"Hi, I'm Cindy." A red-haired girl approached and offer her hand to her.
It's awkward because she's too eager for that grilled beef and giving the girl attention was hard.
"Isabel." She took her hand and quickly shifted her focus back to the meat.
"I'm here because of leukemia, you?" She said straightforwardly.
"Stage four intestinal cancer." They ended their shake hands knowing their conditions.
"Hm." Cindy nodded in acknowledgment.
She seems younger than she was, very pale and thin.
"Have you tried that sushi that Mr. Sukiyaki made in the seafood lane?" Another young girl appeared, holding a box of sushi rolls.
"It tastes super. I'm going to get some more can you hold this for me?" She didn't even introduce herself, but left in a hurry.
Isabel and Cindy looked at each other and laughed together. Who knows, she can meet friends in the home of terminal cases.
"How long have you been here?" Cindy asks while taking a big bite of the grilled steak.
"Only a few days." She answered also took a bite.
"How about you? I didn't see you in the villa houses." Indeed, she's been in the villa houses for almost a week and she didn't see her.
"Because she's staying in the hospital, but I know that she's living in the hotel now, am I right?" The girl who left the sushi was back. Cindy nodded in response but wondered where she could possibly get that information when she hadn't met her before.
"Do I know you?" Cindy asks. The unknown girl looked like she's in her teens.
"No, my name is Amy, I'm one of the Oncologists in this facility." Isabel and Cindy looked at each other again.
"How is that possible?"
"How old are you?"
Questions that came out of both of their mouths. Amy laughed while chewing some more of her sushi.
"Yes, I look young. I'm eighteen, but I started young. In fact, I grew up in this facility. I was an Orphan but Mr. Raven said I am a genius and have someone taught me." She may be a doctor, but still a teenager.
"You are awesome! It's great that you are not a patient." Cindy smiled widely, accepting Amy as part of their little and newfound pack.
"Oh, have you heard about the Surviving no matter what contract?" Isabel heard that from Ed for the first time and she almost forgot about it.
"Yes I had, how does it work," Isabel said casually.
"It's an experimental study with a 60% chance of surviving. I was a part of the research team, and I can safely say that the survival rate is actually almost 90% we're just saying it for legal purposes." Her voice was a little mixed with her chewing the sushi, but it's still audible and both she and Cindy can understand her message well.
"How do we enroll?" Cindy stopped eating altogether and focused on Amy, who was now sipping strawberry juice on a straw casually.
"I'll take you both to the base tomorrow to give you some test and you will sign up a form and consent, it's mostly for formality's sake." She was now back in munching sushi. Obviously, that raw fish dish obsessed her.
Amy brought them to the musician's corner, and they started jamming. They all played an instrument without a particular tune.
"That's not the way how Bass works!" Cindy said Isabel thought she's the only one who had formal training with instruments.
"Who cares, as long as it feels good, it's the correct one!." Amy yelled back as they can hardly hear each other's voices from all the noise they were making.
In Hash's mansion, when Mau woke up, Hash was no longer beside her. Her whole body ached. He was too much.
She might have her pelvic bones dislocated. But she smiled. That means she had won a chance to join the pageant.
She's not wrong. She found an invitation with her name on his bedside table. Hash's cursive was clear. It seemed like he wrote it patiently.
But she wanted to call a carriage to bring her back home because she felt she had plenty of injuries all over her body. She put her dress back on but did not put the veil back.
She considered herself married now.
Novalia believed in polygamy. So Mau knew she already secured a place in the Prince's harem. She hummed a tune while riding a rented carriage back home.
The pageant was in three days. She stared around and memorize the place.
"I'm coming back to own you," Mau murmured and smiled sweetly. She heard that the prime minister's daughter was also joining the pageant and that she might be the crowned prince's type. That's fine by her.
It doesn't matter. She couldn't wait to be under his body again. And his kiss made her float in the air. She never had a man in her bed before, but she heard servants talking about their sex lives, and some are nasty.
They didn't enjoy sex that much. But her, although it's very painful at first, once you get used to it, it felt good. Mau kept rewinding the scenes she had in bed with Hash until she didn't notice she's home.
"Ma'am?" The driver had been calling her several times, but Mau was still in a trance.
She paid the driver and hurriedly run towards their tent.
"Father!" She was so excited that she lost her balance and tripped.
Good thing her father appeared as soon as she called and watched her before she fell.
"Good heaven's Mau, do you have plans on ruining your face?" His father, though angry, had a soft spot with his only daughter.
"Father look!" She showed her father the invitation got, her hands were still a bit shaking.
"He even wrote it with his own hands." In her elated state, her voice was higher than her normal tone.
"The gods have blessed my darling daughter." And Habibi kissed his daughter's forehead. His mouth stretched into a smile that occupied his entire face.
"And the pageant is in three days." She almost danced holding his father's hands excitedly.
"Well, this calls for a celebration" His father's smile became wider, even his eyes were undeniably showing vibrance.
"Bobi! slaughter a lamb and a cow for my daughter's marriage to a prince!" His father was arrogant that way. He was as confident as his daughter.