From the outside the hotel looked so massive I had to take a minute to admire it, even though it was raining and I was getting wet. In all honesty, it looked like a multi-level, gothic mansion that had been renovated for it to become a hotel. Its red, black, and white paint on the exterior was strangely welcoming as I approached the front door and it revealed a lush, luxurious lobby, complete with an unlit fireplace and over-stuffed lavender armchairs. I tucked some of my wet grey-blue hair behind my ear as I began to warm up.
"Hello," a calm woman's voice called from the front desk. I turned to see a kind-faced woman with short-purple hair and an oragami flower atop her head. "Welcome to the Akatsuki. Can I help you?" she asked politely. When I finally reached the counter, I saw that her nametag read Konan.
"Yes, please," I said. I sat my large tote-bag on the counter top as I reached for some papers. "My name is Yin Asami and I have been speaking to Mr. Yohiko on the phone about my working here. I have scheduled to meet him today."
"Oh," she said, sounding a bit surprised. "Yes, one moment. Let me check his records."
I smiled at her and she hesitantly returned it. Konan was wearing a nice black Polo shirt and her nametag was a golden rectangle with bold letters pinned to her lapel. There was a pin attached to the collar of her shirt. It looked like a little red cloud. That was the symbol of the Akatsuki Hotel.
"I am very sorry," apologised Konan, pulling me away from my thoughts. Her fingers rested on the keyboard and I noticed a ring on her left ring finger. There was a purple diamond shaped like a flower bound to the gold band. "But it is very unusual for Yohiko to think about hiring other people without my knowing about it," she admitted. She turned back to me with a smile, but there was something off about it. "He will be here any moment."
"Thank you," I said. I looked down at my wet blouse. Its blue flower pattern was supposed to make me look professional, yet not too bland, but now I just looked like a wet mess. "Excuse me, Miss Konan, is there a restroom I can go to to freshen up or - "
"Ah, Yin Asami, I presume." The man's voice startled me. I turned around and saw a tall man with spiky orange hair. He was wearing the same thing as Konan, except he had a sports coat hung on his shoulders and a red tie around his neck. "It's nice to finally meet you." He held out a welcoming hand. When I accepted it, he squeezed firmly and the heat from his hand melted away some of the cold from mine.
"Yes, same to you, Mr. Yohiko," I said. Our hands dettached and I turned to the desk again to pick up my papers. "I brought my resume as you requested."
"Yes, yes," he said with a grin. "Let's go to my office, shall we?" Mr. Yohiko gestured down the hall and I nodded once.
"Yes."
"Thank you, Konan." I don't know if I saw Mr. Yohiko wink at Konan or if it was just a twitch, but either way Konan's pale cheeks brighten to a blush. "This way, Asami."
Mr. Yohiko and I walked down the hall in silence. There was a distant boom of thunder as I looked around. The carpet we were walking on was red, matching the red paint on the upper half of the walls. The bottom half of walls were white from paneling. Fancy mini-chandeliers hung on either side of the walls, coming in even intervals between each room door. There were about five rooms on either side of us. They had to have been rather large rooms because the space between each door was pretty big.
"Here we are," Mr. Yohiko said when we reached the end of the hall. A sign on the door we stopped at read Yohiko: Owner/Manager. He pushed opened the door and motioned for me to go in. "Have a seat, please," he offered as we both entered the blightly lit office. I heard the door close behind me with a click.
"Thank you," I said as I sank down in a very soft office chair that was positioned in front of his desk. It all looked very professional, what with different clocks showing the times in different villages and filing cabinets. I also saw a photograph of Mr. Yohiko and Konan holding hands in front of a pretty cherry blossom tree. I ship it.
"So, Miss Asami," Mr. Yohkio said as he sat behind the desk, "may I see your resume?"
"Oh, yes," I said, handing the papers over to him. I have been to plenty of job interviews before, but none had made me this nervous. He scanned his eyes over my papers, his lips twisting in thought.
"Very impressive," he said with a satisfied nod. Setting the papers down, he leaned forward, his elbows on the desk. "Why do you want to work in my humble hotel?" I swallowed hard.
"Well," I began, "I have spent to majority of my life in hotels and motels and just generally on the road. I feel as though I have a pretty good grip on how they function. Also, I think I am at a point on my life where I need to take a break from that life and settle down for a little while. When I found your lovely Akatsuki on the Internet, I thought it was perfect."
