MS Ch 7 part 1

“Heejin!”

Flinch, Euncho’s hand twitched as she buttoned her black jacket.

Her head snapped up. She couldn’t help her automatic response. It was as if she were a puppet, manipulated by a puppeteer through invisible strings.

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Because it was early morning, the hotel lobby was quiet as two women walked across.

“Hey, why are you walking so fast? I told you to go with me.”

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“You’re too slow, Mom. We’ll miss the bus at this rate. Let’s hurry up.”

The mother-daughter pair affectionately hooked their arms together. Recently, they had been advertising a mother-daughter package at the hotel, so this was a familiar sight.

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Euncho didn’t have to turn her head to check if it was really her, but her eyes couldn’t help but be drawn to them. All because the woman was called Heejin.

The mother-daughter pair continued to bicker amicably as they quickly disappeared out of sight. Euncho paused for a moment before walking away.

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She approached the front desk and glanced down at her chest out of habit. Her black name tag was slightly crooked. She straightened it as she reached the front desk.

“Good morning.”

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She leaned against the desk and greeted the receptionists.

The employees who had been in the middle of a conversation noticed her arrival and turned their heads.

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“Ah, Euncho-ssi. You’re here?”

“Do you have the morning shift today?”

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“Yes. I took my annual leave yesterday, so I exchanged shifts with Hyunji-ssi and took her morning shift.”

“You’re right. Euncho-ssi always takes her annual leave around this time.”

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Sujin recognized the date as she glanced at the calendar on the desk.

“Looks like the summer is almost over.”

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Sujin muttered softly. Instead of agreeing with her, Euncho held up the coffee carrier in her hand.

“Would you like some? The cafe right over there has been having some kind of event for the past few days and is selling these for cheap, so I bought some.”

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As Euncho shook her hand, the iced americano sloshed inside its plastic cups. The employees all exclaimed, ‘Wow!’, and, ‘Euncho-ssi, you’re the best!’

Euncho handed each of them a coffee cup as she quietly laughed. In the past, this kind of weather always made her want to buy some ice cream. But now that she was an adult, she found herself searching for coffee instead of ice cream. It seemed to match the sad life of a working adult, but it also meant she had grown up.

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Tap.

She finished handing out the coffee.

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As Euncho spoke to the night shift workers, Moonju angrily slammed the phone down into its cradle at the other end of the desk. Huu, she let out a deep breath, and her complexion didn’t look very good.

“Wow, I’m seriously going to lose my mind.”

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She seemed extremely angry as she wrapped her hand around her forehead. Moonju was usually playful and could handle the most difficult of situations with ease, so this reaction was quite unusual for her.

“Don’t tell me… Again?”

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“Yes, again.”

“……”

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“This time, she’s telling me to personally come up.”

“What? Why would she call you up when we have the housekeeping team?”

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“She told me to stop answering calls from the comfort of my desk and come up to see it with my own damn eyes. She said that if I don’t come up, she won’t let me off easy or something like that.”

Moonju grabbed her hair, which had been perfectly coiffed according to the hotel regulations for hoteliers, and looked like she was going to tear it out. As the atmosphere grew tense, Euncho leaned in and asked.

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“What is it? Is something wrong?”

“It’s a complaint from the guest staying in the ER.”

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“ER… the executive room? Isn’t it closed right now?”

Euncho had been working at the Eatons Hotel for the past four years, and the EFL had been closed the whole time she was here.

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EFL.

Often called the Executive Floor Lounge, the EFL was a floor where the VIP guests stayed.

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Normally, it was open to any guest who paid the appropriate price, but Eatons Hotel did things a bit differently.

Memberships were only given to important figures who had direct relationships with the hotel owner so that they could spend some time in comfort and privacy. In fact, the floor could only be accessed via a master key.

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At one time, Eatons Hotel opened the EFL to entice VIP guests to spend lavishly, but it was now a thing of the past.

Four years ago, a drunken son of a chaebol family had caused an incident that led to the closure of the EFL.

