4 Where She Came From - 1.4 (1/2)

She had a fitful sleep that night.

After remembering her time at the orphanage, she couldn't help but feel shaken and uneasy with her current situation that it reached a point where she woke up every couple of hours.

It didn't help that she was still starving!

Ai didn't really get the chance to find anything to eat since she was so absorbed in her thoughts and fell asleep in one of the chairs in the room. Her head was awkwardly resting on the padded arm rest while her legs dangled from the edge of the chair.

Her position was so uncomfortable that it made the muscles in her neck and back all sore and stiff.

Glancing at the window, she saw sunlight already streaming in through the gossamer curtains as she stretched her body.

Hearing popping sounds as her joints were stretched and settled in its proper place, Ai couldn't help but let out a small groan in both pain and relief.

Rubbing the sleep away from her eyes, she heard a knock before a voice called out from the other side of the door.

”Ai, I'll leave some clothes here then after you finish preparing meet me at the dining hall for breakfast. It's at the central side of the courtyard, by the kitchen.” Daisuke called out before she heard his retreating footsteps.

Shuffling to the door and sliding it open, she saw a pile of folded clothes on the floor which she hastily grabbed before retreating back inside the room.

Rummaging through it, she settle on one of the oversized shirts and shorts and set it aside before making her way to the door that led to the adjoining room where she assumed the bath was.

What she found was simple but still elegant just basing on the materials used in the bath. There was a big and sizable wooden rectangular tub at the far-end of the room which had the only window located high on the wall with swaying bamboos on the other side while there is a couple of stools near a small wooden water pump and wooden buckets with some containing a variety of brushes and scrubs as well as a slatted bamboo table with a shelf that contained toiletries such as soaps, shampoo and oils.

Everything matched, from the sink to the mirror to the tub, stools pails table and all the way to the slats of the beautiful bamboo flooring. Just the design of it was a genius. The slats only had small spacing between each bamboo and it served as an easy way to drain the water from the floors just like the modern drains nowadays.