Rowoon's POV.
I took a glance at my watch and there was still an hour before boarding. I roamed my sight and saw the lounge. An hour should be enough for me to have a comfortable seat in the lounge. Without looking and as if I was doing it by instinct, I grabbed Hyeyoon by her shoulder and directed her to the lounge entrance.
"What?" she was startled at my sudden gesture.
I looked down to see her eyes widened and I slowly release my hand. "Sorry," I said lowly. "There's the lounge," I pointed to the double glass door and Hyeyoon just nodded blankly.
"Good afternoon, Sir," the receptionist greeted and I told him to give two passes to the lounge.
Entering the lounge, I quickly searched for a couch. Luckily, I spotted two right facing the window, with a great view of the runway. Hyeyoon came right behind me and sat on the couch next to me.
"Did you pay the pass for me, earlier?" Hyeyoon asked me as he put down her bag on the end table next to her seat.
I turned to her and shook my head. "No, it's a plus one free pass, I can bring one companion with me," I explained and the latter just nodded.
There were a pause and awkward silence for a moment. But I had this question in my head since earlier. I looked at her and decided to ask the girl.
"Hyeyoon,"
"Do you—"
We both spoke at the same time and stopped. Then I let her speak first but Hyeyoon shook her head and told me to speak first instead.
"You first," she said.
I let out a soft breath and gathered my courage to ask her, "I want to ask you something," I hung the sentence and she stared at me patiently, waiting for me to finish, "something personal," I finally said the preface.
Hyeyoon raised an eyebrow and rolled her eyes before answering, "What is it?" she responded. Her expression was flat and I couldn't tell what was inside her head. I decided to keep going.
"Was your boyfriend okay with you going on a business trip with me?" I spilled the question and Hyeyoon didn't seem angry or surprised at the question. I let out a sigh. But before she could reply to me, I added for confirmation, "I don't mean to interfere with your personal life, I was just asking out of curiosity,"
Hyeyoon didn't answer the question right away. She turned her gaze outside the window and leaned her back to the couch.
"Well," she started. "He didn't exactly say anything so far," Hyeyoon paused and I was still waiting for her to continue, "He didn't object to the idea, and he totally understands that this trip was purposely for the project," she was being honest.
I tried to digest all her words. Both of us went silent for a moment. I knew it was none of my business but the fact that her boyfriend wasn't even troubled by this matter had intrigued me to dig deeper on how good this Jang Kiyong would handle the fact that his girlfriend was going on a trip alone with her ex-boyfriend. The thought was quite interesting and I couldn't help to smile thinking of it.
"Why are you smiling?" Hyeyoon caught my expression and I turned to see her once again.
There was like a sudden boldness that my words came out faster before my brain, I couldn't help to ask and I asked her in the next second, "does he know who I am, Hyeyoon?" my words hit her directly and there was a slight sign of nervousness in her eyes. I saw her eyes trembling and she was gulping. Her boyfriend still had no idea, I assumed.
Hyeyoon grabbed her drink and drunk it fast. I knew her very well especially when she got nervous. She would avoid my eyes and busy doing useless things.
"He has no idea," I stated lowly but loud enough for her to hear my words. "Don't you plan to tell him, Hyeyoon?" I had no idea what I was talking about, but her reaction gave me more courage to corner her and looking for the slightest possibility of the remaining feeling that might be still there.
I was hoping, and I knew I shouldn't let my high hope risen.
Hyeyoon finished her drink and dropped the cup on the table. Without looking at me, she responded to my stupid question rather calmly.
"Don't worry," she said slowly. "I was planning to tell him everything after this trip ends. I was about to let him know before, but he seemed so busy and I don't want my confession to disturb him and his work, so, I'm looking for the best time to tell him everything," her tone was fierce and she didn't even blink upon saying it. Her round eyes were facing directly as if they were piercing me right in the eyes. She was firm to her words.
