Haruka's POV:

After the tea lesson, Ai-sama asked me various questions about me, such as my family members, boyfriends, relationships, and others.

"Do you have or have had a boyfriend?"

"I don't have a boyfriend right now, but I had one before."

"And approximately how long ago was that?"

"Uh.. about a year ago?"

"Okay. Where are your family members?"

"Let's see... My parents passed away when I was 15 years old so I was taken care by my closest aunt, who also passed away about a year ago. When she passed away, I had a job and was financially stable, so I started living on my own. My other family members are unknown or lives in other countries."

"... Okay. If you were financially stable, what are you doing here?"

"I-If I may, I would like to leave that question unanswered," I stuttered out, a sweat suddenly dropping down my forehead. Noticing my current state, Ai-sama narrowed his eyes at me before sighing and nodding. However, I could see a bit of curiosity in his cyan blue eyes.

"Any close friends?" he asked again, crossing his left leg over his right.

"N-No.. I was.. 'unliked' by others during my school years and couldn't interact with others when I was working, so I don't have any friends," I shook my head involuntarily, suddenly brought back to my trauma for a brief second. Unfortunately, Ai-sama caught this, being the cautious person he was.

"Why were you 'unliked' by others? Did you get bullied?" At this question, I could hear a sharp edge to his tone of voice.

"Yes... I was bad at making friends ever since I was young due to my frail health. So when I tried to make friends in 4th grade, I acted like a nuisance being the oblivious person I was. And I went to the same high school with the same classmates, and rumors started to spread. The rumors caused others to avoid me and do.. horrible... things to me, so I stopped trying to make friends ever since," this story took me back, again, and I tried to shake it away. Thankfully, it did and I raised my eyes to meet his.

Surprisingly, his eyes seemed to soften for a millisecond before returning to his normal state. When he stood up, his long-sleeved white trousers whispered against the wooden chair and Ai-sama straightened his clothes like a robot, his straight-like-a-rod posture back.

"Enough with the questions. Do you know how to clean?" gesturing me to follow him, he opened the door and got out cleaning supplies, placing them by my feet. Looking at me in an unamused way, he spoke, "Are you going to stand there while I'm getting out your supplies?"

Jolting in realization, I quickly kneeled beside him and got the rest of them out. After getting everything, he said, "Minus 50 points."

"Eh?! You were keeping points?" I shouted, puzzled.

Narrator's POV:

Thankfully, Haruka knew how to clean very well due to the fact that while she attended school, all her classmates would leave the cleaning after school to her.

Ai was watching her mop the floor, seeing how concentrated she was to get rid of a stubborn stain on the well-tiled floor. When she was finished, he told her to wipe the windows. But she was too short to even reach the top of the window, and watching how her skirt lifted high on her thighs while she was tip-toeing to get to the top stopped himself from saying 'get a stool.'

Although Haruka felt tired, she wasn't exhausted so she forced herself to work. Ai was the first one she met during her first day, so if she wanted to be accepted, she'll have to look good in front of one of her masters at least.

Polishing and wiping down the furniture took more work as she had to be extra careful since they were fragile and unaffordably expensive for her. Watching her actions intently, Ai came to a conclusion that she might- no, is oblivious to her surroundings from how she bumped into him earlier, weak in strength, bad at things she haven't done, and clumsy. But she was hardworking, payed lots of little details to everything and was skilled at things she were used to doing.

She would need to be taken care of and trained for a while, but she would be a useful worker in the future. That was the most positive answer from his system.

Finishing writing his conclusion in his note, he returned to Haruka, who was wiping down the last small coffee table that was framed in gold plating that was carved in water-like style. Her small and white hands grasped the rough-looking cloth tightly, making sure she didn't knock over anything. Even though she was paying close attention, she accidentally hit a vase that had flower patterns and it shook from the shock wildly, looking as if it would fall over. But before it even fell off the table, Haruka practically threw her arms around it, locked the vase tightly with her thin arms, and stayed still on the ground for a minute. She opened her tightly locked eyes to the sound of a soft chuckling.

When Haruka looked at Ai, his soft-looking lips were crooked to one side and he had an expression that looked amused.

"It seemed like your whole life depended on that vase," he said, covering his mouth with a fist. Haruka's cheeks immediately burned and she could feel the hotness of her cheeks. "U-Umm.. Well, it looks expensive an I'm pretty sure I won't be able to buy this vase for as long as I live!" She exclaimed, placing the vase on where it stood just a minute ago. She couldn't look at Ai right now due to her face's color.

"That is true. The vase itself costs about 15,000 dollars, and if it knocked over that small teacup next to it too, it practically doubles," he stated like it was no big deal. However, Haruka's mind was doing some very complicated math about how long it would take her to pay off a price that high and reached a conclusion that said she couldn't. Suddenly, she felt fear of knocking things over and her hands started shaking horribly.

Next to her was her master, looking at her face switching expressions every 5 seconds. He thought it was interesting to observe her.

"Haruka, you have one more table and you're done. Hurry it up, it's almost 8," Ai reminded her. She flinched and nodded hastily, quickly walking over to the last and final table. Unfortunately, the table had way more decorations than the ones before it and the poor girl's uneasiness practically doubled.

Then, she gulped, took a deep breath and started wiping.

Careful, careful.. she reminded herself all the while.

Just when she was finished, Ai called over to her.

"Haruka~"

"Yes? What is-" she replied back but her answer was replaced by a shriek that came out of her mouth as she started falling to the ground. Haruka forgot that she put some grease to lubricate the mop when she was wiping the floor.

Thump

She fell for the second time that day, but what she felt wasn't the hardness or coldness of the ground. All she felt was a soft fabric covering a warm and firm object beneath it.

"Are you okay?" she heard the familiar voice speak. When she opened her warm colored eyes, her face was on fire as she was seeing the face of her master up close.

"Y-Yes!" she shouted and quickly jumped to stand on her own, turning her back to him to hide her current expression. Her head was spinning and she was gasping for air. In that moment, she realized that the reason why she was like this wasn't because she was too flustered; it was her fever coming back. She had a high fever yesterday but after a good night sleep, she felt perfectly fine but right now, she didn't feel fine at all.

No longer being able to control her own body, Haruka started to sweat and her eyes grew hazy. She felt as if her lungs were being squeezed and hot inside but cold outside.

"Are you sure you're fine? You don't look- Haruka!" Ai quickly lunged forward to hold her trembling body in his arms. When he put his hand on her forehead, his system quickly read her temperature as 40.0 degrees. Light blue eyes widening in realization, he quickly held her in a princess carry.

When he looked down at her face, her face was red as a tomato, her breath coming out in short, ragged puffs of hot air. A bead of sweat trickled down her forehead, which contrasted to the shivering of her body.

Knowing that he shouldn't waste any more time, Ai hurriedly ran towards his room, feeling 'worried' about her.