Author's note: 1) At the bottom of this page there are aesthetics for Ayumi and Deandra. Those are the work of  Vivian a.k.a. Indigo_sky123 and shouldn't be used anywhere else without her permission 2)  The guesthouse is modeled after a traditional Japanese ryokan or simple motel with spacious rooms and sliding doors, while the foldable beds are based on tatami. Meanwhile, the song that Nardhia sings in this chapter is loosely based on a song in an Indonesian movie in the 1990s called Petualangan Sherina, starring Sherina Munaf and Derby Romero.

The woman called Deandra smiled at Ayumi and pulled her into a hug. Moira had a feeling that the two might be long-time friends who had not seen each other in a while. Kahoko saw the two women embraced and, upon seeing the matriarch, Deandra bowed down to show her reverence.

"Ms. Rivera, it's good to see you again. I'm sorry for dropping by unannounced, I thought it would be great to surprise Ayumi. I'm on an extended vacation." Deandra explained.

"You're always welcomed here, Dea-chan. I'm sure Ayumi has missed you and my husband Ardiansyah would be happy to catch up with you, after all you and Ayumi used to be roommates! So, how's your family? You find a job already?" Kahoko greeted her daughter's friend. Ayumi gestured to her mother not to bring up job search but Kahoko did not understand.

"Er, yeah, it's a complicated situation, my dad offered for me to take his position but I'm on the fence, so I told him to give me a month to decide, so I come here to think."

"I see. Well, take all the time you need, dear. My house is your house." Kahoko left.

Deandra pulled away from Ayumi and faced the students. Ayumi shook her head at her former roommate and friend's surprise and then cleared her throat. "So, an introduction is due I guess. Dea, why don't you tell everyone your relationship to me? You just come like this, I mean."

"Hi, kids! As you could hear, I was your professor's roommate and best friend. Although, come to think of it, Ayumi, we had a history, didn't we? Okay if we tell your students?"

"Okay, I guess they wouldn't mind. So, guys, I am a lesbian and she is too. We used to be in an on-again off again relationship as we both questioned our sexuality. We broke it off because I was too busy finishing my doctorate at that time and she was still doing her Master's thesis. I know that the age gap would haunt us later but at that time we really loved each other."

The students all nodded knowingly and Moira thought, my professors sure are interesting. She never had any teacher being openly honest about one's sexuality and personal life, so what Ayumi did left an impression on Moira. Blue Orchid really has a thing for casual professor-student relationship instead of a strictly professional one, Moira noted in her amusement. She also could not help but wonder if Ayumi and Deandra would ever re-kindle their romance. In all the chicklit books that Neesa let her borrowed, old flames usually did end up together. Moira wondered about Deandra's last name, Milton, because it sounded familiar. Aha!

"Ms. Milton, forgive me for asking, but do you know Kenta Kinoya?" Moira inquired politely.

"Oh, Ken-Ken! Yes, I know him, darling. He was one of the teaching assistants during my time. I was a Fashion and Business Management double major but I had a minor in Xenobiology just because. When he asked me to design costumes for his boyfriend's siblings and classmates, of course I couldn't resist. That was the least I could do to pay it forward. The dude has always been nice to me." Deandra said with a sense of nostalgia. Ayumi just punched her arm playfully.

"Huh. Never knew he had a cutesy nickname other than hikari or teddy." Nardho snickered in the background. Nardhia laughed along with him, imagining what a younger Kenta was like. They had known him since he dated Johan as a sophomore, but they had no idea what the now-Writing Center employee was like pre-Johan, other than his love for agribusiness. It's a really tiny solar system we've got, I feel so small, Moira turned pensive about her insignificance.

Kahoko peeked her head from the doorframe to say that dinner was ready, so everyone flocked to the dining room, where the guesthouse owner had spread out a lavish banquet. There was a meat dish with yellow rice, a big bowls of tropical fruits, and cups upon cups of colorful drinks. Moira recognized some of them as the virgin version of mojito, daiquiri, and margarita.

"I've made carne asada con arroz caldo, it's basically Mexican-Filipino schnitzel or fried beef served on fragrant rice that has been cooked in chicken broth, safflower, and saffron. I know that we've got a Jewish student and a Muslim too, so I make sure everything is both kosher and halal. Rain, I made yours with mutton instead since you said you do eat lamb when you're not sure whether a cattle has been butchered according to Islamic teachings."

Thank you, that was considerate, Rain signed and Vannie promptly interpreted for them.

"Oh, Rain, that reminded me. Back when I made dinner from farmer's market ingredients, I had pork in it. You didn't eat the pork, right? I totally forgot you are a Muslim!" Nardho apologized.

No harm's done, buddy, I just ate the sweet potato and green beans, Rain gave him a thumb up.

