Our Hotel Is Open for Business as Usual Chapter 12

“What?!” 

 

The staff member holding the steering wheel was startled.

 

“His, his hand was injured to that extent?”

 

“Uh.”

 

The director sitting in the back nodded.

 

“I didn’t say anything earlier because I thought you guys would be too surprised, I’m sorry.”

 

“Ah, no… there’s nothing to be sorry about that… I was just surprised….”

 

“Who wouldn’t be? I’m not joking, my heart really dropped. With blood dripping like that, for a moment, I thought there was something wrong with my eyes.”

 

Another staff member asked the writer.

 

“You saw it too, Writer?”

 

“Yes, I saw it. My eyes were drawn to it because I thought it looked truly dangerous for blood to be falling to the floor like that. The director was composed, but I think I let my bewilderment show.” 

 

“Uh, isn’t that a bit… very dangerous? The situation is one thing, but the injury itself….”

 

“It is very dangerous. He immediately hid it behind his back so I couldn’t see it properly, but he was wearing a glove. You know that white glove we saw yesterday.”

 

“That looked quite thick.”

 

“If blood was dripping through a cloth glove, it must be a deep cut or a penetrating wound. In terms of blood vessels, it would have to be a rupture of a vein at least for that amount of bleeding to be possible.”

 

“A vein?”

 

“I don’t know how that is possible.”

 

“But… he didn’t show any signs of that at all.”

 

“He didn’t, though I don’t know how on earth he could have done that.”

 

The director laughed intentionally.

 

“You make all the fuss in the world, but when something actually happens, you become so nonchalant?”

 

“This is what happens after sticking by your side for years, Director…”

 

“Do you remember when we went to Mexico?”

 

“Ah, seriously, please don’t do that, just imagining it makes me nauseous.”

 

The writer’s voice sounded exhausted. Lee Seonhae had debuted as a documentary director. Her obsession with location scouting stemmed from that background. 

 

Movies that are as realistic and detailed as possible. Mise-en-scène that completely immerses the audience in the world of the film. That was the kind of movie the two of them made. 

 

“Phew, but this time was truly eerie. When we went to war zones or drug dens, I at least prepared myself, thinking it was that kind of place. And those weren’t even in Korea.” 

 

“I told you that hotel was really strange….”

 

“In the first place, what could possibly cause an injury like that in a hotel?” 

 

This was the core of the issue. 

 

“If it wasn’t something he wanted to show us, what was the reason he was out in the lobby with that injury?”

 

“Can’t we not exclude the possibility that he wanted to show it to us?”

 

“Why do you think that?”

 

“Because he gave off an atmosphere hoping we would leave this hotel.”

 

“So, ‘this hotel is this dangerous, so stop what you’re doing and get out’?” 

 

“No, I don’t think he thought to that extent, but… I thought it might be in a similar context.”

 

A moment later, the writer changed his words.

 

“Ah, is it not that either?”

 

“Right, that person didn’t welcome us being in this hotel, but at the same time, he didn’t tell us the reason. Rather, he tried to hide it.”

 

“Then there’d be no reason for a person like that to openly show such a major injury. More than anything, we don’t even know if that injury is related to the hotel being suspicious.” 

 

The staff member driving looked like they were about to cry. 

 

“What is this, is there something only the two of you know? We just played around without a thought and slept…!”

 

“Speaking of which, you guys go sleep at the guesthouse starting today. You haven’t canceled that yet, right?”

 

“You told me to just leave it just in case, so I only contacted them saying we might not be able to go in often. No, but is it really that dangerous of a hotel?”

 

“It’s still just a guess for now.”

 

“Are you sure it’s a guess?”

 

“Of course.”

 

The director said while counting on her fingers.

 

“Even though that hotel is hidden in a remote area, is high-end in a way that doesn’t fit the location, has few guests for a trial operation, the general manager secretly rejects guests, and even showed an overly composed reaction despite being severely injured!”

 

“….”

 

“Couldn’t all of this have been a coincidence?”

 

“…They say a coincidence overlapping becomes inevitably.”

 

“Is that a phrase usually used in this kind of situation?” 

 

“Can’t the director and the writer just go to the guesthouse together with us?”

 

“At first, I just stopped by wondering if we could get some decent inspiration or material.”

