I braced for someone to open the door, but it never happened.

  The footsteps continued past my room, and I heard the chattering voices enter the neighboring room adjacent to mine.

  I gave a sigh of relief. Earlier, I had rushed to hide all of the documents I had collected out of an abundance of caution, but it seemed like I was just being a worrywart. None of these girls were my roommates, so I was probably safe.

  I started to reach for the papers underneath my pillow again, but then—

  + + +

  "This isn’t Hana’s room…" One of the voices reverberated from the opposite side of the wall.

  "Oh, whoops! I got it wrong. I think it’s the next one over." A familiar voice said.

  There was more shuffling and banging as a series of doors opened and closed.

  ......

  "No… not this room either."

  "Are you sure this is the right corridor?"

  My posture immediately stiffened.

  Most of the rooms in the maidservant’s dormitory looked identical, and none of them were clearly marked. Generally speaking, it was necessary to count the number of doors if you were looking for a specific room, so it was easy to enter the wrong room by accident. Furthermore, there were no locks on the interior doors in the servant's quarters, so virtually anyone could walk in and out.

  Moments ter, the door to my dorm room swung open, and a young 15 year old maid stood there with a triumphant look on her face.

  "Ah ha! I knew it!" Nene excimed, her hands proudly on her hips.

  Francesca’s head also peered in from the entranceway.

  "Really? She’s actually here?"

  "I told you so!" Nene said.

  I blinked in confusion.

  "Okay. Fine. You win this time, Nene." Francesca conceded with a frown. "But since when did you suddenly become the resident expert on locating the famously elusive Hana?"

  "That's simple," Nene replied. "It's all because of a maiden's natural... IN - TU - IT - ION ...!"

  "Bullshit. You could at least pretend to say something believable."

  Nene pouted in response.

  "But I mean, it's really not that hard to see, right? Like — just look at her —"

  The fifteen year old suddenly approached and grabbed my shoulders, as if she wanted to show me off to Francesca.

  "—Doesn't Hana just look so shell-shocked and bewildered? She's pretty much been like this all day... acting so lost and confused and withdrawn and heartbroken and stuff... so there's only one possible conclusion..."

  There was a twinkle in Nene's eyes.

  "—It's because of a boy!" She announced enthusiastically.

  + + +

  Francesca and I both stared at her in bewilderment. Her penchant for passionate manifestos was not necessarily a bad thing, but in this case she was so far from reality that she might as well have decred that Martians arrived from Outer Space in order to take over the pnet.

  "Um, actually no."

  "That's stupid."

  Francesca and I both responded synchronously.

  "...Ehhhh?"

  Nene seemed surprised to find herself isoted in a 1-versus-2 position.

  "But why else would Hana hide away in her room in the middle of the day?" She argued with Francesca.

  "Because she has a cold and isn't feeling well?" Francesca offered bndly.

  Nene rolled her eyes in exasperation and turned towards me.

  "Listen Hana. Honestly as far as I can tell, everything started after the Majordomo removed you from your position as the Emerald Prince's attendant... so it's totally obvious. You don't have to keeping pretending anymore," Nene continued passionately. "We're your friends, so if you're feeling really depressed about everything that happened today, you can share your feelings with us."

  She hugged me tightly all of a sudden.

  "...It's not like we all haven't experienced being dumped before, so we totally get it..."

  There was a look of deep sympathy in Nene's eyes.

  "It's completely his loss! Sucks for him if he can't recognize the best maid in the entire pace! You're worth way more than a stupid guy like that anyway."

  ......

  She really was getting far too carried away with the wrong idea.

  I wasn't sure about the best way to correct this misunderstanding. Frankly, now that I heard Nene describe her reasoning, I could sort of see how she had arrived at that kind of erroneous conclusion. In fact, it even looked like Francesca was somewhat swayed by her argument, which was troublesome in the sense that the Francesca was the type of contrarian who rarely ever agreed with anything that Nene said.

  "Guys, I'm really not bothered by it..." I said.

  However, Nene just shook her head and ftly rejected my attempt to crify.

  "Hana, has anyone told you that you're a really bad liar...?"

  ......

  + + +

  Eventually, Francesca sat down on the edge of my bed and changed the topic to why they were in my room.

  "The Majordomo called for a mandatory evening staff meeting, and we weren't sure if you had heard the news," she expined.

  Ordinarily, the royal servants were only required to attend Morning Report every day at sunrise, and an evening meeting with all staff was extraordinarily rare. Nonetheless, attendance was always taken at these meetings, and a maid could get in serious trouble if they missed it. In fact, it was probably the easiest way to get fired from the job.

  Apparently, none of my friends knew where I had gone for the day, and they started worry when I didn't show up for dinner. In fact, all of my closest friends including Lisa, Lilian, and Stel split up to look for me. Nene insisted on checking my room in the dormitory, and although Francesca was initially against it, apparently Nene's guess was ultimately the correct one.

  "I see... Thank you for finding me," I told them.

  Nene continued to squeeze my right arm tightly, refusing to let go.

  Francesca looked away. She appeared to have a lot of things on her mind, but she looked reluctant to mention anything that might have the potential to hurt my feelings.

  "Um, Hana..." She ventured awkwardly.

  Francesca looked down at her hands, failing to maintain any sort of eye contact.

  "...What Nene had said... It's the same for me too. You can talk to me too if there's ever anything bothering you."

  There were a few seconds of silence.

  "...Thank you, Francesca. You can talk to me anytime, too." I responded after a short dey.

  "...I appreciate it, Hana."

  Frankly, we were both equally awkward about this.

  Only Nene seemed to be immune to embarrassment, clinging to my side like an idiot.

  That little girl was always so ridiculous. She was still so young — and totally naive in this unforgiving feudal patriarchy where maids were no different from disposable flowers — but her optimism was quite contagious. It made her very likable whereas the majority of female servants working in the service industry quickly became cynics after a few years witnessing the harsh realities of our job.

  I think all of us in my friend circle wanted to protect her.

  But child-like "innocence" is never something that can always st forever.

  ?

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