Saiki Kawano

Daughter of a director at Denki Group, School idol

1am.

Saiki's eyes opened, and she pulled herself out of the bed, walking over to the wardrobe to change out of her sleeping clothes.

After an entire life spent waking up at the same time, a habit instilled into her by her father whom frequently stressed the importance of time as the most valuable resource, there was no need for an alarm clock to wake Saiki up.

She put on a pair of shorts and a fitness singlet, then headed out to the living room to get into her running shoes.

Glancing around the spacious apartment that was designed with a modern aesthetic, there were no signs of anyone living in the apartment except for her.

The apartment was also meticulously clean in every single room, not a single speck of dust to be found anywhere despite its size.

Saiki had purposely made sure of that, spending hours to clean and scrub every single surface and gap in the apartment. Her father seldom visited the apartment, but on the occassions he did, he did so unannounced, so it was best to keep the place in perfect condition. Although by now, keeping things perfect had long since simply become a habit for Saiki.

It wasn't long since Saiki had been still living with her father back in their home in Denenchofu on the outskirts of Tokyo. It was only when she entered highschool that her father had sent her out here to live in this apartment alone to learn independence. However, it was also most likely a test by her father to ensure she carried on his teachings even in the absence of his physical presence.

Leaving her apartment, Saiki lightly stretched on the empty streets for a few minutes, before going into a light jog for 10 minutes to get the blood circulating in her body. Then, she went into a full sprint around the neighbourhood for the rest of the hour.

~x~

2am.

Saiki returned back to her apartment, then rolled out a fitness mat on the floor of her living room.

Performing acrobatic exercises to train her flexibility for half an hour, she used the other half of the hour to perform bodyweight exercises, training her strength.

~x~

3am.

Saiki went to the kitchen, preparing her breakfast. She used her breakfast as an opportunity to practice her cooking, trying out new dishes even if the meal wasn't normally eaten during breakfast. This time, she made hamburg steak with roasted potatoes and vegetables as a side.

Back at home, she normally wasn't allowed to eat until the afternoon because food in the morning makes one fat, or so she was told. However, she would used to suffer from excruciating stomach pains being starved this way, especially after all the exercise she was forced to do, so shortly after moving out to live on her own, Saiki decided to drop the habit of not eating until the afternoon. Obviously she would never tell her father about this.

Sitting down at the large dining table in the living room by herself, Saiki turned on the TV, watching the overnight news as she chewed on her food with a vacant look on her face.

"A few seconds overcooked..." Saiki muttered to herself, her eyes watching the TV blankly.

~x~

3.30am.

Saiki walked into the bathroom, stripping off all her clothes and underwear, and tossed them aside into the laundry basket.

Then she stepped into the shower, turning it on and ice cold water sprayed onto her, running down her stark naked body without so much as a flinch from her. She had already grown accustomed to having freezing water splashed on her. Besides, showering with cold water in the morning helps mental agility and blood circulation, her father had said.

She proceeded with her beauty routine, spending two hours inside the bathroom.

~x~

5.31am.

Now dressed in her school uniform and having made sure that everything about her appearance was as perfect as can be, Saiki walked over to her mobile phone in her bedroom, unplugging it from the charger and glanced down at the time.

Her eyebrows furrowed with irritation, seeing that she had overextended her usual time to do her beauty routine by 1 minute.

Then, she felt a distant pain etching across her back, the sound of a horse whip cracking inside the background of her mind, and the urge to scream building up at the back of her throat...

"P, please, daddy! No...!!"

Her five-year-old self was crying uncontrollably on the floor of the living room in her old home, stripped of all her clothes and revealing bright red marks all across her back.

"How many times...!" Her father's voice roared, his voice shaking with anger, "How many times have I told you to adress me as 'father' not 'daddy'!!"

The whip came down at full force and her five-year-old self screamed.

"You're a daughter of an elite family!" Her father yelled, "Learn to behave like one!!"

Saiki staggered down to her bed, taking heavy breaths as she tried to calm her racing mind. Her heart was thumping loudly against her chest.

"I, it's okay... father's not living with me anymore..." Saiki whispered to herself, feeling her voice clog up, "I, It's just me now..."

She focused her thinking on positive things like how happy she will be doing her next daily activity. It was a technique she had practiced from childhood, using strong visual imagery to escape the present, allowing one to cope with a situation.

After she was calm again, Saiki stepped back out to the living room with her bag held in one hand, heading for the door.

Saiki stopped, her eyes glancing over to the kitchen.

Walking over, she opened a drawer, revealing a long black strip of fabric with a knife hidden inside.

'I need to protect Naosuke...' Saiki thought.

~x~

6am.

Saiki got off the train at her stop, walking out of the train station to head to the residential area nearby.

Eventually, she arrived at a small apartment building that was cheaply built, the paint on the structure already fading.

Saiki walked into the apartment building, going up several flight of stairs and then headed straight for the door of an apartment on the fourth floor.

Standing outside the apartment, her blank face began to show the first signs of life since she first woke up, lighting up as she peered through the window.

