Our Hotel Is Open for Business as Usual Chapter 7

The writer checked the time at the staff member’s question.

 

“It’s a bit past six, so it’s about time for it to get dark.” 

 

“Then isn’t it dangerous? It was already overcast, and now that the sun’s gone, it’s even darker.”

 

“…Actually, I’m starting to get a bit anxious myself. Did we leave too late?” 

 

It was a remote area, quite a distance even from the center of Gapyeong. With the pouring rain, the visibility in all directions became blurry like a mud pit, and the air inside the car felt damp and suffocating.

 

“…It looks like….”

 

The writer looked at the director.

 

“We’re going to arrive long after it’s completely dark.” 

 

“Goodness, I wanted to be ambitious and booked a place a bit far away, and now this problem arises. We could have just moved tomorrow morning since we left late anyway.” 

 

“The mountainous terrain is so rugged that it would have taken longer regardless.” 

 

“It’s great for getting the right atmosphere, but… this is still troublesome.” 

 

“Anyway, we chose that accommodation together. The location was reasonable.” 

 

“Well, it was good that the accommodation was nearby since we have to look through all the villas.”

 

They had scouted seven private villas in Gapyeong for the filming. To get filming permits from the owners, they had to decide on the candidates quickly.

 

“It’s all thanks to my personal connections, so you’d better be grateful, okay?” 

 

“I think I’ve heard that same thing at least thirty times already.” 

 

“That means it’s an opportunity I obtained with great difficulty. Do you know how picky those people are? I mobilized every connection I had, whether existing or not, and barely managed to get 7 of them.” 

 

“It’s actually quite impressive that you secured seven places of that caliber.” 

 

“Shouldn’t I use the human relationships in my contact list at times like this?”

 

But it was, quite literally, an opportunity obtained by relying solely on connections. There was nothing to be gained by delaying. If they were careless, they might offend the temperamental owners. 

 

That was the reason they had pushed through with a schedule that took them deep into the rugged mountains. They thought it would be quick if they left straight from Seoul, and they believed the summer days would be long. 

 

The result was this current state of affairs. 

 

“…Oh my….”

 

It was literally a downpour. 

 

Even the director’s intentionally loud voice soon quieted down. 

 

“My ears hurt, they really do.” 

 

“I agree.” 

 

“Was the schedule too tight?” 

 

“Not particularly….” 

 

“Should we have left after the rain stopped?” 

 

“We’re fine, so don’t worry too much.” 

 

“Hm, well, yeah. Let’s go with that.” 

 

The director laughed pointlessly. 

 

“But isn’t this atmosphere seriously amazing? Look, how about a background like this?” 

 

The staff member laughed along, matching the mood.

 

“It’s the perfect weather for a serial murder to happen~” 

 

“I’m the one who started it, but that comment is a bit too eerie, isn’t it?” 

 

The car jolted incessantly on the unpaved road, and thickets were overgrown like waves on all sides. The sky, which had been overcast since they left, was helplessly being swallowed by darkness as the sun began to set.

 

“But you know, you guys.”

 

It was around then that Director Lee Seonhae opened her mouth awkwardly.

 

“Yes, Director.” 

 

“I think we took a wrong turn….” 

 

“…Pardon?” 

 

“I just realized it, sorry.”

 

The director looked at the navigation screen, looking embarrassed. The marker for the driver was stuck right in the middle of a mountain.

 

“I thought it was a road going over the mountain, but no matter how I look at it, I don’t think it is. It just keeps going up, and there’s no sign of going down.” 

 

“Ye—Yes?”

 

“Aigu, I should have updated the maps beforehand… the thing’s gone haywire. We’re just spinning in circles on the mountain, what do we do?” 

 

“Uh, uh… wait, why is it doing this? I saw it moving, so I thought we were on the right track… Navigation is affected by signal, right? Is it because we’re too deep in?” 

 

“I shouldn’t have tried to push through these complicated mountain paths. If it were a properly paved road, there’d be signs, but there’s nothing here. Maybe we’re being punished for the audacity of trying to take a shortcut?” 

 

“Who exactly finds that audacious? Is taking a shortcut something that warrants divine punishment?” 

 

“I wouldn’t know. Anyway, I guess days like this happen in life. It’s my first time seeing a GPS flake out like this. I did bring the big car just in case, though….” 

 

The director looked back.

 

“Is it okay if we sleep outside?” 

