The first thing that Suyin sees when she pushes open the door to room 23 is a mess.

A phone has been plugged in to the sound system and Jonghyun's "Lonely" murmurs in the background as Suyin slowly drags her gaze across the scene. What once was her favorite room in the hotel has been utterly and absolutely trashed. The sheets have been pulled off the bed, dangling in strange angles against the pastel purple furniture she had carefully picked out, and the flower shaped decorative pillows she had custom ordered are strewn around the room as if flung violently against the wall and allowed to rest wherever they fell. Empty soju bottles litter the table and ground, shards of broken glass shimmering like solid teardrops on the light wooden floor. Light streams through the small crack in the otherwise closed curtains, cool daylight contrasting with the warm glow of the modern lamps illuminating the room's interior. 

One of the lamps lies toppled on the floor and she ventures forward to pick the muted pink light up from the floor when she notices something else. Or rather, someone.

"Eunhee?"

A male voice whispers a name through the the stillness, and Suyin snaps her attention to its source. In the corner sits a young man looking up at her in pure desperation. His white dress shirt is wrinkled and untucked, sadly draping over black slacks, and his shoes have recent scuff marks lining the edges. A half empty bottle of soju sits next to him, the cap lying few meters away.

Suyin lifts the lamp off the ground and places it on the table, watching as the man scans her face and drops his gaze with a defeated sigh. He places his head in his hands as he tucks one leg towards him.

"Sir?" Suyin asks, keeping her voice gentle as not to frighten him.

"I'm fine," he replies hastily, but Suyin notices the slight crack in his voice.

"You don't look fine," she replies.

She watches as he lifts his face towards her and she notices the heartbreak in his eyes that threatens to stain his already tear-streaked visage. A section of hair falls across his face and he rakes it backwards in a vain attempt to get it out of his face as he looks away from her again with the forced smile of a broken soul.

"I'm fine."

His breath shakes as he tries his best not to dissolve into tears, and promptly fails. Suyin stands awkwardly as he cries in the corner, twisting her hands as her mind races. What does she do? Does she ask him what happened? Does she reprimand him for staying over leaving time and for completely trashing her favorite room? How does one comfort a crying person? He's already tried drinking away his problems, given the amount of empty soju bottles on the floor, but he's still crying... what does she do?

"She said she loved me!" he sobs softly.

"It's...uh," Suyin stutters, wincing slightly as she speaks. "It's past three pm so you're supposed to be, um, out of the room by now..."

The man murmers a reply but Suyin can't make it out.

"Sorry, I, uh, I didn't hear that," she says, looking around awkwardly. "Can you repeat that?"

A wallet is tossed in her direction and she picks it up, glancing at the bills inside.

"I can't go back to my apartment," the man sniffs. "She's there."

He rests his head against the wall, gazing plaintively up at the ceiling, and Suyin notices the small twitch of the softly defined line of his jaw as he exhales.

"Take whatever you want for damages too, just let me stay here."

Well, that answered her question, albeit partially. She opens up the wallet, removing a few thousand won before placing the wallet on the table and moving to leave. However, a defeated sigh begs her to stay and she turns around to look at the man as he crumbles back into heartbreak and self-destruction. Suyin stands there for a few moments, simply watching him down the remainder of the soju in the bottle beside him, before stupidly opening her mouth.

"Do you want to talk about it?"

The moment those words leave her lips, she regrets it. The man lifts his gaze towards her, soft brown eyes glimmering with hope, and she curses herself for what she's about to do.

Trying her best not to sigh, she walks over to the door and closes it before grabbing a roll of toilet paper from the bathroom and returning to where the man sits. He watches as she slides onto the floor next to him and hands him a wad of toilet paper.

"Get it all out," she says, trying to control her naturally cynical disposition. "I'll listen."

The man blows his nose into the toilet paper and Suyin winces, offering him the entirety of the roll. He tears off section, balls it up, and wipes away the tears before he speaks.

"Eunhee," he whispers. "Her name was Eunhee."

 
 
 



 

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A/N: I hope you are enjoying Love Hotel! Sorry that this chapter is shorter than the others, but if figured if I was going to make a shorter chapter, I should make it an eventful one. As always, let me know what you think of Suyin and any of the other characters, and what you think is going to happen next. If you haven't been already, be sure to click on the youtube vids at the top of each chapter! I often write based on music and I've included songs that I feel particularly capture the feeling of each chapter.

As always, thank you for reading, and I'll try to have a new chapter up soon! - Sana