####
“Good morning, Ms. Choi Yeonbi. I’m Na Dayeon, and I’ll be attending to you in the lounge this morning. I’ll show you this way.”
‘She’s pretty.’
Apparently, tying up one’s hair couldn’t hide one’s looks.
The person who introduced herself as Na Dayeon was the third prettiest woman I’d ever seen.
Second was Ms. Han Arang, whom I’d seen at the front desk yesterday.
First was my first love from middle school.
Old memories surfaced for a moment, but I shook my head inwardly and forced them away.
That bitch who played with people’s hearts. I didn’t even want to think about her.
“Please have a seat, and let me know anytime if you need anything.”
Receiving her formal greeting, I sat down at the seat she guided me to.
A napkin and menu lay elegantly atop the white tablecloth.
The cutlery was neatly arranged in a gleaming row as well.
Seeing a scene like something out of a drama or movie with my own eyes felt a little fascinating.
Maybe this was another kind of Truman Show.
If so, I’d better spend lavishly before the show ended.
Thinking that, I opened the menu.
By the way, wasn’t this place a buffet?
‘I don’t know.’
Looking at the food displays in front of me, it did seem like a buffet, but apparently you could order these main dishes too.
After staring blankly at the food laid out ahead for a moment, I turned my eyes back to the menu.
Then, all of a sudden, Na Dayeon leaned her face in from behind and began pointing at the menu with her finger, explaining each item one by one.
“These are special menu items available only today. They’re served as course meals, but you may also select and order only the dishes you want from the course.”
“Mm……”
I really had no idea.
It was somehow too different from the buffet I’d imagined.
‘Can’t I just take a plate and put some food on it over there?’
After scratching my face for a moment, I decided to ask the staff.
I was a guest paying to stay here.
And on top of that, an employee was explaining everything to me one by one like this. What was there to worry about?
I straightened my shoulders confidently and asked the pretty employee who had introduced herself as Na Dayeon.
“Would it be all right if I don’t order a main dish and just bring over the food in front?”
At my question, she smiled slightly and nodded.
“Ah, of course. You may choose the food yourself, or we can bring it to you. Which would you prefer?”
Ordering someone to bring you food while you sat still at a buffet.
With money, there really was nothing you couldn’t do.
A movie I’d seen long ago suddenly came to mind.
A movie about humans who had left Earth in the distant future and entrusted everything in their lives to robots.
A life where you could do everything while sitting down. As a result, everyone in that movie was fat.
When people generally thought of the rich, they pictured them as fat and greedy, but maybe they hadn’t become fat because they were greedy. Maybe it was just because they never moved.
If you didn’t even move for a distance this short, of course you’d end up that way.
‘……I definitely need to exercise.’
Thinking those pointless thoughts to myself, I got up from my seat.
“I’ll go look at the food and choose.”
“Yes. Would you come this way?”
And so, following Dayeon, I slowly walked toward the area filled with food.
####
‘What the heck. She really doesn’t know anything, does she?’
That was Na Dayeon’s first thought when she saw Yeonbi.
She truly knew nothing, to a degree that was honestly bewildering.
Could someone who had booked two nights at a hotel like this really know so little?
Of course, people like that did exist.
There were quite a few people who came as families or couples to enjoy a hotel vacation.
But to Dayeon, Yeonbi seemed different.
She hadn’t come with a boyfriend, a friend, or family.
Nor did she seem to have come because she had business nearby.
According to Arang, she had simply arrived empty-handed, without any luggage at all.
That made it even harder to understand.
There were too many things that didn’t quite add up for someone who had come alone to enjoy a hotel vacation.
And so, Dayeon became even more certain.
‘She must really have gotten picked up somewhere for her face and body.’
She clicked her tongue lightly inwardly.
The kind of woman Dayeon imagined Yeonbi to be was the type Na Dayeon hated most.
Women who lived however they wanted, relying on their looks and bodies.
Women who lived recklessly, thinking that if they somehow got involved with a man, they could live comfortably.
That was why she had studied hard.
It wasn’t a prestigious university, but she graduated with excellent grades from a school well known in hotel management and made it all the way to where she was now.
‘How annoying.’
She disliked Yeonbi a little.
Her face was pretty, and her figure was model-tier.
On top of that, though Dayeon had no idea whose eye she had caught, she apparently had enough leisure to relax in a luxury hotel like this.
That didn’t mean she could treat a guest carelessly, so she merely smiled and followed Yeonbi around.
“Oh… What kind of food is this?”
The name was written underneath, but Yeonbi, unable to understand what kind of dish it was, asked Dayeon about it.
Feeling a slight sense of superiority, Dayeon answered kindly.
“It’s tajarin, a traditional pasta from northern Italy.”
“Mm… Please put one on a plate for me.”
The words “put one on a plate for me” sounded oddly funny, so she held back a small laugh that nearly escaped and picked up the plate of tajarin.
“What kind of food is this one next to it?”
“It’s panini, an Italian-style sandwich. You can think of everything in this section as Italian cuisine.”
“Oh…”
And so, letting out short exclamations of admiration, Yeonbi began trotting around.
####
‘I took too much.’
