ALRE 06

Chapter : 6

Jaewon got out of the car.
The crisp, almost painfully cold air pushed deep into his lungs.
The hotel, blanketed in snow, was a breathtaking sight.
The serene scenery wrapped around the entire hotel, calming the heart just by looking at it.
In the distance, he noticed Lee-young running toward the hotel.
She looked like a rural dog going madly through the snow on a snowy day.

After running for a while, Lee-young stopped and looked around the parking lot.
It seemed she was looking for someone…

“Hey, Cha Dong-hoon!”
Spotting her boyfriend she’d seen talking on the phone earlier, she started running toward the entrance.

“Yo, Kang Lee-young. You made it in one piece? Thought you were dead.”
The tall, good-looking guy strutted over with his long legs, grabbed Lee-young around the neck in a headlock, and slammed her onto the ground.
They were insane.
It reminded Jaewon of the way his younger siblings played.

Jaewon stood still, quietly watching them.

“What’s with that haircut? Joining the army?”
He chuckled, pointing at Lee-young’s short hair.

Lee-young rolled over in the snow and stood up, stamping her feet.

“Enough. Where are the others?”
“They’re waiting.”
“Let’s go.”
“Did the blind date go well?”
“What else is there to say besides it went well?”
“Getting married?”
“No!”
“Trying to ruin some guy’s life. Just live alone.”
“I said no!”

That cheeky guy seemed to live for teasing Kang Lee-young.

Jaewon watched them with a crooked expression.

“Um… Boss?”
“Yeah?”
Jisoo, who had been quietly standing beside him, looked at him with a face full of things she wanted to say.

“Did you go on a blind date today?”
“You mean… with that girl?”
“…”
“Yeah.”
“Ah…”

Jaewon opened the trunk of the car and put on a leather jacket stored inside.
It was the kind of clothing he wore for fieldwork.
He loosened the top button of his shirt and pulled off the tie around his neck, making Jisoo, who had been watching him intently, blush.

“Let’s go.”
“Okay.”

It was time to forget trivial matters and focus on work.

Lee-young and Dong-hoon walked through the hotel lobby and stood in front of the elevator.
Lee-young, continuously glancing around in awe, was excited at the thought of the fun ahead.

“Thanks to Tae-ju, we’re completely spoiled, right?”
The richest among their friends, Tae-ju, had booked the suite at Daegwallyeong Palace Hotel a long time ago.
Six friends had coordinated to come together, and no one could back out.
Lee-young was glad they had come, even if it was just this way, and looked up at Dong-hoon.

Dong-hoon, with his hands in his jeans pockets, simply nodded.

“Your face is red. It’s hilarious, Kang Lee-young.”
“Really that funny?”
Lee-young cupped her cheeks with both hands and pouted.

“Did you go on a blind date looking like that?”
Dong-hoon looked down at her with an expression of utter disbelief.

“What else could I do? If I went home and changed clothes, it would have taken too long.”
“By the way, who brought you here?”
“Ah… well… it’s complicated.”

Lee-young frowned briefly, trying to figure out how to explain.

“You didn’t just hitch a random ride, did you?”
Dong-hoon asked with a serious expression, different from before.
At times like this, he felt almost like an older brother.
They had been hanging out together since university, so he felt like family.

“Not a stranger.”
“So you met someone you know? In the middle of the highway?”
“Yeah, something like that.”

Thanks to that, she came comfortably. She would have to politely thank the building owner when she met him again.

“You’re fearless, I’ll give you that.”
“I am a bit bold, hehe.”

Lee-young tilted her chin up and leaned forward, but Dong-hoon poked her forehead with his index finger.

“Move your face. It’s disgusting.”
“Che. What’s our sponsor Tae-ju doing?”
“You’ll see when we get there. He’s probably partying by now.”

“What about skiing?”
Lee-young mimicked skiing, and Dong-hoon chuckled.
“He’ll probably say we’ll ski tomorrow morning.”
“Good idea.”

