Chapter 173 – Her X Her X Her (22)
Jin Sua’s lecture and fan meeting is being held at a buffet in a famous hotel in Gangnam.
Royal Hans Hotel.
It was a hotel so famous for being expensive that even the building visible through the car’s windshield was impressive.
Back when I was working the night shift at the convenience store, I used to just drool while watching hotel buffet review videos on YouTube.
Today, thanks to Ye-hwa, I get to eat for free.
Come to think of it, having Su-jeong live upstairs was really lucky for me.
Ye-hwa’s car drew a smooth curve as it entered the underground parking lot, and after finally parking, Ye-hwa let out a soft sigh.
“Huu, we’re here.”
Her driving skills were better than I thought.
She didn’t have many chances to drive, so her hands on the steering wheel seemed a little awkward, but she was stable and not too frustrating, so it seemed she had a talent for driving.
“Good job. Here, this.”
“Ah, thank you.”
Ye-hwa gulped down the cold bottled water I handed her.
The scene of her slender neck moving up and down as she drank was quite captivating.
“Pah…”
“If you’re done, give it here.”
“Here, ah…”
I took the water bottle that Ye-hwa had half-drunk and drank from it myself. Ye-hwa’s mouth twitched as if she had something to say.
Cute, so cute.
Enjoying her reaction, I got out of the car.
“Please go up to the 3rd floor.”
When we arrived at the lounge and stated our purpose, an employee guided us and held the elevator for us. There were signs indicating the way, but the service was exceptional.
The Royal Hans Hotel was famous for its sky buffet and other restaurants, but the buffet on the 3rd floor was the largest and most suitable for a lecture.
When we got off the elevator on the 3rd floor, an employee came and checked our tickets.
“If you show us your reservation details, we will help you enter.”
“Here you go.”
“Yes, confirmed. You can start your meal right away.”
I thought we might have to wait since we came early, but entry was allowed 30 minutes before the start. Once seated, we could get food and eat.
Ye-hwa and I each got the food we wanted and returned to our seats.
As expected of her image, Ye-hwa had put a moderate amount of food on her plate, leaving space between each item. It was almost a textbook appetizer.
Of course, I filled my plate to the brim with fried and meat dishes.
“There are quite a lot of people.”
Just by looking around the hall, there seemed to be over 100 people. Maybe there would be around 200 by the time it started.
There were couples like us, but also same-sex pairs. There were also many cases of middle and high school students coming with their mothers.
Ye-hwa shook her head.
“This is actually a small crowd.”
“Really?”
“Yes, Jin Sua is so famous. Usually, there are a lot more…”
Ye-hwa started talking about Jin Sua.
As I listened to her while looking at her, she stopped talking and tilted her head.
“Heh. You must really like her. You seem a bit excited.”
“……”
Ye-hwa pursed her lips and glared at me. I smiled and said,
“I’ll eat well.”
“……Okay.”
Clink, clink.
‘Delicious.’
Unlike other buffets that cost 10 or 20 thousand won, the quality of each dish was outstanding.
Recently, I’ve been eating a lot of expensive food since I’ve been making a lot of money, so I wasn’t as deeply moved, but it was still a taste that made me feel good.
‘Ah, right.’
Come to think of it, Delia had recently started helping me with my Thousand Mile Qi Cultivation every dawn, and as a reward, we had decided to go on a gourmet tour together next time.
That was something I needed to start thinking about soon.
“This is really delicious. Try it.”
“This?”
“Yes, that one, that one.”
While I was talking with Ye-hwa or eating while lost in thought, a sudden microphone sound came.
“Ah~ ah~ Hello everyone~”
Looking ahead, there was a woman with a very bright impression standing there.
A woman with neat, dark brown hair. She had slightly cat-like eyes, but her smiling eyes were enough to give a kind impression.
As people turned their heads, cheers erupted.
“Hehe, nice to meet you. I’m Jin Sua~!”
Jin Sua smiled and waved her hand.
“Oh my, so many people came…”
Among solo singer-songwriters, she had a lot of fans.
She had never been involved in any scandals and was also famous for donating a large portion of her earnings. There was also a story that she had a hard life after losing her father and older sister in an accident when she was young.
Well, actually, none of that mattered. The biggest reason was that she was very pretty and sang well. She was also only twenty-six years old.
I had seen her face in photos and videos a few times, but seeing her in person was something else.
Maybe if Su-jeong got a full makeover, she would look just like that. Their original looks seemed similar.
