𝐓𝐀𝐌𝐄 𝐌𝐘 𝐇𝐄𝐀𝐑𝐓 | 𝑺.𝑺𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒂𝒛𝒖𝒈𝒂𝒘𝒂

𝟑𝟓 | 𝐑𝐞𝐟𝐥𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 & 𝐒𝐞𝐞𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐀𝐝𝐯𝐢𝐜𝐞

~*~

A WEEK LATER

It's been so long since I've seen this place............

The estate was left just how it was, since the passing of my big brother. However, the place was renovated and some rooms were slightly altered and changed during the past year of waiting for this. Due to my rise in the ranks, and the amount i've been paid given by my choice of the worth of missions, I had enough to have this place renovated. Lady Amane even organised to have two young gardeners to rid of the weeds and unnecessary plants that grew over time.

It took large amounts of my earnings, and efforts for this to happen.

"Lady Hayami, is this living space to your liking?" A kakushi asks me soft, as she stood before me looking rather intimidated. "We tried to have rosewood furnishings delivered here, handmade from the best from Setagaya. Your hometown."

Surprised for a moment that Lady Amane thoroughly wanted me to feel comforted, I couldn't help but smile.

"Very much," my fingertips trail along the edge of the rosewood shelve, feeling the polished finishing. "The tatami flooring is very luxurious, but too expensive..........and the scroll in the centre is beautiful."

The kakushi clasps her hands together, "That's right, Lady Amane said that a personal painter in Setagaya painted the very mountains where the shrine was......"

Though there were memories recalling that very night, all I could was look into the memories of my home. How I missed resting in mother's lap, with her fingers drifting through my hair soothingly on a late afternoon. 

Smiling faintly, I continue walking through and walked down the verandah, leading towards a seperate room. The kakushi rushes before me and opens the shoji doors, before guiding me inside the room, "This is the kitchen, as requested in your lists of things to change," The kakushi replies with an enthusiastic voice. "We made sure it wasn't too big, nor too small to fit what's best for you. Seen you'll either be on missions more over time, you'll eat less within this estate......so we have minimised a lot as your request."

Glancing over the quaint but suitable room, I smile warmly, "Thankyou very much, it's just right,"

"Also those shoji doors will lead to the living room we just came from," She adds, before we step back out and walks around the verandah to the next room.

Glancing over my shoulder to the zen garden, I've noticed extreme changes to the exterior design of the old garden I once knew. Pebbles scattered as the main ground, with a beautiful pond with beautiful Chrysanthemums in season planted in certain areas. Gravel grated in continuous lines of smooth waves and sphere like. Stone pagoda lanterns spread out  beside the stone path, to illuminate the pathway when it would be night. It was much beautiful, than how it was maintained last I was here.

Ryuji didn't really take care of his estate, and resulted in me trying to do the gardening and cleaning the majority of the time I lived with him. He was mostly at the butterfly mansion all the time, that he left his estate a mess. Not once have I seen he know how to clean, or even cook due to me cooking for him, only when he ate out. He didn't have any common decency to even take care of himself or his estate, that I took care of his messes.

Why did I allow myself to succumb in his selfishness.......?

"....and if we go here, this is where your bedroom is," The kakushi opens the shoji doors, revealing a built-in desk with a a shoji window just rest above aligning the desk. "Your room was altered to be bigger, so half is your study and the other where you lay your futon in the evening after dinner as usual......"