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The knock on her door was late and unexpected.
Kirumi was mid-routine, halfway through folding the day’s laundry, when she heard it. The knock was accompanied by soft giggles outside her door, giggles and shushing, reminiscent of childhood sleepovers Kirumi had never been invited to. She couldn’t quite tell who the voices belonged to, but they were high-pitched, excited. Girlish, she thought. As though her classmates — whoever they may be — had lost a few years of age with the whimsy of a class trip to the beach.
She’d come on the trip out of a sense of obligation. After all, she couldn’t leave her classmates — what if they needed her? The beach was vast, and there were many services she could provide that might be useful to everyone. It would be silly of her not to come. So here she was, in her room, waiting for someone to inevitably call upon one of her services.
“Kirumi! Open up!”
Kirumi perked up. The voice belonged, unmistakably, to Tsumugi Shirogane.
“Yes, yes! And come quickly!”
The other voice was Angie Yonaga’s. The giggles interspersed the words, something Kirumi was used to when it came to Angie. She hummed softly to herself — what sort of request could they possibly have for her at this late hour?
When Kirumi opened the door, she was instantly met with a hand on her wrist as Angie pulled her out. She made a noise of surprise, something akin to a squeak.
“Y-Yonaga-san?”
“Come on!” Angie beamed and pulled on Kirumi’s arm. “There’s no time to waste!”
“Ah, but Angie,” Tsumugi interjected, “shouldn’t we let her put her swimsuit on first?”
Kirumi blinked. She hadn’t noticed it before, probably because she was used to it with Angie, but sure enough, both Angie and Tsumugi had swimsuits on, their skin reflecting the moonlight back at Kirumi.
“...Why would I put my swimsuit on?” she asked. “What request do you have for me?”
“No requests, silly,” Angie said, and she let go of Kirumi’s wrist. “Just go put on your swimsuit reeeeeeally quick and come right back out!”
“We’ll be waiting for you,” Tsumugi added with a smile.
Kirumi hesitated, unsure of how best to react, but ultimately decided to follow through. She closed the door to her room and stepped back, then turned and went to go change.
Very odd… Angie had insisted there was no request to be had, but they were obviously planning something, Kirumi thought as she put her swimsuit on. Maybe she should bring a bag with snacks and drinks, just in case they’d be out for a while, and some bandages in case anybody got hurt…
Perhaps she was a bit overprepared, but shouldn’t a maid always be prepared?
Once her swimsuit was on and her bag was packed with every possible necessity (including sunscreen, despite the lack of sunshine), Kirumi opened the door to her room again. Angie and Tsumugi were still there, and they smiled brightly as Kirumi came out.
“...Okay, I am ready,” Kirumi said. “Now, what was it you needed from me?”
“We need you to follow us!” Angie once again grabbed Kirumi’s wrist and tugged.
“To where?”
“Well, it’s a surprise!” Tsumugi bounced on her toes. “You don’t want to ruin the surprise, do you?”
“I… suppose not, but…”
“Then come onnnnn!” Angie pulled harder, lurching Kirumi forward with a stumble. “God guides my path and my path is taking me away from this hotel!”
“Very well, very well!” Kirumi followed Angie with quick, uncertain steps as Angie marched away from the hotel. “I was going to come with you anyway, there is no reason to pull on me like this…”
“Gotta make sure you keep up!” Angie said, and Kirumi did not argue further.
The walk wasn’t long, but Kirumi spent its duration confused, utterly vexed by what on earth was going on. Usually one of them would have given her a request by now. Where was it? There was nothing, naught but sea breeze and increasing amounts of sand beneath her feet, and Kirumi was starting to get a bit fidgety already without anything to do for her companions.
Finally, though, they reached their destination. Angie dropped Kirumi’s wrist and gestured proudly to the moonlit expanse of the beach.
“Ta-da!” she sang.
“...The beach?”
“The beach at night!” Tsumugi let out a giddy squeal. “It’s completely empty! We can do whatever we want out here.”
Kirumi looked at the ocean, then at Angie, then at Tsumugi. The purpose of the visit had not yet revealed itself to her, so she frantically searched her mind for the possible reason that she had been invited.
“...I see,” she said finally. “Well, I have brought some snacks and drinks. It is not really proper service as I had little time to prepare, but—”
“Kiruuuuumiiii!” Tsumugi shook her head. “We told you, we don’t need you to serve us…” She hesitated, as if asking herself a question, then continued. “I will take one of those drinks, but only if you agree you’re not serving or anything!”
“But—”
“No service!” Angie butted in.
