Linger

Spaced

The next day when Mama and Papa finally returned from a business trip, Kalea had already fully managed to control herself. He no longer remembered the bad events that had happened to him in the past as much as before. Her fear was still there, but Kalea managed to temper it and her body no longer trembled as the memories came back to say hello. Kalea had asked Bi Imah for help to keep everything a secret from her parents and the woman agreed.

Gavin also kept his word not to bother him and forced him to talk before things got really good. The man completely disappeared from his reach, not trying to contact him even though several times Kalea heard from Papa that the man had gone to Papa's office.

And today was the fourth day after the incident that night, Kalea was absolutely sure she was fine.

But, there was another problem that made Kalea more frightened. About Karel. The man was completely self-limiting as he had said before. Even when they passed each other in front of the gate this morning, the man did not greet him at all. Karel only greeted Mama at a glance, revealing a fake smile and then immediately drove forward his car without looking at her one bit. 

What's wrong? Kalea kept repeating the question inside her head, but did not get an answer at all. She did not know why Karel had pulled away that far, whereas everyone closest to them knew how Karel could not live without Kalea, and vice versa. If this was about Kalea's request to Karel not to hate Gavin, why would the man have to go this far? Wasn't it enough for Karel not to involve himself in all the affairs related to Gavin? Why did he withdraw from all things Kalea? Will their friendship ever end here?

No. gabe. Kalea will not be willing. Dozens of years grew up together and during that time Kalea only had Karel next to her. If the man leaves, how will Kaela continue her life?

So by lowering all prestige, Kalea walked out of the room. At half-eight on Friday, Kalea said she believed Karel was struggling with a computer device in her room, installing headphones to plug his ears and mouth lemes must have said hundreds of swear sentences since the game he played began.

But when her little feet reached the parapet between the living room and the living room, her steps practically came to a halt. There, on the long sofa of the living room, there was one figure he wanted to avoid the most. He was sitting next to a middle-aged man whose face he could only see on a glass screen. Opposite him, Mama and Papa sat side by side, their faces bright and smiles unceasingly rising from their lips.

Kalea was about to turn her body to return to her room, but she stopped when Mama called her. And when he turned his head, he found all eyes had been on him. Kalea can't back down anymore. Escaping from this situation will only make Papa and Mama suspicious because as far as they know, he and Gavin are still fine.

With mixed feelings, Kalea walked over to them. The tail of his eyes caught Gavin staring at him with a sad look that he seemed to be trying to hide from everyone.

"Here, sit." Mama shifts her seat, pulling the small body of Kalea to sit in the middle between Mama and Papa.

"Hello, Kalea."

Kalea raised her gaze, at the figure of the man beside Gavin who was now smiling gently towards her.

"Hello, Om." A fake smile was etched on his face. He tried hard not to escape the gaze towards Gavin.

"How are you, Kalea?"

And his attempt failed. Kalea was forced to turn her eyes to Gavin. Another fake smile was carved. He struggled to withstand all the uncomfortable turmoil that whack. The shadow of that night's events re-covered his head, but Kalea tried hard so that it did not affect him much.

"I'm good." Briefly talk.

"Me and Gavin just got back from a business trip to Singapore, really just got to the airport and this kid whines to me to get us here." Jonathan chuckled at the end of the sentence. He turned a glance towards Gavin who was sitting beside him, then refocused his gaze on Kalea in front of him. "It looks like Gavin misses you a lot."

A miss? It's nonsense. Kalea. But in the end, she kept smiling again.

"This Gavin seems like a typical no-nonsense kind of thing, huh? Direct sat-set sat-set that." That's Mama's voice. Still the same as the day before, the woman would always speak in a tone of spirit if it was related to Gavin and their matchmaking agenda.

Kalea admitted that Gavin never made small talk to her. So never much fun, the guy even left her that night, right? Kalea almost laughed at herself when that fact slapped her.

"The numbers are like this. I hope it doesn't bother Kalea, huh?" jonathan once again put on a smile that made Kalea unwillingly reply.

"It's not disturbing at all." Lying Kalea.

Then another conversation continued only between Papa, Mama and Jonathan. Kalea withdrew to her extent from the chatter she did not understand. Every now and then his eyes glanced at Gavin who was still chiming in on some of the chatter he knew, and when the man felt that his chatter was not up to his portion, Gavin would cast a glare at Kalea. Only to find Kalea was staring at him with two boba eyes whose binaries were not as bright as usual.

