The journey to Denmark was long, with an almost 14-hour flight, and Mai and her sister were allowed to sleep in the aisle without any questions asked. It rumbled, and Mai felt a flutter in her stomach, making it difficult to sleep. She had a fear of heights and didn't know where it came from. Now I have my answer.

They landed in the morning at Throdrupp Airport, and even though it was early July, Mai felt goosebumps on her arms. Her body hadn't yet adjusted to the Danish summer, which currently felt like the North Pole. Her body shivered, and so did Anh's, but their parents didn't do anything about it.

Mai tasted something bitter and held Anh's hand while forcing a smile.

"We'll soon enter a big warm place that's much better than the orphanage." she said in a low voice.

Anh smiled and nodded as they walked together with Prentice and Asta.

A sweater would have been nice.

As they were getting into the taxi, Mai remembered they were heading to the allotment house she hated. She swore there were ghosts there. Now she regretted they hadn't come in winter; then they would have ended up in the apartment. She was about to flip her coin in her pocket but stopped herself. No, Mai, save it for 1997. That's when it all starts.

It took Mai and her sister two months to speak fluent Danish, which Prentice and Asta boasted about to all their friends.

Mai often woke up at night with breathing problems, and although she had mentioned it to Asta, she hadn't done anything about it.

"It's just nightmares. All kids have them." were her words every time she said it.

"But I can't breathe properly. It's like someone's strangling me." Mai said, eager to move away from here.

"It's because you're afraid of the dark. You just need to remember to shine your stickers properly before going to bed. Then it lights up the darkness for you." said Asta, smiling sweetly at Mai, who furrowed her brow. Did she even hear what I said?

One day they had to cross a junction with four roads in Waterlise, which was the main road outside the allotment house. As they stood waiting for the light to turn green, Mai looked around and furrowed her brow.

"This is where she almost dislocated my arm." she whispered and took her coin out of her pocket.

She looked around and spotted a young man in a suit pulling at his shirt while breathing slowly, and his face was very red.

I'll take his fate.

Mai quickly flipped the coin, which chimed softly, hearing her heart galloping loudly.

"It's the first time I'm using it." she whispered.

A golden text appeared in front of her.

"Slow." Mai furrowed her brow.

"Is my fate slow?" she muttered to herself.

The light turned green, but Mai didn't feel Asta pulling her arm, and they didn't cross the road. She exhaled slowly and smiled. It worked. Suddenly, Asta veered left, and Mai felt her arm being pulled hard. She felt a burning pain and bit down on her teeth.

"Come on, we need to get home before the hurricane hits." said Asta, walking faster, which Mai struggled to keep up with.

Hurricane? There was no hurricane back then.

Mai furrowed her brow and tried to pull her arm back, but Asta didn't let go.

"My arm hurts. You're pulling too hard." she said, but Asta didn't hear her and continued walking without looking at Mai.

"You're walking too slowly." Asta suddenly said.

"I have short legs." Mai complained immediately.

Asta suddenly looked at her feet and said, "You're taking mouse steps. You don't have legs that small."

Mai suddenly became aware of her legs and looked down, seeing them inching forward, and she blinked.

What the hell? I thought I was walking normally.

At the same spot on Waterlise, the traffic light changed to an orange man, and the man in the suit was crossing another road lost in his own thoughts. Suddenly, a car hit him with a loud screeching sound as the wheels spun quickly. The car took the man with it and crashed into a lamppost, and a creaking sound of metal could be heard for miles followed by the smell of gasoline.

Mai didn't get to see what happened because Asta had covered her eyes while still pulling her arm hard.

The same summer evening, Mai overheard a conversation between Prentice and Asta discussing Lidda and Hanz's wedding. Lidda was Asta's younger sister with a 15-year age gap between them, and Asta was their mother's daughter who always obeyed her mother's commands. Lidda was the rebellious one who had been an au pair in Israel at 18. She was too wild for Grandma.

"Asta, Lidda has asked if we'll come to their wedding in August, but I've declined repeatedly because of the Vietnam reunion. It's important for the girls to meet others from Vietnam their own age." said Asta, whom Mai observed from behind the kitchen table with the ugly orange plastic tablecloth.

"Then decline her again. Say the Vietnam reunion is more important because we've just adopted the girls." Prentice replied.

The Vietnam reunion divided the whole family.