She saw nobody inside the small living room just like she expected.

'Only 2 more hours until Naosuke wakes up!' Saiki thought excitedly, 'I will hide here and make sure he's safe like a good girlfriend. Then I can walk with him to school!'

She waited patiently, hiding herself outside his apartment, hoping to catch glimpses of him through the window.

~x~

8.34am.

Having followed Naosuke from behind during his commute to school, Saiki made sure she had stayed far back enough for him to not notice her.

She watched from the end of the street as Naosuke walked through the school gates and into the school grounds.

Now there were too many students around for her to continue following him much to her disappointment.

"Saiikii-chaan!"

A voice rung to her side, and Saiki glanced to her side at two girls walking over to her, one with chocolate brown hair and the other with lime green hair.

"Good morning!" The girl with chocolate brown hair sang.

"Wow, I'll never understand how you can wake up everyday looking perfect!" The girl with lime green hair laughed, "I'm jealous!"

"Good to see the both of you too..." Saiki said, putting on her usual facade of a smile.

~x~

3.15pm.

The bell annoucing the end of school sounded, and Saiki packed away the items on her desk.

She was sad because she didn't get to spend any time with Naosuke during school. She got caught up during lunch and ended up having to eat lunch with the same girls from the morning.

Saiki knew she couldn't spend time with Naosuke this afternoon either since he would be visiting her little sister at the hospital whom was blind, as he always did on this particular day of the week.

She couldn't even say bye to him because she had promised Naosuke to keep their relationship a secret in school.

Saiki sighed, heading to the kyudo club for her usual after school activity. Her off days were spent at a private judo club in her area that her father said was necessary for self-defence as all capable people should be able to defend themselves, but he also said to keep her going to judo a secret at school since it wasn't considered feminine by the public.

~x~

5pm.

Saying goodbye to everyone at the kyudo club, having showered and changed back to her school uniform, Saiki quickly headed for the train station, boarding the first train to Asagaya.

Arriving at her destination, she left the station, going to the hospital where Naosuke was visiting his little sister, then waited outside the building for Naosuke to come out around night time as he usually did whenever he visited his sister.

~x~

7.18pm.

Saiki watched Naosuke coming out of the hospital, seeing him punch a telephone pole outside on the streets.

"Ah...!" Saiki gasped.

Saiki almost instinctively ran out of where she was hiding on the street to make sure Naosuke was okay, but managed to resist the urge, knowing that Naosuke wasn't seriously injured and that he wouldn't like it if he knew she had been following him the whole day.

"N, Naosuke's fine..." Saiki whispered to herself, "Don't go out there. He will say that you're crazy again if you run out to him now, Saiki, and then he won't like you anymore..."

Then, she followed Naosuke on his commute back home, watching from outside his apartment building to make sure he got home safely.

~x~

8.03pm.

Saiki arrived back at her own apartment, stepping into the living room and dropped her bag down on the dining table.

Then, she started making her dinner in the kitchen, practicing her cooking once more for the day using ingredients from the weekend. She remade the same hamburg steak she had ate for breakfast, being careful to cook the steak by a few seconds less this time.

Sitting down with her cooked dinner on the dining table, she started studying whilst eating, reviewing the day's lessons.

"This should be good now..." Saiki muttered to herself vacantly, chewing on her dinner, "I can make hamburg steak next time for Naosuke for lunch since he said he liked it at the cafe..."

~x~

9pm.

Saiki finished cleaning up the dishes and packing away her notes.

Then, she went to the bathroom, taking a shower and also performed some nighttime beauty routines to get ready for bed.

~x~

9.30pm.

Saiki got into her bed, dressed in her sleeping garments, then closed her eyes, getting ready to wake up at 1am and repeat the whole day again tomorrow.

Today had been a relatively light day.

Saiki had been slacking off more than usual on the vigorous daily routines drilled into her by her father since she was a child. To avoid feeling guilty, she would have to make up for the lost time during the weekend and by sleeping less. Still, her father was most certainly not going to be pleased if he knew how much time Saiki was wasting on a boy.

Saiki cowered herself under her bedsheets, feeling frightened simply imagining the abuse and torture that her father would subject her to if he ever were to find out about Naosuke.

Taking deep heaves, she once again turned her thoughts away from her father and towards Naosuke and how she could get him to like her more. As always, thinking about Naosuke made her happy, causing her breathing to slow down and her body to relax.

'Maybe I can surprise him tomorrow with a lunch bento with the hamburg steak I practiced making today.' She thought.

'Or maybe I should introduce myself to his little sister at the hospital as his girlfriend.'

'If his little sister likes me, then maybe Naosuke will start liking me more too since he really likes his little sister.'

Thoughts were swimming around her head, filling her with warmness.

'I just need to get him to stop thinking that I'm crazy, then maybe Naosuke will eventually fall in love with me for real...'

She smiled happily to herself, hugging onto her bedsheets in the large empty bed, 'Ah I can't wait to see Naosuke's face again tomorrow...!'