Les Laches

Pagliacci

Hera's face will probably look as red as a tomato at the moment. With a step, he tried to match the footsteps of Alvin who walked quickly ahead of him out of the coffee shop with yellow incandescent lights on the ceiling and colorful decorative lights on the brick wall hebel. Hera was forced to endure the embarrassment as several men looked towards the two of them with all sorts of gazes. Most of them must have thought that Hera was trying to attract the attention of a man. Well, though that estimate may not be entirely wrong.

That night, Hera did catch up with Alvin to the place Afgar had told her about when he contacted her. Determined to start a serious conversation with the young man about his changing attitude, he came to a location that turned out to be quite far from the city center. Along the way, the taxi driver who drove Hera nagged a short length due to the slightly damaged streets as well as the quiet atmosphere along the way. The middle-aged man only shut his mouth when Hera agreed to pay double the value calculated by the argometer machine.

Unfortunately, the arrival of Hera was not welcomed by Alvin as well as he hoped. Not only did he not show a single smile on his face, the young man also threw a cold look towards Hera who appeared before him all of a sudden.

Alvin himself immediately understood the reason for the young men sitting on the front bench where it was suddenly noisy before. The place visited by him is indeed a location that has never been visited by other species besides men. If there is a woman, then surely the woman came to find “klien”.

Alvin's blood boiled as he recalled the latter fact. Seeing her lover receiving lustful glances from the men who blatantly observed every inch of her curves without hesitation, made Alvin want to destroy anything nearby. He immediately got up from his chair and paid for his order at the cashier before taking wide steps to leave the place. Hera was only able to be flabbergasted to see the behavior of Alvin who did not even bother to look at him.

“Mbakwas. How many nights?” A knock from the direction of one of the tables in the front of the building that finally stopped Alvin's steps.

With giddiness, he threw a glance towards a young man in a black monochrome black shirt with the print logo of a famous brand. Hera sneered towards the young man who was now looking at her with that bold look. With just a single look, his sharp eyes instantly knew that all the items attached to his body were imitations. He almost continued his steps because he thought Alvin would also not respond to people who posed as rich pretenders and showed off with branded objects that turned out to be KW. However, Alvin's move, which now changed direction to approach the table, again betrayed Hera's expectations.

“Try to repeat your talk just now,” said Alvin in a deep voice.

Alvin's expression might have seemed calm, but anyone who was looking into his eyes could definitely feel the intense anger he was hiding. The young man in black shirts lost the courage to reply to Alvin's words. Moreover, seeing Alvin's physical height and muscular certainly makes him increasingly lose the confidence to continue to confront him. Finally, one of the young men sitting next to him intervened.

“Udahlah, Bro. Women like that ‘kan much. I can give you the number of my acquaintances whose collections are many, but this time you give yes to my friends. Subrata's son, this. If you never heard his name, I'll tell you right away, yeah. His family it ..”

Never had the young man finish his sentence, a hard punch landed on his left jaw. The loud blow caused the young man's body to collapse to the ground. He fell backward, along with the rattan chair he was sitting on, accompanied by a debuman sound that could not be said to be slow. Some of the eyes that come to see the event can only be silent in their respective positions without the intention of helping.

“The son of your head Subrata family! Need me to call their family lawyer to prove that he's not part of that family? Even Subrata family children will not dare to mess with the family of the girl you are harassing if they still want to have a good name in the business world.” 

Alvin glanced furiously at some of the other youths sitting at the table. The young man in black who started the commotion could only be silenced with a paled face. Didn't expect that he would be so unlucky today. Already provoked the anger of the wrong man, almost imprisoned for profaning the surname Subrata to deceive anyway. He lowered his head deeply, trying as hard as he could to show that he regretted his actions. 

It completely ignores any view given by the people watching. All she thought about was how tonight she could go home instead of going to jail. However, of course, Alvin simply could not forgive those who had abused Hera. His hand pulled out his phone back from inside his pocket and took a picture of the five youths sitting at the same table as the black-tailed young man. After successfully taking clear portraits of the five figures, Alvin sent the entire picture to the number of his family lawyer, Yorik.

It did not take long for the family lawyer to read a message from Alvin and expressed the ability to carry out orders from the youngest son of his employer. Not once did Alvin ask him to do background-finding work on people who interfere with his life and those closest to him. Of course, it's not just background searches that do it. He also took the necessary steps to disrupt the lives of these people so that they would think twice before seeking trouble with the descendants of the Petra family.