Mai hurried over to them, pretending to rub her eyes. "You only get married once in life. You always say family is duty. So it's our duty to go to Lidda's wedding. She's your sister, Mom." she said.

They looked at her, and Prentice stood up and approached her.

"Mai, why aren't you asleep?" he asked.

"You're talking so loudly it hurts my ears." Mai answered, pursing her lips.

"Anya and I won't gain anything from going to the Vietnam reunion. They probably all speak Vietnamese. I don't want to speak Vietnamese when I live in Denmark and have Danish parents. Instead, I'll go to Lidda's and tell her Anya and I will go to their wedding. Then you can go to the Vietnam reunion," she added. "Goodnight."

She went into her room, closed the door, and listened carefully.

"She's right. You always say you feel obligated to visit your family. It's Lidda's first wedding." said Prentice.

That night, Mai slept well.

>>> <<<

Prentice traveled the world on business trips, and his areas of travel often included Ireland, England, India, USA, China, Japan, and South Korea. He wasn't seen much, but he managed to be home for the most important events. Asta had a year of maternity leave, so she was wildly stressed with all the household chores plus two daughters.

One day, Prentice came home with a Dragon Ball manga from Japan, sparking Mai's interest in Japanese culture.

>>> <<<

They lived in the allotment house until autumn; that place belonged to Asta, so she got the job of emptying the square plastic toilet box every night while everyone slept.

One night, Mai saw skeletal faces with hanging green skin and glowing red eyes. She woke up abruptly, drenched in cold sweat, while her throat was terribly dry. Everything was blurry, and her head felt heavy. She felt her forehead and realized she had a high fever. With difficulty, she crawled down from the top bunk bed and landed with a loud thud on the floor. She crawled around in the darkness, and a long time later, she reached the kitchen and crawled to the right into the living room where Prentice and Asta slept. When she was met with strange, melodic sounds accompanied by a deep humming that was in rhythm with a moaning, she knew it was the wrong time to wake them. She turned back, and with difficulty, she returned to her room and managed to close the door silently. The bed was too high, so she chose to sleep on the floor. It was a very long and noisy night, and Mai was about to flip her coin, but it was too late.

She looked forward to moving into an apartment in winter. Things there were just more practical, like a toilet that could flush.

The apartment belonged to Prentice and had all the 'modern' things from the 90s since Prentice preferred simple things that worked.

>>> <<<

For Christmas, they started decorating from December 1st, making homemade woven colorful cornucopias and woven Christmas hearts with stars. Asta was busy with Christmas baking, and the whole apartment smelled of lard in the large tall pot because she came from the countryside and made them the old-fashioned way. Every time she put anise in the oranges, Mai felt nauseous, and the worst part was they had to hang around the entire living room on the wide red ribbons while emitting a strong odor that overwhelmed everything else in the whole apartment. Prentice and Asta claimed that elves existed by taking a small bite from a small bowl of rice pudding that sat on the windowsill every night. Mai looked forward only to Advent gifts given every Sunday and Christmas gifts, which turned into large stuffed animals.

>>> <<<

After Christmas Eve, they drove to Hyttaland to celebrate Christmas with the family, and there Mai immediately seized the opportunity to flatter Grandpa with strong cheeses and pipe tobacco.

In the large guest room, on the screaming purple velvet sofa, lay the large shiny sharp machete that Grandpa had from a trip to Africa once. It was his pride. It had earned its own place, it could cut and was constantly polished. When praised, he was easier to approach, and then you could start talking about other things.

"That's a fine sword, Grandpa." said Mai, sitting in the sofa chair beside it, looking over at her grandfather, who sat at the end of the table, happily puffing on his wooden pipe.

His black 18th-century attire with the hat matched perfectly with the pipe. The others were out for a walk in town, so only the two of them were present.

"Grandpa, you love a good investment, don't you?" asked Mai, blinking.

Grandpa, Knutt, tapped his pipe and the smoke floated around him.

"Of course. Who doesn't? I wasn't the town's best carriage maker for nothing. I built this house myself." he replied, taking a nail-shaped licorice candy that gleamed.

"Aunt Gerta said Nen Nord went public not long ago. If you buy their stocks now, you'll be very rich in the future." said Mai, sending him a mischievous smile.

