Les Laches

Terra Incognita's

"I miss you guys!" hera exclaimed as soon as Tian answered the video call from her.

Tian hurriedly got down from his spring bed and ran to Safira's room. Her best friend had just prepared to dry her hair when Tian broke through the door of her room.

"Herah." Tian said quickly as he gestured for her to approach.

Sapphira picked up a towel and re-wrapped her head.

"Hi, *B*eautiful!" greet Hera while looking at Safira's face on her phone screen.

"Why, thanks! Even though I don't feel that horror at all from you" Safira replied.

"Shut up! I miss you guys so much!" Hera put on a sullen face as she brought her face closer to her phone and landed her lips on the front camera.

"Uhh!" Safira. The first thing that came to his head was a lipstick trace that would probably be imprinted on the surface of Hera's phone.

Tian himself only shook his head to see the behavior of his best friend. Among the three friends, Hera is the number one about height. However, in terms of age, he was the youngest. Even though she was only two months younger than Tian, but it seemed like the mental age of the girl was three years below her. To be precise, Hera acted exactly like the girl who was still sitting on the High School bench.

"Where's alvin?"

Tian searched for the figure of Hera's lover who usually never stopped clinging to his best friend's side. It's like Hera is a planet and Alvin is a satellite orbiting around it.

Hera turned her head. For a moment, the view of the mangrove forest that had been behind the tall figure of Hera disappeared from the screen of Tian's mobile phone and was replaced with a display of the deck of the ship that was swaying due to the movement of Hera. A few minutes later, the girl's pretty face reappeared on Tian's phone screen.

"She's been chatting with her dive master." Hera turned her head towards the two figures who were looking back at her while pointing her phone slightly to the side so that her two best friends could freely see the scenery behind her.

Tian recognized the tall figure wearing a striped t-shirt and khaki-colored knee-length pants as Alvin. Next to him was a well-built man who was engrossed in explaining something to Alvin.

"What are you doing in Havana?" Hera again made the phone camera focus towards her.

"I was just walking in Havana. Continue to the street market for shopping," Safira explained, then turned to look at Tian who was beside him. "You wanna come later? There are still a lot of shops I haven't come to."

"I'll go to El-Nicho later," Tian refused quickly.

"Where?" Sapphira frowned confusedly, so did Hera.

"Cienfuegos."

"Well?" Safira and Hera asked simultaneously.

"Yes our goal here is to have fun." Tian rolled his eyeballs.

"What's going on in El-Nicho?" tanya Safira was curious.

"Trees, animals, waterfalls, lakes. That's kind of."

"You mean, you want to go to the forest? Wanna what? Tabernacle?" Safira was confused.

Tian and Hera looked at each other lazily through their mobile screens. For Safira, all places that do not provide wifi and goods to buy are places that will never be listed in the list of destinations.

"But you two are going to take a trip to Old Havana too, right?" Safira asked again.

Hera nodded enthusiastically, whereas Tian simply shrugged.

"Maybe."

Tian is the laziest to shop. Moreover, Safira style shopping that buys every item that he thinks is good to use alone or distributed to the people closest to him. Or a la Hera who will first collect every item he wants to buy into several grocery trolleys and "sort them" before walking to the cashier.

"From yesterday Tian ran away together with Meda, leaving me the same Afgar," Safira argued to Hera.

Hera raised next to her eyebrows. "Not the opposite?"

"Seriously, Ra. I left him for a while to shop ...."

"Rare you for a minute?" cut Hera again.

Safira glares with anxiety. "This is not the kid from yesterday in Havana. He's going to Viinales."

"Vinales at the Pinar del Rio?" ask Hera to make sure.

Safira nodded steadily.

"What's okay?" asked Hera while looking at Tian.

"Bus."

"Whose idea?" ask Hera again.

"Which one? Take the bus or take a walk to his Vinales?" Tian asked back.

"Both. The world anti-ribet man as you want to be invited to travel to Vanales aja already kayak Monas into the seven wonders of the world. This is instead the way to take a bus that must wait a long time and insist on each other passengers" said Hera who was supported by a nod of agreement from Safira.

"I'm anti-stiff, not anti-social. I also love meeting people, not just sitting in the hotel." Tian defended himself.

"OK deh. Back to El-Nicho. You want to go there with Meda again?" ask Hera.

Tian nodded.

"Who's going to El-Nicho?" alvin's question suddenly appeared on Hera's side.

"Tian tuh." Hera turned her chin towards the mobile screen that displayed two of her female companions.

"Ih. All that tanning over there?" Sapphira who first noticed Alvin's slightly tanned skin color, asked excitedly.

"If I'm a gini, which one am I with your fiancee?" Alvin rubbed his chin while bringing his face closer to the camera.

"Although Dylan O'Brien is standing where you and nanya are to me, my answer is still Afgar." Safira painted the name of his favorite actor to emphasize his choice.

"Udah. Don't be so cocky." Hera pushed her face away from the camera.

"Journey to El-Nicho lama, Ti. Half a day about. The plan is to take a taxi there?" ask Alvin again. This time he put on a serious face.

"He could take the train" replied Tian, who spent the night searching for the cheapest route.

"Duh! Taxis here are expensive," Tian complained, making Hera and Alvin look at each other.

"You can use my money first, Tian. Just take it in the safe." Hera, who thought her best friend was in financial trouble, said pity.

"She does not have money, but she learns to live with concern from her future boyfriend" said Safira ketus. If Tian had money difficulties, Safira would have first intervened.

"Meda?" ask Hera to make sure.

"Meda?" Alvin asked in a different tone. Wonder tones.