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But it didn’t cause any major issues since they could just redirect the VIP guests to the suites that incorporated personal minibars.

Actually, Euncho didn’t know much about it.

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Euncho had joined the hotel staff just as the case was coming to a close, so she viewed it as something that happened in another world that had no connection to her

All she knew was that after that incident, the stock of the holding company that was affiliated with the hotel began to destabilize. As a result, another company eventually acquired the holding company and merged the two.

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Therefore, this was the first time the executive lounge was opened in four years.

“Who could the guest possibly be for them to act like this?”

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“We wouldn’t know. I got instructions from the higher-ups to just leave the door open. That place has always been set up so that guests can check in and out privately.”

“But that’s not what is important right now.”

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Moonju’s voice slipped in as Euncho and Sujin chattered.

“The problem is that the guest in that expensive room is four stars.”

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Four stars.

Euncho’s mouth opened in shock.

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The hardships that service workers experienced were not easy. Even by simply working together, the employees developed a sense of camaraderie. Especially in a five-star hotel where utmost importance was placed on how the employees interacted with the guests.

In order to help and warn each other, they developed a secret ranking system of guests between them.

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Four stars had a very clear meaning. It indicated an especially difficult customer.

“I started my shift last night. Do you know how many complaint phone calls I received? This is the twentieth call. The twentieth. There’s something dirty on the pillow. I don’t like the brand of the amenities, so come and change them. The slippers are too rough… I mean, if you’re that picky, why don’t you just sleep in your own house? Why come all the way to a hotel?”

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Moonju clenched her fists and beat her chest. She lowered her head and looked like she was about to cry.

“But what else can I do? If it’s coming from the higher-ups, I just have to deal with it… I’ll head up to the EFL now.”

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The bags under Moonju’s eyes showed just how difficult it had been working the front desk during the night shift. Euncho bit her lips before quietly making an offer.

“Shall I go instead?”

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Moonju, who was walking around the marble desk, suddenly froze. Then she ran over to Euncho and grabbed her hands.

She looked at Euncho as if she were her savior.

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“Really, Euncho-ssi?”

“Yes, well… I’ll have to deal with her now that I’m relieving you from your shift anyway.”

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Sujin quietly watched the two of them and spoke up.

“Yeah, that might be for the best. Euncho-ssi is pretty good at taking care of things like this.”

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Euncho smiled awkwardly.

She knew why Sujin was saying that.

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It happened a while ago.

In the restaurant on the eighteenth floor, a person had begun screaming and making a fuss. The reason for this ruckus was alarmingly trivial. He was waiting in line for the first-class chef to make him an omelet, but someone had cut in front of him, causing him to get angry.

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He was a middle-aged man of considerable age, and he was as large as a bear, so the people around him were afraid to approach him. At that moment, Euncho, who happened to be passing by, stepped in and tried to calm him down. She was successful.

Euncho joined the line of employees and bowed several times in apology. When the man saw this, he coughed awkwardly as if he were embarrassed and promptly became quiet.

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‘What else could it be? It’s obvious he let it go because Euncho-ssi is pretty.’

Later, when another employee asked how the situation had been defused, the employee who had been next to Euncho answered the question.

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At first, she thought, ‘Eh, no way.’ However, this type of incident happened several more times with other male guests, and everyone had no choice but to acknowledge it. This was why Euncho was now considered the ultimate all-rounder when it came to defusing explosive situations.

“Ah, it won’t work this time.”

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Moonju shook her head hopelessly.

“The guest is a woman.”

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Euncho rather preferred that.

Although it wasn’t too difficult to calm down an angry guest, the problem was the flirting that came after.

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When the flirting was light, she refused. But when they became more aggressive in their approach, she could only flash them an empty smile as her mind became numb.

If the guest was a woman, this wouldn’t be a problem.

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“I’ll go instead. If there is a problem, I’ll call, so you better wait for me at the front desk.”

Euncho begged them in a playful voice as she took the EFL master key card from Moonju’s hand.

