The sound of the Rain

9. More work

“Did you sleep well?” Riko asked as a first thing in the morning when she met Alyia as always in front of the college.

“Yeah, you could say so. I fell asleep over the book,” Alyia replied to her with a smile, trying to look cheerful and rested. Even the most expensive concealer couldn’t cover those two dark circles under her eyes.

“Mhmm, sounds like an interesting way to study. Did something go to your brain at least?” Riko kept poking Alyia under her ribs, while speaking in a funny tone. Alyia tried to stop her and when all her efforts ended in vain, she was friendly, slapped her shoulder, shoving her away.

“Fine, fine,” Riko surrendered. She hooked herself under Alyia’s arm, leading them both inside so they could slowly walk to their class. They still had some time, which gave Riko the opportunity to speak further with Alyia about the offer she gave her yesterday.

“I arranged with madam your work assignment. She seemed very pleased by my idea of working faster when having someone to help me, so I didn’t have to convince her much. You can come today with me and try. I can guarantee that you will be more than happy about the salary, which means you can ease your other workload and get some more time to sleep or study.” Riko explained her plan. Alyia earned a solid amount by finishing the books, but she felt fatigued and psychologically tired from it. Especially since the entire day she spent listening to lessons. Alyia already had to place a lot of focus on her studies, so expanding her brain activity in another work made her exhausted. Hearing about the opportunity to work manually sounded way better right now.

Before Alyia came to study in Tokyo, she imagined everything would be easy. She could keep working on finishing the stories and her studies as well. Keeping her social life active. Only after the academic year started she realized how far from the real world she was. Many times she thought she would give in and ask her father for financial support but that would mean admitting she couldn’t handle the stuff by herself and in her eyes it meant she wasn’t an adult yet but still a child, expecting the support from her parents. Not to mention the long separation between her and father. She didn’t want to give him any opportunity to get close to her. Yes, she used him now to get her current apartment, and she relatively owed him for that, but after his absence in her life, she took as little compensation, which she deserved. He divorced her mother ten years ago, so technically he wasn’t obliged to help with the debts her mother left behind her and they already refused him once, so why should she go now and beg him? She felt like this was totally under her and she was not desperate enough to do so, but only after a month, she had to admit, her tiredness just grew bigger with each passing day.

“Thank you.” Alyia replied to Riko simply. There wasn’t much more to say about the work and Alyia kept repeating to herself that it was just for one hour daily. She knew it was a simple job. Cleaning in an unused part of the huge house of the wealthy family living in Tokyo. She realized she never asked Riko which family she worked for.

“Do you know that guy?” Riko suddenly pulled Alyia’s sleeve to get her attention. When Alyia looked at her, Riko moved her eyes toward one column in the entrance hall. Young man stood there, simply leaning over the column, pretending like reading the book, but when Alyia turned her head to get a better view, for a brief moment their eyes met before he looked back down to his book.

“I don’t think so. At least I don’t remember seeing him before.” Alyia replied swiftly, but something in his face looked familiar. His eyes were telling a story which felt very close to Alyia’s heart. Whoever that person was, he had a lot of difficulties in his life despite his young face.

“Why?” Alyia’s attention went back to Riko, as they continued to the hallway and directly to their classroom.

“I noticed him several times. He always stays there and watches us as we walk in, but I never noticed him looking at someone else. Maybe he is interested in you.” Riko poked her again, trying to make it sound like a joke.

“Or maybe is just interested in you.” Alyia returned the tease.

“No way.” Riko refused the idea.

“He seemed sad.” Alyia’s tone changed with her last comment. Riko's grip on her hand weakened slightly as she caught the glimpse of Alyia’s sadness seeped through the small cracks in her heart as she remembered the pair of sad eyes which met with hers just for a fleeting moment. Although it was just a split second, it was enough to get right through, breaking some locks Alyia placed firmly around her heart.

