FOREIGN DESIRANT

Episode 18 Defend the Longing

The breeze shook the coconut leaves around Alif and Kirana, the sound of

the friction of the leaves as well as the gurgling of the river water filled the silence created between them. Kirana was silent, while Alif was silent. I have answered all the questions they have been asking.

Kirana started to feel foreign swish from the first time she saw Alif on the pulpit of the musholla when the young man delivered a short lecture. While Alif can never forget how the charm of Kirana ambushed him when he saw the girl in a pink hijab that afternoon.

Kirana can never erase the memories with Alif in the rain, and Alif can still remember the fragrant aroma of the jacket that Kirana returned. The thoughts of the two teenagers are intertwined with each other to retrace each memory that occurred until finally realized it was too late.

"I'm sorry Kirana, it's my fault. Liking you in silence just because you don't want these feelings to lead us down the wrong path. I never wanted to get you stuck in a false hope. Until I finally realized, a good girl like Kirana won't come twice."

"Then you came when everything was like this?"

"I never knew if Rehan had gone ahead since Kirana turned him down."

"Rehan never backed down, as you say, he's changed."

"She's a good guy."

Back they mute, until finally Kirana pampit home.

"We can still be friends, right?" ask Alif pasrah. He looked sadly at Kirana's back.

Kirana who had returned to lead the bike paused for a moment and nodded her head softly without

looking at Alif, he did not want Alif to see his tears had flowed since. Alif did not see the tears, but someone from far away had seen it and understood the situation that was happening. Alif was sitting alone in an old hut, trying to accept the fact that he would never be together

the girl who first knocked at his heart. Alif calmed himself a strand of poetry was created in his eyes.

*Defending Miss**

I put my miss for him

on the wet river

the top clear rain point

who perched on the grass

I have no right to keep it

let it be left there

tell wait for dimaram

Alif closed his eyes

let a drop of water flow from its corner. Soon he was removed, his heart was grieving. But suddenly someone had patted him on the shoulder and sat with Alif in the hut, he was... Rehan.

***

Rehan stared at the ripples of the river flowing quietly before him, Alif too. For a moment they let time pass in the silence of the two young men. Previously Rehan explained to Alif if he wanted to talk about something but unexpectedly he saw Kirana in that place too even though he was curious but he did not appear until Kirana came home. Rehan only found out that Kirana had always liked Alif. Upset by himself because all this time did not realize how Kirana really felt, he was too busy with himself. He longed to persuade his heart to start a conversation with Alif.

"Kira..." Rehan wants to break the silence with Alif but Alif immediately cuts him off.

"Kirana chose the right person. Don't worry about me. Just take good care of Kirana."

"But the one in Kirana's heart, you...Alf."

"No, it's not like that. Kirana chose you from her heart." Alif reassures Rehan even though in his heart 'bloody'.

"The man who deserves Kirana is the one who dares to show feelings and prove

his words were trustworthy, and it was in Rehan. So, don't waste Kirana. He deserves to be happy with his choice." Alif's words were immediately filled with a stinging pain within him.

"He deserves to choose the person he really likes?" rehan.

"Please, Rehan don't doubt Kirana, she'll get hurt. When he decided he had a reason behind it. Again, don't doubt him."

Alif held Rehan's shoulder and shook his hand.

"Please promise to make her happy." said Alif.

Rehan nodded slowly and tried to smile. Alif returns home, but Rehan calls him.

"Aliff... You sure?" Alif nodded steadily.

Rehan looked at Alif who walked through the path until he was lost behind the lush trees on the river bank.

"But the tears of Kirana that I saw said something else" said Rehan.

***

* A poem from a friend