26 Shopping inside the Hotel

The glass chandeliers on the roof sparkled from the sunlight sweeping through the glass.

The workers stood in a straight line with the firm ambitions to get selected from shoppers in the mall. Luke immediately walked up to the first person in line, "Will you be willing guide us?"

The worker perked up as he rubbed his hands in anticipation.

"Of course, my dear customers! What are you looking to buy today?" The worker eagerly wore his brightest smile.

"A custard bun and strawberry milk."

His face momentarily shriveled up in confusion by Luke's blunt demand before remembering to change his face back into a big smile to the point it got creepy.

"Then I'll escort you to a dessert shop, my dear customers." He bowed to escort us while pretending the confusion never happened.

It was only then did I realize how luxurious the hotel was with the other shoppers having their servers hold their bags for them like it was nothing. There were also staff in extravagant stores that had a uniform smile to welcome them in as they desperately waited for their arrival.

Whenever a shopper exited a store, the whole line of staff bowed down to say their farewells as thanks for shopping in their store. I guessed it was the extreme form of, 'the customer is the king'.

While I was observing our surroundings, we already led to a dessert shop with a fancy twist. The chairs were wrapped around the typical white silk cloth with the tables topped with a shiny white simmering fabric with flowers embroidered into it.

The workers were holding the customer's belongings while the shoppers enjoyed their meals like the workers didn't exist.

No matter how many times I was forced into this situation, I still couldn't get used to the weird vibe from having the elites being constantly served by others. I was already feeling intimidated by seeing the other shoppers and I didn't feel like acting the same way as them.

I reluctantly sat down when the worker pulled out my chair for me. When I was about to order, the worker had already gotten Luke's approval with his nod and went to the counter to retrieve our desserts.

I frowned as the fun part shopping was gone. I liked seeing all the desserts lined up behind the glass display while deliberating on which one to get.

As I expected, the fancy version of the custard bun on a tiny plate and the strawberry milk in a crystal glass cup made me lose my appetite. I knew I needed to eat them gracefully instead of actually enjoying them without worrying about my table manners.

While, I ate my usual desserts, a doll-like girl came up to our table. Her ash brown hair slightly touched my half-eaten bun where her ribbon hairband could not keep them in place. She elegantly smiled with her fancy white frilled dress that blended into the crowd seamlessly.

"Wow! It's a coincidence seeing you here again Luke!" She lightly tapped her fingers on our table to get Luke's attention.

However, Luke showed no change in his expression as he was focused on eating his tiramisu cake and earl grey tea.

Luke never talked to anyone who violated the basic table manners, except for me where he was constantly nagging me to fix them. He thought they didn't deserve his time if they couldn't have the 'decency' the respect the other person while dining.

The girl added with Luke's indifference, "I'm actually Rika's student and that's how I was able to meet you."

Luke slightly nodded and then went back to enjoying his cake after acknowledging the fact that she existed.

From the past years of living with Luke, I got to know that he wasn't talkative to people he wasn't familiar with where he considered it wasn't necessary if they did have the manners. More like it looked like he was trying to avoid talking to them and especially if it was those that were the opposite gender.

I asked Alex about it in elementary school and apparently, it was part of a trauma from attending a family socialite party when he was three years old. He didn't tell me anything further than this but I could already somehow guess what happened.

He was probably swarmed by a large crowd of girls at the party with his good looks like it usually happens in shoujo manga with the male lead.

I guessed this was why the girl who once seemed overwhelmingly friendly in the classroom was starting to give me an intense stare like she was studying her opponent. While, I knew I that Luke was counting on me to do something about this while he was evilly enjoying his cake.

Meanwhile, I almost buried my head into the table as I complained inside my head that this was all happening because Luke didn't want to let me go sightseeing outside the hotel.

"She's one of the students you met today when you were picking me up to go to this hotel," I lost from the pressure from my student.

I kicked Luke's ankle underneath the table to tell him to fix this mess. Getting my hint, he finally uttered one sentence to his fan, "I remember now, nice to meet you. However, Rika and I will be a little busy today trying to settle in so I'm afraid we won't be able to talk much further than this."

Luke sent me a cue: 'let's get out of here' and I agreed by putting my fork and knife on the sides so the waiter can take them away. This beautiful looking girl was giving out weird vibes so I distanced myself from Luke while escaping from the dessert shop.

'I knew there was a reason why I didn't like coming to these kinds of places!' I complained while making sure the girl wasn't still glaring at us.

"Where should we go next?" Luke tapped my hand to tell me that she couldn't see us anymore.

"Anywhere that you'd like to go."

At this rate, I just wanted to go back to the hotel room and sneak back to my house in the third district when Luke fell asleep. However, Luke would know that something fishy would be going on if I went back to the hotel room immediately after eating the desserts.

We did almost get into a fight after taking a great amount of effort of trying to strike a decent deal with him. I planned to look around three or four stores and then return back to our room and go back to my parent's place in the middle of the night to not rise Luke's suspicions.

I was in front of a modern store that rivaled a low-quality shop in the first district when I finished scheming inside my head. It was like it was newly built, but the technology still looked downgraded since the third district wasn't developed to the extent as the first district.

A line of employees waited to greet us while they performed 90 degrees bow, "Welcome to the Floral Boutique!"

I took a step back as I didn't feel like following Luke inside this store. Whenever I went to these kinds of places, the staff always expected me to make a big purchase in turn of treating me like a princess.

Before I could hesitate to go in, Luke pulled me into the shop. By the time, I was aware that I was not in front of the shop anymore, I realized I was in the preteen clothing section.

Since I was already here anyways, I picked up a decent sweater that was embellished with flowers.

I looked at the price tag to see it listed: $5,750 in the currency of the third district.

I quickly looked around the store to see if anyone was looking in my direction. Thankfully, all the other employees were busy with the other customers.

I carefully put the sweater back down making sure it wasn't damaged or wrinkled in any aspect possible and slowly walked away from that sweater.

'If all the items were this expensive today, it was going to be a long day.' I sighed while putting a distance between myself and the merchandise.