The sound of the Rain

2. The beginning

“What kind of stupidity is this?” Alyia dropped back to the sofa, resting her head after reading the story she had in front of her eyes. The story she had just finished was one huge mess. She just sat there, shaking her head and thinking about the continuation of this story.

Alyia had tons of stories in her mind, but she couldn’t properly organize her own thoughts and many times, she ended up with a messy story just like the one she has finished reading now.

When she took the story from someone and tried to finish it, it was easier for her to keep the continuity of the story. Well, unless the original author messed up the story more than she usually did. Sometimes she wondered why the company even kept stories like this on their platform. Editor’s work was tough, and she knew that, but some of those stories looked like they were posted without the editor’s touch. Of course, she knew this had never happened. Each story always had to be approved by the editor, but when it came to online publishing, they let the authors handle their own stories and only helped them with grammar if needed and the phrasing in some scenes, changing the order of the sentences and words to make the story more dramatic or romantic.

The current story she had on her plate was one of those complicated ones. The original author used too many twists and mixed up characters, which resulted in complete chaos. One would say that the reason for this author quitting could be his inability to continue this story because of getting lost in the complexity of it.

It took her half of the day till late at night to get through the story. Alyia wrote all the important points of the story so she could create an accurate ending, which she thought might suit the story itself. The original authors left no kind of information for her to follow or notes about endings, which gave her free hand in finishing it so she could choose the end based on her own feelings, and until today, the chief editor never complained, which helped her a lot to finish the tasks given to her. Step by step, this work helped her to work on her time management, space and thought organization and, as well, use her ability to write continuously. She was still far from where she would like to be, but Alyia realized her own progress, which made her more determined to live her dream and push it through.

Once she came up with endings and plots for the story, she wrote them down in small notes and prepared everything for tomorrow, hoping that tomorrow everything would go smoothly and she would have some more time left before she would have to head back home to work.

***

“Did you figure out how to end that story?” the editor asked her once all the formalities were behind them. It was the first day for her in this office. She worked with this publisher in Osaka and when they told her they had an office in Tokyo as well, she felt thrilled knowing that she could easily continue her work without tremendous changes. Searching for a second job like this might be impossible and attending online meetings or traveling back and forth to Osaka and back would be too tiring.

“It was quite a tough one, but I guess I have few ends.” Alyia started taking out her notes so she could present the ideas she came up with yesterday. The editor usually listened to her suggestions and then just let her proceed with one of her ideas. Alyia was a shy person and lacked confidence to start her own stories, or more, she lacked confidence she could finish her own stories. She feared that one day she would end up the same as those authors whose work she always finished. The chief editor liked her writing and style and urged her several times to start with short stories on their platform and simply write, but Alyia refused him every single time. Her editor in Osaka tried to persuade her a few times too, but she always refused with apologies about her not being good enough. It was the chief editor who suggested that she take over the lost authors and let her finish their works. He hoped that one day she would build enough confidence to submit her own work. That’s how much he believed in her and wanted to support her.

“Alright. Do you have a sad ending?” the editor asked her. Alyia c****d her head, confused. This editor seemed to be more straightforward. Alyia usually came up with several endings where one of them was always a sad or tragic one. She enjoyed sad endings and she could always deliver heartbreaking and tearing endings to any kind of story.

“Well, of course. For me, I think that if the book is tragic enough to make you cry, you will remember the story for the rest of your life, but if it’s a happy ending, soon it will fade away and you will forget it because another happy ending will be more dazzling.” Alyia’s words were always the same for the reason behind her tragic endings. The chief editor shared her opinion and, for this reason, most of Alyia’s endings were always sad ones and they even encouraged her to keep writing sad stories.

“I share this opinion as well, plus I really enjoy the stories you finished. I read all fifteen stories you finished and I can say for sure they definitely stuck in my mind until today.” Her editor admitted. Alyia’s cheeks flushed from sudden praise. She had never really been accustomed to such praise. Usually, only the chief editor whom she met once per month only praised her this much, so hearing such words from the editor instead made her really happy.

