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Contrary to the Holy Mantra of Dolly Parton, working 9-to-5 is not, in fact, quite a way to make a living.
While, yes, most of the world are productive, Parton-abiding citizens, An is one of those oddballs that physically cannot get up before 3 PM, nor go to bed before midnight.
So, instead of being normal and adjusting her schedule to match everyone else's, An decided to go the isolation route and pick up shifts for her local museum as a night guard.
Pros: easy money for the amount of work that An puts in, since no one else is willing to put in such unholy hours for a job that doesn't even have dental.
Cons: Akito is there.
Somehow, Akito is always at the scene of the crime.
Apparently, he signed up at the same time as An, without telling An (preventing her from quitting, or more likely bullying Akito into quitting), and they somehow needed multiple guards for the crummy museum—so now Akito and An are stuck together in a building from 10 PM to 7 AM, six days a week, with basically no paid time off.
The things they're guarding don't even seem like, easily stealable—the museum is populated with life-like statues composed of pretty dense materials, ranging from metal to wood to concrete to marble. An’s also pretty sure they're all nailed to the floor, so that's another wrench to add to the many complications in any theoretical robber’s plan.
An and Akito know this. They don't bring it up to the museum, though, because jobs are hard to get and cash is good—and though An first figures that Akito needs the money for something boring like rent, she eventually catches him staring daggers at a recent gacha for a rhythm game they both play. He has stored the in-game currency equivalent of two one-pulls. Pity is at ninety.
An flounces into the little guard cranny that she and Akito have set up in an isolated room of the mansion and swipes the phone from his grasp.
“You’re whaling?”
Akito, to his credit, barely reacts to the snatching. “I will, tomorrow, when the museum pays us.”
And see, An would make fun of him, but she took the night shift for the same reasons. She's sitting at half Akito’s game savings: one one-pull. “Who are you pulling for?”
“Him,” Akito says, pointing to an image of a blue-haired boy on his phone.
“Oh. He's okay. But she,” An swipes to a card of a hamster-faced girl, included in the same gacha, “is objectively much cuter.”
“You have no taste.”
“Of course you wouldn't know anything about attractive women.”
“Hi. Hello? What is that supposed to mean?”
“Um—” The 3 AM timer on An’s phone starts to ring. Akito shoots her a stone-faced glance, and they mentally agree to shelf the conversation for another day.
Context: After a week where An and Akito actually did their job properly, they eventually figured out that no one was actually going to steal from the museum. After a quick WikiHow search for the “most suspicious hour”, they set an alarm for 3 AM—the only time when they would go out and actually do their job.
Sure, it's not totally safe, but if someone wants a massive granite cutout of Japan’s first emperor so bad that they sneak in a getaway car, multiple weapons, a nail gun, and more without alerting the alarm systems, they deserve to have the statue for themselves.
So, after some flailing about, An and Akito find their flashlights and emerge from the guard cranny.
They traverse through the many hallways of the museum, opening doors and shining lights onto the artifacts into various rooms. Doors and curtains are opened and closed, chairs are glanced under and hard-to-reach spots glanced over, and An’s about to finish up and head back to the cranny when Akito materializes in front of her and points at a door that definitely was not there a moment ago.
It's made of a rich brown wood that's intricately carved with designs of silver and gold. There's inlays of jewels that An thinks is worth more than all the statues in this museum combined.
“Um? Is this a new museum addition? I've never seen this door before.” Akito tries to steady his voice, but it cracks in the middle.
An vaguely thinks that they should leave. Right now. And report this to the owners, or authorities, or whoever's in charge of randomly-appearing creepy doors.
But unfortunately, the Holy Law of Shiraishi An, which denotes that An cannot ever pass up a chance to make fun of Akito, demands otherwise.
An smirks at him and valiantly ignores the painful thumping of her heart in her throat. “Are you serious?”
“No, like actually, An—I've scanned this hallway like a million times before and I've never seen this door in my life.”
