Ride on Time

Chapter 51

Mitsuo was panting by the time he reached the reached the lobby. He straightened himself and cleared his throat before approaching the receptionist.
"Hi, I have a reservation here?" Mitsuo said, trying to slow his racing heart. "I booked online."
The young receptionist nodded before speaking in Chinese.
"Sorry, I don't speak Chinese," Mitsuo bowed, taking out his booking credentials. "This is my booking ID."
The young woman looked embarrassed. "I'm sorry, my mistake for speaking in Chinese." She said in fluent English.
"It's fine," Mitsuo nodded with a smile and took his passport out. "Here's my passport."
The Chinese girl nodded and checked the system. After seeing that everything was in order, she handed him the keycard to his room.
"Your room will be on the fifteenth floor," the young woman smiled. "Have a nice day, Mr... Tadao."
Mitsuo bowed and made his way to the lift.

The room was spacious and cozy, equipped with a large king-sized bed and a smart flatscreen television. There was a nice study table at the side, a large glass sliding door that covered the whole wall right behind it, evidently leading to the balcony. Mitsuo relieved himself of his baggage and made his way towards the enormous balcony.
The whole of Petaling Jaya could be seen, making him shudder a bit because of the height. He retreated into the room again. A vanity table with a mirror stood on the other side, right beside the glass door. Mitsuo decided to see how the bathroom looked like.
A large bathtub stood at the centre, a glass shower towards the back. A sink cabinet was right beside the door, clean towels and hand towels next to it, ready for use.
Mitsuo returned to the main room and laid down on his bed after taking his shoes off. It was his first time in a five-star hotel alone, and he wanted to make the best of it.

Shree received a notification on her phone, saying that the package she ordered has been delivered. She ran to her porch and saw two parcels behind the car, right inside the gate. She excitedly took them and retreated into the house to open them.
The yukata was ripped open first and Shree gasped. It was beautiful, though it was only made of sateen and not actual silk. She stood up and try it on, unpacking the obi that came with it.
A sudden feel of familiarity washed over her as she tied the obi around her waist, after arranging the yukata's left flaps over the right in front of her chest.
Shree went to the nearest mirror and looked at herself, the yukata making whisper-like noises as she moved her arms about. She decided to show herself wearing the green yukata to her mother.
"Mom?" Shree called as she searched around. "Ma!"
"What lah?" Chandrika appeared from her room. Shree just grinned, gesturing towards herself. "Eh, where you bought? So nice!"
Shree giggled. "Online. Nice, right? I wanna wear for the event next week."
"Nice," Chandrika nodded, grinning.
Shree laughed and returned to the living room while taking her yukata off as she sat down on the living room carpet once again to open the second parcel.
Turns out, it was the white face paint she ordered. She started wondering if her mother was done with the kanzashi and decided to ask her.
Then again, there was still a few more days left for it, and her mother was the kind to make those under an hour.

Mitsuo was glad that breakfast came together with the room he booked. He wanted to get dinner too but that would mean he wasn't going to be eating any nightlife food.
And that would be a shame since food was one of the biggest things Malaysia is known for.
Mitsuo had a light dinner at the hotel restaurant before making his way back to his room, deciding to rest for the day. He took his diary out, followed by the new quill and ink his parents got for him.
He placed the bookmark on the open journal and took out the glass pen. Mitsuo frowned, not really sure how it worked. The instructions said that it should just be dipped into a vial of ink to write. Seemed easy enough.
So Mitsuo pulled out the bottle of ink from the quill box. He dipped the tip of the glass pen into the black liquid and started writing. He was surprised, the writing was fine and smooth and the glass provided a comfort grip.
But still, he decided to put it away after one use since he was scared that it might get crushed under his grip. He washed the blackened tip in the sink and dried it before returning it to its case.
Then he decided to try out the quill. It felt like he was writing with a fountain pen, just that he had to dip it in ink from time to time.
Though it was only around nine, Mitsuo decided to turn in for the day. After all, he did have a very long flight.
He texted his parents in the group chat and went straight to bed.

Shree started reading Timeless Love. She even had a pack of potato chips with her as she read, each page passing so fast that she lost track of time.
The book was really interesting, not at all like the other Japanese books she read.
Stupid Like You was just a story of bad decisions, then there was this other book she read that was so scandalous that she sold it to her friend. And then, said friend recommended a book to her and that ended up being centred around a strange mix of confusing magic and raunchy scenes. Shree didn't even want to finish that book, leaving it lying at the back of her bookshelf.
And now she didn't know how to get rid of that book since the friend she sold the last book has a copy of her own.
Shree sighed, remembering how she even had to fight with the courier service to get her parcel delivered on time.
But at least, she had a nice Japanese book in her hands now. She finally got to see how it's like in Japan in the form of a great story.

Yass! Mitsuo has landed in Malaysia! I have to admit, I've been waiting for this for so long! I've done my observation whenever I passed through Asia Jaya and mapped out a way Mitsuo could get across. It would be hard since the traffic of Jalan Utara is not very... kind. Also, I had to take a trip to KL Sentral observe the situation and get the LRT route too. Well, I could've just gotten the route from the Internet but you know... feels? So yeah, I collected my data from there too. This is the very first time I'm writing a story that happens in a place I've truly been to, meaning I know what this place actually looks like, how it is in different times of the day, and also somewhere I can go and make observations for myself lol.
Also, about the part the receptionist mistaking Mitsuo for a Chinese person and engaging conversation in said language is common. I mean, not the part where she mistook him for Chinese, but the part where she just started talking to him in Chinese. I've been through this a lot as an Indian, and if the cashier or receptionist is also Indian, they would freely start speaking to me in Tamil. It's not an issue for me to understand, but it is an issue for me to reply lol. Like Shree, I can't speak Tamil very well. But at least I can understand well.
There are some people who can do neither lol.
Anyway, I hope you enjoyed!

Love,
ShashaMeow