"What?", asked Meela, a very efficient and generally popular in house employee of the Meadow, a holiday home in British Columbia, Canada, "You must be kidding me, Tara! Who would be coming to book the place under current circumstances?"

"Haven't I told you already?" Tara, Meela's colleague and best friend replied in a cheerful manner.

"No, you haven't. So, you better spill." urged Meela.

"I was coming back after cleaning up the right wing, and overheard Claudia telling Steve that ...."

"Eavesdropping now? Are we?", interrupted Meela with an endearing smile on her lips.

"Gimme a break judgypants, if you want the story, no more hold ups.", warned an annoyed Tara.

Meela raised her hands up to strike a 'hands up' pose, and then zipped her lips up and threw away the key in response.

Her antics evaporated the annoyance in Tara's face and replaced it with a smile, "So, long story short, a Kdrama team was shooting in different locations in Canada. They almost wrapped the shooting up but the lockdown happened and they needed a secluded place to lay low for a while, shoot the remaining few scenes and..."

"And wait it out until the next flight out," completed Meela, then paused and gave her friend a scrutinizing look, "From your bunny-hops, it's kinda clear that at least one of your faves is coming in"

"Even better, two of my all-time faves are coming! The best buddies, Lee Min Ho and Jung Il Woo. Meela I donno what I am gonna do! Really my heart feels like exploding. You can check it if you don't.."

"I get it. I GET IT!", Meela backed a couple of steps away from her overly enthusiastic friend "No need to check whatsoever. All the best! And one more thing, try not to eat them alive!" said she...then muttered, "I hope those two leave in one piece, poor chaps.", sparing her fangirling friend one last look, she leaves shaking her head.

--------------------------

"So they took permission from the government to stay here?", asked Meela.

"Yeah, and Sabine might have pulled a few strings, I am not sure though. Anyway she might have helped getting the permission."

"Why aren't they using the government facilities though?"

"They have means, they want better or they do not want to stay in the city, or they want more safety perhaps, and we all know now the more secluded the more secure now ."

"So, when are we expecting them?", asked Meela taking a bite of her mac and cheese.

"By the weekend", replied Claudia.

"A party of?", Meela continued.

"25 people...give or take."

"That's pretty big. And we are seriously understaffed to handle all that."

"Yeah, about that, we have to manage somehow, at least for the next 4-6 weeks"

"Wait, they are gonna stay that long?" Spoke Tara for the first time in the evening with a big smile on her face.

"More or less, I guess, the next special flight to Korea is in next month, or they may be applying for one special flight for themselves, don't really know the details. Anyway, I think they are stuck here for a month or a bit more".

"The horror!" Said Meela grumpily, then looked at Tara and shook her head, "Even when Tara can barely contain herself, we have some major heavy lifting to do.", pointed Meela.

"Agreed"

"I am ready to do the heaviest lifting, you know? Hullk level one? As long as I get to..." Tara stopped mid-sentence blushing.

"Claudia, make sure you hold her to that. I surely will.", Meela said lightly.

Claudia laughed, then on a serious note said, "Thanks guys for staying here during the lockdown. Especially, Meela when you could have taken the first flight out to Dhaka."

"Flying isn't risk free Claudia, just did the sensible thing to do. Thanks for letting me stay.", Meela quipped smiling, "and making it look like you're the one needed me here."

"The Meadow is your home, guys." She looked at both Meela and Tara, "You can stay as long as you want."

-------------------------

Claudia was not keeping well so Meela and Tara volunteered to man the Front Desk as the rest of the employees were given other responsibilities. Since there were many guests to be checked in, they needed more than one Front Desk Associates today.

"How do I look?" asked Tara while waiting for the guests to arrive.

"Absolutely anxious.", replied Meela hiding a smile.

"What! No! That won't do! I have to be ..."

"Tara relax! Breathe!," Meela mimicked a perfect breathing exercise pose and said, "You look beautiful as usual. They won't be able take their eyes off of you, okay? So, stop fidgeting and just be yourself!"

"You're right. Nervous isn't a good look on me," looking at Meela's cool and collected demeanor, "I wish I could be more like you, so calm and nonchalant"

"You give me more credit than I deserve." Meela said wiping off the initial surprise from her face, "Zero fan-girling equals to zero hyperventilating I suppose."

"You didn't even flinch in front of Chris Evans, remember?." She knew all too well how big of a fan Meela was of Chris Evans.

"Not true. I was totally head over heels seeing him at the airport, at least for a whole minute. Then remembered I needed his autograph and all and he was only human.... So..."

"Still I wish...HEY HEY HEY...here they come!"

"So, what do you think?" asked Il Woo pulling out his luggage for the car.

"Decent, I guess.", Min Ho replied after taking a quick look at the egg white building that happened to be the main establishment of the Meadow and its surroundings.

"Race to the reception?", winked Il Woo and ran inside dragging his suitcase.

"Hey, that's cheating!" shrieked Min Ho still struggling with his luggage.

----

Il Woo reached the Front Desk without much competition from Min Ho which brought a million dollar smile on his face.

Looking up Meela caught the glimpse of that beautiful smile. She also offered him a welcoming smile and started, "Welcome to The Meadow. May I.....OUCH!"

That "OUCH" grabbed someone's attention. Min Ho, who had just entered the lobby with his giant sized suitcase, turned his head toward the source of the noise. A girl, no, correction, a very pretty girl, with dark wavy hair, big doe eyes with well-defined double lids, perfectly arched brows, a small but sharp nose with a nose pin on it and a pair of full lips held his eyes for a while. Her complexion was fair but not white, he could really not put his finger on her ethnicity. 'Most probably Indian,' he guessed, wrongly though. Then something else caught his eyes, her incredulous expressions directed at her colleague who seemed to be a fan of Il Woo as she didn't even bother to spare a look at the girl who she almost knocked out to attend his friend saying, "I'll take it from here, Meela. Thanks."

"Meela" muttered Min ho under his breath, "The name has a nice ring to it.", with that he leaned on the pillar next to him keeping his hands folded against his waist. He decided to wait until everybody else was checked in. He had a nice view in front of him to enjoy.