 

The director recalled when she first saw the hotel.

 

“Because it’s not something you can commonly see anywhere.”

 

A hotel in the mountains in the rain.

 

An empty but splendid air.

 

Bizarre staff members.

 

“But now I’m just curious.”

 

“Ah, Director….”

 

“Above all, it bothers me. There’s no clear evidence, but the general manager was favorable to us throughout. Moreover, this time he even showed himself severely injured.”

 

“It’s something that has nothing to do with us.”

 

“It’s not that I’m trying to do something about it. I just thought I’d feel unsettled if I let it go like this. And before all those reasons, just… isn’t it interesting?” 

 

“And then you’ll end up in the hospital again.” 

 

“I’ll back out if I think I’m going to die, so don’t worry too much.”

 

“I’ve been incredibly worried since the moment that story came out.”

 

“It’s because I want to find out more.”

 

Lee Seonhae grinned mischievously.

 

“So, what do you think?”

 

“Yes? About what?”

 

“Hm? Writer, why do you think the general manager got such an injury?”

 

“…Ah, me?”

 

The writer, who had been looking out the window, reacted. He soon rubbed the rough back of his neck as if asking why she was doing this.

 

“I’m not a profiler, you know.”

 

“Still, when it comes to plotting a story, Writer Hong is the best among us. You’re the best at researching materials, too.”

 

“I’m not sure if I should be doing this… but fine. For now, if I were to think of it simply as a story.” 

 

“If we think of it?”

 

“Wait a minute, let me think.”

 

The writer frowned. It was a reaction that came out when framing a script.

 

“…First, we need materials.”

 

“Materials?”

 

“If it were a mystery, they would be clues.”

 

“I suppose it would be hard to weave a detailed story with only what’s come out so far, right?” 

 

The director said while tapping her chin.

 

“Until we got on, no elevators were moving.” 

 

“Ah, one did move.”  

 

“Really?”

 

“No, not when we were getting on. I saw it from the lobby.” 

 

“Are you sure you saw the elevator moving?”

 

“Yes, I saw it stop on the 7th floor.”

 

“The 7th floor?”

 

As the director muttered, the writer interjected.

 

“Isn’t that the floor the general manager mentioned?”

 

“I think he said there were many guests because it was a rainy day.”

 

“I thought that was a bit of a strange thing to say.”

 

“It was an impressive statement and behavior. Is there nothing else?”

 

“If it’s like this, I think we can arrange the order….”

 

“Right, that hotel’s elevator is incredibly fast.”

 

“We took the elevator from the 21st floor.”

 

“No matter how fast it is, it takes time to come down from the 21st floor to the 1st floor. What if the incident where the general manager injured his hand happened in the lobby?”

 

“Then he would have been able to confirm that we were coming down from the 21st floor.”

 

“And a guest who went up to the 7th floor in the meantime, huh.”

 

The conclusion came out.

 

“The general manager, confirming that we were coming down, sent someone in the lobby up to the 7th floor?”

 

“It could be that he tried to prevent us from running into them. The probability is high. If he had suffered an injury of that magnitude, it would have been natural for him to go get treated first, rather than stepping out in front of us.”

 

“Right, there’s no reason the general manager, not just another staff member, absolutely has to go out to greet guests.”

 

“I think he judged that there was no time to treat the hand injury. Even if it was coming down from the 21st floor, since the elevator is fast… um, wait a minute.”

 

The writer hesitated. Something came to mind.

 

“Still, there is no reason the general manager necessarily had to come out in front of us. The general manager’s role is strictly to oversee the hotel; he’s not in a position to deal with guests one by one.”

 

“This hotel might be special, but even the special hotels I know of don’t have the general manager come out directly. We’re not guests of such an amazing status either, are we?”

 

“Then it might have been to divert our attention. He sent someone to the 7th floor so we wouldn’t run into them, but there was still something in the lobby that we shouldn’t see or come into contact with.”

 

The writer asked the staff members.

 

“Have you ever seen anything else?”

 

“…It’s draining my energy a bit right now, hold on a second.”

 

The staff member in the passenger seat opened her mouth.

 

“Uh, there was a lot of rainwater?”

 

“Rainwater?”

 

“The floor.”

 

The staff member’s voice was hesitant. It was because the atmosphere was flowing strangely.

