Chaekyung was bored.
She sat in her office twiddling her pencil between her fingers, staring at the brief that her secretary had just placed on her table. She had barely gotten through two pages before realising that her eyelids were getting heavier and heavier by the minute. The complete list of staff in the hotel was a lot longer than she had expected and getting herself familiarised with the operations in the hotel was more challenging than she had anticipated.
"Do we actually need so many people working here? They all hang around and do nothing half the time anyway..." She rolled her eyes. If there was one thing she hated, it was inefficiency. Just a quick glance down the namelist told her that this hotel reeked of inefficiency.
"I'll have to put a restructuring plan into action soon," she murmured, flipping through the pages quickly and then slamming the file shut.
Seo Chaekyung wasn't the sort of girl who liked to sit behind a desk and plow through piles of paperwork. If she was to get to know her staff, then she'd much rather do it her own way.
Everywhere she walked, people looked at her with some sort of apprehension in their eyes. Even though they bowed and greeted her politely and respectfully, she wasn't oblivious to the fact that they were keeping a good distance away from her. When she stopped to say a few words to someone, that someone would give her short replies and then quickly excuse himself or herself as fast a possible.
They look like they've seen the plague... Chaekyung mused to herself as she continued making her rounds. She knew full well why they were behaving like this. To them, she was the crown princess who had just been parachuted into a position of authority purely by virtue of being the CFO's daughter. They didn't give her the respect because they genuinely thought she deserved it, but because they didn't want to lose their job.
Not that Chaekyung really cared.
She had been brought up to believe that she deserved every single bit of what she had right now. She had no reason to feel slighted just because people didn't like her, after all, if she were to care about every single jealous person out there, then she wouldn't have much time left to do anything else.
She was here in Global Hotel because her father felt it was prudent for her to learn the ropes of the business since her future husband would own it all. He had this traditionalist view that the wife should always be a pillar of support for her husband and Chaekyung wouldn't be able to do that if she didn't even have an inkling of what the business was about.
Her imaginary husband.
I wonder what he even looks like now...
Chaekyung hadn't seen Kyungsoo in years and she had a feeling she didn't particular want to. If she could, she would find a way to weedle herself out of this arranged marriage. She was certain that there were plenty of rich, eligble bachelors out there for her to marry, besides the heir of the Global Group fortune.
Lost in her thoughts, she found herself tripping over the foot of a man who was bent down in the middle of the corridor, seemingly picking something off the ground.
"Whoa!" she exclaimed as she lost her footing.
Before she could find herself in an embarrassing faceplant position on the floor, someone caught her by the waist, breaking her fall.
"Gotcha," he said.
Chaekyung looked up at the man who had caught her, the very same one whose foot she had just tripped over. He was smiling down at her, his eyes folded into crescent-shaped slits with a playful twinkle. He was wearing the uniform of hotel's room service staff and the pushcart behind him confirmed his identity.
"Are you alright?" he asked.
Chaekyung immediately straightened herself up and swiped his hand away from her. "I'm fine, thank you," she replied curtly. "What were you doing bent over in the middle of the corridor? A guest could have walked by and tripped over you!" She didn't like the insolent look that the man was giving her right now, and felt as though she was obliged to put him in his place.
"I'm sorry," he said with a smile, still looking non-repentent. "You must be the new Director of Staff," he stretched out his hand to shake hers.
Chaekyung flipped the whites of her eyes. Did he honestly think that she was going to shake his hand? "Carry on with your work. Make sure you don't make a mistake like that again or I'll have you fired. Global Hotel has no need for incompetent staff." With that, she shot him a final glare before sashaying down the corridor. She didn't want to waste anymore of her time
Watching her disappear down the corridor, the corners of Sehun's lips curled up into a smile. He looked down at his outfit and smoothed out the creases in his trousers.
He knew girls like Chaekyung. Rich, beautiful, spoilt to a fault, but ever so attractive. She looks beautiful even when she's rolling her eyes, he thought to himself with amusement at the exchange that had just taken place. It was obvious that Chaekyung had no idea who he was. They were supposed to have met on the first day they both reported to work but he had ninja-ed straight into the kitchen to solve the food poisoning issue instead of subjecting himself to the usual fanfare at the lobby, so they had missed that opportunity.
