Koshiro 1.4

As soon as Tadashi left the room, I could finally listen to my own thought again. I ran the water to fill up the bathtub and sat patiently by it. My nerves had calmed down and my breathing steadied.

I looked at my own reflection on the huge mirror and saw that some life had gone back into my skin. My rosy cheeks and glistening eyes were staring back at me as light reflections bounced off the surface of the water.

I undressed and slowly soaked myself in the bubble bath. The soothing essence and warmth of the water helped me relax even more. Sometimes when I would close my eyes, I could envision the scene vividly for a split second.

It was like a nightmare that kept on replaying itself on the back of my mind. My imagination wandered from reality and before I knew it, I was slipping underwater.

"Gah!" I spat some water out.

I accidentally drifted out of consciousness and drowned myself. The sudden action made me jump up and decided that I had spent enough time in the tub. I walked over to the shower and cleaned the rest of my body.

The towels in their house were so thick and soft, it made me feel as if I was being hugged by a polar bear. I changed into the clothes that Tadashi had provided me with before. It was a black shirt with a bunch of Japanese writings and a track pants.

I jumped into the puffy and welcoming bed. My body sunk into the fluffy queen-sized bed and I built a pillow fort around me. It was such a comforting feeling to be hugging a thick duvet and an army of pillows right after getting out of the shower. The sheets were so smooth and silky as they rubbed against my skin. Before I knew it, the exhaustion had taken its toll and knocked me into a deep slumber.

I woke up from a dream where I had seen the perpetrator of the incident from the night before and I tried to chase after him. He kept on going through doors after doors which let to various places from my memory. The last door that he had went into was the very guest room that I had been sleeping in. I could distinctly hear the door closing as he went out of the room and my eyes timidly flutter open.

'Hiro?' I thought to myself.

The silhouette of the man that slowly retreated out of my room had been silent and mysterious. I convinced myself that I had just imagined it. I rolled around in bed for a couple more minutes before I could pull myself up to go to the bathroom.

One of the pillows that I had been using smelled eerily familiar. My cheeks started to flush as I had the creepy thought of smelling Hiro's scent from when he was sleeping there. It pushed me to go to the toilet and look at the clock on the nightstand.

"I've only been sleeping for two hours?" I mumbled.

I hobbled to the bathroom and I rubbed my eyes as the bright light struck. I washed my face and tried to get a grasp of reality. Suddenly, the hunger I had suppressed came back and my stomach growled wildly. I barely had any water to drink with my things still being taken care of by Tadashi's team; including my water bottle.

I managed to walk out from the room in a hotel slipper and made my way to the kitchen. I figured that most of the inhabitants of the house were asleep and it would be a safe time for me to get some food. The journey from the south wing to the kitchen felt like an eternity. My feet were lazily dragging on the floor by the time I saw two figures arguing by the fridge.

"She could've been in danger!" a voice aggressively bellowed.

"But she's fine. I was there," another voice answered coolly.

"You were in charge of our safety. How come there were no CCTVs where they were needed?"

"I didn't think her safety would be compromised this badly nor this early. At least I owned up to my mistake."

"Well, you should've been more well-prepared. And what does that even mean? Are you saying that I was to be blamed too?"

"You sent her home alone! It costs us a driver too in case you have forgotten."

"If you had done your security job better, maybe this could've been avoided."

"Don't pretend like her expulsion had nothing to do with you,' he paused to wait for a reaction, 'yeah, I knew about it."

"I'm handling it," he answered softly; barely audible.

"Sure, you are."

"I am! At least I'm not getting drunk to numb myself. You better stop drinking or don't come to the meeting at all."

I could hear footsteps coming towards the hall. I instinctively hid away from where the person might have seen me. I saw the back of Hiro's head from behind a decorative plant. It was more unkempt than his usual hairstyle. I assumed that he had been under a lot of pressure from the firm and the ever-changing status of his father's case.

When I was sure that he had left the premises, I quietly walked into the kitchen to find Tadashi slummed on a chair with his hand resting on one of his hand as the other one held a bottle of Sake.

"Are you okay?" I tapped on his shoulder.

"Oh, hey. Why are you up?" he rubbed his temple.

"I was just about to take a glass of water. I left my bottle at home," I explained as I grabbed a cup and a filled it with water from the cold-water dispenser.

"Oh yeah, my bad. The movers will be here in a few hours."

"No worries."

"Take a seat," he straightened his back.

"I think you've drank enough for tonight," I tried to take the bottle away from him as I took a seat opposite to him.

He yanked the bottle away from my grasp, "did Hiro see you coming in here?"

"No, I was hiding behind the vase. Why?"

"I know your secret," he squinted and smiled menacingly.

"What are you talking about?" I moved to avoid his gaze.

"I saw what's inside this USB," he pulled out the keychain from his pocket.

"Tadashi… I can expla– "

"Let's make a deal."