Kirumi bit the inside of her cheek. Sure, she had been asked to relax and take breaks before, but she had never been commanded not to serve, especially after being invited out like this. She shifted her weight from one foot to the other, the sinking sand beneath her feeling like it was slipping, just like her control over the situation.
“...Very well,” she said finally. “I will not serve you this evening, but—”
“Yay!” Tsumugi grinned, then reached inside Kirumi’s bag and pulled out one of the water bottles she’d packed. “All right! Now we can have our beach party!”
“Beach… party?”
“Oh, come on, you’ve been to a beach party before, haven’t you, Kirumi?” Angie raised her eyebrows.
“...Not like this,” Kirumi confessed. “Every party I have attended has been one in which I was serving an employer. I have never simply… attended a party without working, at least not since I was a very young child.”
Silence fell over the beach. The only sounds were that of crashing waves and the gentle breeze, the distant call of seagulls.
“...Never?” Tsumugi asked.
“Like, never- never?” Angie added.
“Correct.” Kirumi, suddenly very self-conscious, felt a blush blooming on her face. “This would be my first time…”
Angie said nothing, then stood up straight and crossed her arms. “Well!” she exclaimed. “We’ll have to make this an extra-special secret nighttime beach party, then!”
“I agree,” said Tsumugi, her expression now quite serious, as if this was the most important thing in the world to her. “Let’s make this the best beach party you’ve ever had, Kirumi!”
Kirumi had no time to say anything else before the two other girls rushed toward the water. They turned and beckoned for Kirumi to follow them, but she stood still, unmoving, a statue at the edge of the sand.
Tsumugi was the first one to stop. “Kirumi?”
“Hey, hey,” Angie said, “what’s the holdup?”
Kirumi looked down at the sand between her toes, then back up at the others. The question that had been bubbling inside her since the outing began finally came out.
“Why would you invite me if not to serve you?” she asked. “I am not particularly pleasant company to keep outside of service… I am not loud or funny or exuberant.” She bit her lip. “So… Why invite me?”
Tsumugi’s face fell, as did Angie’s. They looked at each other, then Kirumi.
“Who told you you’re not fun to have around?” asked Tsumugi.
“Nobody in particular,” Kirumi said. “I just know it for a fact.”
Angie stood still for a moment, then came toward Kirumi. She reached out her hand, and a hesitant Kirumi eventually took it.
“We invited you because you’re our friend, silly,” she said. “And you’ve been so stressed out lately! Everyone’s been telling you, ‘Kirumi do this’ or ‘Kirumi do that’, and I know you love serving, but even you need to relax sometimes!”
“Yeah,” said Tsumugi. She jogged over to Kirumi and Angie. “You’re going to burn yourself out like a candle if you keep this up! We wanted to give you a nice night to relax and have fun. That’s all.”
…Relax? Have fun?
Those words felt foreign, like long-lost family members that Kirumi had never expected to meet. Even as a child she was a stranger to relaxation, and that had only gotten more pronounced as she aged and came into herself as a maid. She couldn’t recall the last time she’d done something just for herself, rather than for someone else. In fact, perhaps it had never happened at all.
Had she… ever just relaxed?
“Oh, oh, she’s crying,” Tsumugi whispered, and it was only then that Kirumi felt the tears on her face. She sniffed and blinked hard, and any trace of emotion was left, embarrassingly, on the puffiness of her eyelids and the redness of her cheeks.
“I apologize,” she said softly. “I was not expecting that answer.”
“Awwwwww, Kirumiiiii!” Angie wrapped her arms around Kirumi and squeezed, a tight and secure hug that marked one of the few genuine hugs Kirumi had ever received. “Let’s have a fun night together, okay? I promise it’ll be a great time. I know so!”
“I agree,” said Tsumugi. “Come on, do you want to get in the water? I brought towels, so we can leave your bag on the beach.”
“I brought towels too,” Kirumi said with a soft laugh. “Just in case.”
Tsumugi giggled in return. “That’s our Kirumi,” she said. “Always prepared for anything.”
They laid out some towels and set all their things on them before heading for the water. Angie and Tsumugi got right in, but Kirumi lingered on the shore, the ocean lapping over her ankles, for a few long seconds.
“Hey,” Angie called out, “get in! It feels great!”
“Everything okay?” Tsumugi asked.
How funny it was, Kirumi thought, to have friends. In every vision of her life, she was solitary minus her employers, never getting too attached to anyone or anything. But here she was, on the beach at night, in a swimsuit, with two friends gesturing for her to follow them into the ocean.
The salt splashed on her legs, and she felt the tension leave her body for the first time in years.
Kirumi stepped into the water and laughed. She laughed louder than she ever had before, and as Angie and Tsumugi joined her, she was free under the moonlight.