Junna and Rhine

7-3

"Good afternoon, son." One afternoon, Junna, who was busy watering the plants that were flourishing in her yard, was startled by the voice of a woman. A beautiful woman with an understated appearance, when viewed from her age, the woman seems to be in her late 30s.

"Siang is also aunty..," Junna gave a small nod in response to the woman's courtesy.

"Sorry yes interfere with your time, I want to ask, if the house next to the house of this sister block Z1 No. 10?"

"It's true Auntie."

"Thank God, I'm not lost" the woman stroked her chest, showing relief. "Then thank you."

"Together," Junna watched the woman walk towards the gate of the Rhine house. In his heart came an urgent question asking for an answer. Who's the lady? What does this have to do with the Rhine? Didn't Rhine ever mention that he was an only child, so it's impossible to have an older brother. Is that woman not his lover? A lover? One last word made Junna's chest feel tight. He remembered Rhine once said he already had a wife who he loved very much.  He saw the Rhine coming out of the house and hugging the woman tightly as if she was so precious to the Rhine. A happy smile that he had never seen was on Rhine's face. He wanted to cry on the spot because he could not see the scene in front of him. Rather than being silly and caught off guard by Rhine, he chose to go inside his house.

"Mother," Rhine hugged the woman and called her Mother. "Finally my mother came to visit as well..."

"I have to thank your neighbor's girl." Ashiya patted the Rhine's back. "Thanks to her, I'm not so lost."

"Ooo, Junna..."

"June?" Ashiya scrunched her forehead. "Can you please memorize and call a girl's name?"

"Why indeed?"

"It's worth celebrating! My son is finally normal too!" Ashiya screamed hysterically like a child. He hugged the child tightly.

"About!" Rhine Protest. "I was normal from the beginning!" He helped to bring a large suitcase carried by Ashiya.

"Do you know the girl well?"

"Mother..., why suddenly ask that?"

"Did the girl have a boyfriend?"

"Even so," Rhine hit his own head against Ashiya.

Various questions continued to be asked Ashiya regarding Junna. Like the defendant, Rhine did not bother to answer. Damnit damnit! Rhine complained, there was nothing he could hide from his mother.

"Hmmm, what an interesting girl," Ashiya the mangosteen heard the explanation from the Rhine.

"Mother will just try to get close to her anyway" Ashiya's cat-like face begged to be picked up by the person passing her trying to divert Rhine, who was like a cat, this time he did not want to lose by the most powerful weapon that Ashiya always issued whenever his mother wanted something.

"I don't mind it, but my message is just one Mom, please don't spoil my plan."

"What's your plan?" Ashiya asked plainly.

"If I tell Mom her name is not a plan" Rhine grinned as if there was a grand plan for Junna.

"Basin a bad boy!" Ashiya pulls Rhine's pointed nose anxious about her son's behavior.

"By the way, what made you come to visit my house? Is there anything important you want to say?" Rhine serves hot chocolate, Ashiya's favorite drink and himself whenever he gathers together in the family room at Ashiya's house.

"Oh, I almost forgot, have you met your father?" A question he never expected would come out directly from his mother made him stiffly speechless. The cup containing the hot chocolate he was holding almost fell if he did not try to regulate his emotions and put the cup on the table.

"He's not my father!" Rhine ketus. His eyes are down. He did not want the expression of hatred to be seen by his mother. "What kind of father comes after his son is as big as me?"

"You can't talk like that to your father, he's a good Rhine..."

"okay? Well said Mom?!" Rhine laughs. But not a happy laughter but a bitter and impressed laughter forced. "She said she was a good person?!"

"Mom knows her better than you Rhine." Ashiya seemed to read the unpleasant gurgle of her child.

"Fuck him! So what does that man have to do with you so you ask me that?"

"Mom will marry her."

"What?!" Rhine moved from her seat on the sofa. "Did I hear wrong?! You're going to marry that guy? The guy who always makes you cry? The man who has got me stamped as an illegitimate child?! Are you out of your mind?!"

"So your words are Rhine..," said Ashiya lirih. "He's your father..."

"At any time I would never call him Dad!" Rhine leaves Ashiya and runs upstairs to her room. He needed fresh air and a comfortable atmosphere that he could only find in his room, especially the second floor terrace. The place where he had an intense interaction with Junna. This time, however, it seems like his fate is out of luck. Junna was not in her room. He wanted to shed his frustration by shouting loudly. But his voice disappeared. Various bad events in his past made him weak and sat on the balcony. He felt nauseous every time he imagined all the taunts as if he had just felt them yesterday.

***