced the others in the office, which was why this anomaly wasn't spotted.

"Women do need to be reserved, but an occasional indulgence is no big deal, right?

It was as if Lisa's voice had a bewitching power as Yuna slightly lifted her eyes, like the waves of spring she swept a glance at Lisa, "Somebody let you take a little advantage of her yet you still humiliate her, be careful for I might really shout out about how you harassed and molested me."

Lisa did not reply, and only slightly moved her finger under the skirt, the finger bumped into a certain sensitive spot, and quietly began to draw circles on it.

"Uhm~~" Yuna lightly moaned, and hastily covered her cherry lips, she could only feel the intense stimulation from Lisa's finger, and nearly couldn't hold back a loud moan.

In an office like this where all of their colleagues are present, a young woman was using her hand to rub her most private part, and even used her finger to gently caress it. Yet not only did she not stop her, she even did something to conceal what happened. Yuna had never thought she had such a side to herself, but the peculiar stimulation she was receiving made her helplessly accept this situation.

Very soon, Yuna felt that the area between her thighs was a little wet, slowly soaking her underwear. If it continues this way, Yuna felt that she wouldn't be unable to endure the pleasure and would end up pushing herself against Lisa's fingers!

*Ring... Ring... Ring...!*

Suddenly, the phone on Yuna's desk rang, this was like an alarm, causing the slightly dizzy Yuna to panic and turn her chair around to her own desk and pick the phone up.

Lisa's hand also pulled out from that land of peach blossoms, but there was some thick liquid leftover on her fingers.

Only after Yuna panted her way through the phone call, did she angrily turn around and glare at Lisa, "It's all your fault! There's still a whole afternoon left, yet I'm all wet inside, it feels terrible!"

"I didn't expect you to get so wet." Lisa smiled, and rubbed her fingers a few times.

Yuna immediately lost her anger, and turned away ignoring Lisa. All she wanted was to find a hole and hide inside it, this day was too embarrassing, but only she knew, that at that moment, other than the shame and regrets in her heart, there was an unprecedented sweet feeling.

Done with assailing her difficult colleague, Lisa felt much more contented in her heart, and prepared to turn on the computer to play the game that was of high IQ to her when her phone suddenly vibrated.

The calls she received recently were mostly bad news, but only when Lisa picked up the phone this time did she realize that all of the previous phone calls weren't considered a big deal.

The phone call was from Auntie Mi-kyung, with a trembling, frightened and weeping voice, "Y-Young Master--M-Miss... s-she was kidnapped!"

Jieun was kidnapped!? Wasn't she resting in the hospital!?

"Auntie, speak clearly. What happened?" After Lisa received this shocking news, she became calmer.

"I just received a phone call from Master, telling me to get Young Master to Zhong Hai harbor's 84th warehouse at the easternmost area. Ms. Jieun and Ms. Jennie were both taken there. Also---W-We're not allowed to call the police, otherwise--" At the end of the words, Auntie Mi-kyung was sobbing so hard that she couldn't form words.

"Auntie, have you confirmed this?"

"Y-Yes!" Auntie said, "The doctors and nurses are all panicking as well. Ms. Jennie accompanied Ms. Jieun to the flower garden for a walk, and didn't return. I asked the hospital's management to keep this a secret for now, but the truth will be out sooner or later, what should we do?"

For something like that to happen between a father and his daughter, Lisa could only say that she regrets not beating Byung-hun to the point he became retarded. This person truly has one "strength", which is strong willpower, not shedding a tear until he sees the coffin!

"Auntie, don't panic, I will handle this matter. Wait at home, I will contact you." Lisa consoled the old lady for a bit, then hung up the phone.

Lisa felt that this matter was weird. According to logic, with just Lin Kun's means, he couldn't possibly have kidnapped two women from the hospital's garden just like that, and even transport them to Zhong Hai's harbor.

There was definitely someone specialized in doing these things helping him. But what Jungkook did the last time had already touched upon Jieun's patience, so he most likely wouldn't help Byung-hun, so who could it be?

Although she knew that Byung-hun was scheming something to take revenge against her, and shouldn't hurt the two women for the time being.

She was still afraid that on the off chance Byung-hun might have done something to the two of them. Therefore Lisa still decided to get there as soon as possible.

