When she got home, her sister, who had seemingly waited up for her, was asleep on the couch. She didn't wake her. She found something to eat. She was starving. She hadn't planned to be there past 5, and she had only packed lunch. She would come back both for the next day. She had sent emails rescheduling the meetings and scheduled an urgent appointment with the salon he had sent her while she was on the train home, as well as her address to the transport department.
She looked at the two folders she was to have finished and set to work. It felt like college all over again. Just because you got home from work didn't mean that day was done. After the first, she skimmed the second and decided it was best to handle tomorrow.
Hinata opened her work laptop. Highend, worth more than everything she owned. She searched for local apartments. They were so expensive. She picks out the smallest one she could find closest to the Uchiha district as she could. The salary for this job was nearly three times what her father made in a year. Still, Hinata didn't know how long she would have a job, so she found an apartment that she might be able to afford if she moved to a temp agency in the center of the city that would pay higher than the one she had quit today.
She rubbed her face tiredly and forced herself to get up and make herself meals for the next day. She knew her father would be home any minute. She didn't want to face him, but she would have to tell him that she was moving out.
Before Hinata had even finished cooking, her nightmare came true. In the door, he came.
He looked at her sternly as he took his shoes. "Hanabi says you have a new job."
"Yes, father." She answered, trying to keep her hand busy to not fidget.
"Why was I not informed?" He scolded.
"I went to bed before you came home." She explained. "I'm there on trial bases." She lied.
His face told her everything she needed to know. He didn't think she was going to last his greatest disappointment.
She braced herself. "I'm required to move into an apartment in the center of the city."
His face turned dark. "You have a responsibility to your sister."
"I will still be able to afford her schooling if I keep this job." She answered quickly.
"If you don't, you now have an extra expense." He countered.
"If I am in the center of the city, I can find a better temp agency." She tried. "I'll be near the business district. I could have two full-time jobs with that little commute."
He eyed her unconvinced. He scoffed and shook his head, passing her. "I will not bail you out, and you will not take anything from your sister."
"Of course." Hinata let go of her held breath as she heard his bedroom door slam.
She shrank. Her father had always been hard on her. Well, since her mother died when Hanabi was born. She had to grow up quickly. She was responsible for Hanabi at all times. If Hanabi wasn't doing well in school, it was her fault. She was expected to keep her grades up, her sister's grades up, the house kept, and work when she was old enough to.
She remembered before her mother died, they had a large house, which might have been better off than they were now. She didn't know if it had been her mother's medical bills or something else, and she didn't dare ask, but her father lost the house and moved them out of the city. He started working all day and has been miserable since.
She could only hope to make Hanabi's life easier than hers was.
The next morning a black car came to pick her up, and she was so glad that her father had already left.
She went through her morning duties, the morning review, received orders, and she handed in the folder he had asked to be reviewed.
He looked surprised. He eyed her, and then it and opened, glancing over her overview.
"Why is this handwritten?" He asks, pulling out the piece of paper.
"I don't own a printer." She told him. "I finished it last night."
"Type up reviews." He told her. "Print them when you come in."
Hinata nodded. "Sorry, sir." She held her hand out for it, she would hurry to have it back to him, but he just glared at her hand.
She quickly took her hand back. It seemed content with it this time.
"When you go to your appointment, you will do as they ask, and you don't get an opinion on what is done." She wasn't worried before, but now she certainly was.
"Yes, sir." She said despite her now fearful heart.
"They are working on my express instructions." He finished looking down at her folder silently, looking over for another few seconds before thrusting it at her.
"Send this to its department." She blanked and took a second too long to grab it. "Have them implement your conclusion."
She didn't argue, but she also didn't understand. Was the director just going to trust she had done it right or was this a test? If she made a poor conclusion in his eyes, she would be fired, so was it a test to see if she did her work well?
"Yes, sir." She turned on her heel and handed the folder off the desk that worked on this floor, explaining where it went and that it needed to be prompt.
She returned to her desk to take a breath. She wasn't going to get a lot of them today.
After lunch, she was taken by another expensive-looking black car to the most expensive-looking salon she had ever seen. She would have asked if they were in the wrong place, but she wasn't going to ask questions. With her name at the door, she was quickly whisked to a chair where not only did a woman start treating her hair with something, but another told her she was meant to have a manicure.
Within the next hour, her hair was treated and washed half a dozen times and cut just past her shoulders. Her nails were thankfully only filed and painted, but they were far fancier than she had ever had with an accent nail and everything. Her hair was shinier than she had ever seen it.
She was instructed on how to style it, and when she said she didn't have a curling iron, she was given one. Her makeup was done, thankfully, simply, and elegantly, and she was given a small bag of makeup and brushes that were similar to the ones used.
She was then sent by car to the fitting. Her measurements were taken. She was touched in every possible spot by an older woman with a stern face. She was then put in the most expensive clothes she had ever seen, she tried on what she was told for the hour and told how to wear them and then given her old clothes in a bag and told that the other clothes would be delivered by the next morning.
She was then sent back to the office. She took a moment to look at herself in the mirror surface of the elevator. She looked… beautiful, but it looked wrong. She had never looked like this. She stood a little straighter. If nothing else, this made her more presentable for future work, she told herself.
She came back to her desk to find a designer tote bag with a note. "The director wants you to use this."
The subtext was clear. 'Throw out your bag.'
She transferred her things and stepped into his office just 5 minutes before his meeting.
He glanced up and studied her.
She stood as tall and proper as she could, waiting for him to tell her she looks like a painted pig or something else insulting like she had seen him snap in his meeting.
He nodded and looked back to his screen. "Report."
Hinata shook her head to get a hold of herself and pulled out her phone, and quickly explained the rest of his day. She followed him to his meeting and, while there, noticed she had an email approving of her apartment location with the lease ready to sign from the landlord she hadn't contacted yet.
She would have to figure out how she was going to move out. Her father wasn't going to help her. Maybe she would call her cousin. She pushed it aside as the meeting started.