 

“Ah, Director, please… you said you’d let us sleep under blankets at least.” 

 

“Oh, I knew this would happen, so I brought all the blankets, so don’t worry.” 

 

“You said you would let us sleep on a soft bed, Director…!” 

 

“Ah, I’m joking. Ha, what should we really do?”

 

The director looked troubled.

 

They were all Seoul citizens. They didn’t know Gapyeong roads at all. In other words, they were lost. They would probably stay in this state until the navigation system regained its sanity.

 

“It seems even more so because it’s raining deep in the mountains; no matter how I look at it, it seems like the GPS has stopped working. Does anyone have a phone map that works?” 

 

“…My location isn’t picking up well either.” 

 

“Ugh, tsk. If we had something like a paper map, we might be able to wing it somehow. Writer Hong, you could just tell me from the side, and I could follow that road.” 

 

“Even if the location isn’t picking up, the map shows up.” 

 

“Oh, really?” 

 

“Yes. Ah, wait a second, the data isn’t connecting well….”

 

Only after a long while did the resolution of the internet map improve enough to be recognizable. The writer adjusted his glasses. He squinted and searched the map thoroughly.

 

“Did the GPS stop here? Is our location here?” 

 

“Wouldn’t it be at least similar? I was going really well until now. I just realized the navigation was strange, but well… wouldn’t it be around there?” 

 

“…Ah, I think I roughly get it. We’ve been coming up along this road for quite a while, right?” 

 

“It’s been about 10 minutes, hasn’t it?” 

 

“Then I think we are here, at our location.”

 

The writer showed the map.

 

“As you can see, if we keep going, it’s a dead end. Did they stop while building the road?”

 

“If they were going to open a road, wouldn’t they usually drill a tunnel?” 

 

“That’s up to Gapyeong. Anyway, I think they probably stopped while building something, or there’s an empty lot… something like that.” 

 

“Ah, there’s an empty lot? Oh, there it is. There’s enough space, right?”

 

The director brightened up.

 

“Heh, I was actually worried. This car is just so sturdy…. The road is cramped, and I was wondering how I was going to turn it around to go back down. Since things turned out like this, it’s better to go up a bit further, turn the car around, and then head back down.” 

 

“Then wouldn’t it take too long? Looking at the distance, it seems like it will take quite a while to go up. The place we reserved is a guesthouse, so if we are that late, there might not be anyone there to check us in.” 

 

“One way or another, we’re sleeping out. We didn’t bring much luggage, so there’s enough space for four people to sleep roughly. The trunk is, what? Very spacious, isn’t it?” 

 

“It’s practically as good as a camping car.” 

 

“This is why I like big cars.”

 

The director grinned.

 

“There might be a house up there, too.” 

 

“A house in a place like this? All of a sudden?” 

 

“A mountain villa, perhaps? The places we were planning to scout were all in places like this, weren’t they? Like staying quietly in a house without an owner.” 

 

“…Isn’t that similar to our movie story?”

 

The staff member asked, looking anxious.

 

“I like fictional stories, but I don’t want them to become reality.”

 

“Oh my, the filming team is talking weak. Isn’t our job to pull fictional stories out into reality?”

 

“That reality and this reality are different.” 

 

“The probability of anything being up there is low anyway. Since there were no signs blocking the road on the way up, it’s obviously hard to expect a cabin, and naturally, there shouldn’t be any other buildings.”

 

“That’s true, but still….” 

 

“Even if there really is something like a villa, trespassing is illegal.” 

 

“Right.”

 

“I have no intention of entering a place without an owner. I was just saying it, so relax, dear.” 

 

“If you say it like that, Director, it doesn’t sound like a joke at all.” 

 

“I have that kind of charm.”

 

The director moved the car again.

 

The road was still terrible. Blocked by the pouring rain, they could no longer see outside the window. Even though it was a one-lane road, it was to the point where they kept stepping on the brake and hesitating.

 

They almost had an accident more than 10 times because they couldn’t secure visibility.

 

“….” 

 

“….”

 

The longer the uncomfortable journey lasted, the deeper the silence in the car became. 

 

“…Why does it feel like it’s raining harder….”

 

“…I’m starting to get genuinely scared.”

 

“Writer Hong, you write stories worse than this, so why are you scared of things like this?” 

 

“Are writing it and experiencing it directly the same? Can’t I be scared?” 