“I guess you just aren't observant enough.” I've never seen this door, either. “I've passed this room a million times.” Lie. “If the bosses hear about you ignoring this entrance for this long, they're going to fire you.” No amount of money can convince me to stay on if I have to deal with this room alone.
Akito’s mouth thins into a line. “If you're so confident, you should check out the room first.”
“Aren't you the person who always says to try new things?"
"Like, if it's a new sport or food or something, not—this."
"What's the difference? You're entering a room, isn't that basically the same as starting a new sport? Easier?"
He sighs. “If you open the door, I'll send you a ten-pull once payday comes.”
“Fuck. Two ten-pulls, and I'll do it.”
“Fine.”
An points her flashlight right at the door—praying to whatever higher being that exists to let her live another day—and approaches it. Akito stands multiple feet to the side, shining his flashlight into her eyes. She pokes at the doorknob.
“Do you not know how to open doors,” Akito hisses. “It's a doorknob, not a button.”
“Maybe I could open it if you stop blinding me,” An whispers back. She touches the doorknob with her fingers, then slowly clasps her hand over the brass. Absentmindedly, she crosses herself with the butt of her flashlight.
“If I die,” An mumbles, “give Haruka my plushies. Mizuki, my wardrobe. Nene my many game accounts. Tell her not to lose my daily log-in streak or I will haunt her for the rest of her life.”
“Please stop verbally writing your will and open the door already.”
An moves the brass knob inch by inch, turning it until it's fully rotated—and in one swift motion, she throws the door open.
“Freaky door, if you can hear me, take An and not me. I've been a good person my whole life,” Akito whimpers.
“Akito, look at this.”
“What is it? Dogs? Snakes? Tax forms?”
“No, it's—” An pauses. “It’s beautiful.”
Akito tiptoes over and looks through the doorway.
The room is massive, way more expansive than anywhere else in the building. The floor, walls, and ceilings are composed of uncracked black marble, covered with trace amounts of light by an unknown source.
In the middle are two statues on thin platforms, facing the door where An and Akito are standing. The left one is a life-size figure of a boy, seemingly around Akito’s age, constructed from alabaster and stone.
He’s in a relaxed pose, legs slightly crossed with one hand grasping his jacket and the other hanging loosely at his side. An notes that his hair is two-toned, its left side a light hue and right noticeably darker.
His eyes are piercing, but his smile is warm. Akito makes a half-strangled, half-coughing noise that An laughs at.
“Well, well, well. Maybe you won't need a gacha for the man of your dreams.”
“Speak for yourself,” Akito chokes out. “Look at the other one.”
An shifts her eyes to the other statue—and all her mental fuses explode.
She's noticeably shorter than the other statue, made out of wood with haphazardly-shaped pigtails that stick out at slightly different angles. She’s standing with both feet planted firmly on the ground, one hand clasped to her chest and other smoothing out her skirt. Her face is soft and round.
An coughs out a similarly messed-up sound to Akito’s.
Akito looks at her and An looks back.
Wordlessly, they approach the statues.
Two tags are at their feet—An squints and finds that the girl’s name is Kohane, and the boy’s is Touwa.
“Touya,” Akito corrects.
Touwa Touya, potato tomato. What really matters is the girl who looks like she came out of a slice-of-life movie and the deep dark depths of An’s tortured heart.
An wants to hold her close and race off into the sunset, night job and gacha pulls be damned. But—
“They're statues.” Akito steps closer to Touya and places a hand on his shoulder. An thinks it's funny that Touya’s a bit taller than Akito, and she’s about to mention the height difference when Akito lets out a yell and recoils from Touya like he's been burned.
“What's wrong with you?”
“An, he's—he’s warm. What the hell. He feels like he’s real.”
And when An ventures over to Kohane and slings an arm around her (it fits oddly well, An thinks), the wood is warm and pulsing in a way that makes An stumble back a few paces and stare.
“I think she's breathing.”
