Chapter 7

"Leave It For Tomorrow"

Ani: Hey everyone! Chapter 7 is finished now! What do you think of the story so far? You know, I'd like to make a few announcements about this story, my account, and my online life.

"Reasons" will have 5 or less chapters left. I think that will make a good end for it. I will try my best for an ending that everyone is satisfied with! What do you think will happen? Anyways, thank you to my old readers and my new readers! I also really appreciate the comments! I ALWAYS read my comments so please keep commenting and I can't wait to hear what else you have to day.

About my account. I would like to announce that I will soon start working on a shounen-ai fan fiction based around the anime and manga or "Sekai ichi Hatsukoi" with a pairing of Masamune and Ritsu as the main pair. If you have not read or watchs and you like boy love. I suggest this! The anime follows closely with the manga, just the manga they have a lot more sex than the anime.

Uuummm I would like to dedicate this chapter to someone special to me that I learned has died recently. I am an online singer on youtube and I've often worked with her. She was a wonderful person and I will miss her greatly. She will forever be at the tender age of fourteen. May she find peace in the afterlife and forever smile. I hope that she can be happy eternally, RIP Michiko.

Enjoy!

Amu woke up with light pouring through her shouji screens and illuminating her room, her empty room. Just some tatami floors, fusuma walls, shouji screens, a futon with a kakebuton*. None of it was actually hers. She pushed herself up and had to balance with her arms. "Ah ah ah" She groaned in pain from her beating received. "Damn it" she pushed herself up to her knees. She adjusted the pajama yukata she was given and stood up.

After rolling up her futon and putting it in "her" closet and with "her" kimono's she opened her shouji screens and stepped out onto her private rouka. She sat down on the edge of it and pulled her knees to her chest.

It was cold even though the sun was out. It was winter after all. She watched the souzu fill and fall only to repeat itself. "I wonder what Ran, Miki, and Su are up to?" She sighed, "And Ikuto…" She smiled a little bit. She looked up at the sky, dark clouds where at the horizon, rain or snow could be coming soon. Her heart beat sped up. "Ikuto…" She said again.

There was a knocking at her door. She walked into her room and closed the shouji screens behind her. She walked into the next room and open her main door. There was a maid standing there. "Breakfast miss" she said Amu opened the door all the way for her for the maid set it on the kotatsu. Amu sat down The maid poured her some tea and sat her food in front of her. It was just a bowl with rice porridge in it.

"Porridge? This is it?" Amu questioned her. "I didn't get much to eat the past few days either." She whined.

"I'm sorry miss, it was a direct order from Kawano-san." The maid bowed, " She said that we need to limit your portions and that you need to loose weight."

"WHAT?" Amu groaned and laid her head down on the table in front of her, "I don't know how much more I can take!" Amu started to eat the little porridge she was given.

"Miss, your new name has been decided as well by Kawano-san." The maid sat opposite from Amu. Amu took a bite and made eye contact with her, "You will now be called Kawano Miki." She smiled.

"Why to I have to have an Alias again?" Amu questioned while eating. The maid smiled larger.

"Well because, a lot of the girls are here to repay a debt. Initially, Kawano-san wants these girls to loose contact with their previous lives. You all have the same surname "Kawano" because that has always been the family name that runs the place. This building was built and used as a tea house by Kawano-san's great-grandfather. She worked here when she was younger along with her siblings, same with all of the female family members." Amu nodded and listened to the maids long story.

"Sometimes when there weren't enough females to fill the demand Kawano-san's family started hiring new workers and took them in as family. They would provide for them in exchange for them working here. Now, since most of these girls come from other families, all of them must go by a new name." The maid nodded and took Amu's dishes when she was finished. She bowed and showed herself out of the room. Amu sat at the kotatsu with a still hungry stomach.

"So all of the female workers her have the name 'Kawano'?" She pushed herself up and walked out to her own garden. She looked at the incoming clouds.

"I am not Hinamori Amu here…. I am Kawano Miki now." Her face was sorrowful.

Ikuto walked down the quiet dirt road that was raised above rice fields on both sides with bright green grass leading down to the fields. He kept walking and eventually when the rice fields stopped, the road started to flatten down as trees started to thicken and houses were scattered about. Most of the houses were traditional with walls and gates around them, but the occasional modern house could be found. The trees become denser as a forest was coming up and of course, a split in the road.

"I don't know where this place is…" He said discouragingly. Luckily, a man on a bicycle was coming out from on of the paths through the forest.

"Excuse me!" Ikuto tried to get his attention and the man stopped in front of him and stared.

"You aren't from around here," He assumed, "What can I help you with?" He was an older man around his mid-forties. His black hair was balding on top. His eyebrows were thick as so were his glasses.

"I am actually looking for the tea house that is supposed to be around here…" The guys face immediately lit up.

He made a huge grin, "I was actually just coming from that place! It is amazing there! It is nice to have some sort of activities here since there is nothing else to do," he shrugged, "If only my wife would agree!" He laughed and Ikuto feigned laughter with him.

"You know they have a new worker, she is young but she is really pretty!" Ikuto held back a bit of shock.

"New worker?" He asked. "What's her name?"

The older man stared, "They told us today her name is Kawano Miki-chan"

'It's not Amu then…..' Ikuto thought, "So do you know how to get to the tea house from here?"

"If you go down to the path on the left and travel down the trail," He pointed, " You'll get there in about and hour and a half by foot." Ikuto bowed and thanked him, "Also," the man said, "You may want to consider renting a room for the night. It's cheap and comfortable there."

"Thank you," Ikuto bowed again and started walking the direction he pointed.