Lee-young grinned mischievously, thinking she would eat and get drunk freely for once.
Dong-hoon clicked his tongue, as if seeing right through her thoughts, and shook his head.

“Just get drunk. I’ll bury you in the snow.”

Dong-hoon grabbed Lee-young’s backpack, slung it over his shoulder, and got into the elevator that had just arrived. Lee-young followed.

“Wow, fast!”
The high-speed elevator quickly reached the floor with the suites.

“Let’s get off.”
“Yeah. Suite room, can’t wait. How many are on this floor?”
“Looks like four.”
“Wow.”

Dong-hoon and Tae-ju, about to enter their senior year, were still students.
Their female classmates had graduated, but the male students had delayed graduation due to military service and language training.
This trip was a chance to gather before graduating, and without wealthy Tae-ju, it would have been a dream impossible to achieve.

They pressed the doorbell, and Tae-ju appeared as the door opened. It was lively inside.

“You came earlier than expected, Kang Lee-young.”
“You guys are heartless, leaving me out!”
“You’re the heartless one. A blind date? Leaving us behind like that?”
“Are you even a man?”
Lee-young ignored them lightly and stepped inside.

The suite, about 90 pyeong in size, was dazzlingly luxurious and classical.
The snow-covered night view through the floor-to-ceiling windows was fantastic.

“Wow, amazing!”
Lee-young ran around, exclaiming in awe.
Having attended art school and helped her father’s business, she had a keen eye for interior design.
She hadn’t majored in interior design, but she had her own sense of taste.

“Kang Lee-young, say hi. Let’s see your face.”
Hye-seon got up and approached her.

“Does your face even matter right now? Oh my, do you see that?”
Lee-young ran off somewhere, and Hye-seon shook her head watching her.

“See that? That’s a coffee cup from the time of Louis XV. Beautiful.”
“Well, you’d know, we wouldn’t. By the way, how’s the blind date?”
Lee-young took off her jacket and walked toward the living room where her friends were gathered.
She finally greeted her friends properly while sitting on the luxurious carpeted floor.

“Huh, Siberian. Totally.”
“Really?”
“You even had a boyfriend?”
“Crazy, right? Why go on a blind date if you have a boyfriend?”

Dong-hoon suddenly interrupted and said casually, and Lee-young shot him a sharp look.

“Well, it was a blind date arranged by my dad. He wouldn’t have chosen a crazy guy, would he?”
“Do you guys always fight when you meet?”
“Hey, where do you see me fighting? Not me.”

Lee-young teased back playfully, picking up a glass in front of her.

“Wow, whiskey? Are we going all out tonight?”
“Now that everyone’s here, let’s have fun.”
“Yeah, let’s drink.”

The six of them were perfectly in sync.

Jaewon, with Jisoo, visited the office on the first floor to discuss some general matters, then headed to the elevator with the manager.
Due to the absence of the hotel owner, specifics regarding conditions or business matters would be handled later.
This left Jaewon in a somewhat bad mood.
Still, since he had come this far, he decided to personally inspect the suite room to be renovated.

“I heard your skills are comparable to HBA Design Company,” the manager casually remarked.

HBA was a world-renowned hotel design company.
Hearing the comparison, Jaewon’s eyes turned cold.

“If you want that level of quality, you must bear the appropriate costs.”
“Of course. But that’s why we requested your services—because we don’t have that kind of budget.”
“It sounds like you’re saying there’s no reason to call us then, correct?”

Jaewon stopped walking and stared the manager down.
Flustered by his direct question, the manager stammered, and Jaewon immediately called the Palace Hotel owner.
The owner answered promptly.
Jaewon stated his purpose in an icy tone:

“This is Jaewon Jeong, CEO of One Interior. Regarding the Palace Hotel renovation, consider it canceled.”

The surprised manager looked up at him, eyes wide.