“Just this time, it is a bit more drastic. Not like I enjoy killing the characters, but for this kind of story I feel it is more suitable,” Alyia explained. The editor’s eyes widened. Most of the authors refused to kill their characters unless it was really necessary. Mostly because they had some sort of personal relationship with characters they created and some of those who actually killed one or more of their characters, they dropped writing for several days. It almost made him feel like those authors were actually mourning their dead characters. She knew those characters just by reading the original story, so finishing the book according to a suitable ending, even if that meant killing the main character, wasn’t a problem at all.

“Oh. You want to kill one of them?” the editor asked, and Alyia just nodded her head.

“I am not sure why, but the author used too many strange twists in this story and their relationship became pretty messed up. He broke her heart over thirty times, just in the last ten chapters. I simply can’t imagine this book with a happy ending. It wouldn’t make sense and I don’t think that the author planned that either. This almost made me feel like he wanted her to be so heartbroken, to end her life. It’s almost like he planned for her to die from the beginning.” Alyia felt sad when talking about this. It reminded her own past from ten years ago when she gave goodbye to the only person she ever loved and the second most important person in her life left her half a year ago. She was just eight back then, but she never forgot him. Not even for a second. Maybe their story was also one of those sad ones without a happy ending. At least she felt like that when he didn’t show up after the promise he gave her. Once her mother died as well, the loneliness overwhelmed her and, since then, tragic endings made more sense to her.

“You are good with tragic endings, so I would stick with them. Most of the stories you finish this way are doing exceptionally well, even if the previous story wasn’t that good. From what I know, Mr. Yasuda always chooses the stories for you personally and even lets the editor check the plot properly and adjust it a bit to make sure it would suit you. Because of this, I would say that he already planned for you to finish the stories that way.” Alyia’s editor, Mr. Kurakami, told her. For a moment, he left her speechless. She always thought that those stories weren’t popular, especially since they were lying around without ending for too long, but hearing now that they all became popular only because she finished them flushed her cheeks one more time.

“I didn’t know that,” she admitted. Mr. Kurakami presented her with a supportive smile. He could be something around thirty or thirty-five years old and his eyes held hidden sadness as well. Alyia knew he also had a lot on his plate, but he tried to cover it as much as possible. If there was something Alyia was good at, it was reading those hidden emotions within another person’s heart.

“How are you holding up?” He suddenly asked her. He surprised her with this personal question. Her old editor took good care of her while her mother was sick and he tried to support her as much as possible, but Mr. Kurakami was a stranger, or at least Alyia thought about him that way. This was the second time they met face to face and first time having this work meeting. She became used to the care coming from the chief editor and her editor, but hearing such caring questions from a stranger felt somewhat warm as well.

“Good, I think. Thank you for asking.” She replied to him shyly. Alyia never got used to talking to others. The only people she had talked to until now were her mother and people from the company. At school, she was very antisocial and always sort of strange kid, so others didn’t feel like approaching her. Because of this, she never really made friends back at school.

“If there is anything I could help with, just let me know.” His friendliness took Alyia by surprise. She didn’t know how to reply to this. Because of the lack of experience, she couldn’t say whether he was just being polite or if he really meant what he said. Alyia could read the emotional state of others, but they were so calm and unaffected by powerful feelings, she couldn’t read what those in front of her thought about.

“Thank you. I will.” She said in the end, but deep inside she was still hesitant to take him by words. Alyia got to know this person a bit more before she created an image of him, determining what kind of person he was. He seemed to be polite, with good manners and probably a good person, but it was still early for Alyia to fully determine that.

“You are welcome,” he said before he stood up and offered her handshake. Alyia stood up as well, understanding that their work meeting had finished and she could go home, but before that, she shook her hand with him, collected her notes she made and slowly left the office, heading straight out.