Knutt furrowed his brow, looked at her, and asked, "Has Prentice already taught you about stocks? It's too early. You haven't even reached school age yet. Nen Nord is the pharmaceutical company. I remember reading about it in the financial paper."

"Dad and mom are setting up a children's savings account for me and Anya. You can have it in the future if you can do something for me." said Mai, feeling her heart beat faster.

"Are you trying to strike a deal with me, little girl?" asked Knutt, coughing hoarsely and chuckling loudly afterward.

"We're talking about 130,000 kr. If you can buy stocks for 130,000 kr. for me now, you'll get much more back later. If the stocks fall, I'll still pay you 130,000." said Mai.

"That's a lot of money, but not too much for me to invest a little in Nen Nord. If I don't get them back before I die, keep them for yourself and not others." said Knutt, smiling, and he began to hum a tune.

Uh... Was it that easy? Grandpa had become blind in recent years, and later he became deaf.

Mai ran to him and hugged him, inadvertently inhaling the strong pipe tobacco that hung heavily in the air.

Knutt lightly patted her arm and said, "You girls are so sweet. What about little Anya and her money? I can also invest for her. We can keep it as our secret."

"Anya will get less than me because we're not the same age, and I don't know how much she'll want to invest in Nen Nord. So just 60,000 kr. is enough, I think. Remember not to say anything to Mom and Dad. You know how much they poke into everything. It's annoying sometimes." replied Mai, giving him a light kiss on the cheek.

She opened the glass door leading out to the large garden, where she spotted the small pond with the stone frog that always had water running out of its mouth. The snow had been neatly cleared in front without forming any ice. The gardener must have been up early.

She breathed in the fresh, icy air, and saw the shiny, thick layer of snow several meters deep on the large rhododendron bushes, which were Grandma's pride. They were always gigantic, and Mai had always wondered how old they were.

"It's a very beautiful day. But it's even more beautiful to see from here." she said, smiling broadly.

>>> <<<

They celebrated New Year's in the allotment house because Waterlise was a suburb of Redwick, and there, you could see the stars best without the glaring city lights.

When Mai saw Prentice's card-playing friends arrive with their wives, she immediately remembered the episode from back then. But it was too late if she flipped her coin. It meant she had to designate one of Prentice's friends as a sacrifice, which she didn't want to do.

That evening, when all the adults were well drunk and had shouted Happy New Year, the shiny champagne glasses clinked with white wine.

Nelson, with his big bushy mustache that always smelled of pipe, looked at Mai and asked, "Can I get a New Year's kiss on the lips?"

Mai furrowed her brow, pursed her lips, and shook her head.

"No." she replied, hiding behind Asta, who didn't say anything about it.

The adults just laughed and started chatting and joking about Nelson's behavior. Because that's what drunk adults do.

But Nelson didn't give up and asked again, "What about a kiss on the cheek?"

Mai shook her head and hid behind Asta, who stood. Mai felt a knot in her heart and a churn in her stomach. Even this time, they didn't say anything to him. Why did they even adopt us? We're just decorations.

She quickly pulled Anya to her and shouted to Asta, "We're going to the bedroom. We're tired."

"Don't you want to watch the fireworks?" asked Prentice.

"We can see them from the room." She went to him, motioned for Prentice to bend down, which he did.

She whispered in his ear, "Can I lock our room so we won't be disturbed?"

Prentice blinked and replied, "Okay. We've had quite a lot to drink. Go ahead, girls."

Mai hugged him, smiled, and whispered, "Thank you, Dad. You're the sweetest."

>>> <<<

In 1995, on Mai's birthday, she started kindergarten and behaved nicely on her first day. When she was picked up by Asta and Anya, she was overwhelmed with praise from Asta.

"You've been such a good little girl. You did well." she smiled sweetly at Mai, who felt a shiver down her spine.

>>> <<<

In kindergarten, there were small intrigues among the girls about who had stolen each other's drawings. The kids spent a lot of time shouting insults at the neighboring kindergarten, which was separated by a tall wooden fence but low enough to look over if you stood on a green milk crate.

"Is it something the caregivers did on purpose?" Mai muttered to herself.

Suddenly, Hanne came over to her, sniffling with red eyes.

"Who took your drawing now? Is it Sofie again?" Mai asked, furrowing her brow.

"They're mean. They ruined my drawings." replied Hanne, sniffing as snot ran out of her nose, which she sniffed up and swallowed.

