"Let me ask you again one more time," said Elara as she looked at Lydia's face from the reflection of their hotel's bathroom mirror, "are you sure about this?"
Lydia frowned. Her hair was already clean, a plastic cape draped over her shoulders as she sat in front of the bathroom mirror. Everything was ready. Elara stood behind her, plastic gloves pulled over both hands. "Yes, for the thousandth time, I'm sure." She looked at Elara's face through the mirror. "So please, dye my hair black."
"But it's such a shame, don't you think? You have such beautiful blonde hair."
"As I said earlier, Elara, if we want to stay undetected, I need to change my appearance somehow." Lydia touched her hair. "I'm not ready to cut it short yet, so the only thing that we can do is to change the color. I always wanted to try having black hair, so this is a good chance to try it out."
"I still think you freaked out too much over a single Instagram post."
"It's not just a regular Instagram post, Elara. It's a viral Instagram post showing me eating at the café earlier."
"Yeah, but it's not like the person said it was the real you. The caption simply said 'Found Princess Lydia look-alike in the White Cat café in Hinch'. So it's not like your identity is exposed, or anything like that."
"Better safe than sorry, Elara." Lydia turned back to see Elara. "You heard my mother, didn't you? Julien, Adrien, and Victor are looking for me. No need to make their job any easier." Lydia shook her head a bit, making sure every strand of her blonde hair fell neatly down her back. "So come on, Elara. Help me out. Paint the whole thing black."
Elara let out a big sigh. "Okay. But I gotta say, it's such a shame. I really love your blonde hair."
"Me too, Elara. Me too."
The whole process took about an hour. They could've gotten it done sooner, but the girls didn't hurry at all. They ordered lunch to their room, watched TV, and later went out for an afternoon snack. Their destination was the third hottest restaurant in town: Olivier. Since this restaurant was famous for its outdoor eating experience, Lydia made sure to wear a bucket hat and a big pair of sunglasses.
While they were waiting for their food to arrive, Lydia caught Elara staring at her face. "What's up? Do I look weird with black hair?" Lydia tilted her head.
"No, no. Not weird. Just... different."
"Well, at least I won't stand out as I did before. And now we both have the same dark hair, which is nice, don't you think?"
"Yeah. I was nervous earlier because I never dyed another person's hair before," said Elara as she leaned forward and touched Lydia's hair, "but I think I did a very decent job."
As Elara finished her sentence, Lydia noticed a tall blonde man had entered the restaurant. He wore an oversized black hoodie with a mask covering half of his face. He stood near the entrance for a while, looking around as if trying to find somebody.
"Shit, shit, shit!" whispered Lydia as she lowered her head.
"What? What's up? What happened?" asked Elara.
"That's Adrien!" Lydia pointed toward the man with her head. "Fuck, how did he know I was here?"
Elara peeked and saw the tall, blonde man wearing a mask. "Adrien Laurent? Are you sure about that? That could honestly be anybody."
"Yes, I'm sure!" whispered Lydia.
At that moment, their sandwiches finally arrived. As the server put the plates on the table, Lydia raised her hand slightly and said, "I'm sorry, but could you wrap it to go? We have an emergency and need to go right away."
The server paused for a second, whipped out her best customary smile, and said, "Sure, please wait here for a minute." She then put the sandwiches back in the tray and took it back to the kitchen.
"Do we really need to go now?" asked Elara. "I mean, judging from his body language, I don't think he realizes that you are here."
"Yeah, thanks to this brand new black hair of mine, but one close look at my face is all he needs to recognize me," whispered Lydia. "Look, he is sitting now. Shit, he sits near the entrance. How do we pass him?"
"Look, we don't know what he's doing here. Maybe he just enjoys the food, and it has nothing to do with you?"
"No, Elara. I know him. He knows exactly how famous he is. That's why he hates going to public spaces. If he likes the food, he simply orders a delivery of it or asks somebody to buy it for him." Lydia grabbed Elara's hands from across the table. "I'm telling you. He is here for me. I don't know how he found out about this place, maybe due to that viral Instagram post, but I can assure you, he is here for me." Lydia pointed toward the masked man, who seemed to be talking to somebody on his phone.
"Okay, okay," whispered Elara. "Let's calm down for a second. Let's think this through. Okay, the good thing is he doesn't seem to find us just yet-"
"Yeah, but if we stay here any longer, it's only a matter of time before he sees me," said Lydia with a frown on her face.
"I know, I know. Listen, the bad thing is the fact that he sits near the entrance. This makes it nearly impossible for us to simply waltz outside without him noticing."
"So what do we do?" asked Lydia.
Elara tapped the table with her fingers. "Lydia, I can't keep looking at him without turning my head. If I do, he might see me and find it a bit weird." Elara leaned forward and whispered, "So for now, you should act as normally as possible and watch his movements. Don't worry, from where you sit, you can easily look at him without having to move your head too much, and since you are thankfully wearing your sunglasses, he won't notice the direction of your gaze."
"Okay, I understand." Lydia straightened her back and leaned back. "So what do we do now?"
The server arrived and put their boxed sandwiches on the table. "Here you go, guys, sorry for the wait. And here's the bill."
Elara took the bill, peeked at it for a second, and then took out her credit card. The whole transaction ended in less than a minute, but to Lydia, it felt like a lifetime. Once the server went away, Elara grabbed Lydia's hands.
"Listen, Lydia. Don't worry. I have a plan," said Elara with a devious smile on her face.