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Male friend
“Why didn’t you go home until now?” Are you going to practice latte art?”
“N, no. I dropped off because I missed my latte because it’s been a while since I worked all night.”
Saying that, Miyeon shook the notebook she had placed on a nearby table.
“What are you working all night?”
“The marketing I mentioned before. I came up with an idea, so I’m trying it out. Ah. Shall I serve coffee for the boss and your boyfriend?”
Miyeon naturally turned her eyes to Han Woohyun.
Miyeon had a knack for asking questions in return along with her affinity.
I heard Han Woohyun coughing behind my back.
“He’s not my boyfriend.”
I answered with a puzzled look.
But Miyeon didn’t seem to believe my answer.
“Uhm
 I see.”
“There is no soul in the way you talk now.”
“No. I’m full of soul. I was just thinking that if you’re a hotel guest, there’s no way you’d come in holding hands.”
T, that’s.
That’s true, but.
I was swept away by the atmosphere earlier
!
I stood without looking at Han Woohyun’s face.
Miyeon’s eyes bent in the shape of a half-moon when she saw me like that.
“Then let’s make it a special hotel guest
 Are you staying today? Together?”
Miyeon asked as she walked to the front desk.
“Manager
!”
“I’m kidding. I’ll bring the coffee down first.”
Ha
 really

I turned around, shaking my head.
Then, Han Woohyun, whose face turned red, was standing there.
Han Woohyun muttered while covering his mouth with the back of his large hand.
“I, I can have coffee later
.”
Why did your face turn red
?
Of course, my face feels hot too.
Ding—dong.
It was then.
The bell rang at the desk.
Then Miyeon, who was standing on the side of the coffee machine, approached the front desk again, wiping her hands on the apron.
I asked, pointing at the bell.
“What’s this?”
“Ah. This is the order bell delivered by Coupong. Geumdong decided to ring the bell when a customer came downstairs. It was difficult to go down and check periodically to see if there were customers on the first floor. The purchase receipt is at the bottom of the desk. I put it down.”
I was thinking of buying one too.
As expected, it’s good to have a good employee.
Thinking so, I asked Han Woohyun for his understanding and went downstairs.
“Welcome. This is Yeongchun Hotel
?”
After saying hello, the people who came to the Yeongchun Hotel were members of the Merchant Association.
“Oh, Yeongchunjang. You said you went to Seoul, did you come back already?”
“It was a prosperity meeting today. Because there is no Yeongchunjang, the alcohol didn’t decrease. It’s too bad, but it’s nice to see you like this.”
The head of the women’s association approached me and asked secretly.
“Is our Miyeon doing well? Isn’t it because of her that Yeongchunjang is having a hard time?”
She must have heard that Miyeon had become the manager.
Like Hyeyu and Hyejin, the head of the women’s association seemed happy that her daughter would work again.
“No. She’s really helpful. If possible, I’d like to ask for your continued support.”
“Huh? Really? Hoho. Actually, since she was in a large company, she’s been praised so much for being smart!”
The head of the women’s association laughed out loud and took out some 10,000 won bills from her arms.
“Nine cups of the most expensive coffee menu here!”
“The most expensive one is a little sweet for coffee, is that okay?”
“It’s good! It’s our~style that we prefer to eat with something extremely sweet!”
Listening to the giggling voices of the merchant association, I went up again.
And it was when I came down to serve nine cups of coffee.
‘Huh
?’
I forgot all the straws.
It was when I tried to go back up with that thought.
Han Woohyun came down from the stairs with a straw.
“You left this behind.”
Ah, that’s right.
Han Woohyun is a VIP customer, so he can come down the passage leading to Yeongchun-myeon.
“Oh, thank you.”
Wearing a simple sweatshirt under his coat, Han Woohyun looked like a college student.
Come to think of it, these days at the age of 25 years old, it’s still the age of preparing for a job.
I was on the side of graduating.
Looking at it like this, he definitely looks like a part-timer.
It was when I thought so.
The members of the Merchants Association seemed to have the same thoughts as me, and as soon as they saw Han Woohyun, some merchants let out a gasp.
“Yeongchunjang. Did you get a new part-timer this time?”
“Where can you pick such a person?”
The wide-open eyes of the old ladies openly looked over Han Woohyun.
Fortunately, no one seemed to recognize Han Woohyun.
Han Woohyun’s face wasn’t exposed well, and it was fortunate that people weren’t particularly interested in hunters.
At that time, Miyeon, who followed Han Woohyun, smiled and answered the old ladies.
“He is not a part-timer. He is the boss’s boyfriend from Seoul.”
“Boyfriend?”
“Boy
friend?!”
“Do you mean a lover?”
“Get married! Hurry up! You’ll miss it! Have a baby!”
“What nonsense!”
At Miyeon’s words, a crucible of confusion began at every table.
I clenched my lips and looked at Miyeon.
Then Miyeon shook her head casually.
“No. A male friend. Oh my gosh, look at me. I forgot the word.” (T/n : Usually ë‚šìžì‚ŹëžŒìčœê”Ź means a male friend who isn’t boyfriend, while 낚자ìčœê”Ź means boyfriend.)
Miyeon smiled mischievously and began taking money from table to table.
“Now, pay 10,000 won per table. I came here myself in case you come and take the table for free.”
