I Became a Hotelier at the Goryeo National Hotel - Chapter 1

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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※ Please note that the places and characters appearing in this work differ from historical facts.

Episode 1

‘I’m screwed….’

Seo Rin had a gut feeling. Today’s interview was also a failure.

This being her 100th hotelier interview, Seo Rin’s intuition was now at level 100.

Unfortunately, this place also started with questions about education. After revealing she was a high school graduate, the interviewers didn’t even spare her a glance.

All Seo Rin managed to say during the interview was a 20-second self-introduction.

‘And today my seating luck was particularly terrible too….’

The interviewees sitting on both sides of her happened to be graduates from prestigious overseas universities. The two competed to elaborate in fluent English about their backgrounds in becoming prepared hoteliers.

No one paid any attention to Seo Rin sitting between them, and she had to remain silent as a mute throughout the entire interview.

The interview ended without her having a chance to present her self-studied Language Certification and various National Technical Certifications, and ultimately Seo Rin burst into tears as she left the interview room.

‘If this is how it’s going to be, they shouldn’t have written “education irrelevant”….’

How many hotel internships had she gone through to become a full-time hotelier?

Now she simply wanted to find her own hotel and become a hotelier who brings happiness to guests, but they just wouldn’t give her that opportunity.

Ding―

A message notification sound shortly after coming outside. It was a message from the hotel where she had just interviewed.

Hello, this is the recruitment manager from XX Hotel.

We sincerely thank Oh Seo Rin for the interest and application you showed in XX Hotel. However, you do not match the type of talent we are seeking, so we regrettably must notify you of your rejection….

“Wow, how long has it been since I left the interview room.”

Ding―

Another message came in succession.

When Seo Rin checked the new message, her heart sank with a thud.

Sis, sorry. I got a job opportunity in America but needed money so I withdrew the deposit. By the time you see this text, I’ll be on a plane. I roughly packed up your stuff. I’ll pay you back when I succeed!

“Crazy!”

She immediately pressed the call button, but her brother’s phone was turned off.

“Oh Chang Hee―!!”

Oh Seo Rin roared into the air, but there was no way her cry could reach her younger brother who was probably flying through the distant sky by now.

“Sob!”

Seo Rin’s legs gave out and she collapsed right there, crying loudly. Passersby glanced at her, but she had no energy to care.

The years that had passed flashed before her eyes. How much her homeroom teacher had tried to dissuade her when she, who had always ranked 1st or 2nd in the entire school during high school, told him she would give up going to university.

‘He said it was such a shame since my grades were more than enough to get into a prestigious university….’

But in a situation where she had to take care of her younger brother, university was just a pipe dream.

To be betrayed by the younger brother she had raised like her own child, even giving up university for him, felt like the world was collapsing.

“…Mom, Dad.”

Seo Rin, who had been crying so hard that her mascara had completely smeared, suddenly felt an overwhelming longing to see her deceased parents.

On impulse, Seo Rin turned on her phone and searched for directions to her parents’ grave.

“What. Two hours?”

But what did it matter? She had plenty of time today… and now there was no family waiting for her at home.

‘…That damn bastard.’

Even though he was like that, he was still her younger brother, so worry came before resentment.

‘I heard there are a lot of overseas employment scams these days, he must have looked into it properly, right?’

Shaking her head as if to dispel her thoughts, Seo Rin decided to visit her parents for once and boarded the red intercity bus to Paju where their graves were located.

* * *

Yongmi-ri, Gwangtan-myeon, Paju-si. The place where her parents’ graves were located.

After getting off at her destination, Seo Rin bought simple ritual offerings at a nearby supermarket and began climbing the hill.

The moment she saw her parents’ graves, she burst into tears.

Because she hadn’t been able to come due to being busy, grass had grown so much that it almost completely covered the tombstones.

As she pulled weeds around the graves with her hands to tidy up as best she could, Seo Rin burst into tears again.

“Sob, Mom… Dad… I’m having such a hard time…”

Seo Rin arranged the ritual food and bowed, then thoroughly complained about the hotels that had been ignoring her and her immature younger brother.

“Phew…”

How long had she been doing that? Once she felt somewhat relieved, Seo Rin cleaned up and packed her things to head down.

Then a brown sign caught her eye.

“Hmm? Hyeeumwon… Site?”

As if enchanted, Seo Rin changed direction. Before long, a two-story gray building with a sign reading ‘Hyeeumwon Site Visitor Center’ appeared.

Before going in, Seo Rin took out her compact mirror to check her face and was horrified at her appearance.