Tristan Petra, the father of Alvin, is one of the sons of Indonesia's largest private airline owner and CEO of one of the airline's branches, giving his two sons the flexibility to use their company's legal team to take care of their own problems. Alvin does often use the services of Yorik, but on a scale that is still fairly reasonable. That is if he feels threatened. In contrast to Dominiq, Alvin's older brother is nine years older than him, but very often makes trouble with a scale that is not playful. The mistreatment of the woman he paid to accompany him to drink was only a small part of the dark track record that the young man etched in Yorik's memory. The rest? Yorik himself is not even sure he will have enough sanity if he has to spell out one detail.

After receiving a reply from Yorik, Alvin again walked to his car parked on a large area on the left of the place. This time, while holding Hera's hand to assert her ownership. The late thing to do is actually, considering, now, almost all visitors to the place have learned that both are not someone they can offend at will.

“Why are you here?” alvin asked when the two were in the car.

“Because I'm confused how else to talk to you.” Hera answered while crying. 

Actually, he had been very eager to shed tears since Alvin did not ignore it earlier. Not to mention Alvin's fight with the wild-looking young men that further aggravated his mood.

“You can phone! Why should we come here? You know from Afgar about this place?” alvin's angry question made Hera even more frightened. 

Throughout knowing Alvin in the High School until now, he never saw the young man angry. Even putting on an upset face never. Hence, he could barely do anything to control the young man. Alvin seemed to be transformed into a figure that was completely different from the Alvin he knew.

“My answer, Ra! Afgar who told you?” snarl Alvin again.

“Don't be your fool, Vin! You want to get angry at Afgar just because he told you you were here? Why can't I know? Do I not have the right to know anything about you?”

“You can't know because I know you'll be here if you know. You shouldn't be here. It's not about me, but about you!”

“It's about you, Vin! You are different now. You don't chat me. Difficult call. On the phone, he was angry. You're also rude now. Those are all the reasons why I came after you here. I wonder what has changed between us? Or has anything changed in your life?” Hera asked all the questions that had haunted her since a few months ago.

Yes, Hera feels her lover has changed since their return from Cuba. At first, the change was not at all realized because of Alvin's attitude is still cheerful as usual. However, along with the differences in Alvin's character that were increasingly felt by Hera, the girl slowly leaned back. As a result, he concluded that something had been covered up by Alvin since they returned from Cuba.

“Nothing has changed.” Alvin answered flatly while starting his car engine.

“What does that mean I don't deserve to know?” Hera asked weakly. 

Her tears almost fell back seeing Alvin not willing to look at her at all. The usual Alvin couldn't even get away from him in the slightest. From there, he knew that it was not just his feelings. There is clearly a problem!

“Nothing has changed.” Alvin repeated his answer. This time with a higher tone.

“OK. Then I give up.” 

Hera intends to open the passenger door, but Alvin holds her arm.

“Where are you going?”

“Out.”

“Where is Pak Rohan's car? Let me tell him that I'm going to take you home.” Alvin asked as he looked around to find a white BMW that was usually used by Hera's private driver to drive the girl everywhere.

“For what I came home with people who did not want to talk to me,” said Hera while trying to free her arm from the clutches of Alvin's hand. 

Things he can't do easily even with full power. Especially with the energy he controlled in such a way as to give Alvin the impression that he really wanted to leave.

“Nothing to talk about. Now where's your car?” ask Alvin tired.

“I'm not the same Mr. Rohan.”

“Terus?” Alvin's eyeballs almost popped out as he found the answer himself in the next second. “Taxi?”

Hera chose not to answer and went back to pretending to be rebellious. Alvin himself almost swears to realize another danger that might be picked up by Hera in the girl's attempt to catch up with him. A young and beautiful woman in the passenger seat of a taxi driving down a deserted street. Just give one psychopath into the description and anyone will be able to guess what sickening scenarios could be the fate of Hera.

Unknowingly Alvin's hand squeezed Hera's arm. He was only aware of the immortality of his mind when Hera's voice in pain brought him back to the real world. Immediately, he grabbed the girl's body into his arms.

“Please, Ra. Don't believe me again, please! I'd go crazy until something happened to you. Please! I don't want to lose you either.”

Hera could only be bothered to find Alvin's treatment. Especially when he sensed the young man's trembling body and the warm liquid dripping down broke through the layer of cloth on his shoulders. Slowly, Hera's hands coiled around the young man's back to give him the occasional caress and gentle pats. Hera's eyes got wet as if realizing how much burden the young man had been trying to hide all along behind his witty smile.