“Just in case,” Juri said to Jesse the next morning before the family’s breakfast, “keep a low profile with Mr. Taiga for a while, if possible. Don’t draw any more attention to yourself.”
“I’m not trying to, believe me,” Jesse huffed. “And how do I keep a low profile when I have to wait at the table and be available for them all the time?”
“Well, you could ask Mr. Inohara…”
“Ask me what?”
Jesse and Juri both jumped at the sudden appearance of the butler. He gave them a scolding look. “I wasn’t aware that there was a break time now. Breakfast is about to start!”
Juri glanced quickly at Jesse, who threw caution to the wind.
“A-about that, Mr. Inohara. I was wondering if I could switch places with Juri for breakfast. He could wait and I could polish the silver…”
Jesse knew it was fruitless even before he finished his request. The look on Mr. Inohara’s face told so much.
“Absolutely not!” the butler refused. “You will go where I tell you, and today you’ll help with breakfast. And you will be exceptionally considerate towards Mr. Taiga, to make up for yesterday’s regrettable mishap. Is that clear?”
“Yes, Mr. Inohara,” Jesse said flatly. He gave one last suffering look to Juri before following Mr. Inohara up the stairs.
Breakfast was an easy task in a way that they didn’t have to wait all the time, just be ready to pour more tea or coffee if needed. So after the family had sat down to eat, Jesse stood silently next to Mr. Inohara, staring into the distance. Mr. and Mrs. Kyomoto were both reading the morning papers while eating while their son was stirring his tea, looking rather bored. Jesse wished he’d keep that way.
“Oh, by the way, Inohara,” My. Kyomoto said after a moment. “Kochi is coming to teach Miss Ayako today and he’ll stay for dinner. Please let Mrs. Sato know.”
“Very good, my lord.”
“Father, it seems we’ll have to put up an advertisement after all,” Mr. Taiga spoke up then and heaved a sigh. “Hayashi is leaving.”
“Well, that is unfortunate,” his father commented. “And you can’t persuade him to stay?”
“I tried, it didn’t work.” The younger Kyomoto didn’t seem to be sorry at all about the matter.
Jesse knew this Hayashi was Mr. Taiga’s valet, he had seen the man briefly yesterday and today at breakfast. If Mr. Taiga acted the way Juri had described and Jesse witnessed towards his valet as well, Jesse wasn’t at all surprised that the man might want to change jobs. In fact, good for him. And bad for the poor valet that would follow him.
“It’s so hard to find good workers these days, don’t you agree, Mr. Inohara?” Mrs. Kyomoto said.
“It can be, my lady.”
“And speaking of which,” Mr. Kyomoto put in and turned to look at Jesse, “how is our newest worker doing? Uh… it was Jesse, right?”
“Y-yes. Very well, my lord, thank you,” Jesse answered politely.
“I wonder,” a low, yet audible comment could be heard. Both Jesse and Mr. Kyomoto looked at Mr. Taiga.
“What’s that now?” Mr. Kyomoto asked, puzzled.
Taiga raised his brows slightly, smiling innocently. “Oh nothing, just that Jesse here seems like he isn’t quite used to a big house like this one. But I’m sure he’ll get the hang of it eventually.”
His smile was pleasant, and tone seemingly polite the whole time, yet Jesse could hear the same mocking undertone as the day before. He clenched his fist by his side, and was already opening his mouth when Mr. Inohara spoke up.
“That’s very kind, my lord. I am teaching Jesse diligently and he’s a fast learner so I shouldn’t be concerned.”
“Very good,” Mr. Kyomoto said, looking pleased. “Thank you, Inohara. And Jesse.”
Jesse nodded his head a bit stiffly, and Mr. Kyomoto went back to his newspaper. Then, for a fleeting moment, Jesse met eyes with Mr. Taiga across the room. Jesse knew he wasn’t supposed to look at him like that, but he couldn’t quite turn his gaze away. The young lord stared at him boldly, and there was a faint smirk playing on his lips. As though he was still mocking Jesse silently. Then he went back to his tea and didn’t pay Jesse any attention for the rest of the breakfast.
“So Hayashi is leaving, I told you!”
“I heard he’s moving to London.”
“How will they find anyone to replace him…?”
A bit before morning tea, Jesse sat down next to Juri in the servant’s hall. Juri was on his seemingly favourite pastime: gossiping with the maids at the end of the table. Jesse was still a bit unsure with some of the names, but he thought he recognized the two maids sitting with Juri now: Mina and Sana. They both smiled at him and leaned closer once he was sat.
“You were at the breakfast,” Mina whispered eagerly. “Did he say why Hayashi’s quitting?”
Jesse shook his head. “Just that he had tried to persuade him to stay but with no luck.”
“No wonder,” Sana mused.
“Indeed,” Jesse huffed, still rather annoyed at Mr. Taiga and his weird antics. “No one could pay me enough money to do that job.”
“...I’d maybe like to try,” Juri said after a short silence, earning three shocked, incredulous looks from Jesse, Mina and Sana.
“You don’t mean that,” Mina said.
Juri shrugged. “Why not? I want to be a valet one day and this would be a good opportunity to start, I’ve been in the house for some years already.”
“But his valet?” Jesse asked and made a face.
“Like I said, I’d be ready to try. I know it wouldn’t be easy.”
Jesse was still majorly surprised, but then again, he had only known Juri for a couple of days. Maybe the other footman was the kind of person who would endure absolutely anything to reach his goal. Even serve Mr. Prick to be able to become a valet. Jesse thought it was mad but also kind of admirable.
“Well, all the luck if you decide to do it,” he told Juri and patted him on the shoulder.
“Thanks. We’ll see when they put up the advertisement.”
Shintaro joined them just then, sitting down opposite Jesse. Jesse wanted to hear the chauffeur’s thoughts on Juri’s mad idea, but he didn’t get a chance to start as a strange man entered the hall right then. He was wearing a tweed jacket over a brown suit and carrying a thick leather briefcase. He had a friendly looking face that lit up once he noticed Juri, Shintaro and the others.
“Hello!”
“Kochi!” Juri greeted happily. “It’s been a while. Come and join us for tea!”
“Oh, thank you, but I’m in a hurry. Miss Ayako is probably already waiting for me upstairs. I just wanted to drop a book to Mrs. Sato before going up. But see you at dinner?”
“We’ll be there,” Juri joked and patted Jesse on the back. “Me and Jesse. This is Kochi Yugo, Miss Ayako’s homeroom teacher, who sometimes graces us with his presence as well.”
Kochi looked at Jesse and gave him the same warm smile as the others. “The new footman? Nice to meet you! I’ll try to come down and talk to you all properly next time, now I must run.”
They wished Kochi happy teaching and watched him hurry off along the corridor.
“He seems nice,” Jesse commented.
“Kochi’s the best,” Shintaro said heartily. “He once tried to teach me and Juri some French but gave up pretty quickly.”
Juri, Sana and Mina all laughed at the memory.
”I’d want to learn French, too,” Jesse said, getting excited. ”Do you think he’d teach me?”
”You can ask,” Shintaro said. ”And Kochi is kind so he’ll probably say yes. We could all learn together! How about it, Juri?”
”It went so well last time…” Juri was still smiling.
Mina and Sana started re-enacting what Jesse guessed was Juri and Shintaro’s poor French pronunciation, and all of them laughed hard at that.
Jesse was smiling along, though the memory wasn’t his. It occurred to him suddenly at that moment, that despite the few negative experiences, he was grateful to be part of the house staff, and especially grateful for his wonderful co-workers.