Chapter 7

Immediately, Saeko hears the sound of multiple doors being opened one by one.

She also hears some rapid footsteps coming towards her. And then-

KNOCK! KNOCK! KNOCK! KNOCK! KNOCK!

"Miss? Miss? Are you all right in there?" she hears the voice of the receptionist coming from the other side of the door.

Saeko pulls away her headphones from her ears so that she could crawl out of her bed and answer the door. Standing opposite the door is the concerned receptionist, along with his two other male colleagues who wear the same uniform. There are also a few men who responded to her scream, presumably office workers like her who are also spending the night at this place.

"What happened, miss?" the receptionist asks next.

Saeko is so scared her words are stuck in her throat. The only thing she could do is point a trembling finger at the man who's still staring at her. The receptionist pokes his head inside the room to take a better look. Upon seeing the man, his expression changed from worried to relieved, then annoyed. He lets out a tired sigh.

"Peeping at your neighbor again, Suzuki-san?" he asks the man.

So, this is the Suzuki who was causing a commotion just now. Saeko takes a better look at him. He's a middle-aged man who has a bald spot on his head. He wears a blue dress shirt that is creased on several places. His face is quite red, possibly from all the drinking he did. For some reason, his white necktie is strapped to his temples instead of tied at the front. He's not very tall, so his upper body is barely visible while he's leaning on the wall.

"I just wanted to say hi," Suzuki replied innocently.

"Well, you can't," the receptionist told him as patiently as he could. "Didn't I tell you multiple times not to stand on your bed and look over the wall? Now look what you did. You've scared her."

As he said the last part, he gestured towards Saeko.

"I'm sorry," Suzuki tells her while looking a bit guilty.

"It's okay. I was just a little surprised," she assures him.

"Now, please go to sleep. You still have to work after this, remember?" the receptionist reminds him.

"Oh, that's right. Good night..." he mumbled before going back to his side of the room.

Once the office workers made sure that Saeko is safe, they dispersed without being told and went back to their room. Only the three employees remained.

"I am so sorry, miss! I shouldn't have gave you a room next to Suzuki-san's!" the receptionist tells Saeko while bowing repeatedly.

One of his colleagues steps forward and also bows at her.

"My name is Hasegawa. I am the supervisor in charge of this establishment," he introduced himself. "I deeply apologize for the careless mistake my subordinate here made."

The third employee also bowed at her.

"Please raise your head," she tells all of them. "Like I told Suzuki-san, I was just a bit surprised. That said, I hope I can get another room."

Hasegawa raised up his head first.

"I will have it arranged immediately," he assures her. "Please follow me."

The procedure to get Saeko a new room didn't take long. She hands over her old key card and receives a new one in return. Hasegawa then got up from his seat and brings her to her new room personally. It's located right opposite Suzuki's room, so there's no way he can peek at her.

Hasegawa uses a key card hanging from his neck to open the doors of the rooms located on both sides of her room. Both rooms are empty.

"As you can see, none of these rooms are occupied. Please rest assured that they will remain so until you decide to leave us," he tells her.

Saeko bows at him.

"Thank you so much," she says to him.

He bows back at her. "Please, think nothing of it. This is the least we could do after you were traumatized earlier."

"I wasn't traumatized at all, but thank you all the same."

Hasegawa sneaks a glance towards Suzuki's room before speaking to her again.

"I hope you can forgive Suzuki-san. He's actually a very decent person when he's sober," he whispers.

"Your receptionist mentioned "again" just now. Does it mean that he has done similar things on multiple occasions?" she asks him curiously.

"Unfortunately, yes. He has been with us for almost five years, after all."

"Five years? Gosh..."

"Yes. And he, well, he had it rough, so he always drinks himself silly to forget the pain he's going through. It's no excuse for what he does, but still."

Hasegawa bows at her again. "Now then, please excuse me and have a good night."

He then goes back to his work, leaving Saeko all alone as she stans at the entrance to her room. After hearing that he had said, she couldn't help but look at Suzuki's room.

Five years. Five years of living in a cramped space, with no home to return to, nor family to welcome him home. Saeko could already imagine her going through the same thing, assuming that the eyes won't drive her insane by then, that is.

Just as Saeko was about to go enter her room and sleep, she remembered that her uniform is still inside the washing machine. She leaves her room and heads upstairs.

By the time she went to retrieve her uniform, the machine is already done with its job. Thanks to its bult-in dryer function, they were also dried. Saeko got them out and goes to the iron stand to have them ironed.

While she's being busy, she kept on looking towards the entrance. She has more than her fair share of scares tonight, and she doesn't want something similar to the incident at the laundromat to happen again. Even after she's done and reached her room safely, she still couldn't help being paranoid, not after Suzuki gave her a good scare. That said, she still forced herself to lie down on her bed and sleep.

***

Saeko couldn't sleep well at all.

It's no surprise, really, as she was jumpy the entire night. Ever since those eyes appeared, she kept on feeling that everything around her are just waiting for the opportunity to sneak up on her and scare her. As she's sitting on her bed, she couldn't stop shuddering. Her mind is being occupied by K's story. One of these days, she might start acting hysterically just like him, and ultimately end her life just to escape the seemingly endless torment.

She has to do something about it.

She turns on her computer and looks for the nearest psychology clinic. A brief search led her to Maeda Psychiatry and Therapy. This one is located near her office. She can reach it after a five-minutes walk.

Maeda Psychiatry and Therapy...

