Saturday the 3rd of March felt heavy for Pras. His supposedly predicted failure was not an easy one to stomach. He woke up with a massive negative boost that nothing could push away. Not even the tasty fried rice made by his mother could help the case. He even considered skipping extracurricular activities today.

“Mom, can Pras skip and sleep today?” Pras emboldened himself to ask his mother before stepping out the door of the house unit.

“Are you ill? Fever?” his mother asked.

Pras shook his head, “Pras just feels kinda tired.”

It was not his mother that answered, but his father, “Well, once in a while that isn’t bad.”

“Sure, honey,” his mother smirked, “at least Pras can help me mark my student’s papers.”

Pras shuddered at the clear threat from his mother. Dealing with law school students’ papers are the worst kind of torture he could face in this house. He cleared his throat and lied, “Oh, Ega needed something. Pras gotta go.”

He quickly dashed out from the house with full knowledge that his mother knew exactly that the threat had succeeded. Yet, the rush of adrenaline from the fear was not enough to actually push away his worries in the rest of the journey to school.

His thoughts were so chaotic that he didn’t realise the incoming white electric SUV that pulled over towards him who was walking near the side of the road.

“Good morning, Pras. Come, join us. You don’t need to walk too far.”

Pras was startled by Diana’s greeting. When he turned to look at her, his eyes failed to avoid direct eye contact with Mana. That moment caused him to feel the dilation of time. He still couldn’t understand the message conveyed through her eyes.

He then turned his gaze away to Diana and replied, “G-good morning, Dia-nee.”

He then sighed a bit. He tried to answer as normal as possible to Diana, “I-I’ll just walk. It’s okay.”

“My, my, you don’t need to be shy with big sis. It’s still far, you know?”

“Yeah, you don’t need to be like that, it’s okay, join us,” said Eggi who suddenly opened the door for Pras.

The awkwardness between Pras and Mana had made him fail to notice Eggi was inside the car all along. And considering the invitation by both Diana and Eggi was rather insistent, he had to take the offer.

Yet, that didn’t stop Pras from staring disgruntledly at Eggi - who was rather indifferent with the situation. Pras himself was unsure if Eggi did it on purpose to try to bridge the shambled relation between Pras and Mana or simply because he was just being pushy.

Nevertheless, none of that helped the situation as Pras kept silent in the car. Weirdly enough, Diana didn’t even interrogate him today. Did she know what happened? Did Mana tell her? If so, then why did she insist on fetching Pras to school as well?

The silence finally broke as Diana suddenly said, “Ara, you kids are not in a hurry, right? I feel like I want some morning snacks.”

“O-kay.”

The three highschoolers just accepted the detour without protesting. Perhaps they already knew that Diana’s words were rather a diplomatic question. Even if they refuse, if she insists, then they have to go with her anyway. They were all in her car.

Diana parked near the shop where Pras met her for the first time. When he went out, she turned to Pras and asked, “Pras could you help me out? I’m thinking of buying quite a lot.”

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“I can help you, Dia-nee,” Mana finally spoke. She was about to open the door on her side.

“My, and risk you controlling the whole decision?” Diana giggled. “Pras also has better taste for snacks than you.”

“Fine…” Mana grumbled and cancelled her intention.

Meanwhile Pras just nodded and followed Diana to the shop. There, she didn’t talk much other than asking what Pras thought would be nice.

However, when she was about to pick the last traditional snack, she suddenly apologised, “I’m sorry, Pras.”

“Eh? W-what for?”

She drew a deep breath, then said, “If there’s a problem that Manda caused, it’s because I have failed as a substitute parent for her.”

Pras looked away, he couldn’t stand looking at someone else who was not part of the problem to be involved like this. “Mana told you, Dia-nee?”

Diana shook her head. “No, she never talks about her worries or feelings. But I knew something was off once she went eerily too quiet or sobbing without words. After a while, I figured out that it might be about you.”

She took a glutinous rice cake while smiling somberly. She continued, “She cheered up more lately, thanks to you and the others accompanying her playing games. But then, she suddenly went silent again.”

Pras didn’t know how to feel regarding Diana’s explanation. Mana was actually having fun all this time and was miserable due to the fight between him and her? That was rather hard for him to believe. Yet, the sorrow in her eyes all this time had proven that might be the truth.

Yet, he was unable to bear it and tried to avoid it. “It could be any of us Dia-nee. It could be Eggi.”

“Well, she didn’t seem to have a problem with Eggi lately, they’re kinda normal,” Diana chuckled, “Call it a parental hunch, but I thought it was you from the way Manda talked to and greeted you last time.”

Pras fell silent. He couldn’t say a single word and just helped Diana to bring the snack to the counter. Until they finished paying, Diana finally spoke, “I’m not here to ask you to forgive her nor me, sorry.”

“I.. it’s okay Dia-nee,” Pras nodded. “It's just that I have my own… circumstances.”

“Of course, Pras. Even now I realise that I shouldn’t butt into the relationship between you two. Maybe I was too concerned with her current state that I just took the chance this morning or…“

Diana paused midway, took a deep breath, then continued, “It’s just that, whenever I saw you and her, it reminded me of a few years ago during the aftermath of that accident.”

She turned at Pras and smiled. “That time, Mana suddenly went missing from her room, I panicked, of course. But then she returned happy though her wounds opened up again. She said she just helped a teenager from suicide and it made her feel alive. She was happy, until we inevitably had to move to another hospital for her to undergo therapy. She returned to her eerily silent attitude similar to the ones she had right after the accident.”

Diana laughed a bit when she concluded, “I don’t know, I sometimes imagine that the person she mentioned before was you.”

Pras stopped in his tracks. The story struck him like lightning in broad daylight. The flashes from his past rekindled quickly in his brain. The image of the girl who saved him became much clearer. The missing puzzle was finally fixed. It was not mistaken for him anymore. Her face during that day, her bright smile, her at-my-own-pace attitude, was the exact same as what he saw in Mana recently. All this time he searched for her and she had always been near to him. It was… conflicting.

“Pras?” Diana called him. She looked concerned with the sudden immovability of Pras.

“It’s okay, Dia-nee,” Pras shook his head. He lied to himself that it was just a coincidence.

Nevertheless, his talk with Diana that morning had haunted him for the rest of the journey and even at school. He was so unfocused in both language class and archery practice. His aim was so bad that Karina told him to take a break, which he promptly agreed to.

Surprisingly, his mother didn’t ask much why he returned home early. In fact, she was rather pleased because someone could help her finish the leftovers from breakfast.

After that, Pras just lazily laid down on his bed. Spacing out, thinking of all the weird things that happened the last two weeks. His mind was having a problem differentiating the sinister laugh of his former teammates with Mana’s and his saviour's smile.

Until, there was a knock on his room’s door.

“Pras, you got a visitor waiting downstairs,” said his mom as she opened the door.

Pras frowned, “Who? Eggi?”

His mother chuckled while waving his hands and walked away, “Don’t play fool on your mother, young man. Remember, dating is not allowed yet.”

Pras snorted. Mustering the remaining willpower and energy in him, he slumbered his way downstairs. Then his eyes widened as he saw the person who was waiting for him, sitting at the sofa of his house’s living room.

Amanda Valentia Kirana.