"Nardho, I heard you've got a fondness for tea so I've brewed Sencha and genmaicha. One is made from whole loose leaf and the other is a mixture of roasted brown rice with green tea."

"Oh, wow, Ms. Rivera, how thoughtful. Thanks, I don't think I can ever pay you back."

"No need, child. Part of managing a guesthouse is to treat everyone with utmost hospitality."

Kahoko's cooking was truly a delicacy and everyone ate ravenously. Moira really liked the texture of the thinly sliced and spiced beef, the rice was also done well and not mushy. After dinner, Moira planned to take a bath in a hot spring behind the guest house with Vannie and Nardhia, but the three stopped dead in their track when they heard women yelling from one of the rooms. Ayumi sounded exasperated and Deandra sounded like the professor had hurt her.

"Are you even listening to yourself?! So you're going to let your dad control you?!"

"I-I don't think you understand my dilemma. I don't wanna disappoint him, but—"

"But what? But you can't get a job interview without his influence? That you'd rather poison a whole community than work your ass off in a capitalistic system? How selfish!"

"I never asked to be born the heiress to a mining conglomerate! I was thinking of declining my dad's offer! I never dreamed of becoming a CEO, much less destroying Golden Valley!"

"And you need a month for that? You're stalling, Dea! You stall and you know it."

"Just...just help me out. Please. Maybe there's a middle path. I implore. Please."

"I love you, Dea, but this is my homeland and you're gonna ruin it. What for?"

"Wait, what? No! I literally just asked for help so that we can find a compromise!"

Ayumi did not respond. Instead, she huffed and closed the door behind her, leaving the friend alone. Her eyes grew huge when she realized the three girls were listening. She glared at them.

"How long have you girls been prying? That was private! I'll give you detention!"

"We're not on campus anymore and sorry, but you two were very loud." Nardhia complained.

"Hmph. Okay, but don't mention it to Lee, promise? I'll handle this on my own." Ayumi left.

In the hot spring, the girls could not relax because, try as they might, their minds wandered off to the conversation between the grown women. Nardhia sighed and put her robe back. She motioned for the other two to just move to the secluded sauna so that they could talk freely.

"Hey, Moira, Vannie, do you think there really is a middle path in Ms. Milton's dilemma?"

"I dunno, but what could Ayumi meant by poisioning Golden Valley? Wait, is the Milton family gonna move the mining headquarter here? Are there even gems and minerals around this part?" Moira wondered aloud, remembering the rumors she had heard a while ago when she was staying up reading the syllabus for biochemistry majors and browsed more for extra tidbits.

"Well, this area is forested but who knows what is underground? There could be some Quenax and Pronas, the gems necessary for fueling our space crafts. They're unstable, though, almost twice as bad as those bombs dropped in Old Earth's Hiroshima and Nagasaki back in the 1940s. I wouldn't be surprised if that's what Ayumi refers to, possibility for nuclear disaster." Vannie said, to the horror of the other two girls. Thank universe for history buffs, Moira thought.

"Girl, what?! We're possibly gonna deal with atomic disaster and Ayumi wanted us to keep this a secret? No! What about Ardiansyah and Kahoko? What about the Little Trees? What about the innocent Gaburs and those butterflies Nardho showed me? What about those?" Moira was angry.

"Moira, I think we can't keep this a secret. We have to at least regroup with the boys and Rain to see if they have other ideas. Then we can decide together if we want to tell Ayumi's parents and Lee. Right, Vannie?" Nardhia glanced at her best friend hopefully. The friend nodded.

The boys and Rain were out in the backyard watching the night sky. Tony had a net in his hand, seemingly trying to catch and release some crickets just for fun. Rain was just listening to an audiobook. Nardho sat under a jacaranda tree, strumming a chord on his ukulele. Moira enveloped him in a tight hug and a smile formed on Nardho's face as he looked up to see his girlfriend. He set his ukulele aside and pinched Moira's cheek affectionately. She winced.

"Hi, honey. How was the hot spring? I was just busy thinking of a good song. Wanna hear?"

"Yeah, but maybe a little later. The girls and I have something urgent to discuss as a group."

Nardho motioned for Tony and Rain to stop doing whatever they were doing and they listened as Moira recounted the event with Deandra and Ayumi. Now Rain was livid and started signing at a rate that was impossible for Vannie to interpret simultaneously, so she just summarized.

"Guys, Rain here said that Deandra is in the wrong but Ayumi is also in the wrong for jumping to conclusion without giving her more time to explain herself. They also said that we need to act quickly if we don't want Golden Valley to be another ghost town. We all knew our ancestors were quadrillionaires who abandoned Earth, but we are not our ancestors and we can do better. Rain here thought that we should probably ask Ardiansyah for his opinion first."

"Yeah, I know how arrogant our ancestors were, thinking that advancement in technology solves all the environmental ailments. Which is true but, c'mon, wouldn't it be better to just take care of Old Earth in the first place? If we're not careful, Red Sycamore is next." Nardho said.

