# Chapter 119
After six o’clock, I entered the hotel as soon as I received my order. Unlike outside, the internal temperature was so cool that my body shivered slightly.
“I heard you’ve recovered, but are you still feeling unwell somewhere?”
A colleague who saw me approached and threw in a comment.
“No. I just got goosebumps coming into a cool place after being in the heat.”
As I raised my arm, which wouldn’t even be visible due to my suit, saying I had goosebumps, my colleague smiled as if I was being silly.
“But did you really lose your memory? The manager didn’t even recognize you at the time, so it looked really serious.”
“…You came to see me too?”
“Of course. People who could go on holidays all gathered and visited together. We brought fruit…”
When he continued by asking if I didn’t remember, I laughed awkwardly.
It was surprising enough that the manager had come, but I had no idea that other employees had visited too. I was grateful but also felt complicated. Did my condition really look that serious? Of course, it wasn’t me but Yoon Taeho who had been like that.
At my smile, my colleague let out a “huh” and clicked his tongue lightly, then made a disgusted expression as he looked somewhere.
Wondering what he had seen to make that face, I turned my head to see a tall man walking by, wearing red checkered clothes that matched from top to bottom, with large sunglasses on.
Perhaps because of his strong presence, the sound of his shoe heels hitting the shiny marble floor was vividly audible.
Soon, the man who was waiting in front of the elevator entered as it came down, and after watching the whole scene, I casually asked:
“Is he a guest?”
“Yes. A VIP customer who made a long-term reservation last month.”
“Ah.”
Wasn’t he some kind of artist? That would explain why he dressed that way. Honestly, although he looked flashy, it wasn’t that strange. Even from a distance, he was noticeably tall, and despite his face being hidden behind sunglasses, his good looks radiated out, making it seem fitting.
Even without knowing exactly what he did, if it was in the arts, such an appearance might actually be more appealing.
Unlike me, who dismissed it lightly with a “I see,” my colleague swallowed a sigh and his chest heaved. His face, sunk in worry, looked pitiful.
“I heard he often changes rooms for absurd reasons, is he really that difficult?”
At my question, my colleague, as if he had been waiting for those words, frowned and pleaded with a voice raised by one tone:
“It’s no joke. He says he’s staying for a long time and completely changes things to his style, but if even a little bit doesn’t suit his taste, he asks for everything to be changed. How picky can he be… Even if he wants changes, shouldn’t he at least stay for a day after changing? Do you know what the shortest period for a room change is?”
“…How long is it?”
“Three hours, fuck. It’s disgusting, really. I have to go clean the room later, and I really don’t want to go.”
Seeing him shuddering with his whole body, as if he really hated it, I blurted out without thinking:
“Should I go to that room instead?”
“Huh? Really?!”
“Yeah. It’s just going for cleaning anyway, so why not.”
“That’s… hmm, well, are you really going to switch with me? I’ll contact the assistant manager right away.”
When I gestured for him to do so, he seemed so happy that he tried to hug me, but I pushed his face away. Despite my gesture, he didn’t seem upset at all and just kept grinning.
“Hey, hey. You said you’d do it. Don’t blame me no matter what happens.”
“I said I got it.”
At that moment, watching him dance around in joy, I was honestly dumbfounded. Since the customer was a VIP and picky, I’d have to be more meticulous to meet his expectations, but I was wondering why he was so disgusted by it when, after all, we were just cleaning, and the customer wouldn’t even be in the room.
And that thought shattered as soon as I arrived at the room.
“…I’m sorry, but didn’t you request cleaning?”
“I did.”
“Then you need to leave the room. If you don’t want cleaning, I’ll just go back.”
The man, who took off his sunglasses to reveal, as expected, a handsome face, frowned one eyebrow and asked:
“Are you new?”
“What?”
I responded in an absurd tone to the unexpected question. Still, I smiled to make my expression look friendly, and after the man looked at me for a moment, he glanced around the room and said:
“You should have been told that when cleaning, I need to check, so you should clean regardless of whether I’m here or not.”
My forehead wrinkled, wondering what on earth he was talking about. Why do you need to check the cleaning? Then I remembered what my colleague had told me before coming up here.
“No matter what happens, don’t be surprised and just say you understand!”
I had laughed it off at the time, thinking it was a ridiculous thing to say, but now I understood what he meant. It seemed that he was telling me not to be surprised that someone would be in the room, and to just agree to whatever was demanded.
As I realized what was going on, my expression, which was about to turn to astonishment, relaxed. And inside, all kinds of irritation filled me. This bastard, really! If you’re going to tell me, explain it in detail! I was furious, but I should have noticed why he was so happy when I offered to switch, yet I had no suspicion whatsoever, which was largely my fault.
The man, who seemed to have noticed my expression, slightly opened the door wide, stepped back, and crossed his arms. He seemed somewhat annoyed, so I quickly adopted a polite attitude.
“I’m sorry. I was momentarily confused.”
