CHAPTER FIVE.

We were dropped off in front of the building, and before she left, Seo Young gave us a glare—mostly me—and left us with a huff, and a puff, and well…a little bit of dignity. We both looked up at the building. It was huge, and I had no idea how we were going to go about doing what we were going to do, especially since we had no idea what it is exactly that we were doing. Basically, we didn’t have a plan, whatsoever.

“Wow, it looks bigger than I remember it,” Yesung spoke from beside me. “Have you been here before?” He asked as he looked at me. I just glared back.

“Of course I have. Did you forget all the stupid conventions and glamorous weddings that took place here? And when you got me in trouble because you told my mom that I had been secretly drinking all the wine when I wasn’t supposed to? And when you and my brothers ruined my dress, and I had to scrub the stain off and it took six weeks for it to come off?! And when you hotwired the newlyweds car after tricking me into it, and left me in there on an abandoned street and then told everyone that I did it. I thought I was getting kidnapped! And also that time—,”

“Okay, okay,” Yesung put his hand up to shut me up, “I get it. I get it. Sheesh, can’t even ask you a question without you boiling over.”

“I am not—,”

“Alright. Alright. Before we start to fight again, let’s do what we came here to do. The faster we get this done, the sooner the better, and then you and I can both go our own way. Okay?”

“Fine. I can’t wait to get rid of you.”

“Same.” Yesung retorted back. I was even more determined to get this over with and find out what the hell was really going on.

We entered into the hotel lobby, and as I was just about to strut across the lobby, Yesung stopped me.

“What’s wrong?” I asked, not particularly worried or anything.

“I think….I think I’ve been here before.”

“Really? Well, did we not just go over all the pranks you pulled on me here throughout the years? Do you want me to recap everything and remind you, again?” I asked sarcastically.

“No, that’s not what I meant.” Yesung shook his head. “What I mean is, I’ve been here recently, by myself.” He shook his head again, as if trying to remember. “I remember I came here…yesterday. That’s right. And then I remember parking in the parking lot and asking the front desk for a room.”

“Do you remember why you came here?” I asked curiously.

“No, that’s all I remember. It’s all so foggy.”

“Well,” I went back to grumpy mode. “That doesn’t help us at all. That’s exactly what they told us. At least, I guess, it goes along with what Jinwoon was saying.”

“Hmm. Let’s ask the front desk, maybe she remembers one of us. I remember her being here yesterday too.” Yesung said as he began crossing the lobby to the other side where the front desk lady was sitting at. I followed.

“Hello, may I help you?” One of the front desk lady’s asked.

“Yeah, I believe I came here yesterday. Do you remember the room that I asked for?” Yesung asked.

“Oh! I remember you, sir.” Another front desk lady exclaimed. “Yes, how can I forget? You’re VIP here. Yes, the room that you were in was room 520 A. But there was a gas leak last night, so we had to designate you into another room, room 250 A.”

“Gas leak?” Yesung probed.

“Oh yes!” Did she just blush? Hmph, I thought. “We’re terribly sorry about that sir. It was the first time a gas leak like that ever happened.”

“Wait, you said he was VIP?” I jumped into the conversation. I was getting more and more confused.

“Yes. Well actually you both are. But the VIP card is under this gentleman’s name. You two have been frequent customers here for the past 3 months. I assumed you were still in the honeymoon stages.” She blushed again.

Pissed because she also thought we were married, I just grumbled, “He ain’t no gentleman.” Which be the way earned me an elbow from Yesung. Good, he heard.

“Thank you. But, can I ask you how many times we’ve been here, in the er...past 3 months.”

“Certainly sir. I can look it up on the computer database. May I ask for you card?”

Yesung looked blankly at her. “C-card?”

She looked up and noticed his expression, “That’s alright, sir. Your phone number will do.”

Yesung looked blankly at her again.

