Guardians of the Heart #2
Chapter 1
Yumkim, pov.
I just finished my run and morning practice when I opened my phone and I saw an email coming in, while taking the drinking water in the refrigerator I opened the email and immediately went wide when I saw the sender, making me smile with a flowery heart.
Assalamu’alaikum.
Hi. I just want to know if I arrived in Osaka last night and went straight to the apartment.
Not GR yet! I didn't do anything, remember! I'm nervous because we're friends now as we agreed. I also ngabarin Arga and other friends if I've arrived, I just don't want my friends to worry. So remember not GR!!!!
I laughed reading that email. That is Keyza Maharani, a woman who has an angelic heart who still wants to be friends with the man who has broken her heart. I quickly returned the email.
Wa’alaikumsalam.
Thank you if you arrive safely. And as a friend I just wanted to report that I just finished running and training this morning, not having breakfast because Bi Aas has not come home from the market yet, suspicious of dating first ma Mang Opik bandar cabe in the market!
Have you had breakfast? Not GR just yet, I'm just a friend. I also sent WA in my group of friends nanyain what they have breakfast yet, trus said don't forget to eat just as carefully.
I just don't want my friends to get sick from forgetting to eat. So don't GR just yet!!
I smiled as I put my phone on the dinner table, yesterday when we drove her to Osaka we had agreed that our relationship is now only as friends, so from now on I will act as a garden until he re-opens his heart for me, otherwise I will just be the guardian of his heart, make sure that his heart won't get hurt again like it was when he was with me.
******
Bandung, 2017.
Kortee, pov.
Ahhhh! I was finally able to breathe deeply into the humid air of Bandung that I longed for after many months of living in a cold Japan. I just returned home this afternoon to be picked up by Father, Dirga and Kak Dimas who were on vacation in Bandung with his small family.
Sitting on the back porch late in the afternoon while enjoying a bowl of meatballs is one that I often miss when I was in Japan, usually at this time accompanied by Arga or… well, you guys must know who I mean.
I smiled as my phone rang and it was from Arga.
“Moci-moci.” His face made me laugh.
“Hahaha. moshi-moshi, Ga, moci mah food atuh.”
“And the story is slurred.”
“Hahaha... Where is this? How come you're not here?”
“Cannot go home yet, understand now be a laborer.”
“Yaaah, kangen would like to meet... when can I go home?”
“Insyaallah this saturday home.”
“Totally yes?”
“Iya.. by-by sisain do not finish.”.
“What do you want, candy or chocolate?”
“Yaaah, which is so mah here is also a lot.”
“What else is it in the new market is also numpang.”
“Iiiih! Bede dong no writing Japan.”
“Easy living in screen printing aja.”
“Keep what do you want dong? Don't bring anything else.”
“Bring mount Fuji no?”
“Hahaha... kegedean not fit in bag.”.
“Yaaah.
“Which one was it?”
“That's candy, chocolate, same keychain shirt.”
“Everything dong.”
“Iya, hahahaha.”
I always miss talking to Arga like this, while in Japan we rarely send emails or send messages because we are busy with their respective activities, moreover, Arga has now worked in one of the contractor companies and now there is another project in Sukabumi, so can not every day return to Bandung.
But it's different from.. um! The Lieutenant sent me an email almost every day, even though it only told me about his activities that day, and asked me about it. And he always said, I just want to know about my friend today.
I was going to ignore it at first, I didn't get anything back, but he never gave up, he kept sending emails, until he finally had a few days he didn't email me again I thought maybe he had given up and it made me a little disappointed, but after a few days he again sent an email and apologized because yesterday there was a task so did not have time to send an email.
Reading it made me start replying to his emails even though it was just that, we were just talking about standard things never once either he or I discussed about our past, he said, it was as if it had been buried deep. And I was also trying to reopen my heart.
In Japan I was close to someone. The lieutenant once said that meeting Indonesians abroad was like meeting my own brother, and I felt that. At first I often walked and shared stories with him because I felt that we could speak the same language, but over time I could feel that he was paying more attention... and I like that attention.
I once told her that I no longer believed in love, but she did not give up on saying that she would make me believe in love again. He treated me like I was the top priority in his life, a treatment I did not accept before from my relationship with the Lieutenant.
He would choose to accompany me for hours at the mall rather than hang out with his friends, he would rather drive me or pick me up even if he himself was late for college, he would give me flowers just for regretting canceling our appointment because he had an impromptu exam that could not be left behind.
His treatment made me finally let go and gave him a chance even though I had not fully opened and gave my heart to him.
Around 7:00 when my family and I were having dinner watching TV I heard a motorbike entering the yard, and before long someone entered the house made me look up at him with a breath that seemed to stop for a while.
“Assalamualaikum,” said with a smile that got answers from everyone while I still looked at him unblinkingly.
*****
This is the 2nd book of THE OWNER OF THE HEART, so please read THE OWNER OF THE HEART first, so that it is easy to understand about the conflict here.
Thank you
Love
A.K