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When Euncho got inside the elevator, she brought the card up to the sensor that had been installed underneath the floor buttons. Even though she didn’t press any buttons, the elevator automatically moved.

The elevator was made of glass so that the people inside could see the view outside. The late summer sky stretched out above her. Euncho leaned against the wall as she stared at the sky.

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At the end of summer, Euncho always felt even more exhausted than usual.

Seven years.

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Seven years had passed since that day.

It seemed so long ago, but it also felt like it was yesterday. However, she continued to take time off to commemorate the anniversary of Heejin-unnie’s death every year, so she felt the passage of time very clearly.

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The last seven years brought many changes to Euncho’s life.

She grew from a minor into an adult. Her days as a student had transformed into that of a working woman.

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And during that time, the summer always came without fail.

Even though it was such a regular and distinct season, it still felt so distant.

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Actually, she heard the news anchor talk about climate change or whatever, saying that the temperature reached record highs every year. However, Euncho felt rather indifferent. Was it really that hot? It felt tolerable to her. She felt like people were making a big fuss over nothing.

Had the sense of loss, the feeling that something was forced away from her, also gotten rid of her sense of seasons? If not that, what could explain the reason why this sweltering heat didn’t even seem to pierce through her skin?

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What kind of season was summer?

For Euncho, that season was now a big question mark.

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Ding.

The elevator doors opened.

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The fog of thoughts quickly dissipated.

Euncho checked her name tag to make sure it was straight before walking out of the elevator. She walked through the quiet lounge. The front desk was unmanned, probably because the floor had just opened last night.

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To access the EFL-only rooms, one had to use the elevator or the staircase in the lounge. Excluding the lounge, all the rooms up to the fifth floor belonged to the EFL. This allowed the VIP guests to avoid mingling with other people. Euncho felt as if her heels were extra loud today as she arrived at the door of the room.

Knock, knock.

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A few moments after Euncho knocked, the door burst open. Euncho straightened her back and smiled pleasantly.

“Hello. I received your call and came to see what was wrong.”

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Just like Moonju said, the person who appeared at the door was a woman.

Euncho thought she’d seen everything there was to see during the four years she’d worked at the hotel. But when she saw the swaying bare breasts of the woman in front of her, she was a bit taken aback.

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She was wearing a robe, but the front was open, exposing her breasts and perky nipples. She was so shameless that Euncho felt grateful for the fact that the woman was wearing panties.

Euncho quickly fixed her expression so that her chaotic thoughts would stay hidden. She recalled how Moonju had desperately grasped her hands. Once you’ve seen one, you’ve seen them all. Judging from this woman’s stubborn attitude, Euncho could see how miserable Moonju’s night had been.

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“May I enter, ma’am?”

The woman stood woodenly at the door as she looked Euncho up and down. Then she flipped her wavy hair behind her back and spoke.

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“Come in.”

Euncho carefully stepped inside.

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Since these rooms had been closed ever since Euncho had joined the hotel staff, the floorplan was unfamiliar to her.

She thought it would be similar to the suites on other floors, but the room had a more somber and luxurious air about it, indicating that one could not simply stay here with money alone. It had been like this the moment the elevator doors opened to the lounge.

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“What may be the problem, ma’am?”

“The hot water isn’t coming out.”

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The woman casually tied her hair up and continued to speak in an informal tone. Euncho guessed this had been the case when she had spoken to Moonju over the phone, so she was not surprised and responded calmly.

She entered the bathroom that the woman pointed to and turned the faucet.

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Whoosh. Euncho put her hand under the torrent of water and waited. The water should have gotten warm within a few seconds, but the cold water continued to prick her skin.

Euncho pulled her hand out and gently shook the water off before straightening up.

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“I apologize for the inconvenience. I will contact the maintenance team and make sure they fix the problem.”

The glaring woman must have been satisfied with Euncho’s brisk attitude because she merely let out a ‘hmph’ and turned her back.

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Meanwhile, Euncho walked over to the phone near the door and brought it to her ear.