I was speechless. The girl ignored my stunned expression and she busily typing again on her phone. I frowned and tried to peek on her screen but failed. I turned away and my jaw clenched.
The call for boarding was announced at 5.55 PM. I nudged Hyeyoon and the girl finally raised her face from her phone and responded to me with a nod. The latter then grab her stuff and we walked out from the lounge.
As the flight would take around 5 hours 20 minutes including 2 hours transit in Shanghai. It would be quite a long flight. We were scheduled to arrive at Xiamen at around 00.45 AM.
A stewardess greeted us as we stepped on the plane. She directed us to the business class of Shanghai Airlines. I looked around and the cabin wasn't occupied with a lot of passengers. Only a few people including us.
"Here is your seat," the stewardess spoke in English.
"Thank you," I replied to her in Mandarin and she seemed surprised. The girl then responded to me with her mother language as she offered a hot towel and water. I nodded and she left smiling.
Back to the seat, I checked the cabin baggage and saw Hyeyoon stood behind me. I chose the window seat for her, and she seemed very pleased with the chosen seat. She was about to sit when I offered to help with her stuff and she grabbed her pouch before giving me the small size travel bag. She muttered a low thank you as I helped her placing her belongings.
The seat was in the left row and I let her took the seat near the window. I was arranging our belongings in the cabin baggage before took my seat.
"Sir, here's your water and towel," the stewardess was back again and she served two glasses of water and two wet towels. "What would you like for dinner, Sir, Ma'am? Here's our today in-flight menu, feel free to let me know what would you like," she handed me two menus and was still talking in mandarin.
Hyeyoon frowned and glanced at me as she got nothing on what the stewardess was saying. I smiled at her and told her, "What do you want for dinner?"
"Ah," she said. She then turned the menu and pointed to a pan-seared salmon with salad.
"Two pan-seared salmons with salad and just two water please," I told the stewardess and she noted the order.
The stewardess then explained that tonight's special menu was a dessert and offering us if we would like to have one, "Maybe your wife would like to have a taste, it's free of charge for business and first-class,"
I was dumbfounded as the clueless stewardess addressed the girl beside me as my spouse. I turned to look at Hyeyoon still caught nothing with the conversation. I tried to suppress a laugh and smiling instead.
I turned to Hyeyoon and explained to her. "Do you want to taste their dessert? It's a special offer for tonight's flight," I told her and Hyeyoon just nodded.
"Yeah, why not?" she agreed.
I passed the message to the stewardess and told her to serve one for Hyeyoon.
"Just one for your wife? Don't you want one, too, Sir?" the stewardess asked again and I literally couldn't help my wide smile this time.
I laughed lightly at the hilarious situation and shook my head. "No, thank you. I don't really like sweets," I told her and the stewardess nodded in understanding.
"Alright, the dinner will be served 20 minutes after take-off," she informed. She then explained the safety procedure before leaving our seats.
I was still smiling like an idiot when I realized that Hyeyoon was watching me and questioning my expression.
She raised her eyebrows and judged me, "are you flirting with her?" her tone was different but I was too mesmerized with the previous scene that I failed to catch the sarcasm in her tone.
"No," I objected but still smiling.
Hyeyoon looked confused to the incoherent between my action and my words.
"You're weird," she muttered while putting her seatbelt on.
20 minutes later the door was closed and the stewardesses were wandering around the cabin and taking the glass they served before. The plane took off exactly at 6.25 PM heading to Shanghai for transit and we were going to transfer to another flight to Xiamen.
* * *
Arrived at Xiamen at exactly 1 AM. Hyeyoon looked tired when we were waiting for the disembarking baggage. I grabbed her suitcase and mine when the two pieces of luggage came into sight. Pushing the trolley, I approaching the girl who was sitting on the bench.
"You looked extremely tired, let's go to the Hotel," I rushed her out the arrival exit and a driver was already waiting for us right outside the gate.
