Fikush-ON!

Ch. 22: Summer Job, Part II

The next day I was once again walking to my workplace. Another day, another yen, as my dad would say. I walked up the hill to the house, opened the gate with my key, and stepped to the yard. I headed straight to the mudroom to get changed into my work clothing, after which I walked over to the lobby to look for Saitou. I mean, yeah, I found Saitou. Not the old man, though, but the young servant girl, Saitou Sumire. Almost as if she's been expecting me.

"Ah, there you are. Good morning," she greeted me, bowing respectfully.

"Oh, yeah, morning," I said, answering the gesture. "Where's your uncle?"

"Ah, he's out doing some errands, so I'll be your supervisor this morning."

Getting supervised by a gal clearly younger than me, huh... Better swallow my pride, even though the thought doesn't taste so good.

After thinking about it for a bit, I nodded. "Okay, sure. So, any tasks for me?"

"Actually, yes. Today is laundry day. Follow me up to the laundry room, and I'll show you the procedures," she instructed me, and began heading towards the stairs, me tailing right after her.

I spent my morning doing the laundry. Dirty ones in, clean ones out to dry, pretty simple. And while waiting for the wash cycle to be complete, I decided to grab the vacuum cleaner and clean the upstairs hallway. At first I did it just to earn some extra points, but after a few minutes it began feeling relaxing, just like yesterday. When the cycle was done, I carried the laundry over to the clothesline outside where I hung them up to dry. Now I only had to find something else to do while I waited for the clothes to dry, and... Hold on, this isn't me. I'm beginning to lose myself. Maybe I'll just head over to the mudroom to relax a bit...

"Oh, you're already done, great."

I'm not sure where Sumire appeared from, but her talking caught me completely off guard. I somehow managed not to flinch.

"A-ah, yeah," I muttered, trying to hide my nervousness.

Sumire smiled a bit. "And good job on cleaning the upstairs hallway. Speaking of which, the rugs up there could use some airing. You can hang them on the patio's railings. Oh, and get a carpet beater, so you can dust them a bit."

Her tone of voice... Almost if she knew I was thinking about slacking off. Better be more careful with my thoughts. As instructed, I headed upstairs, rolled up the rugs covering the hallway's floor, and carried them out to the patio, where I laid them down on the railing. After a bit of searching, I managed to find the carpet beater. I used it to give the rugs the beating their dads never gave them. The hours passed as I did a few more tasks, and it was already lunch time. I still wasn't sure what I ate, but I think it was some kind of a fish or something. After finishing my meal and returning the dishes to the sink, I headed upstairs towards the library. As I got to the hallway, I spotted Sumire a bit further away, next to what I assumed to be her room's door.

Noticing my presence, she asked: "Oh, you're going to the library again?"

"Yeah," I nodded. "There's not much else to do here."

Sumire seemed to think about something for a bit. As I was reaching for the library's door, she suddenly spoke.

"Would you like to come into my room?"

It caught me completely off guard. "A what now?"

Sumire processed her words for a few seconds, until she flinched. "A-ah, no, I mean... The library doesn't really have anything for teenagers, and I have some manga and light novels, so..."

I tried my best to hide my grin as she embarrassedly explained her true intentions. She's all professional and ladylike when she's being a servant, but behind all that she's just a normal girl. Obviously, she's just offering me more suitable reading, nothing else. Actually, I wouldn't mind checking out some light novels.