Chapter 5
The man who had arrived at the bar before me was watching this way. As it was a fashion brand event, unlike yesterday, he was dressed in a more glamorous suit. Perhaps because of his bare face without glasses and his trendily styled hair, he didn’t look as rigid as he had at yesterday’s meeting.
“There’s a cocktail specially made for today’s event that was quite good. Want to try it? I heard it’s the work of a famous bartender who won at an international competition.”
The man leaning loosely against the bar gestured to summon the bartender inside before even hearing my answer. The bartender, smartly dressed in a red jacket uniform suit, began making cocktails with quick and skilled movements according to his order.
While watching the bartender’s flashy performance, the man seemed to have no interest in what was right in front of him. Feeling like I was being silently interrogated despite having done nothing wrong, I was the first to speak.
“Were you Korean?”
Only then did his gaze turn this way. And he smiled while turning his upper body more toward me. It was a somewhat cunning smile.
“If I had known that, I wouldn’t have slept with you. You’re thinking that right now, aren’t you?”
“……”
About half of me was, and half wasn’t. It wasn’t that I decided to sleep with him because I thought he wasn’t Korean. To be precise, it was because I judged him to be someone not included in Korea’s sphere of daily life.
“Then why are you here? You said you were that hotel’s manager yesterday. But today you’re a NOX Hotel associate?”
“That hotel is in the process of being acquired by NOX. The important procedures are almost finished, so yesterday was like a light after-party among our team.”
“……”
So you never lied, is that it?
The bartender tilted the shaker into a glass filled with finely crushed ice. After filling the glass precariously to the brim with peach-colored liquid, he began decorating the cocktail with lime, herbs, and intensely red hibiscus flowers. Though the man and I were giving attention to the bartender’s hand movements, naturally, our consciousness was tensely aimed at each other.
“Look there. It’s Jung Jiin, Jung Jiin.”
At someone’s chattering voice, his eyes glanced toward my shoulder. As if this situation wasn’t very pleasant, he slightly frowned around his eyes. Then he slid closer to me, narrowing the distance. Our shoulders almost brushed against each other. The same heavy and intense fragrance as last night stimulated my sense of smell.
“I had been at the American branch continuously, but I was transferred to Seoul and returned to Korea less than half a year ago. Since returning, I’ve been involved in various projects, so I didn’t have time to separately understand Korean trends.”
He was Korean and worked for a Korean company, but it wasn’t that he knew actor Jung Jiin and pretended not to know. It seemed like roughly that kind of explanation.
“I was just as surprised to see Jung Jiin-ssi here, so don’t look at me with such a guarded face.”
He added as if he had read my mind.
Thinking about it, there was nothing he had deceived me about. Just as I hadn’t revealed that I was a Korean actor, he simply hadn’t talked about himself either. It was just that my expectations were off, and my luck… was bad.
The bartender placed two completed cocktails on coasters printed with the L brand logo. The man and I lifted our glasses almost simultaneously.
“You must have quite a high position.”
“Do you perhaps judge men by their abilities?”
I clinked my glass against his extended toward me and answered indifferently.
“Not really. They just need to be good in bed.”
The man laughed and shook his head. Then he put down the glass he had sipped from back on the coaster. With his crossed arms leaning against the bar, he hunched his large body to drink through the straw without using his hands.
Staring at his profile doing something that didn’t suit his build, I also bit the straw. It was a taste that brought to mind a peaceful resort with a warm climate developed along a beautiful beach. A taste that made people excited and encouraged impulsive choices…
“Speaking of bed talk…”
The man leaned his upper body forward against the bar more and looked back at me.
“The company gave me a room upstairs. Want to go there and drink more?”
When he had hit on me at the Bangkok bar yesterday, he seemed more eager, but today while making the proposal, his face was somewhat sullen.
He seemed like an adult who had become very cold and rigid, but also like a boy who was clumsy at hiding emotions. Staring blankly at his dual-natured face, a chuckle escaped me.