 

“There was like a trail of water starting from the entrance. I thought someone had come into the hotel completely drenched in the rain again.”

 

“There aren’t many guests here… wait a minute, again?”

 

“That’s….”

 

The staff member in the passenger seat looked back at the driver’s seat.

 

“Do you remember what we saw yesterday?”

 

“I remember, but what is it, I’m scared. What’s the atmosphere right now.”

 

“You see, Director. We just looked around the room yesterday and slept.”

 

The staff member said, looking back.

 

“In such a nice room, on the 21st floor… saying when would we ever come to a place like this again, we even looked out the window. Since it’s in the mountains, we figured the scenery would be nice.”

 

“And?”

 

“But it was raining so hard we couldn’t see anything. We felt a bit disappointed, so we went out saying we should look around the hotel. We found that the service facilities were definitely off-limits, and the elevators themselves weren’t even running.” 

 

“You went out again to do that?”

 

“Yes, so the only place we could go was the lobby, so we went there.”

 

The writer interjected.

 

“What did you see there?”

 

“It was right when we got off the elevator? Someone came into the lobby, which was completely empty with only the staff left. The door at the entrance opened.”

 

The staff member had a slightly fed-up expression.

 

“It was some guy, completely drenched in the rain…” 

 

Long hair that looked completely unmanaged. Clothes tightly wrapped even though it was summer. Boots full of rainwater.

 

“He was incredibly tall. Even though he walked with his head and waist deeply bowed, he seemed taller than us. I don’t know why he got rained on like that, and it’s none of our business… but usually, if you get that wet, don’t you do something?”

 

“Like emptying the rainwater that got into your boots, or at least wiping your face. His hair was plastered all over, making it look hard to breathe, but he just walked on like that?”

 

“We saw that and felt it was somewhat chilling, so we just got right back on the elevator and went back up. The general manager had also told us to be careful because the guests there are cranky. That came to mind….”

 

The director asked with concern.

 

“That person didn’t see your faces, did he?”

 

“Uh, no? We really just got off and almost immediately went back up. At most, we got off and spaced out looking at the lobby for about… 1 minute? 2 minutes? But it wouldn’t have exceeded 3 minutes at the longest.”

 

“Then that’s a relief.”

 

“But thinking about it now, it’s a little strange.”

 

The staff member’s face became strange.

 

“There were quite a few staff members there, but not a single one… acknowledged him.”

 

“What do you mean, acknowledged him?”

 

“The guest was so drenched in rainwater, but they didn’t even bring him a towel. No, I guess that’s a service aspect, so let’s say that can happen. But honestly, without a single lie, they didn’t show any reaction.”

 

“No reaction at all?”

 

“Since he was messing up the floor with rainwater, you’d think they would at least give him a glance.”

 

“Wow, that’s a bit chilling.”

 

Gauging something, the director asked.

 

“What time was that?”

 

“Uh… it was dawn, since we stayed up late.”

 

“Roughly what time?” 

 

“About 3 AM?”

 

“Okay.”

 

The director looked at the writer.

 

“Can you summarize?” 

 

“…What time did we come out?”

 

“It must have been about 6 AM.”

 

“The trail of water at the entrance we saw earlier was probably made by that guest, right?”

 

“Unless there is another peculiar person like that?”

 

“Then, I don’t know if this is right, but….”

 

He continued speaking a beat later.

 

“Let’s assume that guest has a hobby of taking walks outside only at dawn when it’s deserted.”

 

“Well, it is around 3 AM or 6 AM.”

 

“Since the time we came down was 6 o’clock, that guest must have come in earlier than that. Anyway, setting aside the activity time, even if we don’t know the exact order, that guest and the manager ran into each other in the lobby.”

 

“It could be that the manager came looking for the guest who was already there, or the manager was in the lobby and saw the guest come in.”

 

“And again, though I don’t know the reason, the manager confirmed we were coming down from the 21st floor and sent that guest back to the 7th floor. Probably because that person is ‘the guest who likes rainy days.'” 

 

“I don’t think there are that many people in the world who enjoy walking in the rain bare-bodied. Especially if it’s a full-grown adult.”

 

“We can’t know for sure, but is there anyone else in this hotel who could inflict such an injury? Looking at the timeframe, location, and the general manager’s actions….”

