Chapter 57 Time at the hotel
After spending almost an entire day, sleeping in his hotel room, his eyes opened as the golden rays of the setting sun fell on his eyes after piercing it's way through the gaps of the curtains.
While still lying on his bed with his eyes open, he leisurely turned his head around and strolled his eyes towards the window at his right.
Even though the long red coloured curtains dangled freely infront of the window while blocking the rays of sunlight coming from outside, somehow from the gaps of the curtains the light from the sun still managed to find it's way inside the room.
And those strands of lights which pierced through the gaps of the curtains was painting the whole room in warm colours.
The familiar yet unfamiliar room which he had been staying in for less than 6 hours was dimly lit in golden hues.
With nothing fancy, the room consisted of two beds which were palced side by side with only a single drawer separating the two of them from merging into a single bed. The gap between the two beds was barely enough to fit two people when placed side by side.
At the end of his feet, at a certain distance away from his bed there lied a simple closet made up of wood.
With nothing besides two beds, a closet and a drawer, the only attraction in the room was a white coloured flower vase made up of porcelain clay with patterns of blue hibiscus embedded on it, placed atop the drawer.
After looking around for a while, he rose up from his bed and walked towards the window.
He then pushed aside the curtains and opened the window. Just as he opened the window, a gust of cold breeze rushed towards him from the open window.
While trying to shade his eyes from the cold breeze, he immediately lowered his head and covered his eyes with his right hand. His curly black hair and the curtains dangled and danced as the gust of cold breeze blew past them.
Finally as he lowered his hands and opened his eyes, he noticed his mother seated in the front yard alongside with the owner of the restaurant who happened to be an elderly old woman.
Since he had only met her for a brief moment while checking in, he didn't have much information about her. The only thing he knew about her was her name.
"What is she talking with Mrs. Mori." He mumbled while looking at them.
Seeing his mother and the owner cheerfully gossiping with each other while sipping tea in the front yard, he wondered what they were gossiping about. Those cheerful smiles made him curious about the topic of their gossip.
Growl~~
Just as he was observing his mother and the owner of the hotel gossiping in the front yard, his stomach made a growling noise.
"Seems like I need to eat something first." He mumbled while grabbing his stomach.
Since he hadn't ate anything since morning besides the light meal provided in the airplane, it was only natural for his stomach to make such weird noises.
After that he rushed downstairs towards the dining hall, to get something to eat. And since the dining hall was just at the right side of the entrance of the first floor, he had remembered it's location earlier when they checked in for their room.
While walking down the stairs, he noticed a young girl with pale white skin and straight black hair sitting in the reception desk.
Upon casting his gaze at her, he started to wonder about the identity of the girl infront.
Afterall her face was new to him and he hadn't seen her during his earlier visit.
And just as he was about to walk past her, the girl from the reception spoke;
"You must be Hiro right?"
"Er... Um... Yes!!" He replied while slightly nodding his head.
"How did you know my name?" He questioned her while slowly wandering his eyes towards her. Since he hadn't introduced himself to her, it was only natural for him to wonder how she had came to know about his identity.
"You and you're mother are the only guest staying in the hotel today. So it's only natural for me to know your name." She replied while smiling.
Since most of the people preferred to stay at a fancy restaurant during their trip away from home, the hotel that they were staying in wasn't famous among the people and it was almost completely empty at the time of their stay.
And because of it's dull appearance, people normally avoided that hotel even though it was way cheaper than other fancy restaurants.
And that day only he and his mother were staying at the hotel.
"That makes sense." He mumbled after hearing her answers. "Are you one of the employee who works in this hotel?"
"Hahah... Yeah, you can say that." She chuckled while replying.
"But aren't you a bit too young to work?" He questioned her, feeling all confused.
Since her appearance was that of a young girl in her teens, he couldn't help but wonder her reason behind working in that hotel.
"Oh my!! Are you asking me about my age? You do know that It's rude to ask a girl about her age?" Her eyes widened as she covered her mouth while looking at him. She then started to tease him in her girly voice. "Also aren't you moving way too fast. I mean you don't even know my name yet."
She continued to tease him, while hiding her smiles behind her hands.
Upon hearing her replies, his cheeks started to turn as red as an apple. Blinking his eyes rapidly, his heart skipped a beat as he noticed her smiling face. He began to have trouble maintaining eye contact with her. And thus, he diverted his gaze away from her.
However her teasing continued. And just when he was about to open his mouth, he heard a voice from behind him.
"Oh!! Hiro!! You're awake."
The voice belonged to his mother.
As he turned behind to face his mother after hearing her voice, he found her standing infront of the entrance alongside the owner of the hotel.
With a relatively small stature of 5 feet 2 inches, her time-worn pale skin was covered with wrinkles around her eyes and temple.
While looking at her, one could hardly ignore her winter-white hair atop her head and the mole beside her monolid eyes. They were the defining features of her face.
"Aiyo!! Aiko!! When will you stop with your jokes." Mrs. Mori spoke while looking at the girl at the receptionist desk.
"I didn't mean to tease him grandma. But what can I do, his reaction was just too cute to ignore." The girl at the reception desk replied while still laughing.
"Sorry for my granddaughter's immaturity. Despite being an adult, she still acts like an immature kid." Mrs. Mori apologized to Hiro for her granddaughters behaviour.
The girl sitting infront of him was Aiko Mori, the granddaughter of the owner of the hotel. nove/lb-In
"Oh no!! You don't have to apologize. I don't mind." He spoke while turning his head slightly towards the girl at the reception desk and stealing a glance of her.
"You should learn something from this boy here. Despite being only 10 years old, his behaviour is much more mature than you who's already 18 years old." Mrs. Mori spoke while staring at her granddaughter.
"What you're only 10 years old?" Aiko intoned with her eyes wide open.
As he heard her, he simply nodded his head without speaking anything.
"And here I thought thay you'd be at least 15 or 16 years old."
Because of his actions and bodily features, she had assumed him to be a teenager at the least.
"And here I got my hopes up for nothing. Just what kind of sports do you play to build such an amazing body?" She whispered while diverting her eyes away from him.
"Forgive her for saying such things. She is just influenced by those k-pop stuffs. And because of that she just can't control herself whenever she sees a boy with pretty appearance like that of yours." Mrs. Mori mumbled while trying to shrugg her whining.
Aiko was a girl who was 18 years of age with a round shaped face. With a little mascara over her monolid eyes and some lip gloss on her lips, she had done some light makeup over her face.
And just like many girls her age, she was a k-pop fan girl. Meaning she idolised those pretty boy's from the korean music groups and simped over them.
And even the reason why she started conversation with him was because of his pretty appearance.
"Forget about her. I heard that you haven't eaten anything since your last meal at the plane." While Aiko was muttering something by herself in the background, Mrs. Mori inquired him if he was feeling hungry or not.
Hearing her words, he nodded his head.
"Let's go and have something to eat. You need to maintain your body inorder to become a good footballer afterall." She mumbled as she started to lead the way towards the dining hall.
"Footballer!!" Aiko shouted as she heard the word footballer.