adora • lookism

10. Shoebox Studio

"Are you sure you're fine?" demanded Yui, for the fifth time.

"I'm fine," Ari sighed, also for the fifth time. "Honestly, everyone is making a much bigger deal of this than it is."

"I heard you cried," Yui added skeptically. "Like a lot. Like, 'a public fountain accidentally got blocked up by an asshole and the water pressure got too high and the fountain exploded water everywhere' a lot."

"Who said that?" Ari asked. She was legitimately curious, since that was quite a... vivid depiction. It also made her reflect on the possibility that her lack of sleep, and the high-strung nerves resulting from that, had perhaps played an explosive role in her embarrassingly dramatic reaction.

"It was my artistic interpretation of what I got from the situation," Yui said, blunt and matter-of-fact.

All day long, the school had been in a hubbub about the upcoming school festival. All day long, the area around Ari's desk had been in a hubbub for an entirely different reason, with an endless stream of students from her department---and some from other departments---popping in to inquire about the general state of her limbs and wellbeing.

Which, as Ari had to repeat all day long, was good, fine, and dandy. Yes it hurt a bit to walk. No it wasn't a big deal. Hobin Jin? Um...

Ari didn't say anything about Hobin, but she didn't stop anyone else from saying something either. Honestly, she was more annoyed with him for creating all this fuss than she was over the actual injury itself. She couldn't believe that Eugene actually---actually!!---cut her work short for this. Yes, she wanted a vacation, but she wanted one on her own terms, not this weird week and a half ban.

At least, it gave her time to do other things. Like go to karaoke with Zoe and the others later this week without worrying about leaving early. Or get her stress ball back. Or get a head start on earning some extra cash by streaming with Yui, which was what she was going to do now.

"Did you move studios?" asked Ari, stepping out of the taxi. She looked up at the building they had arrived at---by taxi, not public transit, on Yui's insistence. Apparently Yui thought the jostling of public transit would cripple Ari and render her completely unable to stream. Ari had lost the energy to argue with the people around her some time between Eugene's uncannily swift phone call after the incident and Jay's quiet freak out once they went home from school yesterday.

If Yui hadn't basically kidnapped her as soon as the bell rang, it was very likely that they would have been brought by some form of chauffeur instead of a taxi. Ari was not against being chauffeured persay, except that 1. she was pretty sure that Jay's Mister Butler was not, actually, a butler, and so probably had a separate job of his own, and 2. if she let Eugene give her a chauffeur, he'd probably find any excuse to make her keep the chauffeur, which she knew would only encourage his already overprotective behaviour.

"Yeah, one of the creeps figured out the last one and started sending me letters," Yui said. She grimaced, rubbing her arms. "Gave me the fucking shivers."

Exactly why Ari didn't engage in almost any type of social media. And that was despite a certain affiliate head's frankly impressive attempts to coax her into starting up an ASMR channel.

Yui led her through the building and into a tiny studio apartment that was modeled rather convincingly after a teenage girl's ordinary bedroom. Ari gingerly crawled up onto the bed while Yui began to set up the camera and lights they'd need for the stream.

"By the way," said Yui, glancing over at Ari as she starfished on the blanket with her phone in hand. "Are you going to stream looking like that?"

"What's wrong with it?" Ari asked, bemusedly looking away from her texts. "I look cute."