A Matter of Time - Bbangsaz

Chapter 13

Minji's POV

— Are you feeling better? —one of the men asked Hanni.

— Yes, thank you for helping me before. —She said kindly.

— There's no need... My husband Manuel, the man who was here before, has gone to get the papers so he can register you— he said, smiling.

—Are you seriously going to let us spend the night here? —he nodded—. Thank you so much. We swear that tomorrow morning we will no longer be here; we will look for another... —the man interrupted me.

— No, sweetheart, you can stay until Monday, when the buses come— he said, looking at us. —But it won't come for free.

—What do you want to do to us? —Hanni asked with fear.

— The way you're saying it makes it seem like you want to hire them for a striptease or something similar,— said the one we assumed was Patrick's husband, laughing —Don't worry girls, you will only have to help in the dining room and kitchen at night, many of the workers will not be able to come due to the snow alert. Do you accept the deal? —I nodded without thinking twice and the man gave me some sheets of paper and a pen—. Fill this out, when you finish you give it to this handsome man here and he will take it to the room. Well, I'm going to continue working. —he gave Patrick a tender kiss—. By the way, I'm Manuel. — And then he left.

— I'll leave you alone so you can fill that out, I'll be at the counter. —We saw him walk away.

Hanni immediately let go of my hand.

—Here, fill this out. —I passed her a sheet.

When I finished I saw that Hanni had not written anything.

— Pham, it's your info, not an exam.

— This hand is still numb and I don't know how to write with the other.— I took the papers from her and tried to fill them out myself —Do you know that much about me?

— No, I've only stated the obvious... I'm missing your date of birth and the document number, I got the rest — she looked at me strangely — Don't make a scene about why I know those things, the info I know about you are the same as mine, country... City... All that.

— Okay, okay, I don't know the document number, but it's written down here. —She took out her passport, I copied the number—And my date of birth is October 6...

—From 2004—she looked at me strangely again—You're a year older than me so I know what year you were born.

— I have not said anything.

—You haven't said anything but you're looking at me strangely.

— I don't look at you in any way. —She said, standing up, she became a little unstable and I held her behind her.

—Hey, are you okay? —I said worried.

— Yes, it was just dizziness when I stood up suddenly,— she said, putting her hands on mine that were on her waist. Let's give this to the Lord. —She took my hands away from her quickly.

We went to reception and handed in the papers.

We climbed the stairs of the motel and arrived at a room.

Patrick opened the door and we went through.

We entered a small room with light brown walls and the floor covered by a navy blue carpet. The person who made these rooms was not a very good interior decorator but at least we can sleep well here I thought; There was only a bed in a corner against the wall next to the window, a small lamp illuminated the place, a wooden chair in front next to a not very large table, a small closet and a door that led to the bathroom, where only two people could fit if they were close together.