The Girl Nextdoor

Prologue 2: Noctchill Production

[Kiyo]

I opened my eyes, only to be meet by a ceiling I am unfamiliar with. A feeling of unfamiliarity soon followed, but then I remembered that I am now outside of the
White Room and it is my first night sleeping somewhere beside that sterile place.

Well, since I have no instructors to come and yell at me if I don't do my daily routine for at least today, I suppose looking up at the ceiling like this wouldn't sound too bad. It wouldn't hurt to stay like this just for a couple of minutes.

I stared at the ceiling with no particular expression showing. I'm not exactly happy or anything like that but experiencing new things just hits different, and the barren atmosphere that used to surround me before can't be felt here.

I finally stood up and walked to the bathroom to wash my face and brush my teeth. After doing so, I walked to the kitchen and started cooking the rice Matsuo had bought for me yesterday.

Three cups of rice is probably enough to last for an entire day for me, knowing and memorizing what my meals will be in the White Room.

Since Matsuo isn't here, just like I ordered him to yesterday along with that man's permission for me to live alone, I had Matsuo teach me how to cook rice.

He said to put an estimated amount of rice that I can consume into the rice cooker, which is three cups of rice.

After, he told me to wash and clean the rice, scramble it randomly until the water goes blurry and to do it three times, until the water less blurry than the first wash.

And when the cleaning part is finished, I was taught to put another water to the rice cooker, that is about an inch higher higher from the base, which is the rice, until the single line of my finger which is exactly 1 inch away from my nail.

But, I have another method in mind. This experiment could fail but because of the knowledge I've attained in the White Room, I highly doubt that is the case.

After securing that I thoroughly emptied the water that was used to cleaning the rice, I added another three cups of water to the rice cooker, the same and exact cup that I used to scoop some rice.

My reasoning for this is that, because the cup contained the same amount of both the water and rice, the result would be a perfectly cooked rice as the water isn't lacking which will result to a dry rice, and too much which will result to something like that of a rice porridge.

After wiping the bottom of the rice cooker so the machine wouldn't go haywire because it runs on electricity, I tapped on the switch downwards and saw the a light turn red, scribbled on it says cooking.

Once I secured that the rice cooker is on its cooking process, I walked my way towards the wardrobe, changed my clothes and put on some jacket and a sweatpants, and then wear a running shoes.

I got out of the condominium early in the morning, when the sun still wasn't out.

I guess I woke up a bit too early.

Although I have a machine like a treadmill to run and exercise indoors, I don't particularly feel like obeying that man's orders today so I decided to go out in a little while. Besides, I'm still doing my daily routine, I'm sure that man wouldn't mind as long as I do his orders.