The quiet atmosphere of the hospital room was suddenly shattered by the sound of the door being shoved open.
**BANG!**
"SWEETHEART! YOU'RE FINALLY AWAKE!" A striking couple rushed toward her. The woman threw her arms around her, hugging her desperately as she gazed at her with a face full of worry. They were the owners of this body's parents, Mama Aura and Papa Arga.
"Sweetheart, don't force yourself to remember anything yet. The doctor said you have amnesia, so let your memories come back slowly. Your dad and I don't want you to pass out again," Papa Arga said, his eyes filled with deep concern as he saw his daughter clutching her head again, just like the last time she woke up.
Meanwhile, Lifa, the foreign soul now inhabiting a body named Lifana, could only sit there stiffly, startled. The force of the door slamming open had made her a little dizzy. Lifa was confused about how she should respond without letting them discover that she was Lifa, not Lifana. Not a single one of Lifana's memories had flowed into her mind, leaving her completely clueless about the body's original owner's personality.
*Ugh, how am I supposed to act? The body's owner didn't give me even a tiny bit of her memories. It's great that they think I have amnesia, but I'm still totally confused. Even if someone's memories disappear, their personality can't just change completely like that,* Lifa thought in a panic.
"Ana, are you all right? Try telling your mom and dad if anything hurts. Don't just stay quiet, sweetheart," Mama Aura asked gently while stroking her fingers.
The question snapped Lifa out of her thoughts. *Okay, Lifa, calm down. It's time to show off that hidden talent you've had all along. Isn't this what you wanted? To enter the world of a novel? Take a deep breath and control your expression!*
Lifa drew a deep breath, then put on the most realistic frightened expression she could. Her eyes grew glassy, and her body trembled slightly. "Wh—who are you? I... who am I?" she asked, her voice trembling as she held back tears.
"Ana, don't be afraid. We're your parents," Papa Arga said as gently as possible. "Let's get reacquainted, okay? Your dad's name is Arga Lesmana Fernandez, and this is your mom, Aura Putri Wijaya. You're our youngest child, Queen Lifana Fernandez. We usually call you Ana. You also have two older siblings: an older sister who already works, and an older brother who's still in school and the same age as you."
*I already knew all that from the novel. I just didn't realize Lifana would be called Ana. I thought they'd call her Lifa too, since her name has Lifa in it,* Lifa muttered inwardly.
"Um... so I'm your daughter? You're... my mom and dad?" Lifa asked softly, validating her act.
"That's right, sweetheart. Thank goodness you've woken up from your coma. Yesterday, your dad and I were so afraid you wouldn't wake up again," Mama Aura replied, her eyes glistening with tears.
Lifa fiddled with her thoughts for a moment before gathering the courage to speak. "Mom... Dad... can I change what you call me? Just call me Lifa. I feel uncomfortable being called Ana."
"Of course, sweetheart. Anything for you," Mama Aura replied, stroking her hair. "In that case, get some rest, Lifa. I'm going to buy you something to eat."
"Yes, sweetheart. I'm going to call the doctor to check on you, too. Don't go anywhere, okay?"
"Okay, Mom and Dad," Lifa replied, then pretended to fall asleep on the bed.
After her new parents left, Lifa immediately let out a sigh of relief. She began sorting through her thoughts, making a survival strategy for this fictional world and planning her next move to fulfill Lifana's dying wish.
"Before I make a plan, I need to find the owner's phone. I need to know who's a friend and who's an enemy I should avoid."
Lifa started feeling around her surroundings. She searched under the pillow, behind the blanket, and even combed through every corner of the bed. Annoyed that the IV line was restricting her movements, Lifa even boldly ripped off the tape and pulled the IV needle from her hand without hesitation.
Her search paid off when her fingers reached a phone inside the drawer of the bedside table. The phone wasn't locked, and the wallpaper was nothing but a plain background with no decorations.
"Finally, I found it! Looking for this thing was exhausting," Lifa muttered. She grabbed a glass of water from the table and drank it all before starting to fiddle with the phone.
But the moment the screen opened, Lifa was stunned. "Oh my God, is this girl a total shut-in or what? There isn't a single social media app! And there are only ten contacts!"
She opened the contacts menu, her brow furrowing.
*Mom, Dad, Sis Chelsi, Big Bro Carlos, Teacher, Auntie Siti, Mr. Pur, Neighborhood Security Guard.*
"Wow, she even saved the neighborhood security guard's number? What a weirdo," Lifa whispered, shaking her head.
When she swiped over to the messaging app, Lifa saw a ton of conversations from unknown numbers that the previous owner of the body had barely ever answered. "Damn, Ana, you're practically a celebrity," she snickered.
"But it's weird that Ana has so many messages on her phone when she's homeschooled and automatically has no friends around. That's weird too," Lifa thought as she examined the oddity of Ana's phone.
Her scrolling stopped at a contact named *Putri*, Lifana's adopted younger sister. Lifa opened it and found a long string of messages containing photos of Putri spending time with Lifana's older sister and brother. It was obvious that Putri intended to make Lifana jealous and push her out.
"So this adopted kid plays that way? It's a cheap trick I've read about plenty of times in novels," Lifa sneered.
She tapped one of the photos to get a better look at the Fernandez family members' faces. "Wow, I thought they'd be pretty average, but they're gorgeous! Her sister's beautiful, and her brother is insanely handsome. Novel worlds really never fail when it comes to character visuals, except..." Lifa rolled her eyes as she stared at Putri's face in the photo.
"...this one parasite. She's trying way too hard to be cute. Ugh!" Lifa suddenly remembered something. "Wait, if this body's family is so good-looking, what does my own face look like? I haven't looked in a mirror yet."
Lifa hurriedly opened the front-facing camera app. The next second, she stared wide-eyed at the screen. The face reflected there looked exactly like a royal princess's.
"Oh my God! Is this really my face?! I'm insanely beautiful! I was pretty in the real world, but this is on a whole other level. Compared to that parasitic protagonist, I'm obviously way prettier! Are everyone in this novel's eyes filled with cataracts that they can fight over that parasite?"
After admiring her new beauty to her heart's content, Lifa went back to fiddling with the phone to gather important information about her school and social circle. The exhaustion building in her newly recovered body gradually took over, and Lifa eventually fell into a deep sleep with the phone still clutched in her hand.