Once I felt I’d stared enough, I asked Mr. Raka to drive the car home. Even at eight that night, Yuna and her mother still showed no sign of wanting to leave. I was already bored watching them. Their activities kept repeating: buying drinks at the café, watching people come and go from the tutoring center, and trying to approach a few people who looked easy to talk to.
When I got home, I ate Aunt Nur’s cooking for dinner as usual. Then I went to bed. Tomorrow was Sunday, one day before Monday, when school was supposed to start. My school usually ran from Monday through Friday, but this week happened to have a school holiday, which was why my classmates had planned a trip to the amusement park yesterday.
I fell asleep quickly and soundly, probably because I was tired. In the morning, a knock on the door woke me from my deep sleep.
Knock, knock, knock. “Come on, wake up. It’s morning already.”
It turned out to be Aunt Nur waking me because it was already morning. Even though it was Sunday, I still had to go to the tutoring center because I had a make-up tutoring session scheduled to replace one I hadn’t been able to attend before.
I only had three hours of study time at the tutoring center today because there were only additional classes scheduled. That was different from yesterday, when I had my regular schedule plus an additional class.
My class would start at noon, and it was still nine in the morning. I went to wash my face so I could wake up fully, then brushed my teeth. After that, I went downstairs, where Aunt Nur had already prepared breakfast on the dining table. I enjoyed today’s breakfast hungrily, then went back upstairs to my room to relax for a while.
I opened my anonymous account because I didn’t know what else to do. One post caught my attention. It was from Lana. She had posted a photo of the tutoring center and captioned it, “Even though it’s Sunday, I still have to stay motivated for tutoring.”
I was confused. Wasn’t she not accepted? Hmm, maybe Lana and her mother’s efforts yesterday hadn’t been in vain after all, and they had paid off with the sweet result of finding someone willing to recommend her. Well, that was good. At least I didn’t feel quite as sorry for her. I looked at the comments on Lana’s post.
Comment 1: Stay strong, Lana. Hard work will make you successful. Comment 2: Wow, I just want to sleep on Sundays. Comment 3: You’re amazing, Lana. I’m your fan.
Lana was very active on social media, so she had several fans who were always waiting for her posts. There were more than a hundred comments, and they were all pretty much the same. A lot of people encouraged her, while many others said she was their role model because she was so diligent—even on Sunday, which was supposed to be a day of rest.
I checked the time. The hour hand was already pointing to ten. I decided to get ready now so I wouldn’t leave anything behind. I kept using the same bag as yesterday and only changed what was inside. I took out all the books from yesterday and put in the books for today’s tutoring schedule.
After that, I went downstairs and decided to leave at ten-thirty. Before going to the tutoring center, I asked Mr. Raka to stop at a shop that sold boba drinks I thought were delicious. I wanted to buy one to motivate myself to study. As usual, I ordered strawberry flavor. My order was ready quickly. I picked up my drink and continued on to the tutoring center.
When I arrived, I saw Lana again. This time, I wasn’t wearing a hoodie, so I walked along with my face covered by the drink in my hand.