This was their first official meeting. He knew who she was, yet she had no idea who he was.
He knew everything he needed to know about Seo Chaekyung. He knew that her father was Global Group's CFO, and that she was engaged to be married to the chairman's only son, heir to this entire empire. He knew that Seo Chaekyung was a girl that was so high up the pedestal that a boy like him would never be able to reach her.
Oh Sehun liked a good challenge.
"Chief Oh! What are you doing here, and why are you wearing that?" his secretary ran up to him and asked. She had been searching high and low for her boss and had originally not believed her ears when someone told her he was last seen pushing a pushcart round the corridors, cleaning rooms.
Sehun turned to her and smiled, his charm immediately melting away her original displeasure. "Sorry Misun, I figured that as Chief of Operations, I should learn more about our hotel's operations from the ground up. How else will I be able to improve things around here?" He gave her a playful wink.
Misun blushed a bright shade of pink and averted her gaze from his face. "Chief, the CEO is on the line. It's about the merger with Alpha."
The merger? The merger was a topic that had been on the minds of all the upper echelons of Global Group for the past couple of months. He had heard about it down the grapevine but it had never been within his purview to poke his nose into the matter. Now that he had taken up this new position as Global Hotel's Chief of Operations, perhaps things were about to change.
"Let's go back to the office," Sehun said, his expression changing to one of complete seriousness. He threw the towel he had picked up back into the pushcart and headed down the corridor towards the lift, with his secretary trailing behind him.
#
"Hello?" Sehun said as he picked up the waiting call.
"How are things at Global Hotel? The food poisoning case was nicely cleaned up, well done," the voice of Global Group's CEO came booming from the other end of the line.
"Thank you sir. Everything is going well here, I am just familiarising myself with the operations at the hotel. There are some things that need improving, but other than that, the previous Chief of Operations has not done a shoddy job."
"That's good to hear. I believe your secretary would have told you the reason for my call."
"She said it was about the merger?"
"That's right. You would have heard some news about the possible acquisition of Alpha Enterprises. We were looking to close the deal within the next couple of weeks, however, things have taken a turn for the worse."
Sehun raised his eyebrows. As far as he was aware, the merger was supposed to have been completed fairly soon and this was the first time he was hearing that there had been a spanner thrown into the works. His interest was peaked.
"CFO Seo's talks with Alpha's new representative have broken down. The latter has demanded that the price be raised by another 100%, which is far more than what we are willing to pay. CFO Seo has been hospitalised for cardiac problems, so I am flying solo in the meantime."
Sehun made a low whistle. 100% more than the asking price? Were they being serious? In his years in the business, his experience told him that the Alpha representative could not be asking for such a sky high price without a reason - they knew that Global Group would definitely not be willing to pay that sort of a price. He had something else up his sleeve. The fact that he managed to get CFO Seo sent to the hospital was in itself a great feat - Global Group's CFO was well known to have an indomitable spirit.
I wonder what Seo Chaekyung makes of this entire situation...
His thoughts went back to the girl he had bumped into earlier on along the corridor. Despite knowing that her father was now in hospital, it didn't seem to have had any effect on her haughty attitude. It looked as though the junior Seo had inherited the determination of the elder.
"Does that mean that the merger has fallen through?"
There was a pause at the other end of the line. "That was what we believed. We are definitely not about to fork out double the amount to buy over Alpha Enterprises, no matter how valuable it is. However, there seems to have been a twist of events."
Sehun listened carefully. The CEO was only just getting to the main point, and that main point must involve Global Hotel somehow, else he wouldn't be here making this call right now.
"We have just received notification that Alpha Enterprises representative has just booked into Global Hotel as a guest for the next two months."
"An entire two months?" Sehun frowned. He knew that the hotel occasionally got long-term guests, but guests that stayed for that long were far and few between.
The CEO sighed. "Yes, an entire two months. He has booked himself into our VIP suite, I believe the notice would have just reached the concierge by now. His name is Kai Kim, a South Korean national who has been living abroad in America for the past couple of years. Chief Oh, I want all staff in Global Hotel to be on high alert. This man is highly unpredictable and the heads believe that his sudden appearance in the hotel does not bode well. Whatever he is planning, we need to find out as soon as possible."