"I see," was all he said at first. Mr. Yohiko leaned back in his chair again. "I founded this establishment with my two best friends. Konan and our other friend Nagato. At first, we thought it would be a nice home for those who didn't have one. But, unfortunately, we were shut down due to funding. The village stopped providing us money because we were a non-profit organisation and did nothing monetarily to provide for the village itself. So, instead, we created this hotel. Business was booming and we made - and still do make - plenty of money. And all the time, we take a portion of our profits and donate them to another homeless shelter so those that inhabit it can stay there without getting evicted by the greedy village."
"Mr. Yohiko," I said, shaking my head when he finished, "why are you telling me this?"
"I tell this story," he said with a smile, "to everyone I hire. So they know just what it is they are working so hard for." I stared at him, mouth agape. I didn't think it would be so easy to get this job. "I think this is where you shake my hand and thank me," Mr. Yohiko mused.
"Oh." I stood up as he did and took his hand for the second time. "Thank you, Mr. Yohiko. Thank you."
"Please, just Yohiko is fine." He let go of my hand and stared as if he saw me for the first time. "How rude it is of me to let you sit there in wet clothes. You must be freezing!"
"No," I shook my head. "Really, it's all right. I'm fine." Yohiko waved a hand in dismissal at me as he walked over to a closet on the far side of the room and dug through it.
"No, that's no good," he muttered as if he were scolding himself. After pinching his chin in thought for a moment, he snapped his fingers. "Ah, right. I haven't even explained to you your living situation. Come, come." He pulled a black sweatshirt from the closet and handed it to me.
"Thank you," I said as I pulled the material over my head. It was warm and smelled of soap and fresh paper.
We hustled out of the room and down the hall. All the while, Yohiko explained to me that I would be living on the property along with all the other workers. I was to live in one of five houses in the back of the property with someone else. Since it was close to the end of the day anyway, Yohiko said I could take the rest of the day to settle into my room. I had room five, which was to the far right in the back.
Yohiko also told me that these houses weren't here when he first purchased the place. They were built here so that the workers would have a place to stay. I gathered that they were really close-knit, like a family. I wonder what that was like.
"I hope everything is up to your standards," Yohiko said to me after I carried my two duffle bags, one backpack, and tote to my room. We stood underneath the awning next to the door. "Let me know if you need anything, Asami. And welcome to the family."
"Thank you," I bowed before him as he turned and walked away.
I used the key he had given me to open the door. After I unlocked it, I dropped my bags on the floor and leaned against the now-closed door, eyes shut. I let out one long, quiet breath. It had still been raining when I got all my stuff from my car, so now the sweatshirt Yohiko had given me was damp and uncomfortable. With a sigh, I picked up the article of clothing from the bottom and pulled it over my head.
"Boy, you sure get cozy fast." The male voice startled me. Lightning cracked the sky in half from a nearby window, giving the room a flash of ominous colour. I looked about the dimly-lit room and saw a man laying down on the far twin bed. "Not that I mind. You're a hell of a lot cuter than my other roommate, Tobi, un. That guy was such a pain."
"I-I'm sorry," I stammered out. "I'm new here. Yohiko just hired me."
"I know all about that," the man waved his hand. Now that my eyes were adjusted to the dark, I could see that he had long blonde hair pulled back in a ponytail with long bangs covering half of his face that I still couldn't make out very well. "The walls have eyes, don't you know?"
"I guess I don't . . . " I muttered under my breath. The nameless man reached over to the wall on his right and flicked a switch, making the ceiling light turn on. I blinked at the sudden brightness.
"My name is Deidara," he said. I didn't know how he ended up standing right in front of me, but there his was. In all his shirtless, muscular, blue-eyed glory. "And I guess the boss has decided that I'm gonna be your roomie and baby sitter."
"I'm Asami," I said, not registering that he insulted me. "Nice to meet you. Yohiko says that I start tomorrow - "
"You bet you start tomorrow," Deidara said, walking past me to the other side of the room. "We've been understaffed since Tobi got canned, un. Why do I get all the noobs anyway? But look, the door splits this place in two, so that half is mine, and this half is yours." He gestured around the room to the designated areas. "There's only one bathroom. I clean up after myself, so I expect you to, too, un. I don't care if you want to borrow my stuff or whatever, but ask me first. Got it so far?"
"Yes," I nodded.
"Good. This dresser is yours and there's a closet right there." Deidara opened a door on the far left wall that was parallel to my twin bed to reveal the closet he was talking about. "And for Kami's sake don't play shitty music too loudly, un. If you're on the phone with your mom or dad or boyfriend or whatever, and you're basically shouting into the phone, expect me to break it, okay?"
"Actually, I don't think that will be a problem at all," I said. He blinked hesitantly for a second.
"Then we'll get along great," he finally said. He rushed past me to bet back to his side of the room. "Don't worry, you'll meet the rest of the staff during your training, un. Everyone here is part of a well-oiled machine and if you get stuck in the gears, you're out of here. Understand?"
