French Cup: A Neighborhood Story

Chapter 104: -Gyeong-Wan- But I Want My Towels

"I need towels. This is unacceptable. You can't tell me there aren't any more towels in the entire hotel."

Miraculously, Minami was still standing at the desk this Saturday morning. It had been a long night, and Tomoko, my night auditor Sayaka, and I were all sitting down for once. Tomoko had been working with Sayaka last night, but Minami had come in this morning by being hilariously welcomed by my friends. They'd parted like the Red Sea for her, upon hearing she was my friend and on their side. 

But, she wasn't the only one they'd made way for. So many employees had left upon hearing that the police would not be called. In fact, our general manager had strongly suggested to the guests not to call the police on the hotel's behalf, that we were "handling it". The other employees wanted to know why, but all of the managers knew full well: he didn't want to be indicated for the crime of helping Matsuda-san. We'd gotten him, and he knew it. 

Therefore, we were short staffed and the police would not be coming. We were in it for the long haul, and I couldn't be happier about it. Why it wasn't yet a party in here, I had no idea. I suppose the closest to a party we could have were the employees sitting on every available seat in the lobby, lounging and talking and eating whatever had been in the kitchen. The lobby's TV was also tuned to a news network on full blast, which was unheard of. We were a non-political hotel, since we served guests from all over Asia. Well, we were political now.

Since the hotel was so well sound proofed, we only heard the faint melodies of music streaming in from outside from time to time, unless someone opened one of the doors. Then, we were hit full blast with screams, cheers, snippits of enraged speeches, and pandemonium. The crowd outside had grown to astronomical levels, coming in from the Tokyo metro and surrounding satellite towns. The amount of supporters the crowd outside had was overwhelming. And everyone in the hotel was overwhelmed by it. 

Minami bowed slightly to the guest currently raging at the desk. "Well, I'm sorry. We are currently short staffed. May I interest you in a mineral water while you wait? Towels should be sent up by this evening-" A lie. "-and we do apologize."

"I don't want mineral water! I want towels! God, this place! It's bad enough about what's happening outside! I have my elderly mother upstairs! She wants to take a bath! We already couldn't go to Shinjuku Gyoen today! It's supposed to look very pretty since it just snowed a few days ago! She was looking forward to it so much! But now because of- these- these people, we can't go! And now you're saying you don't even have towels! Well, we'll just leave! This is unacceptable!"

Tomoko stood up and appeared next to her friend, shoving her a little to get her to step aside. Minami was way too soft spoken and naturally kind for this. Minami bowed to the woman again in apology, true to form.

"Ma'am, why don't you go buy some towels?! What do you want us to do?! There's no towels! We already told you that several times! There aren't going to be any this morning or this evening! Our housekeeping staff is sitting right there! You're lucky we're talking to you! We have no obligations to!" She pointed at the housekeepers in their brown uniforms laying on one of the luxurious black leather couches drinking an expensive bottle of champagne together. Just her pointing was a flagrant breakage of the rules.

"Well, ask them to do their jobs! This is ridiculous! I'm paying over one hundred thousand yen per night for my room!" 

Tomoko broke into a smile as the woman about-faced and marched right over to the couches. Two of our maintenance staff were sitting there also, as well as a few waiters from the restaurant. They were all plainly identifiable by their uniforms. This woman was clearly outnumbered, but her resolve wouldn't let her see that. Her need to have and have more wouldn't allow her to stop.