“Ah! I rode the bus looking like this?!”

Her mascara had smeared, making both her eyes look like a panda’s.

‘No wonder the bus driver was staring at me like he’d seen a ghost!’

After roughly cleaning her face with wet tissue, Seo Rin approached the entrance, but the door was locked.

“Huh?!”

Only then did she notice the ‘Regular Holiday’ notice hanging on the door.

“Sigh. I came all this way.”

Looking beside the center, she could see a wide open area spread out refreshingly behind a large information board. Curious about what used to be there, Seo Rin walked toward the information board.

And there she discovered a name written in huge letters.

[Goryeo National Hotel Hyeeumwon]

“What? Ho-o-tel?”

The place she had come to by chance on the day she failed her hotel interview used to be a hotel in the past?

“So the only place I can go is a ruined hotel like this, is that it?!”

After failing interviews a whopping 100 times, Seo Rin had become a bit cynical. She spun around and headed back toward the entrance, pouring out her inner thoughts.

“Fine! I’m tired too! No matter how hard I try, if they don’t appreciate me, I’ll quit this hotelier thing! Now I’m the one saying no!”

However, Seo Rin stopped after just a few steps.

She knew. She could never truly give up being a hotelier.

The hotel accommodation voucher she had won by chance when she applied as a child. Thanks to this gift-like event in their weary daily life, her family was able to spend a rare happy time together.

The hotel interior that was as grand and splendid as a palace, and the hoteliers who were consistently kind to them as they felt bewildered and awkward around the unfamiliar facilities.

The moment she saw the smiles bloom on the faces of her parents and younger sibling, who had lost their laughter to their impoverished life, Seo Rin’s dream was decided.

To someday become a hotelier who brings smiles and happiness to others!

From that day forward, Seo Rin had lived carrying ‘that precious day’ that had sparkled like a jewel in her heart like a lighthouse.

“…Well, since I came all this way. Should I at least take a look at the empty lot before I go?”

She was actually curious. To think that hotels had existed even in ancient Goryeo.

“That hotel must have had hoteliers too. Who knows? Maybe I’ll receive good energy from my predecessors and my luck for passing will open up.”

Seo Rin had forgotten that she had just said she would quit being a hotelier.

She skimmed through the contents of the information board and then walked toward the site where the hotel had stood.

A little later, Seo Rin plopped down on the grassy area, took out soju from the bag containing ritual offerings, popped the cap open refreshingly, and gulped it down.

“…Ahh.”

Though she would get drunk from just one or two glasses of soju, today she particularly craved alcohol, so Seo Rin impulsively downed about half a bottle at once.

The sun was beginning to set and it was getting chilly, but with the alcohol warming her up, it seemed bearable.

“I feel gooood! Shomething tellsh me today ish gonna be a good day!”

Seo Rin flopped backward, giggled foolishly, and immediately fell asleep from the alcohol.

In doing so, she failed to notice that dark clouds suddenly gathered in the clear sky and the surroundings rapidly grew dark.

—Rumble.

In an instant, the world was plunged into pitch-black darkness, and soon raindrops began to fall. After just a drop or two, the rain quickly turned into a downpour, but Seo Rin, who had fallen into a drunken stupor, lay there motionless and silent.

—Crack!!

Dark clouds collided, thunder struck the ears, and howling winds began to rage like the cries of giant beasts.

At the moment when the surrounding grass roots and trees seemed about to be uprooted with a groaning sound,

suddenly the moon broke through the clouds and everything in the world stopped.

The raindrops, the raging wind, the lightning and thunder.

As moonlight poured down on Seo Rin like a living creature, the surrounding landscape that the light touched rapidly crumbled away, and soon Seo Rin’s body gently disappeared into the moonlight.

Then everything returned to normal.

* * *

Neigh—

“…Ugh, so noisy.”

At the unfamiliar sound that continued without stopping, Seo Rin lifted her eyelids.

“…Hmm? Wh-where is this?”

Everything around her was trees and grass. As Seo Rin tried to sit up, she recalled her last memory before falling asleep.

‘I was drinking soju at the Hyeeumwon site and… hm? What happened after that…?’

When I tried to recall what happened after that, my head throbbed with a hangover.

I tried to get up, but something was covering my body.

“…Hanbok? What the hell is this situation— Ugh!”

As my mind cleared a bit, my brow furrowed involuntarily at the musty smell that hit me.

Seo Rin quickly looked around. Horses were everywhere.

“This place… don’t tell me it’s a stable?”

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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