French Cup: A Neighborhood Story

Chapter 48: -Gyeong-Wan- The Biggest Idiot in the World

"I will not be paying for the damages. There is no possibility that my children were in the lobby. Their mother had been with them all afternoon. They were at a zoo. They have pictures which prove this." Matsuda-san was standing at the desk before me, solid as an angry gorilla, but much more articulate.

Maybe they were at the zoo in the morning, but they were in our lobby alone around 3PM.

"My apologies, Matsuda-san." I couldn't dispute the charges and didn't want to. Corporate had heard of what happened, the trashed lobby, and were butting heads with the Modern. They were disappointed that such a thing had happened so soon into the Modern being open. They wanted to know who was responsible, and he was standing in front of me right now. My GM was powerless to protest, and after yesterday, I was dancing inside. This power over him.

The front desk staff and houseman had seen the children's mother come inside a little before five o'clock. She had been laden with shopping. The whole story came together, and they'd reported it to me in my email. It was clearer than the pictures that Matsuda-san probably had in his phone. She'd left them in the room alone to go shopping. Something that was against the rules. That had been the first rule they'd broken. The second one had been the children destroying the lobby. I'd come in late last night, exhausted and thinking about Kazuya. I'd been more than a little drunk, and had quietly observed fast moving hired workers stripping the scarred carpet and replacing it faster than you could say "pay for the damages". It had been a wonder to behold.

"I demand to see where the damages are. The lobby appears just as brand new to me as it did yesterday when I left. Was I woken up from sleep for this? Is it a divot on a chair, perhaps? Surely something so insignificant isn't a call for such foolishness." He shuffled his hands together, perhaps thinking he was winning.

"Sir, we had to replace the entirety of the carpet."

"Using me to replace your stinky carpet, are you? I won't have it." He rose his voice to me now. I wanted to smile, though. There was no possibility that he'd win. What he said next made it all the harder to keep my face stoic. "I wish to speak to the general manager. He has helped me so much in the process of my group staying here. The booking, the accommodations, and now this."

There would be no other story that my general manager would have the power to say. He was a corporate parrot just like I was, and this time corporate had gotten it right. We weren't a major competing brand. Most of their hotels were in Korea, with some satelliting in surrounding Asian countries such as Singapore and Thailand. They only had a handful of hotels in Japan, so this news was quite disturbing to them. It made them reconsider. Replacing the carpet had been by no means a great expense for them, but it was one that they'd rather not have had to make. They wanted compensation by the ones responsible and would not budge.

In that way as well, Matsuda-san really had no idea who he was talking to. I was from the main branch of the company in Korea. I was their direct mouth. It made me puff up bigger than I was, bigger than the angry gorilla stance that he was presenting. All of my six feet tall was showing, towering over his shorter stature. My smile was real, with every bit of a sneer on every square inch. "Yes, sir, right away. I shall get him for you. Please, wait a moment."

He just nodded, choosing not to dignify me with a response. He instead shuffled the computer bag in his hand, ignoring me now. I turned on my heel, going toward the back. As I did, this feeling reminded me of something. Something so familiar, but I couldn't put my finger on it.

But, as I passed by my locker, I remembered. That little white plate inside. It made me smile even wider, with abandon. This suddenly wild joy. 

It reminded me of what they do at French Cup. Telling customers off. It didn't matter if it made some customers unhappy. That freedom they had. Maybe this was a taste of that feeling, and I couldn't get enough.