“Yah, ‘non speaking girl’! Almost perfect!” he said smiling proud. “If you’re  gonna also say ‘thank you’ in Korean I might even ki…” he started saying but her whispered “Kamsahmnida” brought an even wider smile on his face and he suddenly grabbed her waist, smashing his soft lips onto hers.

One single patter cut through the silence of the big, long hall.

“Yah! Jin jang!” Jiyong said protecting his slapped cheek with both of his hands.

“Being rich doesn’t give you the right to go around randomly kissing people!” she yelled raising her hand up again.

Ji got ready to dodge another possible slap but he actually barely managed to hide his giggle.

“Yah, non-speaking-girl!” he quickly regained his straight posture when she turned around to leave.

She stopped thinking that this was the moment when he’ll apologize, but his annoyingly calm voice hurt her ear once again:

“What am I supposed to do with my ruined clothes? Does the hotel’s management face up to this?” he said hiding his playful giggle in a cold grin.

“Mwo?!” she rolled around to face him again, but she had to take a step back because they almost kissed again.

“My stage shirt” he answered as calm as always. “I hope you guys can clean up coffee stains” he barely kept his poker face when he started ing his shirt.

“Wha… what are you doing?!” she looked at him astonished.

“Here you go!” Jiyong said handing her his shirt. “I’ll need it back by tomorrow, at 6 pm” he added before he got lost behind one of the white doors, dressed in only one as stained undershirt.

 She couldn’t see where he went because she was too busy to curse him. She crumpled the white shirt and she was about to throw it somewhere in her cart but touching it better made her to quickly fold it as careful as she could.

“Damn, this shirt makes more money than I’ll do in 2 years!” she said pushing the round silver key of the elevator.

 

Seunghyun was still talking to his mother when the door got opened. He hurried to see who entered, hoping she came back.

“Oh my God!” he said bursting into laughter. “What in the world happened to you?” he asked laughing. “No, mother, I wasn’t talking to you. I was talking to Jiyong-gi. He’s wearing only his undershirt and a fiery red slap on his left cheek…” he explained to his mother while following Ji throwing himself on his bed. “A..ani!! those are mine!” he rushed to save his yogurts from Ji’s hungry hands.

“Omma!!!” Ji shouted grabbing a hold on Seunghyun’s hand trying to reach his telephone. “Omma! He’s having sweets and he won’t share!”

“I’m not sure, mom” Seunghyun set himself free and managed to save just one can. “I think he’s drunk”…

“I’m not drunk!” Ji whined opening his ‘prey’.

Seunghyun sighed once and stepped towards the big windows. Suddenly his conversation fell on a second place. Something on the streets drew all of his attention, so he only answered in monosyllabic words. His mind was too busy to follow ‘his young maid’ gathering a hand full of white snow from a car. she wasn’t dressed, she was wearing just her uniform and right now she was trying to warm up her hands, rubbing them on her hands. She was looking left and right until a man came.

Seunghyun almost went up the window to get a closer look but when the man gave her just a big colored box, he smiled and quietly left the window when she also got back inside. He turned around to check on Jiyong, but he wasn’t there anymore, so he just smiled and carried on with his conversation with his mother.

 

“Who can bring the big, heavy boxes? Oh, oh, we know! Let’s make ‘round eyes’ get them!” the girl was mumbling without seeing where she was walking.

Both of the boxes she was caring were big enough to cover up her entire face so she could only see her  shoes stepping around.  That’s why she couldn’t see she was about to hit one absent minded Jiyong. But she felt it and heard it.

“Oh… chesonghamnida!” she quickly said looking at the white boots in front of her.

Some warm hands touched hers and they took over the boxes.

“Oh, this is heavy!” Ji said sighing.

Because the voice sounded familiar, she took a step to het right to look at her ‘savior’.

“Aissi!” she grabbed her boxes back, but he wouldn’t let them go.

“By the way, non-speaking-girl,” Ji started walking “”If you bump into me a couple more times you’ll get pretty good at speaking Korean”.

“Yeah, thank you!” she said trying again to recover her boxes, but Ji was already walking towards the elevator.

“What floor?” he asked waiting for the elevator to come.

“Basement” she answered without looking at him.

“Are you still upset because of the kiss?” Ji asked placing the boxes inside the elevator.

“That’s what you call a kiss?!” the girl asked suddenly piercing his gaze.