She looked back up. “Your phone number sir. I believe you might also have our app. For maximum security, we can also swipe that across our system to see what comes up.”

Yesung just handed her his phone. “Thank you, sir.” She said before opening the app on his phone and waved it across a machine they had. Once it made a ‘ping’ sound, she handed the phone back to Yesung.

“Jeez. Did you not lock your phone or what?” I asked him quietly, so they lady won’t hear us.

“I unlocked it before handing it over to her.” He whispered back, then grinned. “Guess what the password was?”

“I don’t even want to know.” I replied back.

“Okay. I’ve pulled up your information, sir. And from what I can see sir, you have been here a total of 12 times in the past three months, not including yesterday’s visit. You come every Friday night at around 7 p.m. and leave the next day at about 5 o’clock. You also ask for the same hotel room, so we always have it reserved for you.”

“I see. Can you tell us what room that is?”

“520 A.”

“The one I had yesterday?” Yesung asked confused, and the lady nodded, “That’s right, sir.”

“Alright, can I get a print out of that?”

“Certainly, sir.” She printed the information and handed the paper to Yesung. “Is there anything else, sir?”

“Umm…is any of the rooms that we had yesterday still available? We think that we may have left something there.”

“Oh, that’s right.” The lady unlocked a drawer behind her. “You left this in of the rooms, and I believe that your car is still in the parking left. If you had come a day later, unfortunately, the hotel staff would have had it towed.” She handed some keys over to Yesung.

“Uhh…thank you, ma’am.”

“No problem, sir. And the rooms you are asking for: room 520A is available right now, but room 250A is currently being occupied.” She typed on her keyboard, then exclaimed, “Oh, hold on. The room, 250A, is under your name, and it says here that you two did not check out since last night.” She looked up at Yesung.

“Oh? We didn’t? Ha-ha. Um…we’ll take room 520A for now, as well.” He added hastily. After he was handed the key card to the room, he turned around only to find me sitting at a nearby chair, with my arms crossed, and a frown which could only mean doom. He gulped before walking over to me. “What are you doing sitting over here? I thought you were standing right behind me.” He asked.

“Well, took you long enough. I got tired of standing there waiting for you to finish flirting with the front desk lady. Plus, it looked to me you were handling it perfectly fine.” I grumbled as I stood up.

“Flirting? What? Wait…are you jealous?” He teased. I kicked him in the shin, simply because he deserved it. I walked away.

“Yah!” He yelled, hopping up and down on one foot. But, I didn’t bother because I was heading towards the elevator. He could either follow me, or make a scene in the lobby if he wanted.

We both rode in the elevator silently, standing as far apart as we could from each other. Well, I was mostly the silent one. He was grumbling inane curses at me underneath his breath. Finally, the elevator stopped on the 5^th floor. I stepped off and walked towards the room. Suddenly, I had a flashback. It was me. I was pushing a cart of food towards the room, and someone with a hat on opened the door. I shook my head and continued walking forward. Yesung came from behind me, and with the look on his face, he remembered something too.

“I was angry.” He said when we reached the room. “I don’t know why, but I was angry when I came here yesterday.”

“Well, that’s not anything new.” I snorted.

He opened the door and we both walked in.

“Well, anything.” He asked me.

“Nope,” I shook my head, and we decided to search the room. Except that it had already been wiped clean. There was not a speck of dust to be found anywhere. Not even in the shower.

“Okay, well this was useless. Of course, the maids would have already cleaned everything before we decided to even come here.” I told Yesung, before flopping down on the bed.

“This !” He said before collapsing down on the bed next to me. We looked at each other for about 20 seconds before I got up screaming and fell off the bed.

“What the hell is wrong with you?” Yesung asked looking down at me on the floor.

“YAH!” I shouted at him and stood up.

“What?” Yesung got up off the bed as well. He looked warily at me, “Are you sure you’re okay?”