"Good evening, Sir," the driver greeted. The man in his forty approached. I looked at him, searching for confirmation. "I'm Han from M.IT Company Xiamen Branch. I'll be your driver during your visit to Xiamen," he introduced himself.
I remembered the General Manager said that a company driver would accommodate us with transportation. I nodded to the man and saw his name on his name tag.
The man bowed once and offered to take care of the belongings. "This way, please, Sir, Ma'am,"
The driver then drove us out from the Xiamen Gauqi International Airport. I took the initiative to ask the driver what Hotel we were heading to.
"I will drop you at Kempinski Xiamen Hotel, Sir. It placed near Yundang Lake. The hotel provides a great view and very strategic, too," he explained enthusiastically.
"Great," I responded shortly. An overlooking Yundang Lake, huh. Sounded perfect though, yet not suited for the occasion. My thought inevitably diverted to the memory we shared at the hotel in Incheon three years ago. The very first time we spent the night together. I turned to look at Hyeyoon who was throwing her sight outside the window. She seemed to enjoy the night view of Xiamen city.
"It's not your first time traveling to China, right?" I talked first and the girl turned her sight toward me. She tried to recall something and nodded.
"Yes, it's the second time. But the first one was in Beijing," she responded. She then halted and judging me with her round eyes. I stared back at her, amusing with her pretty pair of eyes. Those eyes were always amazed me. She got lively and very energetic eyes. I always had this delighted feels every time I interacted with those eyes.
She still hadn't cast her gaze away, she raised an eyebrow and asked, "how did you know?"
I smirked and stared at her rather intensively. I was debating whether or not to confess to her about that event. She seemed still clueless about that and had no idea that I was the one who gave her the champagne.
Nah, she'd better had no idea about that, though, I thought. I shook my head and turned my face. Throwing my gaze outside the window. Leaving Hyeyoon there stunned and confused with me ignoring her question. I stared at the road and saw it started to rain lightly.
"It's raining again," I heard Mr. Han spoke from the driver seat. "Xiamen always has this unpredictable weather lately," he complained.
"Was it cold in the morning after the rain?" I responded.
Mr. Han quickly replied, "Yes, Sir. Quite cold in the morning. You have to wear a few thick clothes if you planned to go outside the next morning," he added. "Did you bring jackets, Sir?"
I recalled whether I put any thick outer or not. "I might bring some. Let me check later," I told him. Mr. Han kept talking about the city and its famous destination for tourists and all. He spoke in Mandarin and Hyeyoon didn't understand it at all.
As Mr. Han paused from his story. The girl nudged me and whispered to me asking what was the driver talking about.
"Nothing special. Just a few spots for tourism," I answered. "But we don't have time for that now. Our schedule is pretty tight," I explained and the girl got it right away.
Tomorrow after the sampling, we had to catch the train to Shenzhen in the afternoon.
"Yes, your company really one of a kind. Sending their employee to a non-stop world tour business trip in ten days," Hyeyoon commented.
"But with the accommodation and transportation they provided, it's worth it," I reasoned and the girl gazed at me for a second then turned away again.
The driver exited the highway and turned right to the road. The hotel was seen towering over the building around it from afar.
"That's your hotel, Sir, Ma'am. We're near the destination," Mr. Han sounded.
After the last turn, he turned left and we arrived at the hotel lobby. Mr. Han got out from his seat and opened the trunk. Security approached and opened the door for Hyeyoon first then for me.
"Good evening. Welcome to Kempinski Hotel Xiamen, Sir, Ma'am," a staff escorted both of us in the lobby to the receptionist.
Three receptionists bowed and I walked to them. "Reservation under the name of M. IT company, please," I told the receptionist and the guy quickly processed the reservation list.
"Wait a moment, please," he said.
After a moment, the guy printed a receipt and gave me a piece of paper to sign. "One executive suite room under the name of Kim Rowoon, Sir?" the guy said clearly and it automatically made me stop signing the paper.
