It Only Takes One

Risa Watanabe was cleaning her kitchen counter when she heard her phone buzz, which was odd considering she hadn't heard that sound for a few months now, not since her last job request. Risa was a freelance painter, the best one around in fact. She lived in a small home in Tsuchiura,  Ibaraki. A lot of her paintings were hung up on her walls, not as a display of her pleasure with them but rather the tidiest way to hide them from the world.

Risa put down the cloth in her hand and picked up her phone, it was a text - from a customer wanting a portrait. A portrait of an idol she had seen on TV recently, she didn't know her name, though, not until she saw that text. They wanted it done the next day, at 10:30 am. She checked the location; Niigata. That was over four hours from where she was. That meant she would have to be up by 5:00 am tomorrow. She took a glance at the time on her phone, it was already 8:35, she hadn't even made herself dinner yet. Risa decided she would survive without it.

The dark-haired girl walked upstairs and dimmed the light in her room before she lay in bed and threw the duvet over herself. It was summer, but she always felt more comfortable with the duvet on, no matter how hot it was. She closed her eyes and after many minutes of tossing and turning she finally managed to fall asleep. 

She woke up at 5:00 that morning, the exact time she had hoped to. She groggily sat up and twisted her body around, got up and began heading towards the bathroom.

She didn't take long getting ready, as always. She showered for ten minutes,  got out and brushed her teeth, after, she debated with herself about what to wear for two minutes before deciding on a white t-shirt and a black skirt. Breakfast wasn't particularly Risa's thing, her friends would always use the saying "Breakfast is the most important meal of the day" with her, but she would brush them off with a sarcastic joke. Although, in this particular situation, Risa decided to at least have some toast, if she was going to be driving for four hours. 

After she had eaten her toast, Risa began to gather her painting equipment before shoving it in her small backpack. Risa picked up her phone and took a look at the time; she still had an hour before she had to go, so she decided to sit in her living room and watch TV while waiting for the time to pass.

Risa had her phone on her leg and felt a vibration, she took a glance down to see what it was, and just as she thought - it was her customer. The tired girl picked her phone up and unlocked it to get a look at the full text. It was a picture of the girl she would be painting, as well as a few other details that Risa couldn't focus on due to the sight in front of her.

The girl - in a rush to get those thoughts out of her head - turned her phone off and shook her head. How silly they were both girls, after all. Risa smiled at herself before deciding to check the time again, she had to go in five minutes. She sighed and then turned off the TV before picking up her backpack and trudging over to the kitchen and fetching her keys from the bowl she kept them in and heading out of her two-story house.

Of course, on a Saturday, anyone would have predicted the traffic to be bad, Risa was one of these people; however, it was clear she had underestimated it a bit. Not surprisingly as she didn't go out much, much less on five-hour car journeys. She gripped at her steering wheel and the image of that girl popped up in her head. She blushed and shut her eyes tight. "No way!" She yelled, unaware that she had said that aloud and was overly thankful that her window was up.

Finally, cars began to move, making the painter more anxious as the traffic dissipated and she was fully able to drive faster, ultimately meaning that she would see her sooner. She increased the weight she was putting on the accelerator and focused completely on getting to her destination before worrying about anything else. She was a professional after all.

The painter got a little lost trying to find the door for the huge building she was in front of, and also the place she would meet That Girl. Eventually, she got inside and approached the elevator before looking at the floor she was supposed to go to. Floor 8. "Good thing I don't mind heights." She whispered to herself.