She pushed the ‘0’ key and waited for the doors to close. When she thought she got rid of him, his long, skinny fingers stopped the doors from closing. He stepped in and smiled pushing again the key.

“Are you free on Christmas Eve?” he suddenly asked.

“Mwo?” she almost chocked on air.

“Christmas Eve. Are you free?”

“Aniyo. I’m working…” she answered trying to look unimpressed.

“Yeah… me too… but only from 3 to 7. How about you? When you’re free?”

The elevator’s ‘ding’ cut him off.

“Ah juh sshi, are you trying to ask me out?” the girl defiantly smiled.

“Uhm.. well…” Ji said a little disappointed that his ‘bad boy cover’ was blown.

“Girls, she’s here!” they both could hear a voice just before the elevator’s door to open. A dark haired maid was waiting in front of the doors. As soon as they opened, she froze.

“Omo…” she said staring at Jiyong who understood her reaction and lowered his eyes and upper body into a shy bow.

“Omo! Omo!...” the dark haired one could only mumble when other 4 women gathered around to see the reason of her reaction.

“Omo! GD!” one of them ran inside the elevator to hug Jiyong.

“Non-speaking-girl, help!” Ji whispered trying to deal with all the 10 hands trying to grab him in a tight hug.

“Yah! Noona!” she shouted pushing the dark haired one away from Jiyong. “Help me with this, will you?” she put one of the boxes in her arms and so she did with the other one that almost reached Jiyong. “Now let’s go!   Gwajang – nim ‘s waiting for us!” she said pushing everyone outside the elevator. She quickly pushed any key of the elevator and stepped outside too. She took a deep bow as the doors started closing.

“Gomawo!” Ji smiled. “See you tomorrow around 7!” he shouted before he disappeared behind the doors.

“Yah! Round-eyes!” the dark haired maid put the big box back in her arms. “Who are you to know G-Dragon ?!”

“Why did you pushed me out??” said another one. “I could’ve ask for his autograph!”…

‘Mian haeyo, girls!” she tried to take deep bows but it was rather impossible with that box in her arm, so she simply followed them without answering to any other question, request or  quarrel.

 

“Aissi… I hope she won’t get in trouble because of me…” Ji said staring at his reflection in the shiny doors when he could hear all the screaming of the girls. He took a step forward to touch the ‘0’ key again when he almost stepped on something. He bent over to gather it from the ground and his eyes doubled. He was now staring at one of the yogurt cans he devoured in Seunghyun’s room. He shoved it deep in his pocket with a long sigh.

 

“And what’s that ‘’see you at 7’’ about?!” the questions wouldn’t stop flowing over.

“You’re going out with GD?!” one of them shouted.

“Anieyo!” the girl defended herself. “He wishes…”

“HE WISHES?!!” all the other almost shouted all at once.

‘What’s with all this fuss?” the manager asked when he heard them coming. “Stop all the nuisance and come over here faster!”

He wouldn’t allow them to say any word so they all had to help him with the huge Christmas tree he was fighting to get outside a room.

“But how are we supposed to carry this monster up to the main hall??” the dark haired one whined again.

“With these!” the man answered making her to put her hand on the big tree. “This year I think we can win!” he said really proud. “I chose it myself…” he kept on babbling while they all grabbed a hand on the tree.

After merely two hours the really tall tree was beautifully decorated and perfectly complemented the main hall. The manager laughed really loud.

“Aissi! This is what I call a well done job! I really do have an eye for what’s beautiful!” he said making all the girls scoff.

“Yah! You ungrateful girls!” he shouted. “Stop whining and gather round!” he said pointing to the Christmas tree to make sure he was understood by everyone. He took out his camera and took a picture.

“Now, let’s switch places! New girl, come here!” he called and the girl immediately took over the camera and started making tones of pictures.

 

It all turned quiet now. The pictures were made, the Christmas tree was already brightening up the main guest hall and the snowflakes were calmly falling from the dark sky.

The girl was silently walking on the scantily peopled sideways living this past day all over again. She didn’t even saw Seunghyun when he hurried to take the small nicely warped box from the hands of the store clerk and ran after her.

The meetings she had with both Jiyong and Seunghyun, the Christmas tree’s decorating and the camera’s flashes somehow brought back memories from her mother country and with it, a tear escaped her eyes. She squeezed the coat better on her body while several other tears followed the initial one until one finger stopped them.