Chapter 19: Meisuke and Neighbors
"I'm off!" Tohru announced with a smile, glancing over her shoulder as she left the apartment.
Meisuke nodded without looking up from the newspaper-an item that had received some well-meaning teasing from her friend-as she said, "Alright. Have a nice day at work."
Shutting the apartment door with a grin, the young woman called out, "Alright!" before closing it. For a moment, Meisuke continued to read, not particularly interested in anything the newspaper had to say but not faced with anything pressing when the door flew open again.
"I almost forgot!" Tohru said, smacking her fist into her palm. "We had some neighbors move in recently, so make sure to greet them if they come to introduce themselves, alright?"
With a shrug and a nonchalant wave, Meisuke replied, "alright, I'll make sure to remember that. Now hurry to work or you'll be late!"
With a blink of realization and a sharp cry of "Uwah!" the young woman was on her way, likely to be scolded by her coworker Joui regardless of how fast she ran.
"Neighbors, huh?" Meisuke muttered to herself, the butler rising from her chair to search the fridge. "It'll probably be fine, I guess."
...
Pillows pressed to either side of her head, her brain feeling like it could be knocked out of her skull at any moment, the butler began to regret her words.
It had started casually enough. Some occasional bumps and thumps from the room above the one she shared with Tohru, perhaps worthy of a raised brow but no more than that. Then came the grinding and whirring, and though it was louder than she would expect, it was still more or less within acceptable limits. Then came the pounding and slamming, which had elicited consternation but had yet to truly earn a complaint. The sounds only continued to escalate after that, and they had reached a point where Meisuke feared she may pass out from the vibrations alone.
The cessation of the racket was as sudden as its commencement was gradual, and for a moment the butler kept the pillows clasped around her ears, waiting for it to return. When several minutes passed by without another noise, Meisuke lowered her hands with a wary glance upwards. "What was that...?" She wondered aloud.
She jumped at the sound of the doorbell ringing, rising as gracefully as she could in her addled state to answer it. Glancing into the camera as she opened the door, she saw a woman somewhere in her 30s with drowsy eyes and a kind smile.
"Hello there!" The woman greeted. "I just moved in recently and I wanted to say hello to my neighbors while I was adjusting, and to apologize for any trouble I might give you." She paused to offer a polite bow before extending a gift bag to the butler, saying, "Please, take this! It's some food I made just a bit ago. I hope we can get along moving forward!"
For a moment, Meisuke entertained the idea of reprimanding the woman for the noise. Soon, however, she decided against it, thinking it a bit childish to censure her when she had come in good faith. Plus, it wouldn't do to burn bridges before they had even been built.
With a small sigh to herself, Meisuke replied, "Oh no, you won't be any trouble at all! It's fine; thank you for the gift, ma'am, and I hope we can be friends!"
The woman offered a polite nod, another smile, and then was on her way-likely to continue "cooking", if that's what a process as loud as that could be called or carrying on her greetings.
For a moment, the butler wondered if she had done the right thing before ultimately pushing such thoughts aside. The first rule of being neighbors was being neighborly, and besides, it would be a pain trying to change anything.
...
It was back again. That noise. That damn noise.
This time, it wasn't subtle at all. It set in immediately, with crashes, bangs, and bashes. Meisuke had anticipated this would happen again, but she had expected some kind of warning like the protracted lead in she had heard the first time. This time, however, she had no such luck; before she had even realized what was going on, the room was filled with a ratcheting, screeching noise coming from her neighbor's room, filled with screams that sounded like tortured prisoners and a low rumbling that threatened to knock the paintings off the wall.
Continuing this particular sound's commitment to idiosyncrasy, it petered off gradually, lowering its volume for a few minutes before fading off into a rather unsatisfying murmur. Meisuke hesitated before removing her hands from her ears, fairly certain that whatever had happened was now over. For a brief moment all was quiet until the doorbell rang again.
Rising once more to check the camera, she found a younger individual with a blond sidecut and green bangs, an earring, and a rather striking collection of makeup they had only half-bothered to remove. Opening the door, she found them standing with an awkward smile on their face.