 

“The most likely candidate is that guest on the 7th floor?” 

 

“Of course, there is no direct evidence, but if we only consider the circumstances so far.”

 

The staff member holding the steering wheel asked.

 

“Couldn’t he have been injured before meeting the 7th-floor guest…? Is there a basis that it must be an injury caused by the 7th-floor guest….”

 

“Then he would have gone to get treated before that.”

 

“I-is that so?”

 

“That person is not in a position to greet guests directly. Because he is in a general management position. Moreover, if he was injured to that extent, he should have received treatment first.”

 

“But….”

 

“Of course, that is if he is a normal human being.”

 

For example, if the general manager is a human being with a mental structure that neglects his own injuries, the story might change a little.

 

“That man was calm even while bleeding, and he appeared before us. As if it were nothing. Looking at that behavior, we do have to consider the possibility that he is an irrational person.” 

 

The premise that one must seek treatment first if injured is common sense. But this could change depending on psychological motives. For example, a personality that prioritizes other things over the safety of one’s own body.

 

“But even so, would a general manager, for whom appearances are important, leave an injury on his hand, of all places, unattended for so long? And a person who seems to have such a strong professional spirit?”

 

An injury sustained before meeting the 7th-floor guest? If that were the case, he would have treated it long ago. If there was a reason he absolutely had to see the 7th-floor guest, he would have gone with a treated hand.

 

The staff member continued asking.

 

“Uh, could he have been injured somewhere else… and there was something we shouldn’t see, but he didn’t have time so he just came as is?”

 

“I’m saying he didn’t have that much time. The injury was definitely inflicted after contact with the 7th-floor guest; if it was an injury sustained before that, it would have been treated, as I mentioned earlier.”

 

“Ah, that’s right.”

 

“And something we shouldn’t see? There’s no way something of that magnitude appeared in the hotel lobby overnight. Was the general manager there when you went to the lobby at 3 AM?”

 

“No, at that time… there were only staff members.”

 

“Then at least at that time, there was nothing in the lobby that we shouldn’t see, which means it appeared within three hours. If there is the biggest incident among them, it would be the general manager injuring his hand.”

 

The director muttered.

 

“While hurting his hand, something we shouldn’t see was created… like a crime scene?” 

 

“An indelible trace might have been left as he injured his hand. A prime example would be blood.”

 

“If it were just a few drops of blood, I don’t think he would have needed to block our way to that extent. Was that ‘something’ too noticeable, or did he not even have the luxury to clean it up and hide it?”

 

“Since we know so little, it’s hard to be certain of anything. But if we organize the situation in this extreme way…” 

 

The writer summarized.

 

“So, the general manager took measures to ensure we didn’t run into the 7th-floor guest. And that 7th-floor guest is, with a high probability, the person who injured the general manager’s hand.”

 

* * *

 

“Did they figure it out?”

 

“Yes.”

 

“I did block their way a bit too openly. The general manager’s dignity is a mess.”

 

“Yes.”

 

Coco never says empty words. Thanks to that, Lee Yeonwoo’s mind and body were being battered in real time. His mind was gnawed by Coco, and his body was torn apart by the monster guest.

 

Even so, after confirming that the group safely exited the front gate, a delayed sense of relief finally washed over him.

 

“Well, as long as people survived, that’s all that matters. Isn’t that right?”

 

“No.”

 

“You wicked cat.”

 

“No.”

 

He lightly ignored the hateful protest. Yeon-woo rang the bell to summon the staff.

 

Soon, staff members holding mops approached expressionlessly and began to scrub the floor. The floor mixed with rainwater and sticky blood. It was too gruesome a sight to explain away as simply having injured his hand a bit.

 

He looked down at that stained floor for a moment, then glanced at the large mirror behind him.

 

“….”

 

…His back was gouged.

 

Traces as if a beast had torn away the flesh.

 

Resurrection takes time. If he had died, the next target would have been the human guests who had just left.

 

“…Some precious people almost died before their time. That was a close call.”

 

It’s truly fortunate that his life is tenacious.

 

“I didn’t know I would end up using Blood Magic for this purpose.”

 

“Yes.”

 

“But it’s quite useful, isn’t it?”

 

“Yes.”

 

“Yes.”