Water
It didn't take too long for Mr. Yukishiro to make his inspection. According to the red-haired man, Enishi had an obsessive complex that required everything to be perfect.
"So don't take it too personally," Kenshin said, "Since he was young, he was trained to be in control of everything. I honestly pity him sometimes."
Then the door to the kitchen opened, and out stepped his perfect majesty.
"The sink is fixed," he fixed his devilish smile to the overall-clad woman, "However it seems that you missed one spot." Enishi stepped back, giving Kaoru access to the sink.
From beside her, Sano and Kenshin's fiancee held a curious look on their face, almost akin to amusement.
The woman with the red lipstick, Megumi, was still holding the damn phone, recording. She had a most suspicious grin.
Kaoru decided to shrug off the weird setting. "What do you mean? I thought I did everything perfectly,"
"The work itself is commendable. But," Yukishiro pointed under the sink. There was a small pool of liquid under the pipes where she worked on earlier, "Don't you normally clean up your residuals?"
Kaoru bit her tongue from making a sarcastic remark. She was pretty sure there was no leak when she locked the pipes back in place, but it was not uncommon to have residuals. She stepped forward and turned the faucet on. Certain that there were no leaks, she got on her knees and turned to the man. "Can I borrow a rug?" she said, albeit half-heartedly.
She just wanted to do her job and get it over with.
Enishi handed her a cleaning cloth and a small bucket, that smug grin still on his deceitfully angelic face. From behind him the hushed snickering worsened, and Megumi, who was still recording from the damn phone, stepped closer.
Kaoru could only glare. Clenching her fists, she accepted the cloth and reached out for her gloves in the toolbox.
"Can't even handle a little water?" Enishi's brow shot up so arrogantly.
Insulted, Kaoru ditched the idea of gloves. She crawled on all fours under the sink and started wiping the pool of water.
And it was more water than she thought it was.
She absorbed it into the cloth like a sponge, and she squeezed it into the bucket. She did this more than a couple of times, her bare hands wet from the 'water.'
Come to think of it,
The 'water' smelled funny.
She was so sure she had smelled this before, but where, she could not pinpoint.
Finally having wiped her work area clean, she crawled out of the dark cupboard and placed the bucket on top of the sink.
The drunk bastards were laughing.
It was then that Kaoru's cheeks started to burn. The wet washcloth, her drenched bare hands, the familiar bodily smell… the med graduate turned to the bucket holding the water, and she finally saw, now out of the dark:
It was a light yellow in color.
She had just cleaned up someone's piss,
Barehanded.
The heartless Yukishiro and Sano exploded in laughter. Kenshin and his fiancee seemingly shrank into a half-amused, half-horrified expression, and Megumi, laughing, zoomed in on Kaoru's stunned face.
The med graduate stood as still as a rock for the longest moments, the utter humiliation sinking in. And then she realized her cheeks were not the only part of her face burning, but also her eyes.
Oh, how the sting of her tears burned so horribly.
"Then, thank you, Kaoru…." Enishi taunted, reading the name off her nametag. On his outstretched hand was her precious $190, "You provided excellent service toda—"
Slap!
Absolute silence. The whole room was frozen in time.
Not a hand,
But the urine-drained cloth—
Stuck to the white-haired man's pretty face…
Until it slid down,
And fell on the floor with the wettest slosh.
"Bwahahaha!" The room burst into laughter,
"Did you catch that? Please tell me you caught that on video?!" Sano was doubling over, howling.
Megumi turned the camera away from Kaoru's hidden face, and pointed it towards the stunned billionaire heir. "This reel… oh my god… this one's for keeps—"
The humiliated med grad dashed out of the room, ignoring the laughter, bumping into chairs and tables, stumbling over her own feet. But she would dare not look back. Tears were now streaming down her face,
They can't…
They can't have the satisfaction of seeing her cry!
All that insult, for a blasted $190?! They can eat their money and go to hell for all she cared! Kaoru quickly realized that the toolbox was inside, but… she needed to get the fuck out of the place. She could hear her heart pounding from anger, shame, heartbreak…
Her brother would be waiting for her. Her boss was probably worried by now, hearing no word from her.
Her whole body shook as she cried her heart out, running her ass off towards the bridge of the houseboat. She remembered her father reading her favorite fairytale. She remembered her med school graduation. She remembered when the devastating words very clearly as if it were yesterday, "lung cancer, metastasized to the bone and brain…."
"Your brother has lupus,"
"The house has defaulted."
She suddenly stopped.
Standing by the edge of the bridge, her whole body trembling from her devastating tears, Kaoru stopped and shakily took out her broken phone.
It would take a miracle for the phone to turn on, but it did.
The screen lit up despite the battery displaying a good 3% left. She swiped the screen to her browser; her hands cut and started to bleed from the broken glass. But like a desperate madwoman, she typed in the Medical Board's website, big tears falling on the screen, mixing with her blood.
If I passed the exam, everything will be different…
The screen loaded, opening up… "Physician License Verification"…
Please…just let me see my name…
Then everything will be different…
"Hey!" that sudden yell startled the woman to her senses, and her gaze snapped up. It was Kenshin and his fiancee, running towards her—
And behind them was the rest of the group.
Instinct took the driver's seat. Kaoru flinched, and almost reflexively, she sprinted towards the bridge.
But her foot caught onto one of the ropes, negligently laying on the way. She tripped and fell, hitting her head on the metal drawbridge, and in an instant, she could feel the warmth of her blood pour down on her head, onto her face.
She saw the shocked expressions of the bastards, as the lights in her eyes suddenly flickered.
And as she was falling she saw the screen of her phone finally stop loading, and display some kind of page. But the words were all blurry now, the world was all blurry now… as she plunged into the cold depths of the San Francisco bay.