"Sorry about that," they said, "I just moved here because my old building kicked me out for being too loud. I was just getting into it when I thought I hadn't really said hey to the people here." With a slightly self-deprecating smile, he asked, "Sorry, but was I bothering you with any of that?"
Yet again the butler was seized with the desire to complain-one was enough, and two was definitely out!-but again held her tongue. After all, if she let one person get away with it, unless she really had a reason to get on the next person's case she was just discriminating, right? Nodding unconsciously at her logic, Meisuke replied, "no, it's alright. I didn't notice anything, and this complex is your home too, right? It's not like you're causing any trouble, so of course it's fine."
His smile losing its sheepishness, the man nodded and offered a word of thanks before leaving, presumably to return to his... whatever it was he was up to. Judging from the makeup, Meisuke would guess it was that 'metal' thing she saw on the internet, but as far as she knew her neighbor was just really, really into clowns. And screaming, apparently.
For a moment Meisuke wondered if she should have told him off before deciding she was right not to. This place was home to more than just herself and Tohru, after all, and she didn't want to make him feel unwelcome.
It was just what neighbors did, after all.
...
At this point, Meisuke was wondering if she had invoked some kind of curse unintentionally. Once was happenstance. Twice was coincidence.
But the third time? At this point, she might as well accept this as her life now.
A buzzing filled the apartment, apparently coming from the wall to her next-door neighbor. This one was swift in coming as well, a staccato of hammering, sawing, whirring, and drilling pounding into her skull despite the pillows she had taped to her head-the butler was no longer willing to take chances, but it seemed life didn't care she was or was not willing to do.
The worst part was that unlike the first two times, this was an intermittent cacophony. A din would fill the air only to disappear for a few moments and then return with renewed vigor, only to vanish and reappear yet again. Had it not been for her vigilance, she would likely have already removed her pillows and been rendered half-dead.
Finally, the apartment fell silent. Meisuke sat waiting, allowing a full minute to slowly tick by until she let out a sigh of relief, glad that the ordeal was over. By the time the doorbell rang yet again the butler was already standing beside it-by now, she decided, it would be more concerning if it hadn't rung. A quick glance determined that a balding older man stood outside with a pair of lab goggles on.
"'lo there," the main said as Meisuke opened the door. "I just moved in a few days ago and haven't been able to get a studio set up yet, so I've had to start working from home. Didn't mean to cause any troubles that might've, but my job is woodcarving and I got to work. Is it alright with you?"
For the third time Meisuke was tempted to reply with a firm 'yes', but again she shook her head, answering, "yeah, of course! You do have to work after all, and you can't help it if you're having a couple problems. We all live here, so we all have to understand each other and be considerate to one another or this place won't be somewhere people want to live."
Again a nod and again a word of thanks before the man left to his craft. Meisuke considered how she had handled the issue for a moment before again deciding it was for the best. He had to do his job, so he couldn't help it if he made things irritating for people.
No matter how irritating.
...
It just wasn't fair. For a scant few moments, Meisuke had had peace and quiet. No ringing. No whirring. No screeching. Just nice, simple, inoffensive silence.
Nature evidently abhorred such a vacuum and instead decided to fill it with another round of noise, this time taking the form of shouting poorly muffled by the thin walls of the apartment. Rising once again, she checked the doorcam and was unsurprised to find her neighbors on her doorstep yelling at one another.
The butler sighed, rubbing her temples, briefly entertaining the idea of settling their dispute for them. But...
She had said it before and still believed it: this was everyone's home and she wasn't about to rock the boat. Regardless of whether or not she was in the right, this was something she was willing to let go. Maybe it was too troublesome to bother with, maybe it was for the good of everyone, but Meisuke had decided it was time to give up.
"What's going on out here?"
Jumping slightly in surprise as a fourth voice entered the fray-a familiar one at that-Meisuke cracked open the door just enough to confirm that Tohru was, in fact, standing outside, watching her neighbors have their spat and looking rather cross.
