Chapter Text
It was the hottest day on record today, and you could feel it as the Uber you were inside did not have a proper AC unit, causing the sun to burn at your exposed legs from the shorts you wore in hopes that would keep you cool, but it only made your skin appear a shade of red. It also did not help that Los Angeles traffic appears as if the world is frozen in time, but it never is and your appearance at the convention you were signed up for is in an hour and according to your phone’s maps app it’ll take another thirty minutes just to exit the highway.
In frustration you decided to check your phone in hopes the time would pass. Luckily there were texts from your small but loud group chat and they filled the screen.
Jade (with an emoji of a sword beside her name.): Checked in with Jaz and Ella, where are you????
Jade was your best friend. You two have known each other since elementary school and could technically be sisters because of all the years and moments you two have spent together.
Another message came from Ella.
Ella (with an emoji of a baby bottle): y/n can we visit the K-pop shop tomorrow????? Jade says I have to ask U. (she also added an emoji of the praying hands and sad eyes as if she was praying for it.
Ella was the odd one of this quadruple, not because she was way younger than you and Jade, but because she had a bubbly personality. You and Jade met Ella at Jade’s coffee shop, which she owned with her partner Jaz. As you always spent your time there, they noticed so did little Ella after her classes and you all just treated her as a younger sister. It definitely kept the days more sporadic that way, and they were never a bore.
You sigh at the heat and the unmovable traffic and click on the screen to answer Jade back.
y/n: traffic is a bitch rn. I’ll text u when I arrive at the hotel.
Jade: it was bad for us 2.
You didn’t arrive in LA with them because of the shipments you needed to take care of. This was your first big convention where you were able to sell your art in the artists alley. Jade, Jaz and Ella helped as much as they could with bringing extra merchandise in their bags, but you had to do most of the heavy lifting because it was your business after all.
Then you dread this next message. The reply to Ella. She is obsessed with K-pop. You were aware of it, of course everyone is, but you didn’t exclusively listen to it unless Ella forced you to stream new music by her favorite groups to boost streams or the days Jaz let her have control of the speakers at the coffee shop.
y/n: If we aren’t busy, we can try on Monday.
The thought of rushing Monday’s last LA day made your eye twitch to the point it began to water, which surprised you because of how hot the day had dehydrated you already.
Another message from Ella pings in.
Ella: yay thnx (she added emojis of many colorful hearts and Korean hearts).
You rolled your eyes at the thought of her being giddy in the hotel room that most likely has a working AC unit and thinking of her K-pop boy and girl groups.
As the Uber driver drove in silence, you realized why there was so much traffic. There was an award show happening the same night. It was a music show that Ella probably watched but you and Jade outgrew. You only really liked classical music or just music to listen to in the background while you sketched art or worked on commissions, sounds that aren't distracting to you.
There were helicopters flying so low in the sky you wondered if it was a safety hazard, but since your Uber driver paid no attention to it, you decided not to as well.
Finally, what felt like hours until you arrived at the hotel. You all splurged on a good hotel near the convention center, one Ella recommended. As tempting as a cheap motel 6 was, there was no way you all wanted to do that in LA of all places.
You thanked the Uber driver who helped you take your extremely large luggage, which had 3 sets of clothing but the rest of the space it held was exclusively for merchandise. Then you quickly sprinted inside the lobby. The change from the hot humid weather to the cool lobby made you shiver, but you preferred it cold than burning up outside.
The workers there looked at you, interested, but not in a good way. You felt out of place as the only people in the lobby all wore fancy white and black suits meanwhile your black shorts and tight tank top were a little moist and glands of sweat made their way down to your chin. As much as you probably would have felt embarrassed, you pushed the staring aside and waited in line for the front desk.
As you impatient waited, you looked around. The place did look too fancy for you. It felt like a royal hall with every piece of furniture looking expensive and the lights made the pearl walls appear golden. Knowing Ella she probably gawked and recorded videos for her TikTok account that had a couple thousand followers, she was way more influential on the Internet than you were as her status in each K-pop fandom granted her more traction to each social media site. It didn’t bother you though, you both were in different parts of the Internet.
Aside from the fancy golden look to the lobby, you did notice that there were many people in suits. It made you wonder if a celebrity was around? There must have been as they all were together wearing the same lanyards. You couldn’t get a close look without getting in trouble, but it must be for the award show as the lanyards for the convention this year were orange.
