Beads of sweat began to trickle down her forehead. Patiently, Mavi followed behind her cousin, who knew an art shop several hundred meters away from the café. She gripped her umbrella tightly while checking her long ankle-length skirt. It'll be so much of an inconvenience if she tripped now due to her clumsiness.

"Are we there yet?"

Upon asking, Benni pointed to a building and bade her to climb a stairway in front of a sidewalk.

"It's a small art supplies shop, but they have canvases here." Her cousin went on as they climbed the narrow path upstairs.

When they reached the second floor of the building, a door stood right in front of them. Half of it was blurry, while the other half let them see through inside the store.

"I didn't think you'd seriously learn painting," Benni swiveled the door open. "Papa mentioned you're moving out, so I asked Uncle, if you can stay with me."

"He did?" Mavi queried, wondering how Benni's father knew about it.

"Yeah. Actually, I didn't believe it at first because your mom is a tough ass for me," she told her.

When they entered the shop, a center aisle divided two columns of mini shelves. Adjacent to these were humongous dividers with open square partitions of differing size, where different papers and pens were displayed. Maveth's eyes twinkled in quiet glee, exhilarated with the variety of colors surrounding her. Pastels, neons, and the vibrant and muted ones.

This was a real feast for the eyes.

“But she never scolded me.” Mavi returned, approaching another shelving at the east corner. “Papa regularly do have the talks with me though. Where’s your school?”

Benni laughed, “I dropped out a month ago.”

Maveth stopped browsing the shelf and stared at her cousin, “You did?” Her face contorted into one of disbelief since her father warned her about doing that thing. “I don’t like wasting money, Maveth, so think about it.”

“No lies, it's odd to just continue with my life after what happened,” she continued. “We never get to see him— a funeral even seemed impossible without his body.”

A shadow of misery drew over her eyes, which Maveth didn’t miss despite Benni’s detached tone. She grabbed her wrist and asked her to look at the tiny stickers, hoping to distract her from thinking about some sad things.

“It’s alright not to talk about it,” she tried to reassure her, but Benni stood still, quiet for a while.

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“No, I prefer to talk about it. Ignoring that fact felt like I’m pushing him away,” Benni explained after deliberating over her cousin’s words. She appreciated her thoughtfulness, yet it doesn’t mean that she will make a pretense. "I'm the first person who should've noticed that something was wrong, but then it all happened while he was with me."

Maveth listened to her low voice attentively. She felt her shoulders droop, having to hear a story she never knew could even occur. Ah- again, you are of no use, silly.

Having noticed that Mavi loosed her smile, she cheered up.“Thanks for being here anyway,” she beamed.

With a set of little flower stickers on one hand, Maveth made her way through the aisle, constantly peeping here and there as she looked for large canvases. When she reached the clerk’s desk, she found a collection of them, leaning on each other neatly in a rack.

“Found them!"

She lifted two large blank canvases and three small ones. The lady at the counter assisted her, and after receiving her receipt, the two walked out of the shop. Maveth felt bad about having to let Benni carry the big canvases, and so, she insisted on carrying her own purchases despite looking unsteady as she walked. She never really bought one herself in a store, but instead, she ordered them through online shops. Besides, they still have to walk back.

“You don’t look comfortable,” Benni remarked, retrieving the canvases to herself. “I’d rather not have you falling unconscious."

“You know, we could ride a train or something,” Maveth suggested to her cousin, who looked undeterred by the summer heat. She even laid her skin bare under the sun, using no umbrella at all.

“Whaat? No, not a train." Benni retorted, “We barely walked 400 meters from the café.”

“Isn't 400 meters a lot?" Mavi defended, taking in a deep breath.

“Not for a train or a taxi ride,” her cousin replied. “You won’t die from a little strain. Trust me. You have to work on your stamina, or you’ll always limp.”

“Right,” Mavi murmured. She did not only move out of her house to improve her artworks, but she had to learn to live her own life, free from the constant intervention of her parents.

“Have you never used a train?” Benni, who was a few steps ahead of her, asked suddenly.

“Not yet…” her voice trailed off. “But I’ll attend my fav duo’s concert tomorrow! Papa will drive me to their venue!”

“Duo? I heard that some musicians live in our street, but I never confirmed it for myself,” she continued to stride through the glittery pavement. “I’m not that interested, anyway.”

Hearing this, Maveth’s hairs stood on their ends. Even if they were not her adored artists, she would love to make some musician friends. Why, who, when? It didn’t matter. She dreamed of capturing music’s essence in her paintings— a magnum opus that transcends emotions and screams the lively notes of a music sheet!

Benni turned around, only to see her younger cousin in a daze. “Hey, what’s the matter?”

Pulled out from her fantastical thoughts, Mavi resumed walking. “No, I just thought of something,” she reasoned.

A few more meters from when they had initially stopped, the ladies passed by a newspaper stand, where several tabloids from various local publications hung idly. Accustomed to her habit of looking into these, Benni asked Maveth to halt as she made her way inside a dingy bookstore. She never visited this shop before, but all she needed was something that’d help her find his body.