Junior Idols (Part II)
Check-in The walk to the hotel takes only five minutes. Hana on my right, holding my hand, Reina on my left, holding my other hand. Both talking nonstop, laughing, sometimes bending forward or backward so they can talk to each other around my body. I try to look at them, but the basecaps hide their faces most of the time, and they don’t look up at me. Mom’s walking in front of us. Brisk pace. The hotel is at the corner of the next block from the warehouse. A small neon sign, the windows at the entrance are dark. I can see the guy from the warehouse standing in front of the main door, smoking. There’s a dark, narrow alleyway right next to the hotel, and mom takes a sharp turn, makes a ‘come here’ …