It would have been difficult for other employees to say that, but Miyeon said that well.
“That, that, that’s all, the merchant is done.”
“Originally, she was a merchant. What is she?
 the one used to sell things on the Internet. They say the daily sales are amazing.”
The women of the merchant association grumbled and took out a 10,000 won bill from their bags and held it out.
“Oho. It’s a corkage fee. Pay it quickly.”
Miyeon smiled happily as she put in the money.
I realized the moment I saw that the eyes of the old ladies who gave money to Miyeon were still on Han Woohyun.
The reason why Miyeon sent Han Woohyun down first.
After stealing people’s souls with Han Woohyun’s beauty, she was stubbornly trying to get the corkage fee.
I shivered with goose bumps.
Then Toto, who appeared from somewhere, jumped over my shoulder from the window frame and said.
“Kyu
.(Manager
 is scary. Where have you been for a few days!)”
I held Toto tightly in my arms.
“But can’t Yeongchunjang’s boyfriend have a drink?”
At that time, the head of the women’s association threw bait at Han Woohyun, who was just frozen and not knowing what to do.
“I’ll have a drink.”
And Han Woohyun suddenly bit it.
*****
Why the hell are you sitting here?
Before I knew it, I sat in the middle of the merchant association with Han Woohyun and began to receive alcohol from the old ladies.
We talked about the time of the last train, but Han Woohyun stubbornly sat down, devising an S-Class method of going to ‘anywhere before the dungeon in the Seoul area’ and going back.
In fact, the head of the village and the youth organization president were also there, but they ran away in the middle, saying that the hotter the drinking party, the more difficult it was.
“So you two are the same age? Twenty-five? I
would have given birth to five children in the past!”
“
Aunt! That’s sexual harassment. You’re really going to get caught! I’m really sorry. Just bear with the accusations. “
“No. It’s fine.”
Despite Miyeon’s protest, the old ladies’ continue to talk about sexual things.
Even in the midst of my dizzying spirit, I tried my best to stop the alcohol heading toward Han Woohyun.
However, Han Woohyun didn’t stop the ladies from giving him alcohol and even drank it all.
“This is plum wine, if you drink this, you’ll feel better the next day.”
“It’s really delicious. Thank you.”
He said he couldn’t drink tea last time, but it must have been real.
He drank steadily and never showed any sign of drunkenness.
The old ladies who saw it seemed to like Han Woohyun more and more.
It was said that Han Woohyun’s photos had been circulated a few times, but most of them were completely erased, so the women in the countryside couldn’t even recognize Han Woohyun’s face.
So, naturally, Han Woohyun was embedded in the heads of the women as ‘my male friend
 from Seoul’.
Even Han Woohyun fit in with the old ladies surprisingly well.
In fact, what Han Woohyun did wasn’t very different from what he did at the reunion.
He answered questions, and silently offered spoons to those who needed a spoon and glasses of water to those who needed a glass.
At the alumni meeting, he seemed like a very quiet kid, but at the merchant meeting, he seemed like a reliable young man.
To be precise, it must be because of the consistency of doing what he always does without being stiff or uncomfortable just because he’s among adults.
‘Unexpectedly, you get along well with adults.’
Did they say this is a free pass for a meeting or something like that?
Anyway, I denied my relationship with Han Woohyun throughout the drinking party, and then their conversation topic gradually flowed to the other side.
“Really, are you just a male friend
? Then, how about meeting my grandchildren? She goes to university in Seoul, so I’d like to introduce her!”
“Oho. I have a turn. Our late child is here. She’s a ballet dancer, but she’s so calm. What do you think?”
“Don’t you want to stand in line?”
Han Woohyun suddenly got up from his seat as if it was difficult to answer.
“May I bring you some more water?”
“Eung. No
”
“Yes, please wait a minute.”
Han Woohyun got up from his seat and went to get some water.
In the meantime, the old ladies showed me the picture.
‘
It’s pretty
 everyone
’
There are so many beautiful people in this world.
I didn’t know what expression to make, so I stayed still.
It was then.
Someone suddenly knocked on the hotel door and came in.
“Mom
! When on earth are you coming
! Where did grandma go again
”
It was Hyejin in a training suit.
Hyejin saw Han Woohyun’s back when he went to get water and hardened.
Then she covered her mouth and pointed to Han Woohyun’s back.
“
H, huh?”
Hyejin hurriedly took out her cell phone and pointed to Han Woohyun’s dark back attached to the back of the cell phone.
I thought it was a brand new item.
Wait.
If Hyejin joined Woo’s destiny, can she recognize Han Woohyun’s face?
Still, there aren’t many photos of Han Woohyun’s face, but if she looks at all of them like this, aren’t they just people who look alike
?
However, Hyejin seemed to have a sense of something.
“
Don’t tell me
?!”
As soon as I heard Hyejin’s voice, I moved instinctively.
I said this to Hyejin, pretending to be relaxed after touching Han Woohyun’s shoulder as he was pouring water.
“Oh. Hyejin, are you here? Say hello. This is my boyfriend.”
“
.!”
“
.!”
I felt the silence in the hall, but I couldn’t help it.
It’s better than revealing Han Woohyun’s identity.
At that moment, Han Woohyun missed the water cup he was holding.
Tak—.
The sound of a plastic water bottle bouncing off the floor rang clear.