“Yes, this is Park Euncho from the hospitality department. I came up to the ER in response to a complaint. There must be something wrong with the pipes because the temperature of the water cannot be adjusted. Please come by and take a look. Alright, thank you.”

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After placing the phone back in its cradle, Euncho searched for the woman to conclude her visit.

Meanwhile, the woman was perched on a wingchair with a cigarette in her mouth. Her gown was still open in the front.

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“Ma’am, I’ve contacted the maintenance team, so they will arrive shortly. If there is anything else I can help with, please let me…”

“Leave after they fix it.”

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“Pardon?”

The woman lowered the cigarette from her mouth and tapped it against the crystal ashtray. The ash from the cigarette floated in the air. Through the murky smoke, Euncho could see the woman’s sharp eyes that reminded her of glass shards.

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She was so fierce that Euncho couldn’t bring herself to remind her that smoking was prohibited inside the rooms and could be done out on the terrace instead. Furthermore, since Euncho was called here due to a complaint, she felt that provoking her would only result in more of the woman’s wrath.

Because she’s four stars. Four stars.

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Euncho chanted Moonju’s warning inside her heart.

“I said you can leave when it’s fixed. If I just let you go and the problem’s still there, I have to call you again, don’t I? It’s annoying.”

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Wouldn’t I be the one who’d be annoyed since I’d have to leave and come back?

Euncho hid the surging thoughts behind a professional smile as she answered, “Yes, I understand.”

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In the end, she wasn’t able to return to the first floor and was trapped in the room instead. She walked over to the bathroom. She sat down on top of the oval bathtub with a blank look on her face as she laughed silently.

‘What? You want to become a hotelier, Euncho?’

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‘Hey… Do you know how difficult the service industry is? You have to hide any negative feelings you may have and continue to smile as if nothing’s wrong. How can such an honest kid like you do that kind of work?’

Euncho’s mother was shocked at her choice of career. Euncho knew that she was reacting this way because her mother knew her well.

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‘Euncho is saying she wants to do it. Why don’t we trust her this time?’

Ahjussi, who had been sitting by her mother’s side, spoke up.

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Although Euncho knew that her mother’s dismissive reaction was coming from a place of worry, she couldn’t help but feel sad. Therefore, she was immensely grateful for Ahjussi’s attitude at this time.

That wasn’t the only thing she was thankful for.

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A year after moving out of the villa due to Heejin-unnie’s death, Euncho took the college entrance exams. However, she still struggled, unable to find the direction she wanted to take with her life. In the midst of all this, Ahjussi was the first one to approach Euncho and say, ‘If there’s anything you want to do, try it out.’

Although they met when Euncho was nearly an adult, he treated Euncho as if she were his biological daughter. Because of this, they were able to become a more perfect family unit.

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Euncho blankly stared at the pouring water.

The reason why she wanted to become a hotelier.

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It was just because… whenever someone asked her what she wanted to do, the first thing that would pop into her head was the movie she liked to watch. The movie she would watch over and over again on the linoleum floor during that humid summer. The feeling of her skin sticking to the floor as she lay down and unsticking when she got up.

‘Euncho, you really like this movie, don’t you?’

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‘Yeah. It’s just so sparkly. It feels as if my eyes are becoming happy. Don’t you think so too, Unnie?’

‘Haha. That’s a cute way to put it.’

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‘Are real hotels like that? Are they that sparkly?’

‘I’m not sure. I haven’t been to a hotel before, so I don’t know.’

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‘Really?’

One evening, a day when the sunset looked like a pomegranate, Euncho, a middle-schooler at the time, was lying on Heejin’s lap. Suddenly, she sat up and spoke.

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‘Then I can just make a lot of money when I’m grown up and take you there, Unnie.’

‘Wow. I’m really looking forward to it.’

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At the time, Heejin’s smile was as full of life as an unripe apple. The complete opposite of what her frantic face had looked like the last time Euncho saw her. The time when she warned her so desperately not to get mixed up with a certain someone…

Euncho held her hand underneath the pouring water and regularly checked the temperature. Before long, she confirmed that the water had grown warm. Euncho stood up just as the door to the bathroom opened.