"Yes, I understand."
I picked up my bags and set them all on my bed. The bathroom was right across from the door and directly in between our beds. I decided to take my backpack and unload all of my toiletries first. After that I started to fold and hang up my clothes in silence, only the infrequent booms and rumbles of thunder cutting into the wordlessness. I let my eyes scan over the room. The paint on the walls was a shade of dark blue, like midnight or navy. The carpet was soft and black and very clean, as if it were just vaccumed. Both of the bed spreads matched the colours of the walls and floor. Deidara's side of the room was littered with personal effects. He had a desk on his side and it housed books and candles and a laptop. One of the titles read Theories and History of Art.
"Did you do that?" I pointed at an oil painting of a type of firework display on his wall. There were clashes of colour and sharp edges and shading that made it seem like it was in motion. "It's beautiful." Deidara looked up from the book he was reading and scoffed amusedly as he stared at the painting.
"My man Sasori painted that for me for my birthday a while back, un," he said. "He thinks that art is something that is able to be preserved and is eternal, so he does his best to capture the beauty." He shook his head.
"Is that not what art is?" I asked as I placed a stack of folded shirts in my dresser. Deidara turned to look at me as he spoke.
"Of course not," he said like it was obvious. "Art is spirit. Art is not an animal that can be caged on a canvas. Passion and anger and hate and love and joy are put into art, but it's not something that can last. Art is a fleeting flame dancing across whatever it consumes. Art is the breath hitched in your throat when you're afraid for your life. Art is your heart melting when you see your love for the first time. It cannot be prolonged or captured. Art . . . is an explosion." Right then, another flash of lightning darted across the sky, followed by a boom.
"Wow," I said, staring. "I never really thought of it like that."
"No one really does, but they're all wrong." Deidara went back to reading without another word.
I went back to hanging up my clothes and putting my things away. I couldn't get over just how passionate Deidara was about art. I've been pretty good at drawing all my life and I sketch a lot, but never with the degree of devotion I saw in Deidara's eyes.
"So what's the deal with you?" Deidara asked me, not looking up from his book. I paused before placing two of my own books on the night stand next to my bed.
"What do you mean?" I asked, placing a small statue of a white dragon on said nightstand.
"What brings you to the Akatsuki?"
"I needed a job and a place to stay." I shrugged, nonchalant. "I found this hotel on the internet and it sounded like it fit my needs." Deidara gave me a little side-glance.
"Oh." He didn't sound like he was going to let it go, but he did anyway
I turned my back to him as I placed a brush on my dresser. That was the last item I unpacked. All of my clothes were put away and other personal objects were placed where they needed to go. I flattened my duffle bags and backpack and put them on the floor of my closet. I slowly closed the door. After setting my tote bag on the ground next to my bed, I laid down and stared up at the ceiling with my hands behind my head.
With no phone, I had no one to call to let them know I got the job, or that I found a place to live, or that my new roommate is a crazy-dedicated artist with a side of sass, or anything. Even if I had a phone, I would have no one to call. All of my contacts have been extinguished. No mom or dad; No friends; No boyfriend.
I shuddered in spite of myself. I'd been on the road for a long time. No one could tell me what to do, where to go, how to dress and act. I've been alone all this time. This job, this place will hopefully become a home for me. This place might just be the escape I was looking for.
"You've been in here for three hours and the only thing you have to say about a painting I didn't do?" Deidara asked, shattering the silence that encased us. I turned my head to look at him. "Don't women usually talk more?"
"Don't men usually pray that women stop talking?" I recanted. Deidara tilted his head and rested it on his hand, almost in a pout.
"Yeah, but this is boring, un."
"It's getting pretty late," I stated aloud, noticing the clock above the front door. I got up to pull some pajamas out of my dresser. "We might as well be getting to sleep." Deidara sighed with a slump of the shoulders.
"You've got a point, rookie."
After I went into the bathroom to change, I found that the lights were turned off and I was surrounded by darkness. Not being used to the room yet, I stumbled a few times before finally reaching my bed.
"And don't try to think of taking advantage of my sleeping form," Deidara warned me. My onyx eyes widened in the dark,
"I-I wasn't going to - "
"Calm down, newbie, it was a joke," he chuckled. I heard him yawn as I settled under the covers. "I'll be waking you up early, so I hope you're a morning person."
"All right, thank you."
The even pitter patter of rain on the roof filled the silence we left like a bucket filled with water. I found it very easy to drift of to sleep while at the same time, anticipating my first day working at the Akatsuki Hotel.