Operation Freedom, Stage One

"You're not going down?" Ellise asked the two girls in the passenger seat that didn't move when the car stopped in the parking lot.

"I promised my mother that Jess and I will go home tonight," said Dana.

Ellise shrugged off her shoulders and looked at the driver seat, "Thank you."

"No biggie." he answered Ellise with a goofy smile, then looked at Joy and said, "Sweetheart, I'll just drop them off and return to the studio, the band will record a new EP, I'll send you a message in LINE, once we're done."

"Hmm, drive safely." Joy answered and waved goodbye as the car drove away.

"Dana and Jess indeed had a plan to stay over at Dana's place tonight, which is also a good opportunity for us to finish our talk. Let's head in." Joy said to her.

Ellise breathed deeply and followed her aunt slowly inside the house. When she enters the living room, Joy is already sitting down on the sofa, waiting for her. Ellise never felt so conflicted in her life.

Joy gently tapped the sofa beside her. Ellise quietly sits down and stares at the wall.

"You're here instead of a flight back to Oslo because I needed time to think of our next step. We flew out of Shanghai ASAP so I could buy even a small window of time with you without the eyes and the ears of your shadows," she said to Ellise without preamble.

"I can afford to lose my business, but my employees can't lose their job for they all have families that need to eat, and there are too many of them for me to feed out of my own pocket. And that's not even the worst scenario that could happen if I stand on the wrong foot of your great-grandparents. That's how scary your Old People are. I'm ashamed to say that it's one of the reasons why I won't dare step up against them, and probably your mother too." she told an unmoving Ellise.

"My mother simply doesn't want a complicated life. No need to make excuses for her," she stated the words bluntly.

Joy observes Ellise as she speaks those statements like they are nothing. Her heart bleeds for the young girl sitting beside her and swears to herself that she'll find a way to take her away under the utilitarian control of her great-grandparents. It won't be easy, but she'll die trying.

"Your secret bodyguards will most probably arrive at midnight or early morning tomorrow. Stay here for the next two weeks, Jess will still be here at that time. Hang out with them, act your age. I need you to do things that will not arouse any suspicion and restriction from your Old People. I hope the two weeks will be enough to start things." she said in a tone laced with worries.

"May I know, what's going to happen?" she asked in a small voice.

"What do you think of changing citizenship?" she answered.

A certain coldness crawled on her skin. She never thought that an innocent whim of hers would end up to this. Oddly enough she feels no regret.

"I have no problem with it," she answered straight face with the same conviction she had when she bought a plane ticket to follow a certain boy. She doesn't understand the feeling in her heart, but she listens to it like her life depended on it.

HTW, Berlin 8:50 P.M.

"Auf Wiedersehen," she said to the Hausmeister of the Computer Science department as she hurried out of the building. Her roommate has been calling her to remind her not to miss this year-end party of the student dormitory. She's already running late for it will take her almost an hour to Neon Wood, then she has to pick up the Christmas presents for her friends along the way. She smiled to herself with the idea of buying gifts for friends. She never ever dreams of rushing in thick snow for holiday presents and parties with friends.

She can't believe how time flies and how the life she's living now is so different from the one she had just a few months back. A small kick in the gut made her focus on the icy road. She blinks the memory of another country from her mind, for it will induce a certain longing and regrets.

While she's here in Berlin finishing university, she can't afford to wander in those memories, that's why she left her old phone in the airport in Shanghai, she doesn't want access to all the Apps she was using in China, because if she does, it would be too difficult for her to endure.

Holding the bags of gifts in her lap, thinking how long will it take for these presents to reach Tokyo and Davao City, she reaches for her phone and sends a courteous holiday greeting to her mother. The Christmas cards for her grandparents and great-grandparents were sent a week ago.

She looks outside of the windows and quietly watches the snows fall on the sidewalk, at the same time scanning the crowded bus for her shadows. She used to never give them any attention before, even though she's well aware of the existence of those hired bodyguards. But if she wants to get away from them in the near future she has to familiarize herself with their movements for herself to fade in plain sight.

It's the primary reason why she keeps a very predictable daily schedule since she landed in Berlin. At first, it makes those shadows squirms, she couldn't blame them. The previous set of shadows were sacked without mercy after she was successfully pulled away under their noses when she was taken to Tokyo by her aunt Joy.

She hides a bittersweet smile recalling that memory, the motive behind her monotonous routine, for these highly on guard men drop their defense, in order for them not to have the idea that the trick they're anticipating will happen far in the future when they no longer expect it.