"Wait, what?" I tried to confirm what he was saying once again. "How about the others?"
"Excuse me, Sir?" he looked confused and clueless. I frowned.
"The reservation should've been under two names, Kim Rowoon and Kim Hyeyoon," I corrected the receptionist but the guy looked even more confused.
"Uh, let me check one more time, Sir," my tone was pressured him yet he still calmly went through the reservation list once again.
"What happened?" Hyeyoon heard my voice risen from behind and now stood next to me.
After checking multiple times, the receptionist was phone calling someone and the supervisor walked out from the back office. Both of them were seen checking through the list and after making sure the list, the supervisor then stood up to talk to me.
"Good evening, Sir. I'm Wang," he greeted first. "I'm very sorry for the inconvenience, currently we're going through multiple checking to your reservation detail and we can confirm that the reservation had been only made under one name of Mr. Kim Rowoon from Seoul – South Korea," the supervisor clicked on the computer as he read the confirmation detail. "Reservation was issued yesterday at 2.00 PM KST under the contact detail of Miss Seo YoonAh from M.IT Company," he went through again of the list and confirmed that there was no second reservation under Hyeyoon's name.
I massaged my temple, was trying hard to control my temper. I was tired. Hyeyoon was tired, and we had to deal with this situation at this hour.
Hyeyoon saw my frustration and calmly stroked my arm to cool down my anger. She then spoke to the supervisor.
"That's fine. Can you find me another room instead? I wouldn't mind the smaller room, perfectly fine for me," she then looked at me and added to the supervisor.
The supervisor looked apologetic while it wasn't even their fault. He then went through checking again and looked even more sorry as he delivered the news. "I'm sorry Ma'am, the smaller rooms are all fully booked and we only had the presidential suite rooms,"
Hyeyoon seemed to contemplate for a moment then she hesitantly asked, "How much the presidential suite room rate?"
The supervisor mentioned the amount and Hyeyoon didn't seem convenient with the rate.
"Hmm, was it already deducted from the corporate discount?" she confirmed.
The supervisor nodded, "yes Ma'am,"
"Sorry Hyeyoon, it's my company's fault. You can take the presidential room, don't worry about the rate," I offered her as it was my obligation to guarantee her accommodation during the business trip.
"No, no," she objected. "It's too much," she was seen thinking then asked the supervisor again. "Do you provide an extra bed?"
The supervisor stared at her and nodded. "Yes Ma'am, we do. We will deliver it to your room if you wish to add the additional bed,"
Hyeyoon looked at me to seek my approval and I just nodded in the end.
"Okay then, just charge for an extra bed. That's enough. We're not staying here for days, are we?" she said lightly.
I was stunned at how casual her reaction now compared to the first time we reunited after three years. The girl then walked toward Mr. Han who was still waiting for us. The older man bowed and was about to left. He told me that he would be here by the morning at 7.30 AM.
I nodded and let him took his leave.
When it was only the to of us alone in the lobby while waiting for the staff to prepare for the room and distributed our belongings. I walked to Hyeyoon and talked to her.
"Are you sure, you're fine with this?" I asked her. Tried to find the slightest hint of hesitation or nervousness. Though there was seen uneasiness, she seemed calm.
She then responded. "We both tired. I just don't want to overspend money just for a few hours of sleeping, we're leaving the hotel by the morning, though. So, it's fine," she assured.
I sighed as I still unsatisfied with the situation. I took out my phoneand was about to make the call when we were informed that the room was ready.
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A/N:
Here I was trying to write from Rowoon's point of view. It's new for me since I never write in his POV. It was always Hyeyoon's POV or Author's POV which is my POV. Haha...
So, this is kinda interesting and new.
I wish I delivered his POV well. Haha...
For those who are wondering about how he feels toward the situation and his actual feeling towards Hyeyoon. Here you go, and I planned on writing more in his POV from now on.
Enjoy this one also everyone~