####
— Wadadadadadada!
“What… what is that??”
Startled by the tremendous noise, I looked up at the ceiling.
Judging by how it was coming from right above my head, it really did seem to be from the upstairs unit.
I glanced at my phone. It was 8 p.m.
Maybe because it was a little late in the evening, it felt like the kids had finished dinner and were all worked up.
“Hmm……”
I hesitated for a moment.
Should I go upstairs and ask them to keep it down?
After sitting there listening to the thumping for a while, I shook my head.
“I’m going to be pretty noisy in two days too, so…”
The sound was probably echoing more because there was no furniture in my place, and when I thought about the ten million won’s worth of furniture that would be arriving in a rush in a few days, I couldn’t go up there now.
In two days, I’d definitely be making noise too, carrying things in and assembling furniture.
Besides, this was the first time I’d heard any floor noise since moving in, so I didn’t think there was any reason to stir up trouble for nothing.
“Better to let things slide.”
I didn’t know how long I’d be living here, but at least while I was, it wouldn’t be good to get on bad terms with each other.
— Thump, thump.
After sitting there for a bit, it definitely died down a little compared to before.
If it was only occasional like this, it would be fine. It was much better than the place I’d lived in way back.
The soundproofing in that studio apartment had been so bad I could even hear the woman next door panting.
“Compared to back then, this is much better, but…”
I let out a small sigh.
I’d been planning to spread out my sleeping bag and sleep in my new place, but things had gotten a little troublesome.
The place was empty, so the sound echoed.
And it felt like it would be hard to get a good night’s sleep too.
“Hmm…”
In the first place, it was weird to live like this in a house with no furniture and nothing in it. Why did I have to go out of my way to do this?
“Should I just rest at a hotel for a couple of days?”
It was still a weekday, and the off-season too, so there should be plenty of rooms.
The moment the four words “hotel accommodation” came to mind, I immediately searched.
“I guess I can sort by highest price.”
I giggled to myself and sorted by price.
Luxury hotels began lining up one after another.
When I clicked through the hotels that had been sorted that way and checked them one by one, there really were plenty of rooms available.
Most of them even included a breakfast buffet. In that case, I could just take care of my meals there too.
“Wow. They even have a pool inside?”
As I flipped through the photos, I found out that I could use the shared pool, and that the expensive rooms even had private pools inside.
I had no intention of swimming, but it was still fascinating.
A hotel staycation.
Now this was real extravagance.
Looking at the hotel photos with a happy heart, I pressed the payment button right away.
1.3 million won per night. Breakfast or dinner included.
I planned to stay two nights, so that made 2.6 million won?
“That’s not much.”
It was cheaper than my compact car.
And cheaper than the furniture that was probably being wrapped up for delivery right now.
My first hotel staycation.
In the past, when I saw what a hotel staycation was, I’d cursed inwardly, wondering how much money people had lying around that they would throw it away on a hotel.
Come to think of it, there had been a time when the team leader’s whole family took annual leave together to go on a hotel staycation.
Then he made the rest of the employees come to work and even dumped his tasks on us.
All of a sudden, my blood boiled.
“Maybe I should’ve just had him thrown in jail.”
Something like, “This man just opened the door to my room and came in!” or, “A stalker followed me!!”
If I’d given a statement like that, wouldn’t the team leader’s life have gotten seriously tangled up?
I felt a little regretful.
“…I’m too nice for my own good.”
Maybe the reason I was this much of a pushover was because my mom had lived too kindly.
My foolish mom.
My mom, who always accepted it no matter how much I snapped at her.
“Anyway.”
I smiled faintly and looked up at the ceiling.
If Mom had been here, she probably would’ve smiled and said of the upstairs unit, “The kids are so lively~”
But I knew.
People shouldn’t be too kind either.
At least, if you don’t have money, there’s not the slightest reason to live kindly.
Well, now I had a reason to live kindly.
“By the way, what should I bring…”
I looked around for a moment to see if there were any clothes or items I should pack.
Not that there was any point in looking, since I didn’t even have a suitcase to take in the first place.
I should just go like this.
They said there was a shopping mall right next to the hotel, so I’d go there and take a look at clothes and things like suitcases.
“Clothes, huh…”
Clothes.
Neat clothes, not tracksuits.
Should I just buy a hoodie and jeans and wear those around?
The one fortunate thing was that women could wear men’s clothing without much issue.
The size was the problem, but it wouldn’t look strange.
“That’s a relief, if anything.”
Wondering what clothes I should buy, I put on my shoes.
— Thump, thump, thump.
“…They won’t keep running around like that later too, right?”
I was a little uneasy, but they hadn’t been running around when I came to view the place or when I was here briefly yesterday, so it should be fine.
Even if not, it would work out somehow.
####
8:40 p.m.
The time when most guests had already checked in and were staying in their rooms.
The check-in rush and the hotel dinner buffet hours were over, making it a relatively relaxed time.
Though it was not quite the largest in the country, it was a hotel bearing the name of a fairly well-known company.
As such, it was a rather large-scale place where all sorts of guests, foreigners, and even domestic and international VIPs came to stay.
There was one employee who took pride in working at a hotel like this.
“Good luck on the night shift.”
“Yes, have a good evening.”
