They made her get off before entering the centre of Vienna.

Luan was the only one with her after taking the dinner and they were invited to stay at someone's place for the night. A sort of bar where the first floor was for personal quarter. The host, a seemingly woman, gave her a lot of instruction to take care of her skin and tried to do some measuring of her face with thoughtful noise before telling them to make themselves at home. Pure politness, but Ran did try to relax by calling dibs of the shower.

After Ran had washed herself, they kept her up for awhile to teach her about makeups before letting her to sleep. Not without telling her to remember what she learned because there will be an exam.

In the room they were sharing, Luan told her that not to stress too much, just to keep the knowledge in mind, for future references, while readying himself to sleep on the couch and letting her the bed.

"Why? Will I have to disguise myself like you?"

"It certainly would help that you could just hide on plain sight, we won't always be with the van, we probably going to part with it sooner than you expected."

"Oh. Will I still be able to take showers, then?"

"Aren't your priorities a little unbalanced?"

"What? You guys provided me everything until now, I thought you were going to keep taking care of my hygiene too."

"You better change that attitude. We're not going to let a prissy teen boy go on trip with us tough looking men."

"Am I going to play a teenage boy now?"

"That's a possibility. I did play a young mother."

"But it's like your job. I don't want to apply cosmetic product on my face, it could ruin my skin, my mother said."

"Well, you're living in a consumer world and raised in a society that care about appearance very much. It was only a matter of time you got to use cosmetic products yourself."

"But why do I have to? Shouldn't I be seen in places to reassure my parents that I'm alright?"

"Well, since you had the great idea to take a picture and exchange contact with some strangers, now you have to lay down before someone picked up that you're not actually with friends in an innocent roadtrip."

"To be fair, I had to take the pictures or my parents would worry that I did not actually have said friends and was on the run."

"Anyway, just learn the basis of disguise so you won't even be track for being related to us."

Right, there was also that in the equation. They're not your usual roadtrip companions that she could show off proudly. The best ending would be that she return hoùe immediately after she saw their friend, worst case scenario, she had to work to pay her own way of return. But it would certainly be better if she's not involved in their shady workds as it was certainly not advisable to be in contact with clandestine workers.

"Luan, who's the friend I had to meet?"

"You'll know once you'll meet him."

"Meaning that I should know his identity, right?"

"I suppose."

"What do you mean by that?"

"Look, I'm just doing what's right. You're not going to show doubts after going so far?"

"I mean, I first followed you because you had my family as hostage. Now that I know we're far from them and them out of danger, I'm allowed to question about my destiny as I sure don't know my role in this."

"You just had to meet him, we're not asking you to do some insane tricks like base-jumping, we're treated you like civilized people most of the time and if the perspective of having to withdraw from a shower of two, just bear with it for two more days and it will be done."

So they would be arriving at destination in five days of journey. She wondered briefly what kind of transportation they're going to take as they won't be keeping the van for long. Maybe the plane, as it was the only assured way to arrive that fast, because driving all the way to Thailand was all fun and game at first, but it would be somehow complicated to cross the middle East who must have guarded boarders.

And if they're going to take the plane like civilized people, they need identity document, which Ran didn't have any as they're gotten rid of it not long ago, so they needed to make new one for her. A fake one, preferably. She could now undestand why she ought to learn how to disguise if she had to look like the picture of the fake passport.

Still, she doubted she could master the area of make-up in only a day.

"Luan? How did you come up to have to make-up and pass for the other sex?

But he didn't answer and probably wouldn't as he fell into slumber. Which she should do the same as the following day would be hectic.

Somehow put on expectations, Ran mused about what she was taught earlier and dreamt about make-up and disguisment for the whole night.

At dawn, she was tasked to disguise herself into someone else entirely with all the make-up exposed in front of her. While Luan was there to check on her progress, he disappeared by the time she finished and was being highly criticized by her mentor.

They called themselves Liz, short for Lizard, and presented as non-binary with they/them pronoun. Of course, by the time Ran would have known all the knowledges about make-up and changed herself into someone else, no one would be able to tell her gender either. Not that was what Ran wanted but it's not like she had a choice at the moment.

