Les Laches

45.

Tian looked at his phone with a troubled feeling. Almost a week had passed since his big fight with Meda, but the young man showed no signs that he wanted to improve his relationship with Tian. Tian so thought that Meda was taking seriously the threat about ending their relationship some time ago.

Tian certainly did not want that to happen. However, it was not her guilty self. Not even Afgar. The Meda mindset in dealing with Tian's relationship with Afgar is wrong. Therefore, he also did not want to beg Meda to forgive him. Well, at least not now. If in the end it had to be Tian who apologized, Tian wanted to postpone it for as long as possible. On the day of the departure of Meda to Paris three days.

Tian looked at the bundle of clothes he wanted to give to Meda since a while ago. A scenario to make up with Meda while handing over the parcel turned around in her head and made Tian calm down a bit.

Tian's phone rang a reminder aloud, indicating that it was time to pick up Lidia and Joan at their respective schools. Tian got up from the sofa of the reading room and rushed up the stairs. He drew a tritone cardigan with stripes from the back of a chair on the top floor of the reading room and put it on a brown pinafore dress without his arms, before walking towards the garage.

Tian was advancing his coupe at medium speed when the phone he had placed in the front pocket of his dress rang. Tian ignored the ringing of the call and continued on his way. He was not in a hurry to arrive at school for his two younger siblings, only he did not like to drive while talking on the phone.

Tian is a person who easily loses focus if faced with two jobs at once. He checked his phone when he parked his car safely in front of Joan's school.

Two missed calls from Afgar made Tian smile amusedly. Inevitably, he recalled Afgar's message some time ago which read that he would not contact Tian if the girl did not contact him first. At that time, he actually did not doubt the seriousness of his best friend's speech. However, seeing that Afgar had contacted him more and more after Tian forced him to abandon his intentions, Tian was not too sure that the young man could refrain from talking to him for a long time.

Tian was not bothered at all with that one fact. He himself doubted if he could do things like avoid Afgar for a long time. After all, he and Afgar had spent a long time together and supported each other in the worst of times. Staying away from that young man would naturally cause a huge hole in his heart. Thinking about it made Tian increasingly feel his decision to maintain his closeness with Afgar was the best option. In addition, talking to Afgar made his mind slightly diverted from Meda.

Tian's car glass was knocked from the outside when he was busy chatting with Afgar. The young man was grumbling because Tian did not pick up his phone which rang a few times.

Tian gestured for Joan to get into the car immediately. However, the girl was unmoved while still standing beside her car door.

“What's up?” tian asked as he lowered his car glass.

“Begging for money to buy a devil's claw,” Joan replied as she directed her gaze many times to a point.

Tian followed his sister's line of sight and saw a food vendor with an aluminum entourage being mobbed by boys in uniform similar to Joan.

Tian decides to get out of his car instead of giving money to Joan. He wanted to see for himself what kind of snack his sister was valuing.

“Kak, here's the money. Shame ah if the snack is delivered by Kak Tian.” Joan tried to block Tian's intention of already walking closer towards the crowd.

“Yes if you are embarrassed, you are in the car. Let Brother buyin,” replied Tian cuek.

“Sister is not ashamed 'already big snack with children SD?” joan asked who tried to make her brother give up in various ways.

“Ngak,” replied Tian briefly.

Joan could only poke before finally following the steps of her eldest brother.

“Nih.” Tian handed a pack of demon claws he bought to Joan while the two were already in the car.

“Kak Lydia.”

“But Sister Lydia doesn't like spicy food, sister,” said Joan.

Tian's hand that was ready to start the car engine hung in the air.

“Oh,” says Tian slowly.

“Kak Tian also does not like spikes, right? Unfortunately deh the demon claw,” said Joan again.

“Ya, Jo. You want to say the plug mending for you just use convoluted.” Tian handed the plastic she had placed in the seat gap filler to Joan.

Joan smiled broadly as she received the package.

There was no special incident that happened to Tian when he picked up Lydia. That one sister didn't want much. Even when Tian offered Lidia to pick out the snacks she wanted to buy in front of the school, the girl instead asked Tian to cook her favorite food for dinner. Tian certainly accepted the request.

Arriving at home, Tian immediately walked into his room and changed his clothes with t-shirts and colored pants. He grabbed the phone he had placed on the side table of the clothes basket and contacted Afgar. The young man picked up his phone on the second ring.

“Udah at home? Can you talk a lot yet? Or want more numbers?” Afgar flocked Tian with his question. His voice sounded annoyed.

“Assalamualaikum, Afgar.” Tian repeated his unanswered greeting. The young man answered his greetings with a tone that still sounded annoyed.

“Your replacement answered my question,” todong Afgar fast.

“Iya. It's already at home. I picked up Joan with Lydia. They are different schools, so they cannot smoothly balesin chat from you,” explained Tian Patiently. “Partially you do ngerusuh kayak gini. Far away to Bristol instead of enjoying a relaxing time even busy chatting on the phone.”

“Yes because I walked alone. There's no reason to talk about the things I see here.”

“What a hypocrite. I thought you were there to find some calm. Now that you've talked, it seems like you need more conversation than calmness,” Tian sneer.

“The pleasure is different for everyone, Ti. If I, I can find peace by talking to people who can make me comfortable,” Afgar replied with a meaningful smile.

“Cie, that's convenient as I am. Who the hell yesterday said ‘I will not contact you if you do not contact me first’?” goda Tian's.

Afgar chuckled softly. He walked towards the window of his hotel room which showed a view of the cathedral building of St. Mary Redcliffe and suddenly got a very strong urge to say, “I miss you so much, Tian.”