"Excuse me," Yuri politely asked the group of girls standing in front of the elevator. "Could you please be so nice and move over there? It's for your own safety. Other hotel guests might come out of the elevator any moment and crash into you girls."
"Oh, we're sorry!" the blonde among the girls exclaimed and gestured the others to follow her, moving far away from the elevator. As they arrived at the other end of the room, Yuri laughed.
"Now, it's not like a monster would come out either," she said, shaking her head in amusement. One of the girls pouted at her, and she couldn't help but to grin back. Yuri decided to pick up a conversation while Tiffany was busy with their teacher at the reception desk. She walked towards the girls, putting on a friendly and welcoming smile. "So, you guys are here for a class trip, right?"
"Not really," the blonde replied, and Yuri realized this girl's voice was pretty husky when she wasn't screaming sorry. "We're here for something like a biology excursion. Our topic is Examining the Biotope Forest."
Yuri oohed with round eyes, faking interest. "Biology was one of my best subjects back in high school."
"Really?" the blonde excitedly asked. "Can you help us then? Please?" She lowered her voice, and Yuri had to lean forward to hear her. "Because we're going to make teams of five and to tell the truth, my girls and I totally suck at this subject."
Yuri laughed. "Well then, why don't you girls split and find yourself someone who's good at it?"
"We can't split!" the girl with the short hair exclaimed. "We're inseparable! We even have a group name for ourselves. 4minute. You see, once you have a group name, you can't break apart."
The girl looked so serious about it, Yuri didn't dare to laugh.
"Yes," the blonde nodded. "Plus, we are asking for help from someone who's supposedly good at it."
The girl winked at Yuri, and Yuri thought… Wow. She can't possibly say no to that. Yuri began to sense the interest these young girls seemed to have in her as they carried the conversation from asking what her job in the hotel was to whether or not she was single. Yuri smiled sheepishly at the question.
"I don't know…" she leaned her shoulder against the wall behind her. "We never really broke up."
"Well, do you still see her regularly?" one of the girls asked.
"Yes. She doesn't have a choice."
"So, you want to see her, but she doesn't?" the blonde, whose name was Hyuna, asked.
"It's kinda like that. I believe she wants to see me, she just doesn't want to admit it."
"That means you want to get back together with her?"
Maybe Yuri was just imagining it, but to her, the girls looked disappointed.
"It's not easy," she replied with a chuckle. "Let's stop talking about her. Tell me about what you girls have to do. I'll see what I can do to help."
The girls began to babble away about their tasks for the two days. Only Hyuna kept silent as she was frowning at something behind Yuri.
"What's wrong?" Yuri asked Hyuna, cutting the other girls off.
Hyuna didn't answer. She just kept her frown and tilted her chin forwards once. Yuri turned around to see what it was and caught sight of an embarrassed Jessica jolting up from behind the huge plant pot.
"She was eavesdropping on our conversation!" Hyuna said, pointing an angry finger at the other blonde.
"I was not!" Jessica held up the water glass in her hand, as though that was the explanation for everything.