"I understand sir," Sehun replied.
"If anything crops up during his stay, I want you to notify the headquarters immediately, is that clear?"
"Yes sir. When will he be arriving?"
There was yet another pause.
"I don't know. Just... be careful when he does."
"Yes sir."
With that, the conversation was over. Sehun replaced the handset back on his desk and leaned back in his chair.
Kai Kim... what are you trying to achieve by staying in Global Hotel?
He was getting more and more curious about this mysterious individual with every passing minute. Given that he was going to be staying in the hotel for the next two months, there was probably going to be plenty of time to get to know him, and Sehun simply couldn't wait.
For all we know, he's on his way here right now...
#
Chaekyung was at the concierge, flipping through the guestbook and watching as the concierge staff went about attending to the various whims and wants of their guests. The only reason why she was still here was because the concierge staff seemed the most friendly out of everyone in the entire hotel. Perhaps it was why they worked at the front desk in the first place.
"What's our guest capacity like right now?" she asked the receptionist.
"We have a total of 240 guest rooms, and our current occupancy stands at 85%, which is relatively high for a non-peak period. We are usually full during the holiday season," the receptionist replied politely.
Chaekyung nodded, taking a seat and continuing to browse through the book. There were guests from all over the world living in the hotel right now. "Wow, there's even a guest from Timbuktu? Amazing..." she murmured. Chaekyung herself had done a fair deal of travelling in her life, so she was not entirely unfamiliar with hotels. She had to admit that Global Hotel's staff did a fairly good job of ensuring it lived up to its standards as one of Seoul's best.
All of a sudden, the concierge manager came rushing back to the front desk clutching a memo in his hand.
"What's your rush? It's not appropriate to look flustered at the front desk, Manager Lee," Chaekyung chided when she noticed the manager's edgy mannerisms.
"I'm sorry Director Seo, it's just that... This just came in..." he waved the memo in the air. He beckoned for all the concierge staff to come over. "We are expecting a new guest in the VIP suite!"
Chaekyung rolled her eyes. It seemed completely unnecessary to be so excited about yet another VIP guest. VIP guests were common in hotels, and she herself had been a VIP on numerous occasions.
"The memo says that he will be staying for two months!"
Two months? Now she was slightly more interested.
"Who is this guest who will be staying for two months?" she asked. All the other concierge staff were equally curious about this new VIP guest. The fact that his arrival warranged a special memo from the headquarters also hinted that he was not just any ordinary VIP.
Before the flustered manager could eek out a response, the front desk bell rang.
"This is supposed to be a six-star establishment, but it's curious how there's no one at the concierge to attend to a guest who's been waiting for five minutes," a voice murmured from the other side of the desk. The bell brought everyone back to their senses, and the concierge staff immediately rushed back to their positions to attend to the newcomer.
Chaekyung stood up from her position and looked at the person whom the voice belonged to. Standing at the front desk was a young man with a pair of black Oakley shades, one hand casually tapping on the tabletop. His hair was styled upwards and she could tell at a glance that his clothes were entirely Ralph Lauren.
"I'm very sorry sir, how may we help you?" Manager Lee bowed and said politely to the guest.
"I believe I've made a reservation at this hotel. I'm the new occupant of your VIP suite," he said with a smile. The way he smiled sent shivers down Chaekyung's spine, because it held not a single ounce of warmth whatsoever. If the devil smiled, it would probably look something like that.
VIP suite? Is he the guest who is staying for two months?
The guest popped his passport onto the table for the manager to help him check-in. "I'm sure you would already have been notified of my arrival. My name is Kai, Kim Kai."
As the name left his lips, Chaekyung's eyes widened in shock.
Kim... Kai? Isn't that the man who gave father a heart attack? Isn't he the one put my father in hospital?
She would never forget the look on her father's face as he pointed at the retreating silhouette of the man who had given him the cardiac arrest. There was no way she could have remembered the name wrongly - the name of the man was none other than Kim Kai, the very same man standing in front of her front desk right now.
When he reached up and removed his shades, revealing the pair of striking black irises behind them, her sense of shock increased even further.
This wasn't the first time she had seen this man.