I hadn’t realized it while I was happily choosing food, but once it was placed on the table, there was too much for me to finish.
If I’d been carrying the plate in my own hands, I would have roughly grasped the amount and stopped.
‘Since she carried everything for me, I didn’t see it properly….’
On top of that, the portions of food on each plate had been so small that I’d ended up taking more than I’d expected.
In any case.
‘I don’t think I can eat it all. What do I do….’
I looked back and forth between the food and Ms. Na Dayeon, who was standing beside me, smiling brightly.
She must have gone through a lot carrying all of this for me, so I felt a little bad about just eating a bit and having the rest thrown away.
Besides, she had diligently explained everything I asked about without seeming annoyed at all.
There was a wide variety of food, but none of it was the kind that would really fill you up.
Even the pasta was plated in such a small amount that it looked like it would disappear in one bite.
The problem was the bread.
Taking way too much bread for no reason was the biggest mistake.
‘But it looked so delicious.’
After hesitating for a moment, I decided to try eating first.
You never knew. Maybe I could fit it all in.
And so, about thirty minutes passed.
‘I’m full….’
Maybe because I’d eaten so grandly last night too, but I really couldn’t get it all in.
As I stared somewhat gloomily at the table that wasn’t even half cleared, a tall, good-looking man suddenly approached me from the side.
He seemed to have some age on him, but perhaps because he was well dressed and groomed, he had a distinguished middle-aged charm.
Could Choi Minhu have aged this handsomely?
Absolutely not, in my opinion.
“Oh my, looks like the young lady was very hungry?”
Saying that smoothly, he sat down across from me.
Perhaps he was also a VIP guest, because another employee was following him around closely at his side.
I was so flustered that I suddenly hiccupped.
“You’re hiccupping because you tried to eat all this by yourself. Here, water.”
I didn’t like how he casually spoke down to me the first time we met, but since he was that much older, I could understand it.
I slightly lowered my head to accept the water he poured and drank it in one go.
By the way, who exactly was this man?
Ms. Dayeon beside me and the male employee beside the man also looked a little flustered.
They soon regained their composure, but I definitely saw their troubled expressions.
Who on earth was this person in front of me?
“Do you know me, by any chance…?”
At my question, he laughed softly and handed me a business card.
What the heck? I thought, accepting the card with some irritation, only to be genuinely shocked when I saw it.
‘Harrison Enter?’
Harrison Entertainment.
A famous company, to the point that you could say most of the singers, idols, actors, and so on currently popular in the entertainment industry came from there.
Rumors about its chairman weren’t good, and seeing how he had been in and out of the prosecutors’ office several times, ordinary people didn’t think too favorably of the place.
Well, anyone hoping to set foot in the entertainment industry probably wouldn’t care about that sort of reputation.
‘So this person is a director at an entertainment agency….’
It wasn’t as if I knew exactly how important that made him.
Though I’d worked at a company for a long time, given what kind of company it was, I didn’t know much about ranks.
‘It’s not the same kind of director as there…….’
Thinking of the director at that goddamn “family-like” company, I snickered inwardly.
Together with another employee who got chewed out every day like me, I used to make fun of him by calling him Choco-Tingting.
It was a nickname we gave him after seeing how he had almost no front hair and laid just a few strands over his forehead.
Anyway, if he was handing me a business card like this, did that mean he wanted me to set foot in the entertainment industry?
“Have you ever thought about being an idol or an actress? Ah, idol might be a little difficult. Debuting as an adult is hard on the person, after all.”
Making that joke, he naturally picked up a piece of bread from the table and ate it.
Others might have considered him rude, but at that moment, I was grateful to him.
‘Since you’re eating it anyway, I wish you’d eat all of it.’
But he merely chewed the bread in his mouth slowly while waiting for my answer and didn’t eat any more.
‘Tch.’
Suppressing my disappointment, I also put the last piece of bread in front of me into my mouth.
How could I leave all this food behind, shake off the person in front of me too, and stroll out leisurely?
Just as I was thinking for a moment, the director finished chewing and swallowing the bread in his mouth and, unable to wait any longer, spoke first.
“What do you think? Want to try acting? I’m not exaggerating when I say I’ve never seen a girl as pretty as you. You’ll definitely make it big.”
I was grateful for the compliment, but I truly had not even the slightest intention of appearing on broadcasts.
It was only natural.
The more people knew about me, the more troublesome things would become for me.
A life where no one knew me and I simply had lots of money.
I preferred that life.
Still, thanks to the offer he brought up, I was able to breathe easier.
Forcing a smile at the director, I shook my head firmly.
“No. I respectfully decline. Ms. Na Dayeon, I’m finished eating. Would it be all right if I went back?”
“Uh…… Yes! Of course. I’ll show you this way.”
And then, very naturally, I leisurely slipped out of the lounge.
‘I’m saved.’
A sigh of relief escaped me on its own.
Wasn’t that pretty natural?
A response that allowed me to leave the remaining food as it was and exit the lounge without issue.
Thinking it was a perfect response, I smiled inwardly.
Of course, it would have been impossible if that director hadn’t shown up.
Feeling a small bit of gratitude toward him, I quickened my steps.
In any case, now all that was left was to happily buy clothes.