To the amazement of the ladies in the office, only a short time had passed since Lisa came back, yet she once again dashed out of the office. This made all of the women look at each other in dismay.

-------

The Zhong Hai Harbor is one of Huaxia's largest harbors, and occupies a vast area. If one didn't experience it themselves, they simply couldn't comprehend the impression of vastness it gave off.

The blue sea stretched as far as the eye could see, while the sounds from the waves made the harbor seem exceptionally cold and lonely.

After entering the harbor, the car revealed its prowess on the flat ground. If one gazed from afar, one would see a white sports car dashing across the harbor's coast like a missile.

Lisa fully concentrated on her surroundings as she stepped on the accelerator while looking at the warehouse numbers on the side of the road.

She drove east for close to 10 minutes before finding the large warehouse marked with the big red numbers "84" on it.

The whole warehouse looked worn down, the rusted metal doors were slightly open, and by its side were discarded rocky materials and lime powder, looking like a terrible mess.

The closer she got to the destination, the calmer Lisa's heart became, to be honest, a term like "kidnap" was always used by her against others in the past. Never would she have thought that there would be the day where someone abducts her woman. Even though that ice-cold girl doesn't like Lisa, it was still enough to make Lisa wonder whether to laugh or to cry.

Unhurriedly closing the car's door, Lisa quickly swept a glance around the warehouse, and couldn't help but frown.

Although it was very difficult to perceive, her sharp senses allowed her to notice that in several of the blind spots in the warehouse, there were professionals stationed around looking out for intruders.

They were stationed at perfect angles to monitor every movement in the warehouse. Lisa guessed that they also possessed medium-sized long-range rifles.

This was a gang whose standards scaled on the international level. Lisa felt that these were all interesting, and even felt a little peculiar excitement.

After stepping into the warehouse through the large entrance, there was the smell of prolonged decay. The floor was empty, while several streaks of sunlight shined through the holes on the windows, causing the turbid air in the warehouse to seem like it was swirling.

At a corner of the warehouse, Lisa saw two delicate figures that were tied together.

She could only see Jieun and Jennie tied together on chairs, with ropes tightly tying their limbs to the chair, they sat back to back and couldn't see each other's faces.

Ahead of them were a pack of robust men wearing short-sleeved shirts. There were tall and sturdy ones and also short and skinny ones, but majority of them had dark tanned skin.

It was obvious that they were exposed to intense sunlight very often. But what made Lisa pay more attention to them was the fact that when they saw her enter, they remained indifferent, as if they didn't take her seriously, and continued discussing something with each other.

What made Lisa feel even more excited to see were the weapons in their hands and on their backs, which were basically all AK-47s, M16s and other assault rifles.

These guns themselves weren't anything special, but the place they were appearing in was Huaxia. If this was some other country, like the USA for example, Lisa wouldn't give a damn even if someone carried a M16 and walked on the streets. But it was too out of the ordinary for a pack of people like that to appear in a country where even pistols were a rare sight.

Lisa was very clear, the organization that called themselves "Huaxia's Protectors" wasn't an empty boast. For these people to sneak in without getting caught by them and entering Zhong Hai to execute a kidnapping showed that they were truly capable.

Just as Lisa thought of this, Byung-hun who was chatting with several robust men finally noticed Lisa, and his face immediately revealed hatred and a malicious smile.

"Mr. Lee, is this the person you wanted to capture?" Using English to ask this question was a man who wore a sleeveless shirt, military camouflage trousers and had short hair. This man seemed to be their boss, as his hand held a Desert Eagle, a pistol that only formidable soldiers can carry. It was also the only pistol amongst this group of people.

Lisa was already close by at this time, when she heard this man's accent, she was startled. This was a Vietnamese accent, so it turns out that these people were from Vietnam.

"Yes, Mr. Nguyen, I hope you can capture her. I want to personally send her to hell!" Byung-hun viciously replied.

At the same time, Jieun and Jennie who sat on the two chairs noticed the arrival of Lisa.

Jieun gazed at Lisa with a complicated expression, on her pale and beautiful face was a little despair, while Jennie instead looked stubborn and a little astonished, as if she couldn't believe Lisa would come here alone for the two of them.

The tall man with the surname Nguyen sized Lisa up, and expressionlessly said, "Mr. Lee, I have to say that it's truly not worth your money to hire us. If it's just to handle this woman, just one of my subordinates will suffice."

