Daily Life
"Haaaaahm."
My day began in a bed so plush it might as well have been a cloud. Sitting up, I gave the tail on my dinosaur pajamas a testing little flick. When I swayed my hips from side to side, the tail stitched to my backside swayed right along with them. Satisfied with the result, I drew the curtains.
Sunlight spilled into the room, and what little drowsiness had been clinging to me burned off at once. Standing in it felt like slotting a battery into a charger. My energy filled right back up.
After soaking in the light for a while, I set off for my next destination. Slippers whispering along the floor, I walked straight down the middle of the hall. A bulletin board ran along the corridor, pinned with photos of me and the staff. Beside it hung another board, the sort you might find in a barracks, papered over with printed notices of every kind.
I studied today's menu with grave attention. Breakfast, lunch, and dinner mattered more than anything else in the world. Nothing but delicious things. I smiled, thoroughly pleased, and crept softly toward the office.
Before going in, I inspected my outfit. The dinosaur pajamas had achieved perfect unity with my body. Content, I flattened myself to the wall like a ninja and peered inside. Only Bora was there.
Night duty rotated once a week. Days when I could see both Haru and Bora came only twice in seven. The other five belonged to different staff, and I wasn't close enough with them to stroll up without hesitating. Lately I'd been making an effort, at least, and going to meals with them.
Today, though, it was Bora, so walking in was perfectly fine. I ducked low like a cat and slipped into the office. Small as I was, I infiltrated the partitioned room without a hitch. Bora was hammering away at her keyboard, so absorbed in her work that she didn't seem to notice me at all.
A wicked little grin tugged at my mouth. The plan to startle her flashed through my head. I claimed the ground behind her back and closed in, killing my footsteps as best I could.
"Rawr!"
I charged with a shout meant to scare the life out of her. Bora was not particularly scared. As if she'd known I was coming all along, she spun her chair and scooped me up.
"Hana, you're awake?"
"Y-you weren't even surprised, Bora?"
"I was surprised~"
She said so, and her face showed not a trace of surprise. Out of pure spite I puffed my cheeks. Bora laughed at the sight and stroked my hair.
"There's a way to tell when you're coming, you know~"
"Really?"
It wasn't as if they'd stuck a GPS on me. I wanted to know how she did it, but Bora only grinned and refused to explain. Did I smell strange or something? The question nagged at me. Right now, though, something more important demanded my attention.
"Bora, let's go eat!"
"All right, all right."
She stood from the chair without putting me down. Those long, straight legs made me envious. I'd have to grow another foot and a half before I could hope for a pair like hers. Mine were stubby. The proportions were fine, but there simply wasn't enough height to work with, so even the longest legs I could manage still came out to more or less the same thing.
"They're serving the jjolmyeon you love today. Those spicy, springy noodles."
Bora said it while glancing over the menu board.
"Yeah! I'm gonna eat a mountain of jjolmyeon!"
I fully intended to massacre it. The cafeteria's quality kept climbing, until it had nothing to envy in a restaurant run by some famous chef. In the half year and more I'd lived at the research institute, no place had changed as much as this one. Good food sent my satisfaction with life soaring. Food had to taste good. Then everything else could be forgiven.
Still in my dinosaur pajamas, I rode the elevator down to the first floor, the added luxury being that I was nestled in Bora's arms the whole way. These days, being carried was far more comfortable than walking.
On the first floor the front-desk staff were already bustling, getting the day underway. Watching them come in early and work so hard, I thought I really ought to learn from their example. The thought, of course, remained a thought.
"Good morning!"
"Oh my, Hana's up?"
They returned the greeting warmly. Now and then one of them would even pat my head. If I kept showing my face like this, surely it would pay off someday.
In the cafeteria I piled my tray high with jjolmyeon and dug in. Bora had rice with soybean-paste stew, and I didn't forget to sneak bites of her side dishes. Jjolmyeon alone left the mouth a little lonely.
Back in my room, I flung myself onto the bed. People said you shouldn't lie down right after eating, but the bed's temptation was not something I could resist. Bora, who had followed me in, was another matter.
"You have to brush your teeth, Hana."
"Nngh!"
Brushing after a meal was nonnegotiable. I buried my face in the blankets to make it clear I did not want to go, and Bora, taking in the display, tickled my side.
"Hyahak!"
The tickling wrung a scream of unknown origin out of me. She scooped me up and headed for the bathroom, set me down, picked up the toothbrush, squeezed out a long ribbon of toothpaste, and held it out. I took it and started brushing. The sight of my teeth—two of them already gone, leaving gaps—sank my mood. A mountain of baby teeth still waited to come out. I didn't know how many, but surely at least a few more would have to go.
I shook the gloomy thoughts loose and brushed in earnest, watching myself in the mirror. The toothpaste was chocolate-flavored, so a sweet cocoa scent spread through my mouth with every scrub. I successfully fought down the powerful urge to swallow the foam. The old me would probably have eaten at least a little. Proof that I had grown.
When I finished and came back out, Bora was getting ready to leave.
"You're getting off?"
"Mm. Once the day staff get here, I have to head out."
I wanted her to stay longer, but she'd pulled an all-nighter on duty and needed to go home and sleep. Holding her back would only be a nuisance. I sat blankly on the bed and turned on the TV. The news was on. I would much rather have been watching Little Magician Rumi, but it wasn't airing at this hour. A proper adult, after all, was supposed to watch the news in the morning.
While I endured the boring broadcast, the sound of people arriving for work gradually filled the hallway. About fifteen of them worked in the office, more women than men. Maybe because I was a little girl? Dropping by felt less burdensome that way. I still didn't really understand what any of them did. Whenever I went in, they were typing and holding meetings. I wanted to ask sometime. From what I'd heard, they coordinated all sorts of work with Starlight Foods, so it was probably something along those lines.
I slipped out into the hall. Still in my dinosaur pajamas, I waved at the arriving staff.
"Hi!"
"Hana, sleep well?"
We'd grown close enough to greet each other easily now. Watching them come in, I grinned and grinned. It was time for me to play. The sight of people at work put me in a strangely good mood, and there was nothing I could do about it. It was probably the same feeling an unemployed person got, watching office workers head in at the crack of dawn. Unlike the unemployed, though, I was earning an absurd amount of money, so my rest was entirely legal.
I didn't have school today, which meant the whole day was free. Now that I was actually attending, the lessons here had stopped. Homework remained, of course, but elementary-school homework could be dispatched without spending much time on it.
I was still watching the news when Haru came into my room.
"Haru!"
"Hana, did you sleep well?"
She slipped off her shoes, neat in her office clothes, and gathered me into her arms. Then she buried her face against my neck and drew a long, deep breath.
"Hana's scent is so nice~"
With her face shoved into my neck like that, she sounded like a criminal. I told her exactly what I thought.
"Haru, you seem like a criminal."
Haru looked wounded. Her face crumpled as if she might cry.
"Hana, that's too mean!"
Even so, she didn't let me go. Dangling in her arms, I stayed still. Haru's embrace was every bit as soft and comfortable as Bora's. The secret, of course, was chest size.
If someone told me to let a man hold me, I absolutely would not. A man cradling a man in his arms! An outrage against heaven itself. So I was desperately trying not to be held by men. Not that I had many occasions to meet adult men in the first place.