Head For The Hills
Shanghai Pudong International Airport
2:15 AM Beijing Time
Dana is standing beside the conveyor waiting for her luggage at this ungodly hour. She sighs, thinking about how her argument with her mother, ended up with her being in Shanghai.
She and Jess are currently in a non-speaking term since she found out that Jess is flying to the United States to finish her studies at Stanford, without telling her!
Ellise is out of the country for a tournament, Ting, her driver is on vacation, and her aunt Joy is accompanying her husband on a world tour.
Dana never felt so alone her whole life.
According to Ellise, someone will pick her up, but she doesn't know who it is. She checks her phone for any message. There's none. She took a deep breath and pulled her luggage to the immigration to have her passport stamp.
She's struggling to put her passport back whilst pulling the scarf out of her bag when her phone rings. Trying to balance her hand-carried bag on top of her luggage, she answered the phone and was greeted with the husky voice of a woman.
"Is this Dana?"
"Yes," she mumbles.
"Are you out of the immigration, dear? I am right outside of the exit of Gate five arrival area."
"I'll be right there, thank you," she said in relief. It's not like she can't check-in in any hotel but right now she isn't sure how much money she has on her. She left home in a jiffy.
Her mother's voice still rang fresh on her ears, "If you're going to study music in China, we are not paying for your living expenses Dana! How dare you ask your music teacher to write a referral for a university outside the country!"
"Isn't it what you want? You want me to study music, I will study music! But I'll choose where I want to!" she shouted back to her mother.
"Get inside your room, you wait till your father hears about it!"
But she doesn't have any plan to wait for her father to be part of the debate, not after the altercation last week with her older half-siblings about inheritance.
She threw everything in her suitcase that is important for her from her bedroom and split off behind her mother's back who was busy preparing dinner.
Now she is in Shanghai again. With this alluring English woman in front of her.
"Is that all your luggage, darling?"
She nodded, speechless with the beauty in front of her.
The woman smiles at her awestruck face, grabs her suitcase, and puts it at the back of a black Mercedes.
She opened the passenger seat and motioned for her to get in. When the car pulled out of the curb, she asked "What did Ellise tell you about me?"
Dana wrinkled her eyebrows with the nervous question from the woman. "Uhm, she just told me she would ask someone to pick me up."
"By the way, I'm Dana Hasegawa, I'm Ellise's friend. Sorry, I forgot my manners. I was just so nervous you won't come!" she said, blushing.
"Oh! Dear! Likewise! My pleasure to meet you, Dana, dear. You may call me Madame Bae."
"It seems like we're both too preoccupied. My apologies, sweetheart!"
"My dear, may I ask how did you and Ellise become friends?"
"About two years ago, Ellise arrived in Tokyo with my aunt, and stayed with us for about two weeks, if I remember it correctly. But we kept in touch even when she went to Germany to enter university."
Dana felt at ease sharing the story about her and Ellise to this beautiful woman. She has the air of someone you would tell your darkest secrets.
Before she realized the car entered a street lined with old houses that reminded her of the streets of Paris. It feels oddly familiar since she spent a lot of summer vacation being dragged all over France by her aunt.
The car takes a full stop in a courtyard with a beautiful garden. When she stepped out of the car, her sense of smell was assaulted by the scent of roses.
"Dear, it's quite late, leaves your luggage, I will have one of the househelp bring it to your chamber, for now, you just take a rest."
She let go of her luggage in the brick walkway and followed Madame Bae inside the house. Where she was brought to a room adjacent to Ellise room in the house.
A curiosity enters Dana's mind on why Ellise has a room in this house, but her drowsiness due to an emotional fight with her mother, the tiredness from the late fight all took over her body that she fell asleep as soon as her body hit the feathery bed.
Dana found herself spending the next two weeks having tea at the rose garden with Madame Bae, teaching her the art of Japanese tea ceremony, and answering questions about Ellise.
She also spent a lot of time walking around the neighboring street, checking art stores and coffee shops until Ellise came home.
And when Ellise came back the first question she had was, why did Grand block her in WeChat.
"Blocked you?" Ellise asked, surprised. "I don't discuss personal matters with him," she said, avoiding her eyes.
"I don't have any way to contact him other than WeChat." she groaned in frustration. "Can you do something?"
"Dana, don't you have anything more important to talk about that worrying about Grand?" she asked with displeasure.
"Discussing it won't change anything. I won't go back to Japan!" she said in defiance.
"I called aunt Joy, and she said I should wait for the package that Nancy will send over. According to her, it's the only thing she could help me for now, because apparently my mother told her that she can help me with anything except finances!"
"Do you need money?" Ellise asked bluntly.
Dana's eyes widened. She will never get used to Ellise's frankness.
"Well, I do need something from you, but it's not money. You see I can't abuse Madame Bae's hospitality. I need my own place, aunt Joy said you can help me." she said, cringing in embarrassment.
"Hmm, in that case, we need a car. Follow me, we'll use one of Madame Bae's cars."
"Huh."
Confused why they needed a car, Dana followed Ellise to an alleyway that connected to the next building of Madame Bae's house. They were welcomed by a lanky Chinese guy in red changshan.
With his welcoming face and pleasant smile, the man looked delicately handsome wearing the traditional tunic.
"Open the garage," Ellise ordered.
Dana's jaw dropped when the garage door lifted up. She thought she entered a private car showroom.
"Do you have any preference for cars?"
"No, anything will do." she stammered. Still can't believe her eyes.
"The key for the Exelero, please."
"Yes, Miss." the man said, opening a shelf on the wall, got a key, and handed it to Ellise.
"Where are we going?" Dana asked when the car was speeding on the highway.
"Do you know how to drive?" Ellise asked her instead.
"No, I can't drive. The driver back home picked me up if I needed a lift, but mostly I took public transportation."
"Well, Japan has one of the most convenient public transportation systems. But if you're staying long term here, I would suggest you learn to drive."
Dana keeps quiet thinking, she can hold her own horses and knows how to take care of herself with no problem, but when she's with Ellise it feels like the girl takes over everything.
She was pulled out from her thought when Ellise entered an underground parking lot.
"You'll be on the eighteen floor," she said whilst the elevator hums pulling them from the ground.
"Whose place is it?" she asked.
"Mine. You may use it at your own convenience. I don't know what it looks like now though."
They walked the quiet carpeted hallway up to the last door. Ellise pressed her thumb on the door handle and it opened with a soft thud. Then she slid open the button panel, entered a series of numbers, swiped a card, and said, "Press your thumb."
She's pressing her thumb when a tall guy comes out of the view. Startled, the three of them watched each other unmoving.
Ellise recovered first and with a voice full of anger asked the man, "What are you doing here?"
Which the man casually answered, "The door never forgets my fingerprint."
A deathly silence ensued after. Dana didn't dare make a sound. She jumps when Ellise asks her a question.
"Can you take a taxi back to Madame Bae's house?"
She can only nod in shock when Ellise turned around and was quickly followed by the tall man.
Dana looked around the huge empty room. She stepped on the balcony and admired the view. These clusters of buildings in a U-shape give all the residence an unobstructed eye-shot of a river on the horizon.
Stepping back inside, Dana thought this house is too big for one person. She got curious about the red door and decided to open it. She saw a computer set up in the middle of the room and there's nothing more.
She decided to just go home and asked Ellise how she should proceed with the moving in.
She was standing in front of the elevator and got the shock of her life when it opened and the man inside suddenly grabbed her, but before she could shout, the man laughed and said "Miss Dana! Fancy seeing you in the neighborhood!"
"Bobby?!"