The other robust men revealed prideful smiles, clearly approving of their boss' evaluation.

Byung-hun gritted his teeth and said, "No, Mr. Long, after I'm done with this brat and attain the shares that should belong to me from that slut, the money I'm giving to you isn't anything at all!" That said, his face revealed some crazed greed as he looked at Jieun.

Fact was, these years of extravagance had already led Byung-hun's original 30% of shares to decrease to less than 1%. Constantly selling his shares to other shareholders gradually led him to death's door. This time he sold all of the shares he had left, just to go all in on this.

Jieun fearlessly stared back at Byung-hun, as if she didn't feel any emotion. She indifferently said, "Byung-hun, you truly disappoint me."

The woman realized that this man had already gone past the point of no return, and directly addressed him by his name, Byung-hun instead of addressing him as father.

But she didn't expect that in this terrible situation, Lisa who had nothing to do with this had actually calmly came to face the consequence that she doesn't deserve.

Jieun guiltily looked towards Lisa, although she had a bad impression of her, for Lisa to come here alone for her, she would be lying if she said she wasn't touched.

"Byung-hun, you're not a man! How can you treat your own daughter like this!"

Jennie had a staunch character, and at this time she finally couldn't hold back from hurling abuses.

Byung-hun complacently laughed, then nefariously gazed at Jennie, "You, wild girl, I've long been irritated by the sight of you, once this matter is settled, I will properly teach you a lesson! If it wasn't for that old hag protecting you in the past, I would have thrown you to the bed and done you several hundred times! Who do you think you are? You're merely a bitch raised by our family!"

"You're shameless! Heinous! Despicable!" Jennie ash covered face was flushed, she struggled attempting to break free, but the professionally tied rope made all her efforts futile.

Lisa saw Jieun's guilt-ridden gaze towards her, and also saw her bad tempered superior Jennie bravely resisting. In her heart he couldn't help but have a more favorable opinion of the two women, one knew right from wrong and understood kindness, while the other did not submit to force, staying upright and brave.

It was a pity that in the history of mankind, women always played the role of the weak. The reason feminism was born in this world was because women couldn't receive equal treatment, and the most straightforward reason for that was because women really couldn't defeat men.

The situation in front of her eyes was the same, because no matter how radiant these two women were in the business world, no matter how many men they defeated, when they were matched against the most primitive, most vulgar method of attacks, other than exercising their powerful tongues, there wasn't much else they could do.

The robust man with the surname Nguyen didn't seem to understand Chinese, and couldn't be bothered to understand the bickering between Byung-hun and the two ladies. He looked at Lisa, seeing that Lisa didn't have the slightest bit of cowardice, he walked forward in admiration. With English he said, "Although you will soon be sent to hell, you are still a brave woman, I will let you die with a whole body.

Lisa made a weird smile, and sized the man up with interest. She then opened her mouth to speak a line that Byung-hun and the two women couldn't understand.

"Your surname is Nguyen, what's your name?"

The tall man was slightly startled, with his eyebrows knit, he used the same language to reply, "You can speak Vietnamese?"

"Do you know Chris Nguyen?" Lisa continued smiling as she asked.

If being able to speak Vietnamese made this man marveled, then when Lisa continued to use Vietnamese and ask about the name "Chris Nguyen", there was only "mind blown" left on the man's face!

"Just who are you?!" The man's face turned grave.

Because the Vietnamese words were only understood by the Vietnamese people present, Lisa did not mince her words as she said, "Let's go to a more quiet area and I'll tell you about it."

A light flickered in the man's eyes, but in the end he still nodded, and gestured for Lisa to lead the way.

Not understanding a word, Byung-hun hastily inquired, "Mr. Nguyen! What is the meaning of this?! I am your employer, what just happened!? Why aren't you catching her!? I've paid you money!!!"

"Don't bother me!" Mr. Nguyen raised the Desert Eagle in his hand, the dark muzzle instantaneously pointed at Byung-hun's forehead, and he frostily said, "We were only hired by you, as for how we work, you're in no position to command us!"

Byung-hun was frightened to the point he fell to the floor on his butt, trembling in cold sweat, without the guts to utter another word.

