A Firefly's Glow

Chapter Two: Part Five

I stepped behind him into a doorway. I found the exaggeratedly long table familiar. The only difference was that above the polished wooden surface either end of the table sat glittering plates surrounded by silver utensils and thin glasses.

“Hanabusa-sama!” a recognizable voice sounded as a man wearing sunglasses stumbled into the room. “Hanabusa-sama! I checked Fujioka-sama’s room, but she wasn’t there! She must have escaped—“

His yelling immediately faded into silence as he laid eyes on me. He sighed a long breath of relief as he hurried over towards us. “Oh, thank goodness!”

Megane bent his back to murmur into my ear. “I thought I told you not to wander about!”

“I got hungry,” I whispered a reply, frowning in guilt.

“Why didn’t you ask your maid for food?”

“Because she thinks I’m a freeloader, she’s super mean, and she refuses to help me in any way!” was what I wished to whisper to Megane. But instead, what uttered out of my mouth was “I couldn’t find her.”

It was Megane’s turn to let out a long, hissed “Ugh”.

“I’m sorry,” I keenly apologized, bowing my head slightly towards the ground.

“Oh, it’s quite alright,” Megane waved another hand in dismissal. “Come. Your seat is right this way.”

He led me across the room, towards the farthest end of the table.

“Thanks,” I blankly chirped as I reached for the tall, cushioned chair to pull it backward. Though an unfamiliar maid had already slid the chair back before I could lay a finger on it. I slowly sat down in the chair, and I happily found it comfortable.

I glanced forward, directly to the other end of the table. The blonde boy had seated himself in the seat opposite mine. My mouth opened ajar at the strangeness of how two people were sitting so far apart from one another at dinner. He was almost a speck from my point of view. If I held my thumb up to my eye next to his figure, my thumb would be longer.

I witnessed Megane hurrying across the room towards the blonde boy. He stiffened himself beside the boy’s chair with his hands firmly against his sides.

I peered at the other parallel ends of the room. They were lined with chauffeurs on one side and maids on the other. Their gazes were fixed forward, and their backs were completely stiff, much like robots.

I gazed back at the blonde boy and Megane across the room with squinted eyes. Why on earth were the tables so lengthily exaggerated?

The blonde boy seemed to murmur something towards me, but all I heard was a distant squeak that wasn’t audible to my ears.

“What?” I turned an ear towards the other end of the table. “I can’t hear you!”

I watched the blonde boy turn his head towards Megane-san. Megane-san whipped a thumbs-up across the air, and he raised his hands towards his mouth. A second after he cupped his hands, I heard a faint call echo through the room.

“HANABUSA-SAMA SAID,” Megane began, enunciating every word he droned. “THE FOOD WILL BE READY IN JUST A MOMENT!”

“WHAT?” I responded, mimicking Megane’s idea of cupping my hands around my mouth. “I CAN’T HEAR YOU! WHAT DID YOU SAY?”

“WHAT? WHAT DID YOU SAY?” Megane hollered through his cupped hands.

“I SAID, ‘WHAT DID YOU SAY?!’” I repeated, feeling my arms starting to ache.