"It's because you draw better than them. They can't draw the same. They take them to tell everyone else that they drew them. If you don't want them to take your drawings, draw something ugly. Draw something very ugly. A poop with a bow." said Mai, patting Hanne on the shoulder and trying to comfort her as best she could.

Mai didn't like children, so this was a big challenge for her.

"I can't draw a poop. That's gross. But I'll try." said Hanne, wiping her eyes and smiling.

Time in kindergarten passed quickly for Mai when she closed her eyes, but occasionally she had opened them when she heard that some of the children were going to play in the pillow room. She knew there was a secret room where some had secret meetings that the adults didn't know about. She had been invited in there by a boy once, who had said that everyone went in pairs and that the adults weren't allowed to look. At that time, she didn't know what was going on, and this time she was still curious but not curious enough. She wasn't interested in children's games and had ignored it every time a boy asked her if she wanted to go into the pillow room.

One day, Mai needed to use the restroom and saw Klaus standing outside while looking around. I had forgotten that toilets aren't segregated by gender.

"What are you doing? Are you waiting for a pee buddy?" she asked, furrowing her brow.

"Lise and Karl are playing mom and dad." replied Klaus, still looking around.

"That sounds boring as heck." muttered Mai, who didn't have time to wait, so she used the toilets on the 2nd floor.

“In recess in elementary school, the girls played mom, dad, and kids or a cafe where the boys would visit and buy sand cakes from us. Kids back then were so innocent," Mai muttered, reflecting on Klaus's statement.

As she washed her hands, her brow suddenly furrowed.

"They were just playing, right?"

When she suddenly felt the icy cold water on her hands, she realized she was still washing her hands, which had now turned red.

>>> <<<

In July 1996, before the start of school, they went on a camping trip in France, driving all the way in the little green Morris, which was Prentice's pride and joy. Mai wasn't a fan of camping trips, and this one had triggered her anxiety, which she was determined to overcome. Before they arrived at the campsite, she discreetly flipped her coin while Anya slept in the backseat. She looked out the window and saw a random red car passing them. Take fate from one of them.

She flipped her coin in her dress pocket, which was large, and heard a muted ringing sound while feeling the coin hit her thumb hard. She bit her lip and saw golden text in front of her.

Insomnia.

"Shit!" she exclaimed loudly and grunted.

Prentice, who was driving, glanced in the rearview mirror and said, "What did you just say, Mai?"

"Sheep. I want to see sheep." Mai immediately replied.

While Mai watched Prentice and Asta set up the large green tent, she couldn't help but look around at the grass where the silver stakes were firmly hammered in. A worm's head popped out, and she saw ants to the left and a large blue beetle with pincers in front of it, moving constantly.

"It's not them I'm afraid of." she muttered.

Inside the tent, she checked her area for earwigs and mosquitoes. That night, she didn't look forward to it. That night, Mai's side of the tent wasn't visited by earwigs or mosquitoes, which she was relieved about, but on the other hand, she couldn't sleep no matter how hard she tried.

"It must be a curse or something like in a game." Mai muttered with her eyes wide open.

Even though she tried to close them, they opened automatically, and she had a tough battle with them, but when she felt pain in her eyes, she gave up.

"It was supposed to change my fate with a flip, but this is not what I expected. It's crap!" she grunted and sighed slowly. "Shit, my life."

"Mai, what did you just say?" Prentice asked in a subdued voice from his side of the tent.

"Sheep. I'm counting sheep, Dad." Mai replied in a low voice.

>>>  <<<

They returned from their summer vacation in late July because school started in early August. But they could squeeze in a belated birthday celebration for Mai. But she didn't want to experience that.

That morning, on their way to the zoo, she picked a random elderly man sitting in front of her with his back turned. Take him.

She flipped her coin in her pocket, and as the golden text was forming in front of her, the bus suddenly stopped abruptly, and Asta quickly pulled Mai and Anya out of the door, which slammed hard and loudly behind them. The text formed completely in the air with the words "Sad" but when Mai turned around to see the text, it was already gone.

She furrowed her brows and muttered, "What the hell have I gotten?"

Inside the zoo, they met up with Felice and her clergy family and rented a wagon where they could put all their picnic stuff. When they reached the rabbit maze to have lunch, Mai felt a pain in her scalp as she looked at the large dark stone with holes in different places, forming passages where children and teenagers ran around. Behind it lay a red playground filled with older children.