Lisa was too lazy to pay Byung-hun another glance as she led the man to another corner. After confirming that nobody could see what was going on, she turned around, and used Vietnamese as she asked, "Why did 'Flood Shark' come to Huaxia, are you guys unafraid of the 'Yellow Flame Iron Brigade'?

Hearing "Flood Shark", and "Yellow Flame Iron Brigade", the man's pupils shrunk, the Desert Eagle in his hands also abruptly pointed at Lisa's head. He hoarsely asked, "Just who are you!? Why would you recognize us, what's your relationship with the 'Yellow Flame Iron Brigade'!?"

Lisa shook her head with a bitter smile, "If I'm from the Yellow Flame Iron Brigade, do you think you guys can still leave here alive?"

"Then who are you?" The man didn't dare to relax at all. This person in front of him gave him a strange oppressive feeling, the more he looked at her, the more his feelings deviated from their first meeting.

Lisa thought for a moment, and with a little hesitation she took out something from her breast pocket.

A small breast pocket naturally can't hold a weapon, so the man did not treat it as a dangerous action and pull his trigger. He just quietly waited to see what Lisa was taking out.

"Do you recognize this?"

What Lisa took out from her pocket was a small ring, about the size of an ordinary wedding ring. The ring's material looked like platinum, but due to years of wear, its luster appeared to be greatly diminished. There were no precious stones decorating it, it was just a metal ring. But what was rather peculiar was, on the ring there were patterns that had an ink-like gloss, the patterns were complex to the point that it could make one's eyes spin.

If the ring felt a little familiar to the man at first glance, then when he abruptly glimpsed at the band of it, those meticulously engraved Latin words, he immediately felt his blood freeze, and his lungs choke!

He had seen this ring before on a document, amongst his gang, the existence of this ring was just a legend.

However, even though they most likely wouldn't get to see this ring for their entire lifetime, they must remember it, especially the Latin words engraved on the inside. These Latin words were passed down by the ancient Romans. 

It's a language that had faded away long ago, but in this mysterious language, there was a word, it could also be called a name, which was something they wouldn't dare forget for their entire life.

Because, the person who owns this ring possesses supreme power in a certain territory, and is also the person they worship the most from the depths of their souls!

Lisa saw the expression on this man's face, and knew that he had already understood. So she casually placed the ring back into her shirt pocket, nobody would believe that this token that could turn the world upside down was quietly lying in one of this woman's pockets everyday.

"Alright, don't reveal such an expression. I don't believe my 'Flood Shark' is formed by fools." Lisa amicably patted the man's broad shoulders.

The man's body shuddered, and he returned to his senses, seeing Lisa's warm smile, he could only feel the frigidity of winter, the coldness of the polar ice, thinking of this person's past achievements. He couldn't help but break out in a cold sweat, his legs weakened and he knelt on the ground, he even wanted to bury his head into the cement floor.

"Y-Your subordinate Johnny Nguyen greets you m-my Queen!" Johnny sincerely yelled while stuttering.

Lisa raised her eyebrows, "You're name is Johnny Nguyen, if that's the case, Chris is your brother?"

"Precisely, my Queen!" As before, Johnny's four limbs were still on the ground and he did not dare to raise his head while he respectfully replied.

Lisa helplessly sighed, "You can stand, this is Huaxia, and not a part of my kingdom, you don't need to follow etiquette."

Johnny saw that Lisa didn't seem to intend to scold him, and carefully crawled up, retreated three steps, then stood upright. The way he looked at Lisa totally changed. His tiger-like eyes were brimming with crazed reverence and worship!

I actually got to meet her!? The person who was spoken of as a God-like existence from the mouth of my brother, she actually appeared before my eyes!?

"Right." Lisa suddenly thought of something, and said, "I don't like being addressed as 'Queen', if you don't mind, please change your form of address, you may call me by my other name."

"Yes! Your Excellency Pluto!" Johnny proudly shouted, as if shouting out this name was an incomparably glorious matter.

Seeing that Johnny understood her identity, Lisa did not speak any superfluous words, and bluntly asked, "Why did Flood Shark appear here, although I didn't make an order prohibiting entering Huaxia, your brother Chris is famous for being careful, and shouldn't casually make such a rudimentary mistake."