Especially not when they demanded her start to put on lens to go with the make-up mask of westerners.

And even though she cried and complained, Ran had to force those sticky round patches in her eyes so to match her silky pale new skin. And then changed it to go with another set of lens with another make-up.

Now that she thought about it, Liz must have hidden their actual nationality and could very well be Latino or even darker skinned instead of blond with translucide eyes. They did look like to be really well versed in this area.

She didn't even notice the day elapsed because even when she had to take her meals, she had to put another attitude altogether to be sure to enter in a new set of mind. And even perfection her accent so to not have any. That is in English, French or Deutch.

So, noon was to do some grosseries in her new identity of Jeffrey Gunt, going in and out in the store because he kept forgetting to buy things on the grossery list that was right in hand. For the evening, she had to put up her Lara Pereira Martinez self and eat in a fancy dinner with Kristoff Muller, Liz's persona. For this, she learned how to stuff smartly her bra so people would be too embarrassed to look too long at her chest and overlook all the things she had with her.

And after seeing how many undies she had and how many of those weren't at her actual size, Liz told her to use it at her advantage and hide some stuff too, much to her disbelief and horror.

Thankfully, they didn't push her to do so at the moment but did tell her to think about it. Needless to say, she was really glad when Luan finally came to pick her up.

Except, he was not.

"Sir Muller will be late, he told me to entertain you in the mean time. Would you like some appetizer?"

Ran looked at him or her for a moment. She eyed how the look was much more refined than all those combined disguise during the first part of the trip.

"And you are?"

"Paulina Huy. So, appetizer?"

They kept the masquerade all long the waiter served them a glass of wine and sparkle water, Ran refusing to try any alcoholic beverages as she's not in age yet. Regardless the make-up passed her as early twenty Hispanic, in Japanese age, 18 was far from being adult. To be fair, before 1990, legal age was 21 in Belgium, so Japan legal age wasn't that far-fetched.

Then, finally ordering the meal because sir Muller would be there soon, Luan gave her a coded message that made her understand she will be joining the others alone. When probed, frau Paulina just smiled and said she had other matters to attend.

"When did you start following him? Was it the same time you start making yourself all dress up?" She asked following their last conversation.

They had the time to discuss during the wait and if it was probably the last she saw him for some time, she'd like to know the answer of her question. And some of his story as bonus.

Luan watched her silently and she wondered if he's not going to answer or if he was just confused by her question, in case he thought she's talking about Kristoff Muller's persona.

"About six years ago. He saved our life, me and Sun, before that. As we met again, we thought it was fate and chose to follow him. As our job was kind of secretive, my frail appearance did help us get through some operation."

So he was aquainted with Sun for awhile, which made sense if her assumption of them both being Thai was right. Not that she could ask him that right now, or even in the near future. Luan didn't touch the main course and left without being seen, smoothly replaced by sir Muller who acted more flirty to Lara till the end of the dinner. He also guided her to the place Luan instructed her to wait for the others greeting her goodbye and good luck to keep her physic in check.

She didn't have any indication when the van will show up and where, but Ran had a feeling that the wait will be quite long and prepared to entertain herself.

The thought went away when her eyes first landed on this business woman speaking on the phone. It wasn't much that she had a phone that picked her interest but the fact she called the other caller mother and she was calling from America. So an international call, something she should really have done by now as she will be out of Europe in no time. So she asked politely with what she thought to be a spanish accent if she could borrow the phone to call for abroad.

She knew her parent's number by memory and chose to ring her mother. She told them she lost her phone and wouldn't be able to send them notification for awhile, but her mind will always be on them. That, she's heading to middle-east right now and that she didn't know when she will be back. That she love them and they don't have to worry for her, that she'll try to contact them whenever she can.

Feeling a lump in her throat, she cut the call short and gave the phone back to its owner. She thanked them profusell and left her at it by the same time the van took a turn an showed on sight.

She headed to the car and get in when the door opened for her.