Her songs were sometimes played at the cafe Delia that I was currently running. Her songs, characterized by a deep, clear voice, matched the atmosphere of the cafe well.
It wasn’t like I had put them on myself. The choice of songs for the cafe was entirely up to the part-timers.
Sometimes, I saw them put on about five songs and play rock-paper-scissors to decide which song to choose… If they were happy working like that, I was grateful.
“Thank you so much for coming today! First, the schedule is…”
Looking to the side, Ye-hwa was staring straight ahead.
She wasn’t making a fuss or anything, but her eyes were shining. When I stared at her face, Ye-hwa couldn’t stand it and looked at me.
“Why…?”
“No, it’s just. You look happy.”
After saying that, I also looked ahead.
******
The lecture went smoothly.
Jin Sua cleverly narrated even stories that anyone would find boring, and people responded well to it.
Knowing that there were many people in this place who had dreams related to music, she also talked a lot about the path of music.
‘Experience.’
When she moved on to stories about composing and writing lyrics, Ye-hwa listened to Jin Sua’s stories even more intently.
Listening a lot and gaining various experiences. It was a cliché, but it resonated with her. There were also stories about mentality.
Since she hadn’t come here with the intention of gaining some kind of enlightenment, Ye-hwa listened to the lecture as if she was listening to a light story.
‘Jin-hyeon is… huh?’
Suddenly, thinking of Jin-hyeon, I turned to look at him, and surprisingly, he was listening to the lecture diligently.
To be honest, I thought he would just eat and play on his phone, but he had a focused expression as if he was thinking about something.
Rather, he always smiled, so that kind of expression was honestly a bit cool…
‘Ugh. Get a grip.’
Focusing back on the lecture, Ye-hwa followed Jin Sua with her eyes.
“Now it’s quiz time~! There will be various questions about me. If you know the answer, please raise your hand!”
Today’s lecture and fan meeting, which was divided into three parts, consisted of:
Lectures in parts 1 and 2. And a quiz and fan signing event in part 3.
The lecture was over, and it was now time for the quiz in part 3.
The prizes for the quiz ranged from signed notebooks and limited edition albums to headphones.
Among them, the most outstanding prizes were the guitar and the violin.
“Since we can’t just let everyone go wild~ there are some…”
The simple rule was that if a person got three answers wrong, they were completely banned from participating in the remaining quiz time, and each person could only take one prize.
“Ye-hwa, are you confident?”
When I looked at her with an expectant expression, Jin-hyeon asked from the side. Ye-hwa replied,
“Um. A little?”
She wasn’t a hardcore fan of Jin Sua, but she knew most of the information. She had also watched her win in real-time when she was in high school.
With confidence, the quiz began immediately.
“The first question is…!”
As expected, the questions were quite easy. They were mostly very basic questions, and many of them were from the lecture.
“Correct! Wow! Congratulations~”
Ye-hwa deliberately skipped the easy questions.
Even as people were getting prizes one by one, she waited until the prize she wanted was left.
She had considered raising her hand when the headphones came out, but there were several much better headphones in the studio.
“There are only two questions left! The prize for the next question is a guitar~!”
This was the real deal.
“The question is…!”
Soon after the question was announced, Ye-hwa immediately raised her hand.
However.
“Yes! The student wearing the white hat?”
“The answer is…”
The question was easier than she thought, and she wasn’t even chosen, so Ye-hwa didn’t get the prize.
“Correct! Congratulations~ Please tell me your name and come find me after?”
But there was still one more question left.
“This is the last question! The prize is an electric violin, but unlike the previous ones, it’s really difficult, so think carefully before answering! The question is…”
“Ah.”
Ye-hwa sighed after hearing the question.
I don’t know.
The electric violin question was hell compared to the previous questions.
She had to look at several words on the screen and accurately divide them into what Jin Sua liked and disliked, but there were too many words.
Even after quickly opening Wikipedia, she couldn’t get a grasp on it. The challengers kept shouting out wrong answers.
‘Ah, that’s too bad…’
Ye-hwa clicked her tongue.
She wanted the electric violin.
At that moment, Jin Sua’s voice rang out again.
“Yes! Over there~ the handsome man with glasses at the back table?”
I hadn’t been conscious of the glasses, but Jin Sua was looking at the table where I was sitting.
“?”
Wondering what was going on, I looked to the side, and Jin-hyeon was standing up from his seat wearing glasses.
