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“I’m sorry, but it’s my responsibility as a company representative to—”
“Save it,” he says, raising his voice.
“Elijah.” I’m not certain what to say. But I don’t want him angry and I don’t want him pissing off the one person we need as an ally.
“Noona, why are you even here? Did Dad send you to check on me? And doesn’t that piss you off that you’re acting as his errand girl instead of doing the important work you’re supposed to be doing as COO?”
“I’m here to oversee the execution of Sky High, you little asshole. You know, the biggest thing the company puts on in the States every year? Seriously, do you know anything about the company at all?”
She shakes her head and Elijah doesn’t respond. “But if I’m not here to check in on you,” she adds, “you might want to be very careful of who might be. I know you both think this is probably some innocent thing you’ve done and no one is paying attention. But I can’t guarantee that’s true. And the work you’re doing for the hackathon—good stuff by the way, really good stuff—is starting to hit people’s radars. There’s excitement around it. So one of two things can happen if this thing is a huge success: Jessica gets the credit, which would make Dad take notice, wondering who she is and where she came from. Or two, Elijah gets all the credit, leaving Jessica with only her own hand to pat her on the back. Trust me, I’ve lived this same scheme a hundred times over through my career.”
There’s a bitter edge to her tone and even though I’ve just met her, I hate this for Hee-Jin. I hate that women are still fighting for opportunities and credit and deserved success and upward mobility.
It’s not fair.
But she’s right.
My face drops just thinking of what the end of summer will bring.
“Hey, I’m sorry, Jessica. I didn’t mean to come down so hard,” Hee-Jin says, the bitterness gone from her voice. “I’m just tired, jet-lagged. I came here straight from the airport. Hey, little brother, can you take me to the brownstone? I’m staying with you.”
“Uh...” Elijah stalls.
“Don’t give me shit about it. I hear the place is huge. We won’t even run into each other, you little brat.”
“That’s not it. You’re welcome to stay with me, if you can find space. You see, I’m, um, staying at the shitty rattrap our benevolent and generous company secured for the ten interns this summer. I invited Jessica to stay at the house,” Elijah explains.
“You, living in anything less than a luxe apartment? Huh. Maybe you are growing,” Hee-Jin teases. She turns to me. “Well, Jessica, how do you feel about being roommates? You’ll barely even know that I’m there.”
“Sounds great,” I say. And truthfully, it really kinda does. I don’t have to be totally alone in that big space anymore. And maybe I’ll get to know Hee-Jin better. Maybe she’ll even consider mentoring me. And maybe she can tell me some funny stories about Elijah.
Maybe.
17
elijah
We have less than a week before the hackathon.
Today I had to go pick up the trophies and the fake, oversized grand prize check for the winners at the printers. I went from Chinatown to the Financial District, then to Midtown and way up toward Columbia. I’m getting to experience more of New York than I ever thought I would, and the more I see, the more I want to keep exploring. This summer alone won’t be enough time, and I’ll have to figure out an excuse to come back.
And even though it takes away from my city time, it turns out, I kinda like working hard, making things happen. Believe me, no one is as surprised as I am. I don’t know where that fits with my future, but the realization has made it all feel less daunting. I just wish this summer didn’t have to end so soon. It’s already mid-July and after the hackathon, I’ll only have a few weeks left in New York.
There’s so much more I want to do. Jessica mentioned wanting to visit the One World Trade building and the memorial. I was down in that area today but didn’t have time to stop by. I want to be able to take Jessica there when all of this is done.
She’s been working really long hours, and it’s like the execs want to pile more and more on her plate so that she fails. It would go against all their tightly held beliefs if a teenager, a girl no less, gets shit done at a higher level than they do themselves. But she has so much grit and determination, I know that she’ll be able to handle it. By day, they treat her as their lackey, mostly the notetaker and coffee fetcher for their meetings planning the Sky High Conference. And she’s right, if she weren’t a girl, if it was me in that role, they never would have dumped that stuff on me.
Hee-Jin has taken Jessica under her wing and tries to protect her from the worst of it. She’s been a great influence from what I can tell. Problem is, though Hee-Jin is the boss’s daughter and technically the second-in-command at the company, she still faces a lot of shit too. Both as a woman and as a young person, since she’s only twenty-four herself.
And after Jessica finishes with all that nonsense upstairs, she hustles down to the war room with us to pick up whatever work still needs to get done.
As I get back to the office from running all my errands, I spot her coming off the elevator. There are bags under her eyes and she looks tired. But she smiles when she arrives and greets everyone while checking in.
She really is a dream boss. And even at only eighteen, she demonstrates exactly the kind of leadership we should have at Haneul Corp. The Executive Training Program should be Jessica trainingthemon how to do it right, not the other way around.
“How’s it going?” Jessica asks me as she checks our progress on the whiteboard. “Thanks for getting all this done today. Wow, you really helped us get caught up.” She smiles at me and my heart forgets to beat for a second.
I never knew what my type was. For years, my only frame of reference was the kind of girl my dad thinks I should be with. Well-connected, proper, yamjeonhae with a demureness that signals she’s someone who will respect and obey her husband...and of course, rich. It’s all so embarrassing and cringey to even think about it this way.