"Nardho's right. Also, Rain, your idea is brilliant. Lee did mention that we shouldn't do advocacy here without involving the Golden Valley residents, right? So let's draft an e-mail to Ardiansyah soon. I think he's like the village chief or a leader of some sort." Tony spoke up.

"I second the e-mail idea. Moira, any objection?" asked Nardhia with fire in her eyes.

"No objection! But tonight, let's just have fun, it was a tiring day for everyone."

The group sat in silence as Nardho serenaded everyone with a melodious strumming of his ukulele. He said he and Nardhia had worked together on a song inspired by a movie they watched as children about a girl and a boy who used to be rivals but then they got into some sketchy kidnapping scheme and they had to learn to work together. Nardhia sang in her angelic voice and Moira was captivated by the song's lyrics, which were as followed:

If we finally understand/why the sun shines on us/and at night the moon greets us/never mind that we are so far away/if we can understand why we are all different/then we can hold hands and be in love/ and then we can answer/why does the water flow/why does the planet revolve around a big star/why does the star blink beautifully/and maybe we will not have any war/

"That's right, Nardhia. So, why does the star blink at us?" Tony asked rhetorically.

"I dunno, coz they're a giant ball of gases and it does what ball of gases do?" the girl shrugged.

"I think it's because they are remnants of the past and when we look—"Nardho had wanted to explain but he suddenly wheezed and stopped talking. "My chest..." he panted as his legs gave out and he became wobbly. Nardhia gestured for everyone to stay calm and she ran to the jacaranda tree and ransack Nardho's backpack. She found a cotton bag of his medicine.

Nardho's head was on Moira's lap and Nardhia gave him his inhaler and pain killer pills. The boy inhaled and smiled at his twin sister gratefully. "Ouch. That's better but I'm still dizzy. Hey, Dhia, you should tell everyone about my medication because if this happens again and I'm too out of my depth to help myself, I want everyone to know what I need."

"Sure, if that's what you need for your safety. So, everyone, due to his COPD, sometimes he gets bronchospasms. That's sort of like an asthma attack. He has appointments with the health clinic every week for oxygen treatment and respiratory therapies, but now that we're in Golden Valley he has to do without. I had told him no to come with us, but he was stubborn. An inhaler has to do and plenty of rest after an episode like this."

"Yeah, that's our Nardho, alright. It's awful, but we'll look out for you." Tony gave the boy a fist bump and Nardho returned the bump weakly. Moira held Nardho's other hand and squeezed.

"May I tell you guys a secret? I'm questioning my faith. I know that there's Heaven and Hell and if I've been good and fight a good fight then I shall rejoice with Father in His kingdom, but what if I'm wrong? What if Ayumi is right and it's just a circle of death and rebirth?" Nardho pondered. Moira wanted so badly to comfort him but she herself was questioning what to believe. Nardhia shrugged as she too had no idea whether Catholicism was indeed right about the nature of the afterlife. Meanwhile, Tony had no religion whatsoever, just like Moira.

"Johan, though, his faith never wavers when mine falters. He said that Mother Mary watches over me and cheers on me to carry my cross. I get the symbolism but, really, Johan, comparing my disease to something Jesus carried because of how humanity has screwed up?" Nardho continued with apparent annoyance in his face. "I asked Kenta about afterlife in Shintoism and he told me this tale about an underground realm called Yomi where the living and the non-living are separated. There is a river in that realm and all spirits of the dead will be on this boat with a lord called Enma. If we've been bad, we will go to one of the circles of jigoku and if we're good then nothing to worry about, seems like the oni will leave us alone. I like that version but it makes me think if I'm good enough." Nardho said at length, out of breath from talking so much.

"I think you're a good person, Nardho, you care deeply about Moira and Nardhia and you're never mean to any of us. In my faith, Reform Judaism, we believe humans are created from dust and to dust we shall return. As for the afterlife, I'm afraid I haven't read my Torah and Talmud closely enough to comment." Vannie chimed in. Rain added in their sign language that in Islamic tradition the angel Izrail would reap human souls and the souls would be asked about their God, their Holy Scripture, and the Messenger of God. If the souls give correct answers, then they would not be tortured in their graves. Nardho shuddered and Rain apologized for the tale.

"I don't think you're dying anytime, soon, Nardho, but in case it worries you, just know that we all love you very much. We'll take care of Moira and Nardhia for you." Tony promised, seconded by Vannie and Rain. The boy smiled at everyone, his eyes wet but he was calmer now.

"Moira, forgive me if this is immodest, but can you sleep in my bed tonight?" Nardho asked.

"If that will make you feel less lonely and scared, then yes. Just tonight." 

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Bonus: MBTI chart and Hogwarts houses placement for everyone