Riko pulled herself together quickly, realizing it wasn’t time to get sentimental now, plus she didn’t want her friend to sink in her past from the morning. They had a long day ahead of them.

“We all have our sad moments. Don’t let it get to you. Try to focus on today’s courses and afternoon’s work. If everything goes well and you will like the work, you should be able to get some more sleep once you finish assigned stories. After that, you can take just one and sleep all night.” The last sentence came out emphasized. Riko knew how deeply Alyia loved sleeping. If she could spend an entire day in the bed and doing nothing, she could definitely do that with no hesitation.

“Oh, are you trying to tempt me?” Alyia asked jokingly. The thought of having time to sleep caught her attention and made her definitely excited. Since she came to Tokyo, she has slept little. In the beginning, it was the exhaustion from a new place and noise. She wasn’t used to this place. New bed, new apartment, new place. Sleeping under such conditions needed time to adjust herself. When she finally got a bit used to everything, her academic year started and since then she felt like being on guard almost twenty-four hours a day.

They both walked straight to the classroom, taking their usual place. They both loved studying, but none of them was brave enough to actually sit straight in the first row seats. Sitting in the middle was the compromise for both of them. The middle rows had a lower chance of being asked by the professor. Still close enough to have a good view and hear the professors properly.

Once the professor entered the classroom, they both instantly forgot almost everything around them, and just focused on the lesson itself. Day passed quickly and soon it was time to get to her new work. Riko instructed Alyia about the uniform she should wear, helping her to pick up one in the shop.

“This is embarrassing,” Alyia complained when she tried on her uniform. It was a simple maid uniform made of a black dress with a white apron.

“It’s embarrassing because you read too many maid romance stories and you have a pretty spoiled mind and probably powerful imagination. I won’t even ask what you are imagining while wearing this,” Riko teased her more, seeing Alyia blushing from head to toe. Alyia’s ears were literally shining from the embarrassment and after the last comment, she tilted her head, hiding from any eyes that could see her.

“I am not sure I can work like this,” she mumbled almost to herself, but Riko still got the message.

“Come on. You will get used to it and it looks great on you. You look cute,” Riko tried to cheer her. Alyia looked again into the mirror, still blushing, seeing herself in the maid's uniform.

“Is this really necessary?” She tried to reason with Riko.

“Yes,” she replied to her immediately. Alyia sighed loudly, locking herself again in the changing room and getting back to her regular clothes. The uniform wasn’t cheap, especially since Alyia refused to buy the cheaper one because the fabric irritated her skin. Alyia wasn’t a princess, picky about her clothes and materials, but she had sensitive skin, easily getting rash or skin irritation from strong detergents used during washing the clothes or when they made the clothes from really cheap and low-quality fabrics. In the end, they left the shop with Alyia’s new uniform. There was still a bit of time before the work but they both already headed straight to the house.

To Alyia’s surprise, they went to the area where she lived as a child. In the end, she showed places to Riko, explaining where she lived, where her elementary school and nursery were. Riko didn’t ask questions, just followed her friend and listened to her stories about each and every place they went through. When they finally got to the house, Alyia’s jaw dropped to the ground. She saw many houses and when Riko said house; she imagined a slightly bigger house than any other regular family would have, but what appeared in front of her took all the air out of her lungs and left her totally speechless. This mansion was absolutely huge. It could be like a hundred meters to the house entrance from the gate where they stood right now. In between the main gate for family members’ cars or incoming guests and the house stood a fountain and a small garden, which made the house look more distant from the main street and gave a bit more privacy to the space.

Riko led her to the back door for the staff. The security chief already waited for them as he was handing Alyia her entry card, explaining to her all the rules. Although they would enter together, Alyia always had to scan her card at the entry as well. The chief explained to her the reason and Alyia just kept nodding her head, fully captivated by the vastness of this place and dazzling atmosphere all over. She asked herself why would they hire temporary staff if they could just hire one regular maid for this mansion. They looked like they had money for it.