38 Mayday

Dana woke up the next day with a hangover because Bobby didn't let her go after hearing the news of her acceptance for the Shanghai Conservatory of Music. He insisted that they celebrate it and brought her to a bar owned by his friends.

She no longer asked about those friends, for it seems that Bobby has a lot of those and from what she perceived not all of them are really friends but more on business partners or somewhat a business connection and he just calls all of them his friends.

Lying on the bed, feeling lazy to get up, Dana contemplates her plan, she grabs her notebook on her bedside table and decides to write down the agenda she has for that day and for the whole month. And in those, learning how to drive, spending time to paint and sketch are listed.

She always has had a journal ever since she was a kid. Those old journals are her diaries of all the cute boys from school, neighbors, family friends, and after school academies, then it became her secret drawing paper, now the latest version is her bullet journalling thingy that she started doing to jot down her schedule to somewhat convince herself that she is actually doing something with her life.

From her last year in high school until now, she has this irrepressible sensation at the back of her mind that she isn't doing anything worthwhile with her life. It gets worse when Ellise and Jess start running head-on chasing their respective dreams. And she felt left out. She put a smile on her lips while beating herself with self-pity, insecurity, and lack of self-confidence.

That one time when Bobby and Grand talk business in front of her and she found out what they have been doing with their lives, didn't help at all. She felt so small and the nagging feeling of not being enough worsened.

Dana dropped the open notebook on her face, then spread her arms like an eagle, took a steady breath, counting one to ten holding the air in her lungs before releasing it in one go. She did it twenty times, before she kicked the blanket covering her body, and went to the bathroom to wash up.

When she got out of the bathroom, her phone was wailing with the latest BTS song. She removed the towel on her head before answering the call.

"Moshi moshi."

"Danana, how are you?" her mother, Josefa softly greeted her as she answered the call.

Dana's brows knitted in confusion upon hearing her childhood pet name - Danana. It's a wordplay of her name and the word banana, her favorite fruit when she was a toddler. Her mother used to tell her how she would cry if she wasn't given a banana as soon as she woke up.

The last time she called back home her mother was still angry at her, now she is the one who initiated the call, at the same time calling her the pet name now rarely used. She can't help but feel uneasy with the sudden changes.

"I'm doing great. I've got the notice of acceptance from the Shanghai Conservatory of Music that I could enroll around February," she told her mother the good news she received last night.

"Congratulations! I hope you'd really consider music as more than just something you enjoy and not only do it to spite me."

Dana blushed and felt guilty. She never realized that her mother knows her real intention of choosing to study music outside of Japan.

"Gomen nasai" she murmurs her apology.

An awkward silence ensued.

"Ahem," her mother is the first one to salvage the conversation. "You now have full access to all of your bank accounts."

Dana was shocked, speechless when she heard what her mother said.

"Nancy is still in Shanghai, right? Have her teach you how to manage your own money." she gently reminded her.

"But why?" she asked, still flabbergasted.

"It is time," she said with finality.

The unexpected turn of events in Dana's barely sober brain made her agitated. She picked up her journal and wrote, - study financial management.

When her mom ended the call after reminding her for the nth times that she must do her utmost best in playing the piano. That she shouldn't waste the opportunity of having one of the best teachers she could ever have. She must take care of her skin, she must not skip meals, she must not have a boyfriend.

By then she made an excuse for having something important to do and hung up the phone.

She smiled widely and picked up her phone again to send a text to tell Jess the good news, as she scrolled her message history, she saw the messages she sent to Grand are now marked as read, but no replies. She has been seen zoned. She smiled bitterly but didn't let it dampen her mood and sent her messages to Jess and aunt Joy detailing all that happened.

After sending messages she was left with nothing to do, and decided to check her Weibo and she saw that it's been a while since she posted any of her drawings, then she remembered Ellise photo that she wanted to sketch.

She thought there's no best time to draw her than today, she can use it as a pretext for a Christmas gift because she's quite sure that Ellise won't agree to have that picture of hers to be posted on social media.

She grinned mischievously and had the art supplies she needed ready and spent the rest of the day sketching.

---

He stepped out to continue the call in the private as soon as he saw the photos Mantis sent over.

"Don't you dare share these photos with the captain," he said whispering over the phone. He is standing on the balcony of the room he shared with Grand. He pulled the blanket he brought outside closer to his body as the cold seep to his bone.

They still have two weeks left here in Oslo and next week there will be a lot of practice competition that he and Grand will take part in. Seeing these scandalous photos won't help the captain do his job.