No more A/Ns, please: LOL I'm sorry. These things, I know, are annoying. But I just need to explain why I've used dates for chapter titles. That's to make your life and mine easy. I've always wanted to know when the last chapter was updated or added, and there is no way of telling which chapter was the last you've read unless you've kept tabs on it, which in most cases you don't. It gets harder when there are more than 5 chapters released, and you've read the last release months ago. You get lost somewhere. T.T Some authors are kind enough to put them in A/Ns but not everybody reads those (most esp. me), so the date thing is kinda useless. Wait. Did you, guys, even get what I was trying to explain? LOL
Thanks to those who have read, and most esp. those who have reviewed. :)
2nd Act, Autumn
In the sleepless night, I sing this song alone.
Together with the blowing wind I fly, riding on my thoughts.
- Iwao Junko, Yoru no Uta
If there was one sound that she was already so used to it would be the echoed rumbling of the bullet trains. The ground beneath her feet didn't quiver but they might as well had trembled with the noise that ricocheted in her head.
I can't see the sun.
She couldn't place that certain caged feeling inside her, couldn't understand why she was still feeling this way.
What am I doing here?
The young woman was staring ahead when for a split second she suddenly couldn't recognize the bright colors of this crowded room, the happy and excited chatter that drowned all other sounds, and that image in the smoked window pane that stared back at her.
"Nee Tomoyo-neechan." Familiar small hands and bright blue eyes jerked her back to consciousness and recognition.
The little boy of five years old fisted her skirt, tugging on her clothes excitedly to the direction of the piano in the far corner where other children had already positioned themselves.
Tomoyo made an effort to beam at the child.
I'm alright, the girl convinced herself as she widened her smile that didn't reach her eyes.
Most of the children at this time of the day would be running around in the daycare center, but today just like yesterday, they had their full attention on Tomoyo and the piano.
"Play that song you taught Noe yesterday!" The boy toothily commanded which made his babysitter laugh in amusement.
"Only if you say please, Noe-chan," Tomoyo admonished playfully as she anyway let him drag her with him.
"Please." At this he matched the plea with a look that was part pleading and part impatient.
The other children where becoming restless even when she finally took her place on the piano, and only calmed down when the first light notes floated in the air.
Somehow the mess in the main room had influenced the arrangement of things in the lounge, and it had taken her longer to get dressed for her next job much to Tomoyo's chagrin.
Not that arrangement mattered much these days. My life is crazier by the second, the girl scoffed, finding herself uncharacteristically sarcastic.
"Tomoyo-san?"
How it was easy for her to pretend that things were alright for her.
"Is something the matter, Rika-senpai?" Tomoyo curiously asked the woman with a docile face.
Rika Sasaki wasn't really any older than her, but the former was the niece of the manager of this subway daycare center, a senior of sorts, and Tomoyo thought it just appropriate to call her such.
"Actually, I was going to ask you that," Rika said quietly, cautiously taking her place beside Tomoyo and helping her keep the remaining aprons that were lying unattended on the table.
Though she was composed enough not to ask pointblank, Tomoyo couldn't help but look up and meet Rika's warm eyes.
"You seem distracted today, Tomoyo-san." The other woman's look was suddenly somewhat concerned.
It was just then that the former heiress broke off her gaze. Was it out of embarrassment or guilt, Tomoyo couldn't tell.
"I was thinking of homework." She just had to lie as well, looking away and pretending to be busy with buttoning up her shirt. "I figured that I'd have to stay up late again to work on it."
A small nod of assent was the only reply she got from Rika. If the senpai had seen through the lie, she chose not to comment on it. Her reserved and empathetic reaction was typical for the cinnamon-eyed woman, and there was always that air of formality in her no matter who she was speaking with, consequently she wasn't one to prod. Her next statement would come out as a surprise for Tomoyo, though.
"That song just a while ago...I like it," the brunette warmly remarked. "Who taught you that?"
The children they were tasked to baby-sit for the day must not have understood what the song was about, and probably even Rika Sasaki herself. Tomoyo Daidōji had very fond memories of it.
For the first time that day the young woman with the most striking amethyst eyes gave a genuine, unreserved smile.
"My father."
Quick notes:
nee – "Say..."
-neechan – big sister
-chan – suffix used on little kids, on close friends usually girls, or for a term of endearment
-senpai – a title that suggests that the addressee is one's senior in a group or organization