"Ah, Miki-chan!" Amu turned her head to see who was calling. It was Kiyomi. She wore a dark red kimono with black birds as the print, contrasting Amu's pink and blue.

"Miki-chan, I think it's time you should meet the other girls, don't you think?" Amu turned her head to the side.

"Kiyomi-san, I don't know if I should, I haven't introduced myself to them yet because they always give me angry looks." Kiyomi started walking through the inside hallway with Amu. "

"It's okay Miki-chan," Kiyomi lead her to the end of the hall and opened the shouji screen that led to the outside rouka. "They are usually kind." She directed her past the bathing area and the common hot spring. "If the are mean at all, they are just jealous of you." Kiyomi smiled.

"I don't see a reason for them to be…" Kiyomi let out a laugh.

"Miki-chan~ You know, you are the one with the biggest room and you have your own private garden with a private hot spring! Normally the girl that has been here the longest gets that room, but when Sayumi-san, she worked here for seven years, finally paid off her debt and left, Kawano-san tried offering me the room. I declined at you can see," They turned a corner.

"Then you joined us and Kawano-san wanted you to be comfortable since she knows you don't want to be here. She wanted to do something nice for you."

"Hey, can I ask a question?" Amu questioned, "What's your real name?"

Kiyomi stopped suddenly. "Miki-chan, My name is Kawano Kiyomi." She continued and Amu followed. "This is my life now, my five years here has been my life. I've forgotten the rest."

Kiyomi stopped at a door and looked Amu in the eyes, "You should forget too, your life before you came here…" a smile crossed her face, "It's a lot less painful that way."

Amu's eyes grew, 'It is painful isn't it…' She looked at the wooden floorboards, 'I haven't been here that long but my heart aches daily… I'm missing everything…. And everyone.'

"Akemi-chan," Kiyomi called through the shouji screen.

"Come in!" A high-pitched voice called.

Kiyomi opened the screen and waved Amu to follow her. Three young girls kimono's sat around a kotatsu playing cards and the all stared at Amu. Kiyomi walked and sat at the Kotatsu and Amu followed her.

"Girls I'd like to formally introduce you to our newest worker." Kiyomi nodded her heat at them.

"This is Kawano Miki-chan."

"Ah- Hajimemashite. I'm Kawano Miki," that sentence felt weird coming off of her tongue, " Douzo yoroshiku onegai shimasu." Amu bowed her head. The three girls stared and didn't say anything.

"Oh um..." Kiyomi was a little upset but their coldness.

"This is Kawano Akemi-chan," She put her hand in her direction. Akemi wore a blue plain kimono and had light brown hair the was cut into layers and bangs hung into her face. "She has been working here two years now and is seventeen." Amu bowed to her.

Kiyomi pointed to the girl in the middle. She was wearing a yellow kimono with cherry blossoms skewed on it. Her hair was black and pulled into a high bun. "This is Kawano Amaya-chan. She has worked with us a little over a year now and she is sixteen."

"And this is Kawano Miyuki-chan." Miyuki had dark brown hair that she had pulled back into a pony tail with blond streaks throughout it. "She has been with us four years now and is nineteen."

"Please leave." Akemi demanded. "Kiyomi may stay…. But you need to go," Akemi repeated to Amu. Amu shook her head. "You are right." She stood up and immediately left the room.

Ikuto stood outside the tall gates. A wooden sign on the side had "Kawano Tea and Spa" neatly carved into the dark wood.

He pulled a dark knocker and hit it on the gate and they immediately opened. A young woman stood in a red kimono, "Welcome sir" she said in a sing song voice and led him into the building, "Please take your shoes off" she instructed.

Ikuto stood inside the same building where Amu was, he just needed to find her and get her out of here.

Amu sat on her private rouka and stared at the sky. It was dark with dense grey clouds. There was a knock at her door. She walked in leaving the shouji open even though the cold would seep in. Amu opened it and Anzu was standing on the other side.

"What do you want?" She said rudely. Anzu walked in carrying a tray with fruit, two pieces of cake, and a tea set with already boiled water. She set it down on the kotatsu. She then walked to the shouji screen and closed it.

"You'll catch a cold if you leave it open in this chill." She faced Amu.

"What's all of this for?" Amu pointed to the tray. Anzu placed a white trivet on the table and set the teapot on it. She placed two small cylindrical tea cups, small container with matcha powder*, and a matcha scoop and whisk.

"Miki, you will have your first private session today." Anzu stated and walked to the door.

"What?" Amu questioned and walked closer to her.

"A young man has paid to have a private session with you. He will be here any minute. You do what ever he wants. Whatever! Do not tell him 'no' to anything." Anzu said. "He has never been here before so leave a good impression on him." Anzu said with a stern voice and continued, "Since the town here is small, we need all the business we can get to operate like this." She left the room leaving Amu to her thoughts.

"Do anything for this man?" she looked to the tatami floors and a pain pulled itself to her heart.

She sat on her knees under the kotatsu futon and stared at the treats that she was supposed to serve to whoever pays and act like their girlfriend almost. Say 'darling~' and 'Honey~' to random men made Amu feel sick to her stomach.

There was a small knock the door, "Miki-chan," a deep voice called from the other side. Amu lifted her head," Ah," she nervously said, "Come in".

The door slowly slid open and in stepped a man. Amu's eyes widened.

It was a frumpy old man wearing a dress shirt and pants, he was completely bald. Amu was horrified…. 'this man…. I have to entertain him….?!'

Dun dun dun! Shock right! Nope, Ikuto didn't get there in time! Whaddaya think? Sorry for the shortness. Would you rather short chapters to come out often, of long chapters to come out monthly?

-Vocabulary-

01. Kakebuton – The comforter that is used with a futon.

02. Matcha – A type of Japanese tea.