Finally, it was your turn. A man wearing a button up white shirt that showcased his body heat on the armpits smiled at you as you put your heavy suitcase beside you. A suit man that stood on the sideline looked at you and the suitcase. You ignored his stare and went back to the receptionist.
“Hi, I’m checking in, I had friends who checked in and I'm with them.” You explained in huffs and puffs because the hot air from the outside still purged you.
“Name?” the man whose name tag had ‘MASON’ engraved on it asked.
“y/n”
“Oh yes you’re with Jazmine Harris?” He looked up from the screen.
You nodded. He typed on the screen for a minute. As he did you noticed the suit you assumed was security was leaning on the desk beside you, his back toward you. He was in conversation with another suit man. There was a loose keycard. Behind his elbow, as you went to tap his shoulder to tell him, Mason held out your keycard.
“Here you go.”
You turned back to him. “Oh thank you.” you said and as you went to grab your suitcase, the suit man turned and his arm swung towards you as he turned to grab his keycard. You leaned back as fast as you could to not get hit in the face by his large elbow, causing you to fall. The man was shocked and helped you up. He apologized as you felt more heat hit your body, specifically your face, from the embarrassment.
He helped you up and kept apologizing.
“It’s okay.” You assure him. It wasn’t okay, but this day already fared terribly, so this might as well have happened. The keycard was also on the spotless ground and he wiped the non existent dirt from it and handed it to you. You grabbed it and went on your day.
Please let the hotel have AC and then let me just sleep for an hour. You thought to yourself. You walked towards the elevator in hopes it was not broken. That would be the icing on the cake if you had to walk flights of stairs, but luckily a couple wearing beachwear walked out of one and you quickly swiped in. At the moment you looked at the buttons on the wall of the elevator, you realize you never got the room number. So you pulled out your phone.
y/n: what’s the room number????
Thankfully, the three bubbles coming from Jade’s side of the text messages popped up.
Jade: 613
You quickly pressed the number 6 on the side of the elevator doors and it shut. You had one moment of peace as you felt the elevator go up. They always made your stomach feel weird. You weren't a rollercoaster or extreme sports type of person so any peculiar feeling always had you on edge.
The elevator dinged as the little screen at the top said 600+ forward. You walked out and noticed a couple more suits around. If you didn’t know there was an award show, you probably would have assumed there was a tailor convention in this hotel. They all stared in your general direction as you walked down the hallway, you felt as if you were not supposed to be here at all, or maybe it was a suit day in the hotel and you didn’t get the memo so now they’re judging you and soon you’ll be the girl viral on tiktok that was sweaty in shorts instead of a suit.
You rushed looking at the door numbers and finally found room 613. You inserted the key card and saw the green light indicating that it was unlocked. You turned the knob and looked at the hotel room. It was empty. That was odd, you thought. Maybe Jade, Jaz and Ella went out to the pool or went to buy snacks? This hotel was nicer than you anticipated. They probably went to look at every floor and gawk at it all. As tired as you were you just put your suitcase to the side and plopped yourself on the bed. You sighed and noticed your hands had scrape marks from the encounter earlier and you just shook your head. You’d deal with it later, but knowing yourself you didn’t want it infected so you got up from the bed. As you did you got a better look around the room. It looked like it was lived in for a while. There were no welcome treats the hotels usually had; they were all gone and there was only one singular suitcase in the room. Before you could even consider you were in the wrong room it was too late.
There were two of the suits pinning you to the wall.
It happened so fast, you could hardly believe it was happening at all. One second you were looking at the hotel room and now you are being held down.
“How did you get in here?!” One of them yelled out. Their hands gripped your arms tightly and you felt the blood drain from your hands slowly. You were against the wall and immobile.
You looked at them eyes wide, not knowing who they were or if you were about to be taken hostage right here right now.
“I- this is my room!” You say, but they look as if they didn’t care.
“This isn’t your room, how did you get in?” They repeated.
“The receptionist gave me the keycard! I swear” You tell them, louder this time. You had no idea why they were questioning you, but you did not want to be the victim of a crime right now.
The two suits look at each other, still not believing you by the looks on their faces, but decided to hear you out. The one holding you against the wall let go and you winced at the pain they left behind on your arms.