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“Ma’am, the warm water is now…”

She thought it was the woman. However, when she turned around, it wasn’t her.

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To start, it wasn’t even a woman.

At first, she saw abnormally long legs covered by a navy robe. The man was wearing pants, and his robe was open at the front like the woman’s. Euncho could see well-defined muscles underneath a large scar running across his abdomen.

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Euncho’s hand reflexively clenched on the bathtub.

What… am I seeing right now?

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Her sense of reality began to fade away. Her senses grew numb one by one.

The memories that had been buried in the deepest recesses of her mind began to surge up all at once.

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Her frozen gaze instinctively moved up, little by little. They lingered on the chest. It was so familiar, and she recognized it at one glance. Her eyes finally moved up to the face.

She heard the sound of footsteps.

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The forgotten summer was walking towards her.

If not, how come…

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“Is the hot water coming out, miss?”

…she couldn’t breathe?

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Euncho felt like she was going to faint and couldn’t react at all. The man who entered the bathroom like an uninvited guest… Ki Taeju. Ki Taeju, the man who suddenly disappeared seven years ago. Ki Taeju, the man who had now appeared in front of her eyes… He was now calmly sitting on the edge of the tub.

Euncho was at a loss for words and stared up at him like an idiot.

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Am I dreaming right now?

She felt like it was very possible.

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The annual leave she requested for the anniversary of Heejin-unnie’s death was yesterday. And every year on that day, Euncho would suffer a fever, either small or serious, as if she had caught the measles. Seeing as how she was completely fine the next day, it seemed to be the symptom of a scar left behind by the deceased.

So that might be what this is.

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A fever dream…

Water droplets splashed onto her face.

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Euncho returned to her senses.

Ki Taeju had placed his hand into the half-filled bathtub and slowly stirred the water. Now that he was closer, she could smell his scent.

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Her nose didn’t recognize the smell, but her mind had let its guard down.

Ki Taeju remained fixated on the clear water in the tub. Then he turned his head. Their eyes met. A shiver ran down her spine. At the same time, Ki Taeju raised a brow.

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Suddenly, he tilted his head. It looked like he was waiting for an answer. Realizing this, Euncho quickly brought her hands behind her back.

What… What did he say?

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Ah, that’s right. He asked if there was hot water.

“Uh, yes, sir.”

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The business-like tone she normally used with guests was nowhere to be seen. She didn’t have the capacity to think about it when her mind was plunged into chaotic confusion. The chances of this being real were near zero.

Ki Taeju plunged his arm into the tub up to his elbow before pulling it out. Drip, driiiip. The sound of water droplets reverberated throughout the room. Euncho stared at the drops before slowly raising her eyes.

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Their eyes locked again.

Ki Taeju gazed at Euncho. He had never avoided her from the beginning. As this continued, the air grew damp.

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The back of Euncho’s throat tickled as if she were about to sneeze.

“Omo, Oppa!”

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An overly cheerful and sweet voice rang in the bathroom.

“When did you wake up?”

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The woman finally made her appearance.

The woman, who had momentarily disappeared when Euncho had been checking the water, finally entered the bathroom when she discovered Ki Taeju. When Euncho saw the nearly naked man and woman draw closer, she quickly stood up.

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“Sir, ma’am, I have confirmed that the hot water is working.”

As an employee, she couldn’t ignore them and run away, so she did her best to ignore the surging emotions and think on her feet. She was so worked up that she didn’t even know if she was speaking properly.

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“I will be taking my leave now. If a problem arises after I’m gone, please call us at any time.”

After saying the words that she had said so many times before, She bent her hips in a deep bow.

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After bidding them farewell, she hurriedly exited the executive room as if she were being chased. Unlike before, her feet now moved frantically as she walked through the hallway. It felt like the choppy sounds of her shoes were piercing her skull.

She barely made it to the elevator.

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Euncho stared at her reflection in the silver doors.

Her face was as white as a sheet.

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