Chapter 275 Sasaeng Fan
The initial phase of the show recording went quite smoothly. Fans waited in the designated area outside the hotel every day, interacting with their favorite stars. Under Leopold's supervision, security was tighter than ever, but there were still some extreme sasaeng fans trying to sneak past and break into the floors where the artists were staying.
At lunchtime, Lily sat down across from Leopold with her tray and sighed.
"These people will stop at nothing to secretly photograph celebrities' private lives."
Leopold ate slowly and asked, "What happened?"
Lily took a sip of water before saying, "Today we caught two stalker fans in the stairwell on the tenth floor pretending to be cleaning staff. Even after being caught red-handed, they refused to admit anything. One of them was even live-streaming."
Leopold asked, "How did you handle it?"
Lily said, "We asked them to leave. But before they left, they gave the security guard a real tongue-lashing. He's only been here two months, and he's still young. He looked upset about the whole thing."
Leopold said, "Anyone would feel bad about being yelled at for no reason. Add a hardship bonus to his paycheck this month."
Lily nodded. In the hotels Leopold managed, this wasn't the first time he’d given bonuses to wronged employees. As long as it was verified that the employee was not at fault and the situation was caused by unreasonable guests, the hotel would give the employee a bonus.
After lunch, Leopold made his usual rounds through the hotel. At the elevator, he ran into several young girls who looked like hotel guests.
He didn't pay much attention at first, until he heard them start talking about celebrities, with some of them guessing which floors the artists were staying on.
The elevator doors opened. Leopold followed the girls into the elevator and pressed the button for the eighth floor.
One girl wearing a khaki trench coat smiled at Leopold and said, "Could you press five for us?"
Leopold pressed the number 5 button. The girl's eyes curved into crescents as she smiled and thanked him.
"Are you staying here too?"
Leopold was going to inspect the eighth floor. He glanced at her and replied expressionlessly, "Yeah. Are you here for tourism?"
The girl immediately exchanged a meaningful look with the others and said with a smile, "I guess you could say that. Do you have any fun places to recommend?"
Out of basic courtesy to guests, Leopold mentioned a few famous and worthwhile attractions in Seaside City. But the girls didn't seem very interested, so Leopold didn't say more.
Then the girls started quietly discussing how to sneak onto the tenth floor, where Ryan was staying. Leopold stood near the elevator door, saying nothing, but he already had a plan in mind.
"Keep it down," the girl in the trench coat reminded her companions.
Leopold kept his eyes down, pretending not to care.
The elevator stopped on the fifth floor. Leopold stepped aside to let them pass. The girls filed out one by one.
Just as the elevator doors were about to close, he heard their chatter.
"That guy in the elevator was really handsome."
"Yeah, he was pretty hot. Too bad he's not a celebrity, or I would've snapped some photos."
"What's the point of photographing him? Our target is Ryan. I've already figured out what to do."
The last sentence came from the girl in the khaki trench coat. Leopold felt it necessary to remind the security department to raise the security level again. Who knew what trouble this group of girls would cause?
Leopold immediately contacted the security manager and had his team members Gabriel and Evan Wren work with the security department to fully protect the artists' privacy. He also sent information about the girls on the fifth floor to Lily, asking her to tell the staff on that floor to keep a close eye on their movements.
However, Leopold still underestimated these fans' obsession with their idols.
The fourth day of show recording.
The tenth floor and above of the hotel had luxury suites and presidential suites. The artists and production crew were mainly arranged on floors seven through ten. Starting from the eleventh floor, the balconies had a stepped design that receded inward, which meant you could see part of the tenth-floor balcony from the eleventh-floor balcony. And that girl who was supposed to be staying on the fifth floor had somehow managed to get a room directly above Ryan's.
After finishing recording, Ryan returned to his room and went to take a shower. He casually tossed his T-shirt on the sofa and walked into the bathroom shirtless.
At that moment, the person in the bedroom heard the commotion outside and immediately climbed out of bed, nervously peeking toward the living room.
Through the frosted glass door of the bathroom, she could vaguely see a blurred figure. She took out her phone and pressed the shutter button, aiming at the bathroom.
With her favorite celebrity right in front of her, the girl felt both nervous and thrilled. She saw Ryan's phone on the table, picked it up to look at the screen, wanting to see what her idol used as wallpaper—to her, these were unique private details.
Suddenly, her phone rang. The sound startled her and she quickly hung up, looking toward the bathroom in panic. Fortunately, the sound of the shower in the bathroom covered the phone ringtone, otherwise it would have really alerted Ryan.
The girl quickly put her phone on silent. She had originally just wanted to take some photos of Ryan's daily life, like his room and his luggage. She hadn't expected him to finish recording so early today and trap her in the room.
She first found an unoccupied guest bedroom to hide in, then opened Messenger to see messages from her friend.
DreamyDiva: [Eve, how's it going? Get any good stuff?]
Eve Lorne replied: [I got photos of his bed and his luggage, which has tons of scripts in it. Now I've got first-hand info on Ryan's shows airing next year.]
DreamyDiva: [Nice! Didn't find any other juicy stuff?]
Ryan had always publicly claimed to be single with no girlfriend.
Eve: [I didn't have time to look through everything before he came back.]
To show off that she was in Ryan's room right now, she even sent several selfies of herself sitting on the bed, with the background including many of Ryan's personal items from his luggage.
DreamyDiva sent a shocked emoji and asked: [So what now?]
Eve replied: [I'll leave after he's gone. I'm hiding in a closet in one of the guest bedrooms right now.]
DreamyDiva: [You better hide well, don't let him find you.]
Eve: [I'm so nervous my palms are all sweaty.]
Eve: [But it's also incredibly exciting.]
DreamyDiva: [Me too, I'm worried for you but also excited. You're actually in the same room as Ryan!]
Eve: [Gotta go, I think he just got out of the shower.]
DreamyDiva: [OK.]
Eve hid in the closet, not daring to make a sound. But after crouching on the floor for so long, her legs were going numb. She wanted to move around, but the space was too small. She could only pray in her heart that Ryan would leave soon.
However, according to Murphy's Law, whatever you fear most is what will happen.
Ryan made a phone call, and within a few minutes, his assistant Dashiell arrived. Eve couldn't quite hear what they were talking about. She pushed the closet door open a crack and finally heard them talking about allergies, and it was actually related to Summer. This was big news! Eve quickly turned on the video recording function—she was going to use this to "nail" Summer.
This was basically the person involved personally revealing dirt on the other party. The value of this video was obvious.
Eve wasn't really a true fan, at most she was just a reckless stalker fan with no boundaries.
Ryan and Dashiell chatted on and off. Later, Ryan started rehearsing his lines while Dashiell quietly played games nearby. This was driving Eve crazy in the closet.
However, even after Ryan finished dinner, he didn't seem to have any plans to go out.
Eve needed to use the bathroom and her legs were completely numb. Unable to think of any other solution, she decided to take a risk and go out.
Meanwhile, Leopold ran into those girls from the elevator again in the fan interaction area, but he noticed the one who wore the trench coat yesterday was missing.
He said to Lily, "One person is missing. Go check where she is."