Safira nodded quickly before telling her that Tian and Meda agreed to split the cost of their trip equally.

"Meda's not like us, guys." Safira stressed the fact that between the young man and his group there was indeed a social status gap.

"It doesn't matter." Tian voiced his opinion.

"Yes. In love, social status is not a problem." Hera nodded with a serious face.

"In friendship, social status is not a problem" Tian corrected.

"OKAY. It all started with friendship." Alvin added with an expression that is no less serious. However, Tian could see the corner of the young man's lips twitching with a smile.

"Whatever!"

Tian put down his phone and got off Safira's bed, letting the three friends continue the conversation without him.

Although after that the topic of conversation has shifted from him, he prefers to turn his attention to the collection of skincare and cosmetics jostled in the make-up box owned by Safira. The girl read the one-on-one written on the packaging label of objects that were foreign to her.

"You want to learn make-up?" bargain Safira who just ended the video call connection and returned Tian's phone.

Tian looked up at a glance. "Maybe sometime."

Sapphira who was about to convince Tian to steady her intentions closed her lips again when a knock rang out on the door leaf of her room.

"Who?" safira asked after managing to overcome her shock.

"Med! Tian's inside?" answer the voice behind that door.

Safira slid quickly to open the door. So enthusiastic, he did not catch a signal from Tian to buy time. Safira only caught Tian's intention when the door was open and Tian had just managed to pull the blanket from Safira's bed.

"Wow!" The word slid just like that from Meda's lips as she looked towards the sleeping clothes Tian was wearing. Satin-made camisole tops with spaghetti straps and V-shaped chest pieces attached to the body that show the curves of the perfect body.

Tian did not catch the words muttered by Meda, but from his expression alone Tian realized that there was no point in using the blanket in his hand to cover up something that had already been exposed. Tian ran quickly past Meda who reflexively gave her space when she saw the girl intending to leave the room. He tried as hard as he could to exercise mind control, but the tip of his eye moved itself following Tian's steps until the girl disappeared behind the door of his room.

"Like what you see?" Safira looked at Meda with a triumphant smile as if he had just caught a wet cattle-maling that was troubling the citizens.

***

"After getting off the train, we'll have to take a cab."

Meda finally opened the conversation a few minutes before the train they were boarding stopped at Cienfuegos station. During the trip, the two spend most of their time looking for their own busyness. Meda who was all her might tried to focus on the novel she was reading and Tian who tried to sleep until arriving at the destination station. In the end, the awkwardness was liquid as well thanks to the memories that suddenly appeared in his head.

"Aren't you having a problem getting into a taxi?" Tian seemed to have suddenly forgotten about the incident earlier this morning and looked at Meda anxiously.

"We can't get a ride there either, can we?" ask Meda back.

Tian leaned his back back into his chair. In his head came the idea of bearing all the expenses he felt were "luxury" but he was anxious that his actions would offend Meda. Therefore, he tried to remind himself to as much as possible not to be a burden for Meda who had kindly escorted and accompanied him to go to places he wanted.

It was 8pm local time when the two young men arrived in Cienfuegos. After exiting the station area, Meda asked about a nearby inn to a local she met.

"He said at the turn of the road there will be a hostel for the family" explained Meda while pointing to a point on the straight road that was in front of them.

The road they were walking on was darker than it seemed. Meda who did not dare to approach Tian at all thanks to the incident earlier this morning could only walk slowly so that the girl trailing behind him had no trouble matching her steps. Fortunately, the hostel they were heading to was quite close to the main road where they had stood before.

Meda opened wide the whitewashed door of a building with a wooden plaque that read "Hostel Family Leo" it. Behind the tall table of a room behind the door stood a woman in her 40s with a wacky body and a razor-style hair. The woman greeted them with a friendly smile and began speaking in Spanish with Meda.

Tian who did not understand a single word finally chose to turn his attention to the interior of the beige-painted room with the black and white floor. There are no special decorations other than paintings with naturalism that depict the ranks of trees, waterfalls, mountains, flocks of birds, and more. However, there was an interesting painting in Tian's eyes.

Unknowingly his body moved to observe the painting more closely.

"Yeni said there were only two empty rooms. You take the double bed or the single bed?" ask Meda who just finished her conversation with the hostel's owner.

"If there's a double bed why book two rooms?" Tian who was still immersed in the charm of the painting only realized the words that slid from his lips after a while.

Meda who caught the misguided expression that appeared later on Tian's face could only smile awkwardly.

"I took the single, huh?" ask her once more before walking back towards Yeni.

Tian followed behind him. "I don't have a problem with one room."

"I'm the problem." Meda insists.

"I don't squawk. I also have no problem sleeping with the lights on or off." Tian tried to convince.

Meda's eyebrows almost linked to the girl's behavior. Tian's expression said that the incident this morning still made him awkward, but his words seemed to be trying to show the opposite fact. Moments later, he understood what the girl was really thinking.

"If it's about the cost of the room, I can still survive without having to force a one-room pesen for two people" he said.

Tian's lips clenched tightly upon realizing that the young man was reading his mind. He was already anxious if he had to quarrel again with the young man. However, after a while Meda did not show an annoyed expression or the like and instead continued the room booking transaction, Tian finally breathed a sigh of relief.

Meda herself did not feel as offended as Tian had expected. Instead, he instead felt happy that the girl was considering her condition before making a decision. Things that are not often done by people who are more familiar than the girl.

"Tu novia?*" Yeni asked as she glanced at Tian with her friendly eyes.

This time, Meda just smiled while saying the words of the woman if indeed that scenario is the best for both in the future.

Authors Notes

Terra Incognita \= foreign mainland

Tu novia? \= your lover?