We had to part soon after. Not wanting to leave, but it couldn't be helped. It was a work day. Strangely, I didn't want to call off. I was standing in front of the hotel, seeing Kazuya go on his way. He guided his train case across the street as I watched with protective eyes. It made a slightly clattering noise as it traveled over the imperfections in the street. This sort of noise, that I now associated with him. 

There was only determination where there had been dread. Thinking of the possible consequences, but not caring. This lightness in feeling not diminishing. 

Would I be yelled at for taking her and the boys into the back office? Would my general manager see on the camera that I'd had the boys in his office for a couple of hours? Would he take issue with how I handled the situation, involving other guests? Most of all, would he be angry with me about involving the police when it came to the Matsudas, something I'd already done before this? 

It was clear which side he was on. I wanted no part of it. 

So, with this lightness, I walked back into the hotel. Ready to face him about it if he ordered me to. Ready to speak freely, about how we'd saved that woman and her children. Despite what we'd had to do, whatever rules we'd broken. From what we'd seen, Matsuda-san would not have stopped. What could have happened in those ten minutes between when we'd stopped him and the police got here? I didn't want to think about it. The important part was that we'd done something. We'd stopped him. They were going to be physically okay. 

When I arrived at my desk, I addressed the first order of business. The guests in the surrounding rooms. The guests who had helped us had to be in those rooms. I clicked up the hotel's software and started going through the floors. Locating that floor. Manually, I brought up each and every room. The only thank you that I was authorized to give: refunding their money for their stays. This would be permissible, because technically they hadn't had a good night based on our brand standard. In reality, they'd all helped us. Calling Tomoko and our night auditor on the hotel's phones. Some of them coming out of their rooms, those three who'd been out in the hallway worrying. Those were the ones I was searching for, and since I didn't know their names, all of the guests in the surrounding rooms would get the same regards. They all deserved it. 

As the morning went on, guests came and went. They got coffee in our lobby. One of them spilled hot water all over the floor and our houseman mopped it up. The restaurant started lunch service. Families came and went, getting excited about today's specials and having a good time. Life went on, even though it felt so different for me. 

Minami came in at 11AM, doing her training half in the morning and half in the afternoon. She'd be learning about check-ins today, having mastered the check-out processes. I was proud of her. I also chose not to tell her what had happened this morning. Instead, enjoying her talking about her college semester starting soon. Asking what courses she'd be taking. Finding out she was trying to learn English, this personal challenge to herself. Laughing with her when she found out that out of all the languages I spoke, English was not one of them. Our company just didn't do a lot of business with the west, so there'd been no need for me to learn it. 

As morning turned into afternoon, I went over next week's business. Readying myself and the front desk staff. Next week. What a concept. It felt so foreign after this one, and this one wasn't yet over. This week had to be the longest one of my life.

As I went over our lists, my eyes stopped on the groups list. It wasn't very long, but it did show which groups would be taking over our hotel after all the lawyers left. Matsuda-san's group would be checking out on Friday. It was jarring to realize. All of them were still here, even though their boss was now most likely being held somewhere. 

I scanned the list, seeing meetings of businesses and small group bookings of employees of other places staying here temporarily together. Our meeting rooms would be fully booked. My eyes closed briefly and I rolled my head over my shoulders, stretching a bit. I hadn't slept at all. But, it was nearing my time to go. I could sleep immediately after I got off. That is, after I called Kazuya. A small smile appeared on my lips, and I opened my eyes.

As I did, I saw a large booking near the bottom of the list and my eyes opened fully.

Fukuda-Yoshida Wedding Reception, ballroom B 

A wedding reception. Thirty-four rooms were booked with it. 

My knuckle went to my mouth, studying the corresponding details. Reading all about them. How many family members of each party were staying based on the last names. Wondering about their families. How much money they were spending. What kinds of people they were. 

The first week I'd been here, there'd been a wedding party. How nasty they'd been to everybody, the mother of the bride in particular driving everyone crazy. Their demands. This party in particular had gone around the neighborhood, spreading lies and threatening people who were now my friends with bad reviews online and impossible demands. The mother of the bride had demanded that Kazuya make her a daughter a wedding cake that very afternoon. Not even knowing what kind of business he ran. Not caring that he wouldn't even have enough flour or a way to get it, all that sugar also. The special milks he used, how expensive all of his ingredients were and therefore the more inflated but understandable prices for the finished products. Even if he had been able to do it, she absolutely would have balked at the price. Yelling at him again, demanding that it be lowered despite the impossible situation she'd already created. I knew that, because she'd done the same to the hotel. 

The way these guests had treated the man I love. Even with what we'd just been through now, the way they'd further treat him... Thirty-four rooms. That meant that there could be as many as one-hundred and twenty or more guests for him and the neighborhood to deal with, even though they were wounded and hurting. Not to mention all of these others who'd be coming in. Untold numbers. Another wave.

But, it was always going to be wave after wave. They wouldn't stop coming. Blow after blow, how this neighborhood would suffer. How much the man I love would suffer. I couldn't bear that.

Minami gathered the papers when I was done with them. Bowing to me slightly with a smile and going to file them away. I stood there for a minute, gathering myself. Thinking further of these thoughts, these incoming people. The further affect they'd have to the neighborhood. 

What I'd been going over before that terrible phone call. What I was going to do. It hadn't left my mind, but there'd been so many horrible things. A continuation of our nightmare, hopefully now concluded. But, it would never conclude, because as long as this hotel was standing they'd never go away. 

When Minami came back, I was writing. Out in the open, not a care in the world. She didn't ask me what it was, being polite. She busied herself with our hotel software, clicking around. I didn't look up, but I heard her doing it. 

Writing what I had to say. Everything I knew. Writing this letter to corporate about everything I'd experienced over the past month. My experiences with the neighborhood, the kind of people who lived here. My interactions with the guests and their complaints about them. Guest interactions outside of the hotel that I'd heard about and witnessed. How the neighborhood used to be before our company knocked down the old hotel. Before they'd bought that property. 

I know expansion is always priority for a business, because the more you have then the more you can make. It was common sense. But, how much can you make if you don't research what you're doing? It was as if they'd planted a tropical flower in a cold climate. How was it supposed to survive? This foreign creature, pretty and you wanted it there, but it wasn't going to thrive. They clashed, and it would never work. It would be impossible. 

Except, it was as if the tropical flower were poisonous, too. Killing the native plants as it died. A horrible destruction, and for what? It would all be gone in the end at that point. 

Wasn't it better then to put a plant in there that made harmony with the environment? That fit in? Something that would nurture, so that everyone could thrive? A beautiful peace, but it had to start with the foreign body coming in. 

In the end, my letter was ten pages long. I read it over for a while, seeing if I'd said everything. I saw that I had. With that, I folded it up and put it in an envelope, the Modern's emblem in gold shining up at me. How out of place it seemed, with this kind of letter. How out of place it seemed all the time. 

Wordlessly, I stuffed it into our outgoing mailbox. I came back to the front desk, smiling pleasantly at Minami as if I'd done nothing at all. As if I hadn't just written a letter that would cost me my job. My place here in Japan, to save everyone. To protect them, in any way I could. Trying for them, even if it meant I couldn't stay.

As Minami started to talk to me again about college and this time about her friends, I thought about my own. Especially, the man I love's smiling face. That familiar bell, chiming to let him know I had arrived. Seeing him turn around in my mind, beaming so bright to see that I had crossed the threshold into where I now considered home.