“What the fuck.”
Before their very eyes, the statues start to move—first slowly, with trembles of the fingers and half-blinks of the eyes, then swings of the arms and rolls of the shoulders. Touwa—Touya—stretches his neck and an audible crack comes out—An thinks she sees a few small pieces of stone break off and tumble to the floor.
An and Akito grab each other, fleeing to the corner of the room, and point their flashlights at the statues.
“Stand in front of me.”
“Hell no, I opened the door. Step up.”
The statues keep moving, and An and Akito eventually settle into a wildly uncomfortable side-by-side position where they're clutching onto each other with one hand and holding their flashlights with the other.
With a final thump, Touya and Kohane step off their platforms.
“Finally,” Touya says, his voice a quiet rumble. “That position was uncomfortable to be in.”
Kohane half-smiles. “It's difficult to know when the sun comes up. Try keeping both feet down next time?”
“Thanks. Ah,” and Touya turns to An and Akito as if they were just passersby on the street and not witnesses to the second-most terrifying thing in their lives (first being each other), “could you two point the flashlights away? The lights are hurting my eyes.”
“Um.” Akito’s jaw unhinges with a click. “Okay.” He doesn't move.
Touya raises an eyebrow at them, An watching in horror as the thin alabaster slab travels with a cracking sound up his face.
“What—are you guys?” The question comes out more unfriendly than An likes, and she cringes, shrinking like a wet cat into her corner.
Despite it, Kohane lets out a soft laugh that sounds like the whistling of wind through branches, and An hears it and is assaulted with visions of grabbing her hand and running, hands intertwined, into the horizon.
“We try our best to stay hidden from the public,” Kohane explains, voice light and airy. “Didn't expect night guards, though—you two must be quiet on the job.”
An thinks of the cranny where she and Akito hide for most of the night. “Yeah. We're, um—really focused.”
“We’ve been like this for a while,” Touya says. “We don't remember why—it’s been too long—but we know the boundaries.”
Kohane seems to droop. “The room appears at night. Then, we have free range until the morning, when we're frozen in our positions.”
“Do you guys leave the room? This room?”
“No. We can't afford to when we look like,” Touya gestures to himself, “this.”
An turns and sees Akito taking off his hoodie.
“Give us a moment,” she says, grabbing Akito and throwing him out of the room, shutting the door behind them.
Akito writhes on the floor with his hoodie pulled over his head. An stands over him. “What the hell are you doing,” she seethes.
“Don’t worry, I have a plan.” Akito tugs off the rest of his hoodie—An turns away and covers her face with her hands.
“Oh my—if you want Touya that bad, get a room. Leave me and Kohane alone, you animal.”
“An, I’m wearing a shirt underneath.”
“Oh.”
An peeks through her fingers to find that, yes, Akito is wearing a shirt, and is also shooting daggers at her. “They haven't been outside because they're worried of being seen as statues, right? If we give them normal clothes and pull the hoods over them, they won't seem too out of the ordinary.”
“That's—surprisingly smart.” An follows suit and takes off her jacket, exposing the tank top underneath.
“We can't exactly give them pants, but we can probably pass what they're made of off as gray (or brown) sweats.”
They enter back into the room, each carrying their respective outerwear. Touya is located at the far wall of the room, one hand braced on the marble, and Akito rushes over to him with a speed An hasn't seen since his high-school soccer years.
Kohane is sitting on the floor with a half-asleep expression. When An draws close, she snaps to attention.
“Sorry, didn't mean to startle you.” An smiles sheepishly. “I'm An Shiraishi. Sorry if I acted weird when we met.”
Kohane’s eyes crinkle. “I'm Kohane Azusawa—nice to meet you. No need to apologize, you guys took it better than I thought anyone would.”
“You'd honestly be surprised by the things people are okay with. Aliens once came and no one batted an eye.”
“Aliens?”
“Long story. Anyways,” An kneels down so that she and Kohane are at eye level, “what do you think of going outside? Seeing the world?”
