Hikari falls through the closet door and lands on the open top of a large pink suitcase. When she looks up, a frightened young woman holding pepper spray meets her eye.

“Wait! I’m not an intruder. Mr. Cash invited me. I won’t hurt you!”

The woman hesitates, backs away from the closet, and allows Hikari to get up.

“I’m sorry for the unexpected intrusion. I thought the door led to a closet, which it does. Oh, almost forgot my name is Hikari Saito from Osaka, Japan. Nice to meet you!” She puts her hand out to the other woman, who only stands away and holds the pepper spray in her left hand.

The sense of awkwardness is apparent, so she quickly retracts her outstretched hand. Remembering the etiquette of tea houses her grandfather taught, she tries to remedy the situation with another conversation.

“You must also be one of Mr. Cash’s guests. We both got here before the rain. Thank goodness for that. Mr. Cash is my old acquaintance. Are you friends with him, too?”

Still, the other woman does not move. Instead, a low sentence comes out of her mouth.

“I-it’s fine. I don’t want to keep you here. You can go now.”

Hikari decides it’s best not to disturb her anymore and makes her leave after she closes the closet’s entrance from her bedroom.

“Sorry for the surprise. I’ll go now and make sure this doesn’t happen again. See you and the other guests at dinner.”

With that, Hikari exits the room through the hallway. Outside, she hears the door locking.

Crap, the last thing to do is make enemies. I had no idea that the dumb door lead to another guest’s closet. I want to make it up to her, maybe after dinner. Hopefully, Mr. Cash can help me smooth things over.

Hikari walks back to her bedroom, this time slower than before. She hears several more voices from downstairs, but decides against any more impromptu introductions until after dinner.

When she tries to find the diamond key for her bedroom door, she realizes it’s gone missing from her pocket.