 

“Shouldn’t the original author be the most strong-hearted out of conscience?” 

 

“I’m telling you, no.” 

 

“Look at you being disgusted.”

 

As much as it was a mountain with a steep incline, the road was winding, and above all, it was long. Time passed to the extent that it became a regret that they couldn’t even turn the car around because the car body was big.

 

And, it appeared.

 

“….” 

 

“…Why do I see light?” 

 

“No, what is that….” 

 

“Is that a building?”

 

A massive silhouette emerged through the rain. An overwhelming shape of a high-rise building towering through the darkness.

 

“…Hotel, One?”

 

Hotel One. It was a massive hotel.

 

“Why is a hotel of this size in a place like this?”

 

“….” 

 

“Writer, say something.” 

 

“…I am truly scared now.” 

 

“That means I’m not seeing a hallucination, right?”

 

“You’ve never experienced anything grand enough to have hallucinations.” 

 

“This is truly out of the blue….”

 

If it were about the size of a villa, he could understand. Because the places they intended to scout were all in locations like this. Secret villas of people with some money, difficult to find by chance.

 

But it wasn’t a mansion of 2 or 3 stories. A large-scale accommodation facility in such deep woods? Who would come here? And it’s a high-rise hotel that puts landmarks of large conglomerates to shame.

 

It was strange, and suspicious. Very much so.

 

“I just had a thought.” 

 

“What is it?” 

 

“Could it be that we came to a place we shouldn’t have come to?” 

 

“…Please turn the car around….” 

 

“….” 

 

“Director?”

 

The writer sensed something strange. No, closer to a crisis than strange. It was a survival instinct.

 

“Director, Director. We have to go back.” 

 

“Yeah, I know.”

 

“The front yard is wide, so let’s quickly turn the car around and leave.” 

 

“I know, I know, but….” 

 

“You know? You know what, why are you like that?” 

 

“Honestly, aren’t you curious?” 

 

“Please don’t do this.” 

 

“Writer Hong.”

 

The director looked at her partner with a resolute face.

 

“What are we?” 

 

“Don’t suddenly group us as ‘we’ at a time like this.” 

 

“Alright, what am I, and what are you?” 

 

“Director and writer….” 

 

“What did the director and writer come here for?” 

 

“…A movie….” 

 

“Whose movie is it?” 

 

“…Our movie.” 

 

“No, in the first place, we came here to see something like this.”

 

The director had a quite confident face.

 

“Dangerous and suspicious things. Strange things full of dissonance. Eerie horror and dizzying thrills, that sort of thing. Isn’t it our mission to deliver sentiments and fantasies that the audience can never feel in reality?” 

 

“….” 

 

“You just thought, ‘Do we really have to risk our lives to do that?’, didn’t you? No, think realistically. If this isn’t a hallucination, it’s a real hotel. What actual danger could there be in a hotel this large?” 

 

“There could be.” 

 

“Right, there is no absolute in the world.” 

 

“Then?”

 

“But I’m just curious.”

 

The director parked smoothly. And got out of the car.

 

It was a very natural flow.

 

“….” 

 

“…Haha.”

 

The director smiled benevolently, leaving the bewildered people behind.

 

“Wa—wait a second.” 

 

Before the writer, who had come to his senses, could stop her. Ignoring him, Lee Seonhae ran out into the rain and shouted.

 

“Sorry, guys! I have to know what kind of place this is!” 

 

“Ah, Director, please!!” 

 

“I’ll really just check!”

 

He was the original creator, yet he didn’t know why the director was being so much more dramatic. 

 

The writer and two staff members also hurriedly followed her out. But naturally, it was Lee Seonhae who opened the hotel door first.

 

The door opened strangely smoothly. The moment she placed her hand on the handle, the door leaf pushed inward lightly, as if it were pulling her inside.

 

As if it had been waiting.

 

“….”

 

As she stepped inside, air completely different from the humid outside stabbed at her senses.

 

Beyond pleasant, it was bizarrely dry and cool quietness. It was perfect silence as if not a single living thing existed.

 

‘…The atmosphere is strange.’

 

Lee Seonhae hesitated and opened her mouth.

 

“He—hello….”

 

“….” 

 

“…Is anyone here?”

 

And.

 

“Welcome.”

 

Antique and gorgeous decorations. 

 

In the center, a young man with a youthful face was standing.

 

“Thank you for visiting.”