The one thing a hotel never lacks is couples coming for a room. There are those who are shy and furtive like thieves, those who are ostentatious as if wanting to tell the whole world they're about to have a good time, and of course, those who are in a desperate hurry...
The receptionist, with a listless look in her eyes, watched two figures who couldn't wait to wrap themselves entirely in their clothes rush through the door. She let out a yawn, her eyes full of impatience and helplessness.
"Presidential suite."
Ooh, a big spender.
The receptionist swiped the card with a dead-fish expression. Picking up the room card slowly, she said, "If you're not satisfied with the disposable items in the room, you can turn left out the door and go straight for two hundred meters..."
Before she could finish, the two took the card and swept through the hallway like a whirlwind, flying into the elevator. They couldn't stand waiting even another second.
The receptionist sighed. She had seen plenty of people like this. Last time, there was a man and woman just as hurried as them out on an affair; the man realized the "balloons" in the motel were low quality and rushed out to buy some wearing nothing but his pants.
"Sigh, they're all bastards." After lamenting, she went back to playing on her phone.
...
The two moved as quickly as if they had undergone professional training. The elevator went straight to the top floor, and they rushed into the room after the beep of the card swipe.
With perfect coordination, one went to turn on the faucet in the bathroom while the other checked the room for pinhole cameras. Their actions were efficient; in less than a minute, they had thoroughly scanned the entire room.
"Hwah!"
Elysia pulled off her hood and jumped onto the soft, massive bed, rolling around on it happily.
Lin also took off his baseball cap. He stood by the window, observing the street below with the corner of his eye.
"This is so comfortable. I'm going to change my bed to this style when I get back." Elysia tossed and turned on the bed, which was large enough for three or four people to have a pillow fight. Like a child, she made sure as much of her body as possible was in contact with the mattress, enjoying the sensation of the fabric against her skin.
After she finished her fussing, the entire bed was wrinkled and filled with her scent. She lay there without even pulling up the covers, her eyes closed as she spoke slowly to Lin. "Aren't you going to get ready?"
"Ready for what?" Lin put on a contact-lens-type terminal. In the bottom right of his vision, the time ticked away second by second.
"What else do a man and a woman do in a hotel room?"
"Did you know? Many manga have scenes like this," Lin said, turning to Elysia. "Provocation, followed by being overpowered and begging for mercy."
Elysia opened her eyes and tilted her head to look at Lin, then gave a radiant smile. "You wouldn't dare~"
"..."
Lin shook his head, unsure of what to say. He walked into the bathroom and sat on the bathtub to think.
...Some might misunderstand, but their coming to a hotel—even getting a presidential suite—wasn't for anything romantic.
After two investigations, Lin believed something was off, and Elysia had developed the same opinion. Thus, to verify the accuracy of this suspicion, they had come to a hotel to get a room.
When they investigated the internet cafe, the waiter knew they were there to investigate the recording, so he had a clear motive for attacking them. But later at the school...
In short, getting a room was to create a controlled environment, and a presidential suite was chosen because there was no one else on this floor, so there was no worry about involving others.
Night gradually deepened. The bright lightbulb in the bathroom didn't cause much harm to his eyes thanks to the sunglasses. It had been three hours since they arrived.
Lin and Elysia were both waiting for something, both staying in their positions patiently until a certain moment when the drowsy Elysia on the bed suddenly snapped her eyes open.
"They're here."
In the silent hallway outside, two extremely faint, almost inaudible footsteps approached one of the only two presidential suites on this floor. One person pulled a pistol and a room card from an inner jacket pocket, while the other quietly pulled a grenade from behind their back...
Bang!
The door to the room behind them, which should have been empty, was suddenly kicked open. Before the two could react, a dark shadow crashed between them. A hand reached out and yanked the arm holding the grenade, dislocating it, followed by a sharp flying knee to the face that knocked the person out instantly.
Then, spinning around, a right leg whipped out like a lash against the hand holding the pistol. Finally, dodging a lunging punch, he landed an uppercase hook on the second person's jaw.
Thump, thump.
The sounds of two bodies hitting the floor followed one after another.
Lin eyes behind the sunglasses looked coldly at the two. He casually disassembled the confiscated pistol and nodded to Elysia, who poked her head out from behind the door.
...
"Hmm?"
The receptionist noticed the man in sunglasses from earlier coming back down. He headed toward the shop she had mentioned. She didn't pay it much mind and went back to her drama.
After a while, the man returned. In his hand, he held... a rope?
The receptionist cracked a sunflower seed, used to such things. Rich people, they all love playing with this stuff.
To her surprise, after the man bought the rope, he didn't go straight back to his room. Instead, he stood at the counter, staring directly at her. His gaze was so blunt that it gave her goosebumps.
She was forced to force a professional smile and ask respectfully:
"Sir, is there anything I can help you with?"
The man looked her up and down for a long time, slowly approaching her. It made her smile difficult to maintain.
This guy... his date couldn't satisfy him, and now he wants to try something with me? Please don't, you stinking rich people...
"You..." She had never heard such a cold, harsh voice. Did this guy grow up eating razor blades?
He approached slowly, his eyes behind the sunglasses watching her. "You are very beautiful. Do you have a boyfriend?"
"..."
Ha! Exactly as I thought!
The receptionist smiled awkwardly. She felt that if he came any closer, she would pick up her tablet and smash it over his head.
Then, to her shock, the man bypassed the counter and walked right into the reception area toward her.
"Sir, you're making things very difficult..." Her heart tightened, her hand already on her tablet.
Swish.
Her vision blurred, and the man's sunglass-clad face was right in front of her.
Pervert... eh?
The receptionist wanted to scream for help, but the words died in her throat. She smelled an extremely pleasant, faint fragrance.
Is this perfume? No, perfume would be more pungent...
The man was only wearing sunglasses, not a mask. She discovered the lines of the lower half of his face were as soft as a girl's; even without seeing the whole face, she knew he must be a handsome person.
Her face flushed. For some reason, her resistance vanished. Letting that handsome chin approach her, she closed her eyes instinctively...
Whoosh.
A gust of wind blew past. She opened her eyes to find the space in front of her empty. The man had already retreated back outside the counter.
"Apologies. I was mistaken. You aren't actually to my taste."
"..."
Leaving those words behind, the man waved a hand without looking back and entered the elevator.
The receptionist watched the elevator floor numbers rise in silence, her fists clenched. "Sure enough, men are all... scumbags."
She didn't notice that a stolen room card had already returned to the cabinet by her right hand.