Third time, the charm!

- CHAPTER 9 -

Routines are a part of everyday lives. It is a set of actions, premeditated in nature and their consistent patterns helps people to feel safe and secure to go about their daily lives. Routines are often overlooked despite being the building blocks to live a full day: breakfast, lunch, dinner, rest, work, study, exercise.

A successful routine provides order and stability because a routine is repetitive, predictable. A successful routine is crucial to set rituals. Rituals are different from routines. Rituals have an intention and consist of a special set of actions to acknowledge the preparation of routines and important events. Eating something sweet before exams, cleaning your house before new year, gifting a family heirloom on graduation; all these little things make up rituals.

Yua's life is carefully orchestrated into a box of routines. She has never gone amiss with a single tick mark. As a disciplined person, her routines are important to her. They allow her to regulate herself, to stop and focus within. They give her a small bubble to breathe in freely, as she goes throughout the monotony of her day.

Many years ago, on a particular summer, her friend had wailed to her that he couldn't find his lucky underwear. Yua hadn't understood. He explained whenever he wore his lucky underwear, he could do well on his exams. It was also thanks to his lucky underwear he passed the soccer tryouts with flying colours and easily made it to the team in his first year.

This conversation lingered in Yua's mind for reasons unbeknownst to her. Yua didn't believe in luck. There was no scientific explanation behind a variable so radical. Yua would not put her trust in things she couldn't explain. However, Yua did end up finding a use for rituals. She used it as a way to identify and separate important days to her, days she could not afford to make mistakes.

So this morning, once Yua had woken up, finished showering and getting ready for school, she practised her ritual. She reached into the drawers to take out a small jewel box. The box was covered in blue velvet and had a luxurious sheen to it, befitting the aura of the regal pair of earrings delicately nestled inside it. 

The earrings once belonged to her great-grandmother. As she passed it down to her children, it slowly made it's way into the hands of her mother. It was a halo earring with a 1.0 carat diamond, made of the highest clarity and placed right in the centre of the white gold, surrounded by smaller and equally flawless diamonds, fanning out into a petal shape reminiscent of a flower. The earrings looked simple but it carried an understated elegance. The clear light exuding from its brilliant cut was awe-inspiring and easily dazzled its onlookers.

Most children get new school supplies or go out to eat for graduating middle school. On her part, Yua received these set of earrings. She attached great significance to this jewellery. Yua had received her fair share of expensive gifts and luxurious ornaments. However, this one felt different. This was a family heirloom, from a mother to her daughter. Because it felt like, for the first time, her mother acknowledged her, her hard work, her efforts. Ever since then, Yua would wear these earrings whenever she needed to ace something, like a battle armour made for winning.

When Yua opened the blue velvet case, what greeted her was empty air. She was puzzled and it took her a few seconds to understand the situation. Just then her mother knocked on her door.

"Mother, have you seen my earrings?"

Ananya came into her daughter's room to remind her about one of the draft proposals needing an update.

Side-tracked, she looked at the box in her daughter's hand, "The one from grandma?"

Yua nodded.

"I gave them to be polished. You've had it for a few years." Yua is still learning to mask her reactions, but Ananya can read her child, "Why?"