"That's where the boy jumped on me," Mai muttered to herself.

"There's no bouncy castle." Prentice suddenly said, looking at her.

"I saw a boy with a hotdog." Mai said, holding her forehead.

Why can he always hear when I'm talking to myself?

"It's unhealthy and settles in the wrong places. You'll get sick from it." Asta said, handing Mai a dark rye bread sandwich with freshly dug clay-colored liver pate with cress.

Mai furrowed her brows and suddenly felt nauseous, asking, "Only Anya eats cress. Where's the one with beetroot?"

"Asta, Mai doesn't eat rye bread. Haven't you packed any of the white bread?" Prentice asked, making Asta immediately rummage through the tall rectangular freezer bag they always carried filled with all sorts of things.

Asta didn't find any white bread but didn't even apologize to Mai. Instead, she just shrugged and said, "I must have forgotten. I'll remember next time."

Mai furrowed her brows and quickly exhaled through her nose. Another time won't help me now.

"Here, you can have one of ours. We've packed too many." Kirsten said, handing Mai a folded chicken and salad baguette with bacon poking out.

She didn't need to be told twice and said, "Thank you very much, Kirsten."

Mai looked forward to seeing it again and felt her heart race. She had always raced with the boys from elementary school when they had school trips here, and she won every time. The hallway was dark, and Felice came out first, pulling Mai slowly. but suddenly Mai felt something enormously hard land on her head, and she felt a searing, burning pain in her scalp. The heavy weight disappeared quickly, but the damage was done. Mai tried to contain the pain and gritted her teeth, but it hurt too much. She began to scream loudly and felt her head where her hands met blood.

"Mom, Dad. A boy jumped on Mai. She's bleeding," Felice suddenly shouted at the top of her lungs.

Everyone rushed over to Mai and quickly covered her head with countless napkins, but they were soaked through. Mai had a terrible headache and mixed feelings. Back then, the blood clotted before they considered taking me to the hospital. She looked around and spotted a teenage boy with a liver pâté cap talking to a woman who suddenly furrowed her brows and looked over at Mai.

She immediately grabbed her son, and they quickly approached Mai, who furrowed her brows at the sight. Even now, he's still too embarrassed to apologize. How childish. I don't have time for this. I'm bleeding out.

She suddenly felt the throbbing in her head, and she could hardly feel her head anymore.

She looked at Prentice and said, "I want to go to the hospital. It hurts. My blood will clot soon."

Later, Mai sat at Central Hospital waiting in the waiting room with Prentice, and despite her situation not being urgent enough, they waited for 2 hours before she was seen.

Prentice immediately scolded the doctors, "It can't be right that I have a 6-year-old daughter who may have suffered a brain injury, and we have to wait so long to get in."

His head was red, and his fists were clenched as they trembled.

Mai had never seen him so angry before, and she didn't remember this episode at all. Back then, I just cried and was confused.

Later, Mai sat on the ugly gray curved fabric sofa in the allotment hut and stared at the old-fashioned square gray TV box where the Disney Show was playing, but in her eyes, she only saw black ants crawling. Her head was heavy, her eyes and forehead tingled. She couldn't feel her head at all. She just sat with her ice cream in her hand, which had melted into her lap while she wondered what had gone wrong with the coin flipping.

She looked at Anya, who was eating her ice cream, and asked, "If you flip a coin, what happens then?"

"If I flip a coin, it either shows one side or the other." Anya replied, still focused on the TV.

"What do you mean?" Mai asked, knowing that children didn't have a large vocabulary.

"It means you don't know what you'll get. It's either-or, as Dad always says." Anya answered, taking another bite of her ice cream.

She looked at Mai and asked, "Does your head hurt?"

"They just sewed a lot of stitches, but it hurt because they pulled my hair even though they numbed me." Mai replied, starting to ponder Anya's response.

There's something to it. It's either one thing or the other.

"Thanks for your answer. Would you like another ice cream?" she asked.

"I can't eat your ice cream." Anya replied, looking at her lap.

Mai smiled and said, "I'll get one for you."

When you were sick, you were pampered, and in Mai's case, she was extra sick right now, and besides, it was Friday, the weekend, so they could also have weekend sweets.