For some reason, she can't get that name out of her head. It sounded awfully familiar, even though she has never met anyone called Maeda in her life.

Or has she?

At this point, she can't even trust her own memory anymore. Maybe something is really wrong with her. She has to ask Maeda about this when she meets him.Unfortunately, the clinic isn't open yet, so she can't call them to book an appointment. She has to wait until her lunch break. For now, she saved their phone number in her phone.

***

Saeko gets up from her seat and leaves her cubicle the moment lunch break arrived. She plans to make the phone call at the staircase because no one ever goes there.

As her finger is about to tap the call button, she finds herself hesitating. Even if she has never had a therapy session before, she could still vaguely tell that one such session is very expensive. As it stands, she's barely getting by. Can she really afford to pay the bills?

She hesitated for another minute before finally deciding to call them. After all, no amount of money can ever replace her sanity and life. Hopefully, they allow payment by instalments.

Someone picked up the phone after two rings.

"Good afternoon, this is Maeda Psychiatry and Therapy. How may I help you?" a woman spoke from the other side of the phone.

"Um, hi. I would like to make an appointment," Saeko says to her slowly.

"Certainly. May I have your name, please?"

"Yes. It's Yamashita Saeko."

Saeko hears the receptionist draws in a breath sharply. At least, she thinks she does. It’s hard to be sure over the phone.

"When would you like to come over, Yamashita-san?" the receptionist asks without a single loss of composure.

"Before that, may I know how much you charge for a therapy session?"

"Oh, um, about that. You can come and consult us for free. You don't have to worry about the money."

"I... I don't?"

"Yes. You see, the government has just introduced a welfare program that helps officer workers who were stressed out from their job! Career advice, consultation, and other sorts of things! And guess what? Therapy sessions are also included! So no, you don't have to pay us a single yen! It's all covered by the government, or our taxpayer money if you really want to be specific!"

Halfway through, she started speaking really quickly. Saeko barely managed to keep up. Thankfully, most of them meant the same thing, anyway.

"Well... In that case, I would like to book a slot at eleven in the morning tomorrow."

"Understood! Eleven in the morning tomorrow, was it? There's an open slot for you, what a great coincidence! Well then, see you tomorrow! Goodbye!"

CLICK!

The receptionist hanged up before Saeko could even thank her.

Well, someone was in a real hurry. Maybe she had to use the restroom. Saeko shrugs her shoulders. As long as the appointment was made.

Even though she has never mentioned that she works as an office worker.

***

Booking an appointment was the easy part. The really, really, really difficult part is getting Asakura's approval to come to work late. She knows that getting a day-off, or just half a day is definitely impossible, which is why she has to settle for something equivalent to a longer break.

Desperate time calls for desperate measure.

She waits patiently until Asakura has returned from wherever he had his lunch at. Once he's back and enters his office, she waits for one whole minute before getting up and heading to his doorstep. She takes a deep breath and knocks at the door three times."Come in."

"Pardon my intrusion."

Saeko enters and closes the door after her quietly. She didn't state her business immediately. Instead, she spent the first few seconds studying Asakura's expression. He's staring back with a mild look on his face. Good. It would seem that he's no longer cross about the so-called mistake she made yesterday.

"What do you want, Yamashita?" he asks her bluntly.

"Um, the thing is, Asakura-san, I have something personal to attend tomorrow, so I was hoping that I could take a longer break than usual..." she begins meekly.

His right eyebrow twitches dangerously. Saeko decides to continue talking without waiting for his reply.

"When I say "longer than usual", I meant only for three hours, or four if it took me longer to settle than necessary. I will come back the moment I am done. I will also work a lot harder than usual to cover up for the lost time."

The more she speaks, the angrier Asakura became. Right after she's done speaking, he opens his mouth wide, ready to yell at her.

Not this time.

Saeko goes down on her knees, her forehead inches from the floor. The yell never came. Saeko takes a quick peek. He's staring down at her with a dumbfounded expression on his face.

Just as planned.

"I BEG OF YOU! PLEASE GRANT ME THE PERMISSION!" she shouts at the top of her lungs.

"Um, Yamashita?"

"JUST THREE HOURS! THREE HOURS ARE ALL I NEED!"

"Yamashita, listen to me-"

"I'M BEGGING YOU! PLEASE! JUST GIVE ME A LONGER BREAK!"

"ALL RIGHT, ALL RIGHT, ALL RIGHT!"

Asakura lets out an exasperated sigh and rubs his temples with his thumb and index finger.

"When you said "three hours", are you saying that you'll come to work at eleven?" he asks her.

"No, sir. This, well, matter I have to attend to starts at eleven, so I'll be heading there around half past ten," she replies.

Asakura went silent for a while after that.

"I'll give you a break at ten thirty," he says to her the moment he opens his mouth. "Settle whatever that you planned to do, and come back before one thirty."

"Understood. Thank you very much!"

"Just three hours, got it? Not a minute more," he tells her. " Before and after you go, I'll have you work like a slave. Literally."

Saeko knocks the floor with her forehead lightly. "I shall devote my heart, body and soul to repay you for this favour!"

"I'll definitely hold on to that. Now go back to work. You've embarrassed me enough."

"Yes, sir!"

Satisfied, Saeko got up from the floor.

"...Is that a smirk I see on your face?"

Saeko flinches. She wipes off the smirk at once.

"No, sir, you were just imagining things."

"Hmph. Well, whatever."

Phew, that was close.