“There must be a mistake!” You breathe. “Can I?” You point to your pocket where your phone is. They let you.
You look at Jade’s latest message.
Jade: 513** sorry!
You felt your heart fall from your chest. Crap.
“My friend gave me the wrong number.” You try to tell them but instead of accepting it and letting you leave, one of the suits grabs you from the top of your arm and pulls you out of the room. The other grabs your suitcase.
As you’re out they begin to drag you to the elevator. As they do you turn around to see if there are any hotel workers to settle this with them since these people were not within reason. As you did you saw a man standing behind another one of the suits. He had baggy clothes and wet jet black hair in his face. He looked familiar to you, but you didn’t know where. He looked at you with his big dark eyes, upset. It might be his room… Was he a celebrity? Probably… Before you could even think where you may have seen that man, the suits shove you into the elevator and one of them kept the grip of your arm tightly.
“I’m sorry I didn’t mean to enter the wrong room I swear.” You tell them as the elevator shuts.
“That’s what they all say.” The other suit says as he begins to talk on the phone in another language you were not familiar with.
“Who?” You ask but they groan. You weren’t someone who broke into rooms, or broke rules at all. Maybe they assumed you were someone else?
Back in the lobby, the man finally looks like he has a moment of calm to himself until he notices the three of you walking towards him, he gasps.
“What’s the problem?” he asks, nervously.
“This woman was in our client's room. We don’t know how she got in. We called reinforcements.” They simply told Mason, the receptionist.
You turn your head so quickly in fear you might have pulled a muscle. Reinforcements?!
“What?!” You say and the receptionist tries to calm everyone down.
“Hold on, what exactly happened.” Mason holds his hands up.
Everyone tries speaking at the same time, luckily everyone stops and then you get the chance to explain yourself.
“You gave me the keycard! Tell them!” You tell Mason.
“I did, but keycards only work for their specific room. I’m not sure how that would happen.”
“We want access to security cameras.” One of the suits says.
“We can’t just let you see them.”
“Our clients have been loyal customers to this hotel for years now, we can end our business here and now.” One of the suits threatens then Mason gulps in fear.
You all were smashed in the security room. It looked as if they did in the movies. Small and had the smell of old pizza and dust was everywhere. They all watched the old man who sat in an old beat up chair whose leather was torn, and squeaked with every movement, scrubbing through footage of you entering the hotel. They scrubbed a bit and the moment when you fell caught their attention.
“Look! That’s Mun-Hee.” The suit with more authority says. The other groans. “That idiot.”
They zoomed in, and saw the exact moment it happened. His keycard fell on the ground and landed beside yours.
“See!” You say out loud. Pointing at the screen. Your innocence! You were free! No jail time for you! “It wasn’t my fault!”
“Explain the room then?” The suit asks, still ticked off by you.
You pulled up your phone, they saw the messages.
“It was all a coincidence.” Mason sighed in relief. You all awkwardly left the security room.
On the way back to the lobby, Mason promised the suits that their hotels would be vouched for this time and to you, you and your friends would be upgraded to a VIP suite at the top of the hotel for the inconvenience.
As for the reinforcements, Mason and one of the suits stayed back and dealt with them. You expected the hotel to get hit with a fine, but that wasn’t your problem at all, none of this was anymore.
As you got the new keycard, and made sure you shoved it in your pocket where it would not fall on the ground causing this mess to happen again, another suit that differed from the two that were part of your personal downfall shoved papers in your face. She looked irritated.
“Sign this.” She held a pen out for you to grab. You looked at the papers. It was a detailed NDA. You tried reading the paper in full, but you were still reeling from everything that happened. All you could understand from it was you were not allowed to talk about anything that you saw in the room or what occurred this past hour.
“Do I have to?” You wondered if you should or should not.
“We will take legal action if you don’t”
You quickly grabbed the pen from her arm and signed without hesitation. You did not have the money to go to court because of all this mess.
All the suits left and you sighed in relief. Then you called Jade, there were missed calls from each of the girls.
“Where are you?!” You heard Jade ask in a worried tone from behind the phone.
“Sorry there was a whole thing…” You remembered the NDA and chose to stop there.
“What happened?” Her voice was calmer now.
“I uh… I upgraded our room.” You say, trying to sound calm.
“You What?!” You heard three voices reply on the other end of the line.