“Why are you laughing?”
“Just… I thought your timing of appearance was interesting.”
The man who had briefly furrowed his brow as if he couldn’t immediately grasp the meaning soon chuckled along with me.
“You’re right. I’m usually first at whatever I do, but strangely these past two days I keep being someone’s next turn.”
“Uh… did you happen to see?”
“I heard Yoon Juho is thorough about self-management if nothing else, but he was more careless than I thought.”
“You said you’re slow with Korean trends. How do you know Yoon Juho?”
“He’s the Chinese model for NOX duty-free. I don’t know him well. I’ve only received brief information reports.”
The man’s hardened expression and tone seemed to mean stop being suspicious now. Feeling a bit sorry, I averted my gaze and bit the straw. After sipping the refreshing cocktail, I returned to our earlier conversation.
“Even if someone had seen that scene earlier, they wouldn’t have strange suspicions. In Korea, just because people of the same sex exchange card keys doesn’t mean it’s immediately connected sexually. Probably no one even realized it was a card key in the first place.”
“There’s someone here.”
“……”
The man pointed to his own face with his index finger. And the next moment, that index finger pointed toward the ceiling. As if Yoon Juho’s story didn’t matter at all, the man said:
“Want to go up?”
■
“Oh, yeah. I ran into an old friend here by chance… no, someone I knew briefly in Italy. Uh… I can just take a taxi back.”
Through the room’s panoramic window, the Han River could be seen below. Since the hotel was situated on a hill, it secured a view like looking down from a skyscraper. It was one of NOX Seoul’s prides.
Looking at the night view around the Han River while talking with Jaewoo, I glanced back over my shoulder. The man who had been opening wine in front of the mini bar looked this way and smiled meaningfully. Feeling like adolescent accomplices evading adult supervision to plot mischievous pranks, I also chuckled while looking at him.
“I’m really fine, so go in first. I can ask my friend to drive me. Hongseo? Ah… come to think of it, I haven’t seen Hongseo’s kids yet. Never mind, they’re busy with schedules anyway, what greeting. I can see them at home. Yeah, go straight home. Drive carefully.”
Even after ending the call, I remained standing by the window for a moment.
When going to meet Yoon Juho, there was no need to lie to my manager. I just didn’t talk about the purpose of the meeting, but I didn’t hide the fact that I was going to meet Yoon Juho itself.
The fact that I was in a hotel room with a man I barely knew suddenly felt thrilling. He might be an even more dangerous opponent than a stranger. Because he was a man I had already slept with once.
“……”
Fiddling with my phone in my hand while groping through such thoughts, I turned around. I hadn’t caught the silhouette reflected in the window, but the man was already right in front of me. While accepting the glass he handed me, I didn’t make eye contact. As if avoiding him, I turned around his broad shoulders and headed toward the sofa.
“NOX Hotel is generous. Even giving employees suite rooms like this.”
“It’s weekend work, so they’re showing off by giving out one empty room. Actually, there’s no need for me to be here, but they have me doing this and that.”
The man made a displeased expression while leaning his back against the panoramic window. Compiling the limited information, it seemed like the company was working him a bit too hard. Even so, seeing that they let him use a suite room as compensation for Sunday work, the company seemed to be making some effort to keep him satisfied. In any case, it seemed clear that his position wasn’t low-level enough to require guarding the banquet hall event venue all the time.
Even if it wasn’t the top suite room, the room with separate bedroom and living room was comfortable and luxurious. It was a space that well expressed NOX’s identity as a 5-star luxury hotel rather than a business hotel.
I settled on the three-person sofa facing directly toward the door leading to the bedroom. Though it was a soft sofa that my body sank into, I couldn’t lean back comfortably.
“On Sundays, overall room reservation rates are low, and suite rooms especially so. Since it’s an empty room anyway, they’re showing off with it.”
The man who had moved away from the panoramic window walked this way. I turned away from him and brought the wine glass to my lips. I felt the weight of the man sitting in the seat next to me.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
