French Cup: A Neighborhood Story

Chapter 21: -Gyeong-Wan- Birds Sh*t on My Car

"Don't you agree? Why wasn't I given a wake up call this morning? I missed my meeting! It was held right here in the hotel! My, how embarrassing! Everyone will think I'm lazy due to you!"

A woman dressed in a smart maroon colored pants suit was arguing with one of my front desk agents, a nice young woman named Minami. She was trying her best to fix the situation, but nothing was working. Personally, I didn't know how to fix it, either. The events had already passed, and it seemed as if this woman only wanted to blow off steam at us. Blame someone. I knew for certain that we'd given her a wakeup call. It couldn't be a problem with our system, because I received one every day at 6AM.

"I'm so sorry, madame," Minami said again, bowing her head even deeper. "We can make doubly sure to give you a wakeup call tomorrow-"

"Ack! But, I don't need a wakeup call tomorrow! My meeting was today! My, when I took out my ear plugs and saw it was 10AM! Can you imagine how appalled I was? The nerve of you people!"

I secretly eyed Minami for a split second. She eyed me back. Her real personality shined through under her work personality exterior. Her young eyes told me clearly, with all the confidence of someone in their early 20's: This woman had ear plugs in. Is she massively stupid? 

It was my turn to bow. Only one way to solve this, knowing this information. "I can offer you points towards another stay and array of experiences. Shall I show you our catalog of experiences? These include spa treatments, a personally presented flight of desserts by our world renowned chef, tickets to DisneySea, among other things. I deeply apologize. It won't happen again, and I will speak personally with our general manager about how we can improve in the future." I kept my head bowed, but inside my head I was scolding the woman. Asking her to improve herself. She didn't deserve any points. She'd been the one to make the mistake. However, in the hospitality industry, everything is the hotel's fault, and failing that, your own. 

The woman's expression immediately changed. "I will take the points," she said with a voice of tranquility.

"Yes, madame. I will credit your account with thirty thousand points. It will be enough to enjoy another night with us, or redeem for an experience. Shall I give you a catalog to choose from? You can come down at any time to redeem for an experience, and we will schedule it at your convenience." My hands went towards the computer, ready to do these things. I didn't want to do these things.

"Yes, I would like a catalog."

Minami was already going under the desk to a drawer full of them. I tick tacked away on the keyboard, adding the points. The woman stared at us neutrally now. 

In the end, she went away satisfied, the catalog in her hands.

Minami coughed loudly at me, her fist in front of her lips so the camera couldn't see. "Points fisher," she coughed. My hand went over my mouth, too, smiling. 

She meant that the woman knew she was in the wrong, but could somehow blame the hotel to get points credited to her account for free. We saw it all the time. Sometimes, people made up whole situations. I bumped into the fountain, it shouldn't be there, give me points. I fell down the stairs, look at my perfectly healthy knee. There's used towels in the room, I know because I used them this morning. There's a chip bag between the mattresses, I already retrieved it and threw it away, that's why it's not there anymore, your housekeeping is appalling.

Sometimes, they reminded me of toddlers that we had to take care of. It was as if when people went on vacation, they lost all sense of being an adult. Maybe it was the idea of being somewhere full service, so they thought they'd be taken care of hand and foot. One still had to take personal responsibility.

"Checklist time," Minami sang cheerfully to herself. She had a way of recovering quickly, making humor out of things. I admired it.

As her finger scrolled down it, my eyes glanced at the stack of print outs that I'd knocked over earlier. My hand went to my cheek as I thought of it. Both she and Tomoko had dashed to pick them up before one of our higher bosses saw the mess. We'd all have received a scolding if that was seen. But, ah, the reason I'd dropped them?

Incredibly, Kazuya had been here. In mere seconds, before I could see him walk up, he'd been in front of the desk. A beautiful dessert had been on a plate in his hand, one that was now empty in my locker in the back. He'd winked at me, and I'd taken the pastry. Then, in a flash, he was gone. Just like a daydream. Half of me wondered if my daydream had gotten too intense and it wasn't real. There were certainly times when I wasn't here at all, but instead daydreaming about taking him to our rooftop garden. There wasn't anything up there in bloom yet, but it would be beautiful in the spring. It was meant for weddings, that's how beautiful it was going to be. But, he'd appeared in real life, impossibly here. I never thought he'd actually step into my hotel.

"Ah! Park-san!" Minami gasped. I blinked rapidly, coming out of my reverie. My eyes went to the computer where she was pointing. And- 

Despite myself, too happy from my reverie, I started giggling and could not stop. Minami's jaw dropped at my reaction, but she covered her mouth also with both hands, lost in giggling, too. We were like little kids, because, on the screen in our new review section, was a singular line with a one star out of five:

"BIRDS SHIT ON MY CAR." 

My hand went to my chest, unable to stop losing it. Imagining this guest, upon discovering her car covered in bird shit. We did know about this problem, parking cars under trees could do this. We didn't often park cars under trees for that reason, but we'd had several large groups in the hotel and still did. We were almost at full capacity. It couldn't be helped, but this was the most "Karen" thing I'd ever seen. Imagine trying to fix that situation? Madame, we personally can't tell the birds not to shit all over your car. We tried to tell them, but you see, they're birds, madame, and well, they don't speak Japanese...

There were tears in my eyes, trying to explain to that Karen about the birds and their shit. How the hell would we have fixed it? The birds already shit on her car.

Minami gasped next to me, trying to hide her laughter. "I'm going to-" she coughed for real, too overcome. "I'm going to print that review out and hang it on my refrigerator." She lost it anew, and so did I. She wiped a tear from her eye, and in so doing, I saw it smudged her makeup.

"Ah, you just smudged your makeup. Please go to the bathroom to fix yourself up," I said kindly, still grinning from my laughter.

She bowed to me neatly, excusing herself, but she was still grinning wildly, too. I'd never seen her smile like that. In fact, we didn't have a lot of time for true smiles here. The idea kind of hit me like a slap. It quieted me, as I thought of the contrast. 

At French Cup, I smiled all the time. There were such easy smiles to had by everybody. No one was forcing a smile, every one was given sincerely. Kazuya and Nikki were happy to serve everyone, genuinely glad to see them. 

I wanted to do that, too. 

As I waited for Minami to come back from the bathroom and Tomoko to come back from her break, I tidied up the desk. Lost in my thoughts, imagining I was somewhere else. Somewhere, where it smelled like pastries and cream, chocolate and strawberries. Some place, where a nice boy with blonde hair was already waiting for me, wanting to show me a chocolate pastry that I'd never heard of, his smile so wide and precious, genuine.