Daily Life (2)
"Aaaagh!"
I screamed and shuddered. It wasn't warm water coming out of the shower, but cold.
"Nngh..."
One look told me why. I hadn't turned the faucet toward the hot side. I twisted it that way at once, and warm water burst from the showerhead. I set about washing my long hair as thoroughly as I could, working it this way and that. Maybe because it fell all the way to my waist, it took forever. Back when I was a man, five minutes had been enough to finish my hair; since becoming a girl, it seemed to take two or three times as long.
Once I was done, I wrapped a towel roughly around my head and stepped out of the bathroom. Haru was sitting on the bed, waiting for me. I scooted over to her side.
"Hana, sit right here!"
"Okay!"
I settled demurely in front of her. Haru switched on the hair dryer and dried my hair with careful attention, and as the warm air washed over me I surrendered my head to her hands. Drowsiness came creeping in. This was the hour when sleep found me easiest of all.
I'd already eaten, and now warm air was drying my hair... Eyes closed, I simply felt Haru's touch. It couldn't last forever, though. My hair was dry.
"What kind of hairstyle would you like today?"
Haru asked, fiddling with my hair. Most of my styles were ones she put together for me, and today I wanted to get by with a simple ponytail. It was the most convenient of them all.
"Just tie it up!"
"Yes, yes."
With that, Haru produced a hair tie from somewhere and gathered my hair into one place. Under her hands, something very much like a ponytail appeared on me.
"Whoa!"
I couldn't hide how happy I was to have a finished hairstyle. Of course, come nightfall, the hair would vanish anyway.
"Hana. Unnie's heading off to work, okay?"
"Bye-bye!"
The moment Haru left, quiet settled over the room. It was nine in the morning, the hour when most office workers began their day. For me, of course, it was time to loaf, everything I needed to do already finished.
I turned on the computer and started my day, because what I had to do just then mattered. I went into Rumi's fan cafe and looked over the event schedule. It was the best site there was for collecting her merch, and now and then they even gave goods away as event prizes.
I was scrolling through the posts when one caught my eye.
My eyes sparkled. A limited collection? That was something I absolutely had to have. I moved the mouse and clicked the post.
Now that you've read this post, you become aware of blinking.
You become aware of where your tongue is, too.
You become aware of breathing, too.
"Ack!"
It was an exceptionally nasty bait post. I hit the report button at once. How could someone play a trick that mean? I prayed the person who wrote it would be struck by heaven's own wrath.
After I'd poked around online for a while, the time slipped away in a rush. Get absorbed in anything, and the hours flying past was simply a given.
Little by little, it became time for lunch. Clutching my empty stomach, I changed clothes. I loved my dinosaur pajamas, but wearing them until the sun stood at high noon felt a bit much. Among the clothes, though, nothing appealed to me.
"There aren't any pants..."
Bora and Haru, having caught on that I wore nothing but pants, had cleared every pair hanging in the little wardrobe in my room. There were surely more in another closet, but I was too lazy to go looking. Skirts were all that remained. Feeling as though I were carving the very bone from my body, I picked one up. A long-sleeved top thrown on any which way, plus a frilled skirt, and I looked like a child dressed to suit her age.
In the mirror stood a cute kid whose baby fat hadn't quite left her cheeks, wearing a thoroughly sullen face. I had wanted to gaze on a golden, precious child — the sort you could tuck into your eye and feel no pain... Now that I was that very person, the feeling was strangely hard to name.
Anyway, once I was changed, I headed for the office. I meant to look in on what everyone there was doing. I was the one footing the bill for their salaries, so calling myself their boss wouldn't be out of line, would it?
Shoes on, I made for the office and found people working at a brisk pace. For a staff of only fifteen or so, the room was generously large. I started toward Haru's familiar desk. She was drafting some document across a pair of monitors, and the others, seeing me come in, raised their hands in welcome.