“What? Babe?! ‘Let’s just stay here and snuggle.’?! O-ho! You’ve gotta be kidding me!”

“What are you talking about…..?” Yesung asked then looked down at the bed before his head shot back up and looked at me shocked. I raised my eyebrow.

“W-we were h-here yesterday.” He spluttered. “In this very room.”

“Bingo.” I said, still with my arms crossed and eyebrow raised.

“Wait.” He put his hand up, “I’m remembering some things.” He looked at me before imitating my pose. “Wait a second.” He tsked at me. “I know why I was so angry yesterday, it’s because you were cheating on me. Girl, have you no shame?” He looked me up and down and tsked some more.

“What?” I looked at him startled. “Oh! Right. And you were the one who came spying on me here, because you supposedly ‘thought I was cheating on you.’” I air quoted in the end. Phew! I almost lost my composure there.  “Puhahaaha!” I burst out laughing at him. “I can’t believe you thought that, because I sooo would. You’re like the last guy I’d ever consider. Hah Hah.”

“I did not!”

“Yes, you did. You insecure, creepy, stalking, lover boy.”

“No, I didn’t. But wait. You weren’t even cheating on me or trying to. What was it you said? Oh yeah, you were working because you were buying this ‘lover boy’,” he pointed to himself, “a present. And you didn’t want to disappoint me.” He smirked. I stared at him and suddenly had a flashback:

“Well,” she started, “It was your birthday today, and after I quit my old job due to our marriage, I wanted to get you something with what I earned. So, the hotel required some new hands, and so about a week ago, I started working here…so I could buy you something nice,” she mumbled the last part.

Of course I denied any such thing. “Uhh, I’m pretty sure I didn’t say it like that. And why the hell would I work at a hotel when I’ve already got a pretty nice job?”

“Well, if I remember correctly, you said that you’d been working here for a week to buy my present.” He pointed out and sat back down on the bed. “Which by the way, where is it? Give it to me.” He held his hand out. I slapped his hand away from my face and sat down next to him.

“Man, I had some ty birthday. Had to spend the whole day with you.” He looked me up and down again.

“Excuse me, according to our friends, you were the one who wanted to spend the whole day with me. I should be the one complaining. I’m the one who had to go around doing room service to everyone.” I said.

He looked at me weirdly. “You make that sound so dirty.” He shivered.

I slapped his arm. “You’re the one that thinks dirty, you ert!”

“Ouch, are you even a girl.” He rubbed his arm, which I know didn’t even hurt. Either that or he was a sissy.

“Oh by the way, you lied to me.” I told him.

“What are you talking about?” He eyed me warily.

“Yesterday, when we were in this room, you said that you weren’t spying on me but that Jinwoon sent you or something and that my sister told you everything. But earlier today, Jinwoon said that you called him ‘whining like a baby’. His words not mine.” I added after he glared at me. “And that you were trying to catch me in the action.”

“No, I don’t remember that. Nope.”

“Liar.” This time I glared at him.

“Well, at least we learned something while we were here.” He changed the subject. “How much do you remember?”

“Just the bits and pieces that happened while we were in this room yesterday.” I grumbled.

“Same.” He sighed. “And even that’s not clear. This is so frustrating.” He rubbed his face before standing up. “C’mon, it’s getting late. We spent almost 3 hours here trying to search for clues and remember things. Maybe we’ll have better luck back at the house.” He held a hand out for me to help me stand up.

“Well, I just gotta say this,” I said as we locked the door behind us. “I hope to never see that room again.”

“Me too.”

We trekked our way back into the hotel lobby and signed out of our room this time. The other room, room 250A, was also apparently emptied. We were about to walk out of the hotel when I saw another couple walking in to the lobby from where the hotel restaurant was. Weird. The girl, who was clinging on to the guy’s arm, looked familiar.  Have I seen her somewhere before? I thought, but quickly shrugged off that thought. After all, what do I remember? Certainly not the past 3 months.