Womanish Lady

Chapter 5:

That day, the Embroidery maids didn't interact with her. But most of them looked at her and informed their other maids about her seemingly infamous moments as a Civil maid.

"She was only there for a month but she already got transferred for her bad behavior!"

"Goodness. She better not cause trouble here. She made the entire village under suspicion and almost had everyone get in trouble."

"Hey!" said the Overseer who had just tended to Fuyaiyah. "The deadline for these garments will sneak up on you! Focus!"

And that was it until night time.

When the other maids heard Fuyaiyah's footsteps, they quickly took down their mats to claim them so she wouldn't have one to sleep on. But there was, in fact, an extra mat. The last girl to take a mat grabbed both of them, stacked them, and sat on top of them - covering the extra mat with her blanket.

As a result of waiting as late as she could to bathe so she won't have to deal with as many maids, Fuyaiyah walked into the large bedroom, having a pillow and blanket, but no mat to sleep on. The other maids were strangely quiet. Fuyaiyah was shown the closet where the mats should be - she went there, but there weren't any. She came back out, just as quiet as them.

"Are there no more mats for me?" she asked politely.

"Are you blind? Obviously there isn't any."

Fuyaiyah looked at her.

"Are you a liar? I watched a Superior put an extra mat for me in here."

The maids went quiet. Fuyaiyah surveyed each maiden. She almost missed it, but then she saw one maid a little higher than the others. She eyed the maid, and went over to her.

"What're you doing?" she yelled. But Fuyaiyah ignored her and pulled away her blanket to reveal the extra mat. Fuyaiyah looked at her again.

"I have back problems."

"Liar." said Fuyaiyah, and began pulling out the extra mat. The maid started screaming, and the other maids went to prevent Fuyaiyah from getting her rightful mat.

An Overseer, in charge of making sure the maids were situated to sleep, walked in and saw the commotion. The maids moved aside to reveal a distressed maid, who quickly recovered the extra mat and Fuyaiyah.

"What in the world is this commotion?"

"She just got here and she's already causing trouble for our friend!" started one.

"We were just getting ready for bed and she started harassing her!"

The Overseer looked at Fuyaiyah, who let them say whatever.

"Is this true, Fuyaiyah?"

"No. I watched a Superior put an extra mat in here for me, and for whatever reason, she took my mat, and tried to hide it."

"Not true! You know that I have back problems. My Superior always lets me lay on two mats."

"Would you stop ly-"

"-Hmm. That's right." said the Overseer. "This maid always had back problems and is allowed to have two mats. She could've been kind and let you have one of hers, but she isn't obligated to."

Fuyaiyah became tense.

"Maybe you saw something wrong. But you shouldn't accuse her and start trouble on your first day here." The Overseer shook her head and turned off the light before leaving.

In the dark, the maids snickered as Fuyaiyah slowly walked away, regaining her composure.

She was about to leave quietly. But the maid to the right of her had a smirk on her face. "I'm the one who took your mat." she said playfully, slowly revealing the second mat. Then she, and nearby maids, giggled.

Fuyaiyah tried her best to ignore it, but her impulse was stronger than her will; she roughly turned around and tried to get her mat back.

"You're really trying again?" The maid was amused.

One of the maids turned on the light. This time, Fuyaiyah succeeded in getting her mat back, and grabbed the real culprit.

"Why did you do that?"

Both maids in confrontation had equally hard looks on their faces. "Because I don't like you. Fu-yai-yah!"

"You have absolutely no reason for that!"

"I definitely do - you caused my older sister trouble!"

"I troubled no one's older sister!"

"Mesha was unfortunate enough to have you as her subordinate. And she's going through a hard time because of you! Living like this is already hard - and I hate everyone who gives her trouble when she's so kind!"