Kohane shakes her head. “I can't, someone will see me. I'm sorry. I'm not—” she looks at herself with despair beyond her years, “—normal. Anymore.” She pulls off a splinter on the tip of her finger and stares forlornly at the chip.
An throws her jacket to the side and pulls Kohane into a hug, ignoring the way she digs a little uncomfortably into her skin. “Don't say that! Whatever happened wasn't your fault—you don't need to apologize for anything.”
She hears Kohane’s breath hitch.
“You shouldn't hide yourself from the world,” An whispers. She moves back a little bit, loosening the hug to gauge Kohane’s response, and—
Kohane’s eyes are wide.
Shit. “Um. I'm sorry if that was too forward, I—”
The wood of Kohane’s cheeks turn red and start to hiss.
An realizes belatedly that Kohane’s cheeks are on fire.
Actually on fire.
And the flames are crawling up the strands of her hair.
Akito—curse his heart—appears in the corner of her vision and An’s own jacket hits her in the face with a thwap, putting out the fire and leaving a gross red mark on An’s face.
“Dumbfuck.”
“Hey!”
Akito and Touya are out of the door before she can react. An sighs and gets up, offering a hand to let Kohane follow suit.
Kohane’s cheeks are back to its woodsy shade, albeit with a blackened hue that makes An want to turn back time and charm her in a less—fiery—way.
“Are you okay?”
Kohane giggles. “Don't worry about me. And—you’re right.” Kohane takes An’s jacket and puts it on, the fabric falling perfectly over her body in a way that makes An's chest warm.
“I won't hide anymore. But the world's changed. Will you help me rediscover it?”
An does not have much to her name. Two dollars in her bank account. A high-school degree. A few years of job experience from working in her father’s cafe.
But damn it, An thinks that she would conquer the world just so she could give it all to Kohane.
Unfortunately, Akito and Touya choose this moment to come back inside the room, right before An declares her undying loyalty to Kohane Azusawa and starts a series of quests to control the tri-state area.
The boys are both flushed in the face, and An almost wants to congratulate Akito for somehow pulling someone, but their timing is so poor that An just snarls and tells them to get out (directed mostly at Akito—Touya seems like a good guy).
“We can't,” Akito says. “It's almost daytime. They're going to freeze soon.”
“Fuck.” An promptly ignores them to turn to Kohane. “Will you be okay? Do you want me to lay a blanket down? Freezing is basically like sleeping, right?”
Kohane giggles. “Don't worry, I'll be fine. I'd rather stand—getting up from the floor right after freezing is a difficult task.”
“Is there no way to break this—curse?” An reaches a tentative hand out to clasp Kohane’s cheek.
“Maybe. I'm not sure. I've never had anyone willing to try.”
“I will, I promise. Tomorrow, when you guys come back—I’ll take you out and we'll get some leads. And takeout. Payday is today.”
“Okay, An-chan.” Kohane’s lips upturn. “It’s a date.”
An internally thanks the heavens that her cheeks cannot set themselves on fire.
Kohane walks to her pedestal in the middle of the room, Touya following close behind. Her eyes are bright as she smiles at An. “See you tomorrow.” And all at once, she becomes still and statue-like once more.
Akito—because he’s here, yes, An remembers now—creeps over and gently pats Touya’s shoulder. “He’s cooling.”
“Yeah.” An doesn't check, but she knows Kohane is as well.
Suddenly, their phones ring with a light ding. Akito whips it out to check.
“It's payday.”
“Are you gonna whale?”
Akito shrugs. “Maybe.” He pockets the phone. “I might just save it to get Touya some drinks tomorrow. He has a thing for coffee, I think—he ate all the coffee candy from my hoodie pocket. Or he's just tired."
An agrees. She finds that she has a plethora of things to give Kohane, next time they speak—and video games only make, like, the top 15 of her list.
She's got a world to show her, after all.