I waved back — a little encouragement for everyone hard at work. Haru, as if she hadn't noticed me at all, stayed fixed on her screen.
Heh heh...
I crept in slowly behind her, a cat closing on its prey. This time, for certain, was my chance to startle her.
"Rawr!"
"Eek!"
Haru jumped with a wonderfully solid start, exactly as I'd hoped. This was how scaring someone ought to taste. Someone as quick on the uptake as Bora took all the fun out of it.
"Haru!"
I ran to her where she sat in the chair. She scooped me up as she spoke.
"Hana, you scared me."
"Hehe!"
There was nothing better than sitting on Haru's lap. She stroked my hair and went on.
"It's lunchtime already? Did you come so we could eat together?"
"Yeah!"
Lunch was delicious tonkatsu, so skipping it was absolutely out of the question. The pork cutlets here were incredible — crisp, savory breading, the kind the masters on those TV cooking shows turned out, finished with a lightly sweet sauce. If they ever opened to the public, wouldn't word get around that this was a famous restaurant?
Cradled in Haru's arms, I went off to eat. Jjolmyeon, those chewy spicy noodles, for breakfast, and tonkatsu at noon: a perfect division of meals.
After eating with Haru, I returned to my room and started lining up the next item on the schedule. Not long after lunch, I went for a massage. The building kept a masseuse on staff, and I received mine from her. It was the hour of the day I looked forward to most.
Her hands were so skilled that the fatigue simply melted out of me, and my mood turned wonderful. A child's body was already like a machine part fresh off the line, and once you added a coat of oil on top of that, it was only natural that strength came brimming through every limb.
Of course, whenever I came back from a massage like this, the room had been cleaned spotless. Dust and stray hairs on the floor had vanished without a trace, and the toys that had been rolling around every which way were stacked neatly in one corner.
I had my own routine for where the toys went! Still, I could hardly complain when someone was cleaning the room for me. Back from the massage, I ran a simple livestream. Maybe because I was attending school now, I turned the broadcast on less often. During vacation, I'd probably go back to the way things used to be.
After two or three hours on stream, I shut off the computer and went to play in the break area at the corner of the hall. Quitting time was close, and the employees had gathered in a cozy cluster. The best thing about this lounge was all the different snacks. It was a shame the old pantry was gone, but this place had taken over its role.
I sidled up beside a beautiful woman wearing an employee lanyard. The snack I wanted, unfortunately, sat where my hand couldn't reach, so I asked in my politest posture.
"Excuse me, could you get just this one down for me?"
"Of course, of course. Princess Hana, will just this one be enough?"
She took out the snack I'd wanted and handed it over. I smiled and nodded, tore open the wrapper, and popped a piece into my mouth. Dinner was coming soon, so it was better to go easy on snacks — but one ought to be fine, right?
Nom, nom.
It was so good that I felt as if I'd had an appetizer, a little something before the real meal. One snack alone didn't fill me. If anything, I only got hungrier, so I went to find Haru for dinner. Fortunately she had the duty shift today, which meant she hadn't clocked out and we could stay together.
I stepped into the cafeteria.
"Whoa!"
For the finale, dinner was hamburger steak. I dunked the steak deep into a ketchup-like sauce and ate. Meat really was the best. If only there were some dream of a place where you ate nothing but meat, and never a vegetable.
"Hana, you've got sauce at the corner of your mouth!"
Haru pulled out a tissue and carefully wiped it clean. I could have just handled that with my tongue...
"Nom!"
Once I'd demolished the steak without leaving a scrap, my belly was stuffed tight. Full and content, I caught Haru's hand and headed back to the room, and greeting the people on their way out of work was a little bonus along the way.
They were going home, so wasn't it about time I spent the evening in my own room, too? Tonight I meant to watch the finale of Little Magician Rumi. Of course, the show was split into seasons, so what I watched today wouldn't be the end. Plenty of seasons still remained.
Heart pounding, I climbed up to my room.