Hotel del Luna

Chapter 2: Alizarine Crimson

In her twenty-one years of life, Y/N had lived in twice as many places. From Beijing, to Amsterdam, to an island in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, there had always been a house Y/N called home until one day she didn't.

But of all these places, Seoul would always be her favourite.

It was the town her mother had done her best to raise her in, and the one her brother had known like the back of his hand. Both had left it at a time when it was a seedy, crowded, and awful mess of a district, but in Y/N's memory, with her still-together family, Seoul was the warmest place on Earth.

With that said, Y/N could say with full confidence that even after her fourteen years of travelling, the people were still completely shit.

"I wasn't even the one who started that stupid fight?!"

"I don't care who started it!" Y/N's manager shrilled, and shoved Y/N out the cafe door. "Today was the last straw! You're fired!"

Y/N spun around, heated. "Didn't you hear me?! I was defending myself, moron! You can't fire me-"

"The hell I can't! You argue with customers, you're a disaster in the kitchen, and you can't follow the simplest orders! And-" he threw a wrapped bundle at Y/N, who caught it roughly in her arms, "-You treat this place like it's your fucking palace when it's not! Get your shit delivered someplace else!"

And with that, the manager slammed his door shut.

Y/N scoffed and made a rude gesture at the cafe, causing passing onlookers around her to gasp in offence. Seeing this, she snapped at them, "What are you all looking at, huh?"

Some glared while others averted their eyes, but immediately, the crowd began to disperse.

Y/N shook her head and looked down at the bundle, peeling back the wrapping paper. "What a jerk. I didn't even order anything.."

She stopped, her fingers stilling over yellow petals. It was a bouquet of sunflowers.

Y/N clenched her jaw, readjusting the wrapping paper with a trembling hand. Holding the bundle to her chest, she walked until she found the nearest bench and sat down harshly. She rifled through the flowers until she found what she was looking for - a card inserted neatly between the leaves.

There was no birthday message this year. 'Dear, Miss Y/N.' it read instead. 'We are pleased to inform you of your successful employment at the Hotel Del Luna. You are expected to come into work tomorrow at 11 a.m. sharp. Our address is listed below.'

At the bottom of the card was a small map to a location at the center of Goyang. Her father had spent the latter half of his life looking for the hotel until he died, and all this time, it had been three train stops away.

Y/N tilted her head back to look up at the setting sky. Last year, the deadline agreement of fourteen years had passed without the delivery of a bouquet or the Grim Reaper's arrival - she was now twenty-one and should've been free, which was the only reason she had even felt safe coming back to Seoul. But now...

"No." she said aloud, and straightened, the wrapping paper twisting between her fingers. Destiny could screw itself up the ass.