Johnny respectfully replied, "Reporting to Your Excellency, our Flood Shark's movements only include several of Huaxia's coastal zones, and conducting transport jobs within those zones, so we did not receive too much attention from the Yellow Flame Iron Brigade. This time we received employment from Mr. Byung-hun only because the job he offered us was executable in a small area with low risks involved. Therefore, after thinking it over, we accepted this mission."

"He had enough money to hire you guys?" Lisa curiously asked.

"Reportedly, his money was obtained by selling all of his shares." Johnny replied, "Just enough to hire us for a simple mission like this."

When he said the words "simple mission" just now, Johnny suddenly felt that something was off. How was this mission simple!? The person they had to deal with was the one in front of his eyes!

He wanted to change his wording, but Johnny didn't know what to say, and remained speechless with an awkward expression.

Lisa didn't seem to mind, in her mind she concluded that Byung-hun must have sold all of the Lee International's shares he held, and received enough money to employ the mercenaries. She couldn't help but find this funny. The mercenaries Byung-hun staked everything on to employ ended up being her subordinates, this could be considered incredibly unlucky for Byung-hun.

"Johnny, you can bring your brothers and leave, I will settle everything else." Said Lisa.

"Your Excellency, do you require us to kill Byung-hun." An ominous glint glowed in Johnny's eyes, in his heart he wanted to shoot Byung-hun into a hornet's nest! This idiotic old man, nearly turned him into the laughing stock of the mercenary world!

You want to send the Death God into hell? Isn't this a joke? Hell is her Excellency's land of fun!

Lisa shook her head, "Go tie Byung-hun up, throw him into a corner, and you may leave. I will settle what comes afterwards. The longer you guys stay here, the more you raise discontent from the Yellow Flame Iron Brigade."

"We will obey, Your Excellency!"

Johnny didn't say more, to obey was their mission as soldiers, moreover, it was an order from the highest level.

Byung-hun, who was hard pressed, was exceptionally angered. These stupid soldiers, after spending the money they point their guns at their employer's head. If it wasn't because he needed them for something, and couldn't beat them, he wished that he could stab them a few times!

At this time, he saw Johnny expressionlessly walking over, and immediately switched to an eager smile, "Mr. Nguyen! Have you caught that damn brat yet!?"

Johnny did not reply. He used Vietnamese to talk to his two closest subordinates, and his two subordinates immediately nodded gravely. In a few moments, they had used a rope to tie Byung-hun up!

Byung-hun's strength was of no challenge in these men's eyes, after tying him up like a dumpling, they tossed him directly to the ground.

"Your stupidity should've sent you to the fires of purgatory long ago." Johnny walked over, fiercely growled this line in English, then threw a kick at Byung-hun, knocking him unconscious.

When everything was dealt with, Johnny whistled, and in a flash, from all sides appeared mercenaries, orderly saluting.

After Johnny issued an order, everybody shouted a slogan, but only they themselves knew what it meant.

Immediately following, to the confusion of Jieun and Jennie, these men who kidnapped them left the warehouse like the wind, they ran out of sight in a flash.

Right as the two ladies couldn't make heads or tails of this situation, Lisa with the expression as relaxed as before walked over, there was even a pleased smile on her face.

"Lisa, what is the meaning of this?!" Jennie couldn't help but ask, they were in such dire straits earlier, how did it suddenly change so drastically!?

"I say, Miss Kim, can you wait for me to untie the ropes before we slowly talk? You aren't afraid of pain, but I'm afraid my good sweet wife is hurting." Lisa dotingly looked at Jieun, and proficiently untied the complicated rope bindings.

Jieun shot a profound glance at her, and dully said, "You're even faster than the people who were tying us up."

Lisa was stunned, then she smiled awkwardly. In her mind, she thought. This is natural, this is what I do for a living.

After the two women were released from the bindings, they slowly stood up, rubbing their arms, and again looked at Lisa oddly. After all, everything that happened was too mysterious, how did this woman manage to handle this situation?

"I know you two have many doubts, but please get into the car outside first. I will first send the two of you to the hospital, then slowly inform you about it." Said Lisa.

"Then he--" Jieun bit her lip, and looked towards the unconscious Byung-hun on the floor.

Lisa sternly said, "Are you sure you still want to maintain that sympathetic stance?"

Jieun blankly stared, then bitterly shut her eyes. When she once again opened them, her eyes exuded a trace of indifference and resolution. Shaking her head, she uttered, "Let's go."

**************