At this point, if I said I hadn’t received the message properly, it would harm not only the hotel’s reputation but also my own, so I had to submit unconditionally. As I bowed my head in understanding, the man who had uncrossed his arms nodded lightly.
After pushing the cleaning cart in and bowing my upper body again to apologize, the man, who snorted softly, sat down heavily on the sofa and began to stare intently at me.
I was momentarily flustered by the uncomfortable gaze, but I maintained my poker face. However, it was extremely difficult to maintain my composure in this unfamiliar situation.
No, is this allowed just because he’s a VIP? Though I had already heard about it, if he had been doing this all along, it meant the manager had permitted it.
Wondering how influential a person must be to behave like this, I silently went into the bathroom and sprinkled water. I had to try not to direct my gaze at the man who followed me.
After finishing, I emptied the trash can and began to remove the bedding. I replaced it with new ones and organized it, making it as neat as a new bed.
Although it had been a while since I had done this work, I had been doing it for a long time, so even though it was tiring, I could finish without any problems.
Just as I was replacing the pillow covers and putting things back in their original places after cleaning up.
Suddenly, I heard a sound mixed with exclamation, and when I raised my upper body, the man, whose eyes met mine, lifted his hand from the handle and brushed around his chin.
What? Did he just express admiration?
Although I didn’t know what it was, it didn’t seem like a negative reaction, so I casually turned my gaze and started cleaning again when suddenly a phone ring made me jump.
Soon I stopped moving while listening to the man’s voice answering the phone and quietly pressed the vacuum cleaner button to turn it off. The noise that had filled the space disappeared, and it instantly became quiet.
“Yes. This is Jeon Seohan.”
His voice, which had become lower than before due to the phone call, sounded pleasant to hear. Well, he has money, is handsome, and has a good voice too, he really has it all, absolutely everything. I smiled inwardly at the fact that characters who should only appear in anime exist in real life too.
I thought I had forgotten everything, but I bit my lip at the figures that naturally came to mind.
Anyway, standing still until the call ended just made me feel awkward. It was because I could feel the staring gaze on my side.
Usually, guests staying on the upper floors of such a hotel did not emit ordinary auras, but this customer seemed particularly different in atmosphere, making him more difficult to deal with.
“I’m working on it right now. I will try to reflect that part as much as possible, but I can’t promise. The production company will make the final decision anyway.”
Although his speech was occasionally cut off to listen to the person on the other end, I could roughly understand what the content was just by listening to the man’s side of the conversation.
Is he a writer? Or a director? Judging from the content and the mention of a production company, it seemed to be related to movies or dramas. He occasionally used the word “work,” so it seemed right.
As I stood quietly guessing the man’s profession, my whole body froze as one word caught in my ears.
“I’ll say it again, I won’t make Part 2 of Class. There’s no material to continue with, and even if it’s a sloppy ending, ending it as is would be cleaner.”
“……”
I almost made a sound without realizing it but held back and looked at the man. Even though he wasn’t looking at me, our eyes met directly because his face was facing this direction.
He had definitely identified himself as Jeon Seohan. Was that the name of the Class writer? I tried to recall, but since it was unlikely that I had looked up the name of an animation writer, I gently put the thought aside.
Jeon Seohan, even with our eyes meeting, continued his call with an emotionless expression.
“Yes. Alright, I understand. I’ll contact you later.”
After the call ended and Jeon Seohan put down his phone, he gestured toward the vacuum cleaner with his eyes. It meant that now that the call was over, I could proceed.
But I was not in a state to clean. With my heart pounding, I took a small deep breath and barely opened my mouth.
“Are you perhaps a director? The one who made the animation Class…”
“Ah… Did you watch that?”
Jeon Seohan, who raised his eyebrows as if surprised, immediately looked me up and down. The meaning in his eyes seemed to say how unexpected this was.
As I stood still without answering, Jeon Seohan, who was comfortably leaning on the sofa backrest, said in an insignificant tone:
“Not a director, but a screenplay writer. I wrote it quite a long time ago, and somehow it got made into an animation, and when it came out, it did better than expected. It’s an embarrassing work for me, so I don’t actually like it that much.”
My heart, which had been beating fast, now started to pound heavily. A screenplay writer, so that means he directly wrote the content of that animation. That was even more fortunate for me.
I had many things I wanted to ask. But what should I ask?
“Then, um… Did you directly create the characters in the anime, sir?”
Jeon Seohan frowned as if my words sounded strange. Only then did I realize it was a strange question. Asking a writer if he directly created the characters, it sounds like asking if he plagiarized.
I quickly added, waving my hands to avoid any misunderstanding.
“I mean, I don’t have any particular intention. It’s just that the characters… seem so real.”
“……”
Though I corrected myself, it seemed to have the opposite effect as he now wrinkled his brow intensely. Thinking about it, even if it was a straightforward statement, it was something hard to accept.
Saying characters from an anime written long ago, full of old sensibilities, seem real… It was a statement I would dismiss as nonsense even if I heard it myself.