The front desk employee who answered in a bright voice as she saw off her superior was Han Arang.
She hadn’t overdone her makeup, and in accordance with hotel policy, she had only minimally dressed herself up and was neatly put together.
Her beauty was enough that older people would praise her as lovely, and even young men would glance back at her in passing.
Because of that, she had unknowingly captured the hearts of the male employees she worked with.
She herself was aware of it to some extent, so she sometimes showed a sly side by making unreasonable requests of the male employees.
Today as well, Han Arang had swapped schedules with her superior in order to secure the sweet slot of a weekday off-season night shift.
Thinking she would leisurely browse her phone, she sat down.
“Eusha…”
She sat comfortably and turned on her phone screen.
Just as she opened an app, wondering what video to watch, she saw someone slowly entering from the front.
Han Arang let out a short sigh inwardly and immediately rose from her seat.
‘Huh…?’
Seeing the guest walking toward her, she tilted her head slightly.
‘A guest? I don’t think there was a woman like this on today’s guest list.’
A woman approached the front desk, her long pitch-black hair swaying.
Her long hair, perhaps because it was well cared for, flowed softly.
Her face looked as if she wasn’t wearing any makeup, yet not a single blemish was visible.
On top of that, the features gathered delicately on her small face were completely those of an actress.
She was clearly wearing sneakers, yet she was taller than Han Arang, and her proportions themselves were as long and slender as a model’s.
Her legs were so superior in length that if most women stood beside her, they would probably look like middle or high school students.
‘Wow……’
Even Han Arang, who had grown up being treated like a princess, couldn’t dare think of matching her.
There was a saying that you had to compare things to know which was longer or shorter, but the woman in front of Han Arang was already so long that there was no need to compare.
For some reason, Han Arang felt slightly put out, but she forced herself to hide her expression and bowed politely.
“Welcome.”
“I made a reservation. Can I check in?”
At her question, Han Arang tilted her head once again.
It was almost nine now.
It wasn’t a time when check-in was impossible, but checking in at a luxury hotel like this at this hour was a little hard to understand.
Judging by her appearance, she wasn’t a foreigner, nor was she a VIP. There wasn’t even an event nearby.
‘What is this?’
Even if she’d come for a hotel staycation, at nine in the evening, when it was practically night?
Han Arang couldn’t find a suitable answer no matter how much she thought about it.
Feeling a little uneasy, she checked the woman’s information.
“May I have your name?”
“I made the reservation under Choi Yeonbi.”
“Yes, please wait a moment.”
Choi Yeonbi.
The name somehow made her think of a car’s fuel efficiency, and Arang chuckled inwardly as she typed the name into the search bar.
And the moment she saw the room the woman had reserved, she was so shocked that her thoughts came to a halt.
“……Excuse me?”
“Ah, yes. I’ll take care of it right away.”
Choi Yeonbi.
Because the room that mysterious woman had reserved was the Premier Suite, priced at 1.3 million won per night.
‘What on earth does she do?’
####
The money I had spent so far amounted to over a billion won.
But not once had I ever thought I was indulging in luxury in the true sense.
I bought the car and the house because I needed them, and the other things were also things I bought out of necessity.
Steak and ice cream were close to luxuries, but since they didn’t cost all that much, it was hard to call them extravagant, wasn’t it?
In any case, the moment I opened the door with my heart pounding, I realized that the things I had thought of as luxuries were not luxuries at all.
“……What on earth is this…”
I lost my words at the sight that unfolded before my eyes.
The spacious living room was elegantly decorated with vintage-style furniture.
The largest TV I had ever seen in my life sat squarely in the center, and beside it stretched a huge floor-to-ceiling window that showed the city nightscape at a glance.
“Wow……”
I couldn’t take my eyes off the night view beyond the window.
Cars moving like toys. Lights that seemed as though they would never go out.
And the tiny dots moving between them.
So this was the world.
So this was the city I lived in.
Mysterious.
And beautiful.
At the same time, it brought back memories of the past.
Back in middle school, there had been a school retreat.
I knew then that we didn’t have money at home, so I deliberately didn’t show Mom the notice.
As soon as I received it, I circled “not attending” by myself at school and submitted it.
And that day.
Mom scolded me terribly.
What had she said?
‘Do you think your mom can’t even send you somewhere like this? Why did you decide on your own without telling me?’
Something like that, crying as she got angry at me.
The day of the retreat.
I was left at home awkwardly with Mom.
I hated that gloomy atmosphere so much that I tried to go out to the library.
But.
‘There’s somewhere we’re going with Mom, so wait.’
She said that and wouldn’t let me leave.
A little while later, my mom had a lunch bag in one hand.
And with the other, she held my hand tightly.
Just like that, I was led by Mom up the hill behind our neighborhood and saw the wide-open city.
The place I lived was this vast and wonderful.
The place I usually saw had been so narrow.
As I held my pounding chest with all sorts of thoughts in my head.
‘Later, if there’s a retreat or a school trip, make sure you tell me then. I can at least send you to something like that. Okay?’
Mom stroked my hair and said that.
What expression had Mom been wearing then?
I couldn’t quite remember now.
Still.
I’m sure it wasn’t a sad face.
“……It’s pretty. Just like back then.”
And so, I blankly gazed at the night view beyond the large window for a long, long time.