Ride on Time

Chapter 38

"Who was that?" Sufyan asked, retrieving his bag of things from Shri as they entered the lift lobby.
"My assistant at work," Shri answered, pressing the button to go down. "He came here with his wife, planning to go to AmCorp Mall for a movie later."
"Oh..." Sufyan frowned thoughtfully. "Okay..."
Shri frowned, seeing how he seemed uncomfortable. "Are you okay?"
"I'm fine..." Sufyan said. "Just..." he shrugged, smiling slightly.
Shri brushed it off and entered the lift when it opened, Sufyan at his heels.
"I'm sure you'll like my books," Shri changed the subject, pressing the button to go to the parking lot.
Sufyan smirked and dug in the plastic bag, pulling out Shri's latest book. "This is your newest?"
"Yeah, released only a few days ago," Shri grinned proudly. "That's the best one among the three, if you ask me. But I suggest that you read all of them. My books are awesome."
Sufyan rolled his eyes. "Yeah, don't let it get into your head, you might explode from expanding too much."
Shri frowned and straightened himself when the lift came to their floor. The two men walked out as soon as it opened.

***

Misao closed the book, a smile on her face. The smile, however, quickly turned into a frown as realisation hit her. She had just finished her favourite book.
But then she also realised. He had sent her another one, called Mystical Mist.
'I think I'll read this instead,' Misao smirked, placing a bookmark in front of the first page before stuffing it into her bag. She then made her way to the vanity and started getting ready for work, coating her porcelain face in white.

Misao attended to her customer, her tsuzumi held to her shoulder. The customer was due any minute now, even paying in advance for their booking.
They eventually walked in and Misao bowed, greeting the customer with full respect.
"Welcome," Misao said when she got onto her knees again. Her smile faltered just the slightest bit when she noticed that it was Genjuro Hitohira. "Oh, young Mister Hitohira. Welcome back, Sir."
Genjuro grinned and sat down cross-legged at the chabudai, earning a slight frown from Misao. She knew he was perfectly capable of sitting in seiza, seeing how he did when he came with his family, unlike a few tourists like Shri and his family. They had a reason since they weren't used to the Japanese culture, unlike Genjuro. It was considered arrogant to sit like that in a formal setting.
"You know, Sakura, you don't have to address me formally, right?" Genjuro smiled slyly. "Anyway, what kind of food do you offer?"
"The menu is right in front of you, Sir," Misao smiled as she spoke.
Genjuro started reading the menu, Misao started playing her drum. She made each pound extra loud and only those who knew her well would know that she wasn't satisfied with the situation she was in.
Misao paused when Genjuro started saying something.
"What would you like to order, Hitohira-san?" Misao asked politely.
"Well, since I don't see you on the menu, I think I'll go with the second most sweetest thing," Genjuro smirked. "How about some Anmitsu, mochi, and daifuku?"
"Anything else, Sir?" Misao smiled, trying to mask her disgust as she wrote them down.
"Some matcha and some tonkatsu," Genjuro grinned, closing the menu and pushing it forward.
Misao bowed and briefly left to hand the order to one of the waitresses. "Get these quick, the customer's a little hard to deal with, I'm afraid."
The waitress nodded and ran off to the kitchen. Misao returned to the shoji room and continued to entertain her customer.
"You look so beautiful in oshiroi, I wonder how you'd look without it," Genjuro smiled. A smile that made Misao cringe.
Misao let out the laugh she had been practicing since her maiko days, a hand held above her mouth. "Thank you, Hitohira-san. I was also wondering, how is your wife and child?"
Genjuro's smile faltered. "She's almost due in a few weeks."
Misao smiled triumphantly at his distaste and started singing a traditional song with her tsuzumi. She ended it just in time before the food arrived.
"Enjoy your food, Hitohira-san," Misao smiled as she put her tsuzumi down in the corner.
She whipped out a fan and started dancing to the slow melody she was singing. Misao felt Genjuro's eyes on her all the while.
"The anmitsu is really good," Genjuro smiled. "Goes really well with the tonkatsu."
Misao looked at him for a moment and saw that he had literally put his sliced tonkatsu into the bowl of anmitsu. She thought it was such a psychotic thing to do, to eat pork cutlets with a dessert!
"I've never seen anyone eat tonkatsu like that before, kyaku-san, but I'm sure it tastes really good."
"Just like you, sweet and umami at the same time."
Misao felt beads of sweat forming on the back of her neck. She quickly picked up her drum and started with another instrumental folk song. She played it slow with powerful strikes to the drum's surface.
Genjuro took his time with the food and Misao wondered if she could make it to her next customer's appointment. She noticed how there was still more than half of the food left in front of him and then looked up at the customer. To her dismay, he was staring at her instead of eating.
"How is your family, Hitohira-san?" Misao decided to ask.
Genjuro was jolted out of his thoughts. "Huh?"
"How is your family?" Misao smiled again. "I hope everyone are in good in health."
"Oh, yeah, everyone's well," Genjuro smiled, resuming to eat his weird concoction of animitsu and tonkatsu. His face contorted in slight disgust as he ate. "Everyone's doing great."
Misao smiled mischievously. "How's that anmitsu going? Strangely tasty?"
"Very..." Genjuro forced a smile when he gulped some of it down.
Misao looked much happier now, even bringing out her shakuhachi to play. She was actually surprised that Genjuro managed to finish everything and gave him a big bow of respect.
"Thank you for coming, Hitohira-san," Misao smiled. "It's been a pleasure."
"Oh, the pleasure is all mine," Genjuro smiled back. He opened his mouth to say more but what came out was a giant burp. Genjuro quickly covered his mouth in embarrassment. "Oh my, I'm so sorry." He bowed.
Misao let out her well-practiced laugh once again. "Oh it's fine. I'm sure the food was really tasty. Especially your creative invention."
Genjuro turned red as he left the room, leaving Misao to grin triumphantly behind him.

Misao sat down to eat once again, Shri's book open in front of her. She held it between two fingers as she ate her small, round-shaped temari sushi that was made specifically for geisha and maiko to enjoy without ruining their elaborately done makeup.
Misao went page after page, stuffing her face with sushi. She hadn't even noticed that there was nothing left on her plate until she realised that she was scooping air into her mouth. Misao eventually looked down to see that there was nothing left on her plate. She sighed and pushed it aside to continue reading.

The reason Sufyan said that Shri might explode is because in Malay, when someone's proud of themselves, we say kembang. It translates to expand, so its technically referring to the person's ego or pride.
Also, the part about Genjuro not sitting in seiza is considered kinda a big deal because I found a post saying that it is only allowed at home or informal settings, or if the host suggests. In Shri's family case, however, it is actually a little different lol. Firstly, he's kinda close with Misao so I guess that says a lot, and secondly, it is okay to sit cross-legged in Indian culture, even for women. It's even considered respectful to do so, sitting cross-legged on the ground.