“Truth be told, I don’t care.” Wish continued, shaking her head subtly. “I don’t care what happens to you, to the Library, the people that visit, I just… Don’t care. You’re not even the first guardian to quit, what’s to say you won’t do the same? Why should I bother wasting my time and energy on you?”

When the question was asked, the two had their eyes meet. Miao, not knowing how to answer, averted her gaze cautiously, shifting slightly to the side, so she wasn’t staring directly at the attendant. “I was…” 

“Trying to be nice?” The blonde woman scoffed and shrugged her shoulders, acting like it didn’t mean anything to her. “Doesn’t work on me. You’re not the first to try.”

“I was just showing my interest in why you would decorate your room like this.” Miao now avoided looking at Wish completely, and gazed into the cluttered room. “I want to know what these collections of paperwork are. The boxes, the shelves. You seem to have a lot of…” The guard looked back to Wish, taking in the woman’s exhausted expression once more. “...Knowledge and information.” 

Wish raised an eyebrow and stared at Miao for a few seconds. She then raised her hand and waved at the guard dismissively. “Those are just the notebooks and paperwork that I’ve done for the company bosses and managers throughout my living years.” She gave her room a glance as well, try as she might, she couldn’t recall them, and that feeling of frustration came rushing back to her, making her feel annoyed and helpless. “I know it looks like a mess in there, but trust me, I know each and every thing in that room, and which belongs to what case.” She told Miao, bluffing. 

“May I hear about them?” Miao then asked right away, looking back and forth from the room and to the attendant. There was a gleam in her eye. Whatever Wish had just said, it sparked an interest. 

The blonde gave Miao a deadpan stare. “Don’t you have anything better to do?” 

“Not really, no.” Miao replied, unconsciously tightening her lips. Wish could feel the negative emotions swirling back into the guard’s mind. 

Letting out an even deeper sigh, the blonde dragged herself deeper into the room. Miao followed closely behind, quietly listening as the woman started to explain what she did during her life. “I worked for several companies in my lifetime.” She gave a side glance to the pile on the desk. “Each one, bigger than the other. The last one was…” Wish stopped as her mind drew a blank and felt embarrassed for not remembering; Wish stared down at her feet, trying to urge her mind to continue the topic somehow. 

Miao looked to the side, to the stack of paperwork that was sitting on the table. “Which one of these documents belong to which company?” She asked. 

Wish took a deep breath, proceeding to walk over, preparing herself to not recognize any of them. And yet, the moment she saw the title ‘Varin Electronics’ on one of the folders, some of her memories came rushing back to her. “I once worked for a smartphone manufacturing company.” Wish paused a bit to look at Miao with an expression of shock. ‘Is this how I get my memories back?’ she thought to herself, feeling like she was having a breakthrough in method. 

“I was the boss’ secretary.” Wish continued. She then pulled a couple of paperwork from the cardboard boxes on the ground and showed them to Miao. “These are the sales reports; This is a notebook I use to keep track of the big guy’s schedule; These are his contacts…” She began to show them off, one by one, extremely delighted that these memories were coming back to her when the right objects were shown.

Miao tried taking in as much as she could before Wish quickly shifted to the next thing. She took the time to organize the files she held in her hands, flattening them out and putting them in a neat little area of their own on the file cabinet; then moving on to the next pile to find more from that company. While this was happening, the servant would start to wipe the dust off of the surfaces that were cleared up.

This went on for a while until Wish then realized that she was only able to recall the things from Varin Electronics. Everything else seemed foreign to her, not even recognizing the companies. The least she could do was to match the names and sort them into piles accordingly. 

“Maybe I’m just tired.” The blonde spoke, mostly to herself. “Today was a long day, and I haven’t done this much for… well, a long time.” She looked up to Miao, who was still with her, listening to all this. Wish shook her head. She wondered how the guard had this much patience to stick with a person she had just met, and listen to them ramble about the items of their messy room. A light smile tugged on the edges of her lips. “Hey um… How about we stop for today. I’ll accompany you to the Library tomorrow morning and we can continue this after work.” She suggested, now finding Miao to be more helpful than an annoyance.

“I would like that.” Miao replied, smiling back. She then placed the cleaning items aside for the time being, and gave the blonde woman a light bow and excused herself from the room. 

Wish looked around, enjoying the peacefulness after such an eventful few hours. She felt like she deserved a good rest and laid back down on her bed. Her smile never left her face as she recalled the memories that she has regained and seemingly without the worry of losing them again. She felt a bit more awake, more alert and more aware than she was before.