"Hi, uh, so." Wooyoung desperately tries to shake off the blankness that washed over him as soon as the pretty receptionist looked up from his laptop and smiled at him. "Do you have a phone?"
A moment passes. Wooyoung wants to facepalm.
~~~
Growing...
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The cold night air hits them in the face the second they leave the hotel through the main door. Wooyoung, who hadn't stopped blushing ever since he hurried back to his family's suite and came back with a scarf, gloves and a big, thickly padded winter coat – San noticed it was a different one than the one he had seen on Wooyoung last time – shivers and quickly closes his coat all the way. "Is the bar far?" he asks.
"It takes about ten minutes walking." San squints in the direction of the town. The darkness is almost suffocatingly black around them, but farther away, he can see light in a few windows. A shriek of laughter and a few voices carry up to them.
"It seems lively," San comments. Wooyoung next to him snorts out a laugh, but doesn't explain what's so funny. Probably something about the comparison to any Korean city, maybe even Seoul. San went to Seoul a couple of times. He found it overwhelming: there were lights, people, and noise everywhere.
He feels apprehensive at the thought of having to live for at least four years in Seoul until graduating.
"So," Wooyoung says after they've walked in silence for a few seconds and in a tone that sounds like it's supposed to sound casual, "how was your day?"
Now San is the one who almost snorts in laughter at the ridiculous small-talk question. He didn't intend on making Wooyoung feel like he has to care for how San spent his day. But he can answer in one sentence anyway, so he suppresses his amusement and shrugs instead. "I got up early to work, and in the afternoon, I met with my co-worker and a friend that we've made here." Wooyoung is silent for a moment, which leads San to continue: "We ate pizza at that friend's work place and just... hung out."
There's another silence that San doesn't know how to fill. Luckily, Wooyoung breaks it soon: "That's... cool." A bit of reluctance shines through that San isn't sure what to make of. Is Wooyoung still sour because San wasn't there when he knocked at his door? Or is he being jealous again?
Don't be stupid, San tells himself, don't call it jealousy. We aren't romantically involved or anything. Suddenly, he becomes overly aware of the romantic potential that their surroundings provide: it's quiet save for their footsteps, but there's the faint sounds of waves breaking against the shore in the distance. Because of the little light pollution, the stars from the night sky also seem to shine more radiant than on the mainland.
"My little brother sprained his little toe and my hyung had a job interview online, so we stayed in during the morning," Wooyoung continues.
"That's why you had lunch in the hotel?" San recalls.
Wooyoung only nods. "Yeah."
San watches from the corner of his eye as Wooyoung throws him a sideways glance. "Why are you and your co-worker always going to that other room to eat?"
San raises his eyebrows. "It's like that in every job. Employees—workers, part-timers, whoever—don't eat with the guests." Wooyoung should know that much. Eating separated from the guests is not a shitty working condition of the hotel, it's like that everywhere.