The neighbors shriveled under her gaze, sheepishly looking at the ground as each described their grievances-in a word, noise. The very thing Meisuke herself had been battling all day.
"I can't focus on my music at all!" The younger man with the side cut spoke up, "Every time I do, this crazy drilling starts up!"
Cowering turned to offense, the older man said, "'Crazy drilling'!? That's my job you're talking about! I need to make that noise for work... and it'd be easier without all that banging and clanking! How's that sort of racket even get made?"
Her cheeks puffing out in indignance, the neighbor from the floor above said, "All I'm doing is cooking! How could that cause trouble for anyone?"
Considering each of their words, Tohru said, "Well, I guess it kinda makes sense. It doesn't sound like anyone's trying to be a problem, and everyone's got good reasons for making noise, so we should be a little willing to put up with it."
A strange weight fell in her stomach as Meisuke began to nod in agreement. Tohru was right; it would be selfish to shout them all down for bothering her, and she just had to grow a thicker skin.
"But."
The butler blinked in surprise. Tohru had more to say?
Placing her hands on her hips as she began to fume, the young woman continued, "That doesn't mean we should just lie down and accept everything without complaint! Just like we should deal with the noise a little, we have to make sure we're being decent neighbors. Just because we have to do what we have to, we shouldn't take that as an excuse to ignore everyone else's lives and feelings! It's important to consider how other people feel-for doing stuff and not doing stuff-and it sounds like you've only been expecting people to put up with you while not being willing to put up with everyone else!"
The weight in her stomach began to lighten and Meisuke released a sigh she hadn't realized she was holding in. Tohru was right-this might be everyone else's home, but it was her home as well. She had just as much a right to feel comfortable in it.
The other tenants seemed to agree, each turning to their fellow as they began to apologize to the other both for their complaints and the trouble they had caused. Nodding with an air of approval and just the slightest edge of smugness, Tohru pushed past them into her own apartment, allowing herself a small grin and chuckle as she shut the door behind her.
"Thanks, Miss Tohru. I needed to hear that."
The young woman jumped in surprise, turning to find Meisuke leaning against the kitchen table with a smile on her face. Letting her gaze wander over the apartment, the butler continued, "I never really thought about it, but this really is my home, isn't it? For a while I had sort of thought that my home wasn't a place so much as 'by your side'-sure, yeah, kind of a cheesy line-but looking around here? It makes me... happy, actually having somewhere that is home."
For a moment Tohru stared at the ground and blushed, slightly embarrassed by Meisuke's words. However, she soon lifted her gaze to meet that of her butler and replied, "Yeah, it is kind of nice, isn't it? I'm really happy to hear that that's what you thought, but... it's also good to think that you really feel like our apartment is home."
"Yeah," Meisuke said, sitting down into a chair as she reflected on the day's events, "me too."
...
"Hmmm..." Meisuke grumbled, rooting through the fridge with a frown. "I was hoping I could've avoided this for a bit longer..."
Walking into the apartment's tiny kitchen with her brow furrowed in concern, Tohru asked, "What's wrong? You look kinda like you ran across a stain you couldn't scrub out."
With a sigh of defeat, the butler answered, "Nothing bad, but... I'm out of balche, and if I want any more then I have to go all the way to the Grove of Acan."
"Whaaat!?"
The pair turned to see Riko poking her head into the room, her eyes narrowed as she said, "That's so much trouble for some booze, and it's not like that's the only thing you have! It would take the whole day to get there and back!"
Shrugging, Meisuke replied, "Sure, but I really felt like having some, and I'd like to keep at least a couple bottles around for when the mood hits anyway." Glancing out the window, she added, "I'll probably head out tomorrow morning and be back a little bit before dinner."
Riko rubbed her chin as she considered this, saying, "So if Meisuke's gonna be going on a trip like that..."
Both Tohru and Riko's eyes lit up.
"I'll make you a lunch box!" They said simultaneously before turning to each other, surprised at first before competition began to steel their gazes and tighten their jaws.
"Oh no..." Meisuke muttered, lowering her face into her hands.
***End of Chapter 19***