I don't know how long the five of them have been sitting in this room. The topic of the chat continued to change and Kalea started to feel her head full. So after whispering a few words in Mama's ear, Kalea got up from her seat. He knew Gavin was looking at him with a disappointed look before his little legs he swung away from the living room.

The sounds of their chatter were still heard in Kalea's ears until finally the small body disappeared behind the parlour wall with the living room. Kalea intends to go to the backyard, sitting on the edge of the pool while breathing the cold night air to relieve her chest that slowly feels tight again.

The wind blew against his small body wrapped in jerseys and shorts, but Kalea did not undo his intention to keep doing the initial plan. He brought his body closer to the edge of the pool. His body trembled slowly as his legs he put into the pool water which turned out to be colder than expected.

The next thing Kalea did was just shut up. His gaze drifted far ahead, on a stretch of tall trees planted on the edge of the backyard. Then switch on a round table near the fish pond in the corner of the courtyard, a wooden table with three chairs. At the table, Kalea used to spend the afternoon talking to Mama about many things. A little about the insignificant debate with Karel that led to the man who had to succumb and bribe him with kinjerdoy. Until serious things around his desire to show his paintings to more people. But these few days, Kalea lost that moment. For several days since the incident that night, Kalea was busy improving her condition so that she did not have time to chatter like she usually did in the previous afternoons.

Kalea's gaze shifted again, this time fixed on the fish pond that the sound of water bubbling calm the heart. That little fish pond was Karel's idea. A week after graduating from Junior High, the boy came to his house and whined to Papa to make a fish pond in the backyard of Kalea's house. When asked why it should be made in the yard of Kalea's house, why it is not made in her own yard, Karel replied that her father was allergic to fish. An absurd reason that once only Kalea could laugh at. But now, he finally understood why Karel insisted on forcing Papa to make the fish pond. Because since his wish was granted by Papa, Karel so often come under the pretext of wanting to feed the fish.

Cold resulting from contact between the skin and pool water is no longer Kalea felt. Because the sweet memories have produced a warmth that is able to repel the cold from his body, while eroding his rest little by little.

"You haven't come for days to feed the fish, Rail." Kalea muttered, smiling wailfully lamenting her relationship with Karel which somehow turned into this.

But not until he was on the answer to his own question, a voice interrupted first. Make him turn his head and exhale heavily.

Gavin stood beside his body. He looked down at her softly, which this time he showed once.

"May I sit here?" ask the man.

Kalea had plenty of reasons to shake her head. He has every right to deny Gavin's current presence. But, instead of doing as her brain commanded, Kalea nodded her head instead. He allowed the man to take a sitting position next to him.

"Thank you." Gavin said before dipping his feet into the pool (after previously taking off his shoes and rolling up the black trousers he wore to the knee limit).

Gavin grimaced as the cold touched his skin, and Kalea who witnessed the change in expression could only watch in silence. If their relationship was good, Kalea would probably laugh at Gavin as loud as she could. Stabbed the man as he used to do to Karel. It was a pity that they had not even reached the stage of being able to laugh at each other and had to end up in this kind of awkwardness.

For a few minutes, they were silent. There was only the rustling sound of the wind hitting the leaves from the tall trees across. Also the rustling sound of unpretentious pool water with heavy breath Kalea impressed forced.

Until finally, Kalea gave up. Since he was basically a type of chatty person, then this kind of silence was not something that suited him.

"Are you arriving from Singapore?" kalea asked with a straight forward look. He would not know if Gavin was looking at him with a sharp pain on his face.

"Yes." Yeah."

Kalea nodded. He still refused to turn his head. Inside his brain were already many questions he wanted to ask Gavin, but he was still too hesitant and busy sorting out which one he wanted to ask first.

"That night, something bad almost happened to me, Gavin." In the end, all the questions that perched in his head were simply driven away, replaced by Kalea's desire to tell Gavin the reason why he had kept the man quiet for a long time.

"It's not as simple as I'm angry with you because you're staying with me. Not like that, Gavin." Kalea turned her head, only to find a pair of tired-looking Gavin eyes.

"Tell me everything, Kalea. I'm all ears." That's all Gavin can say.

After taking a deep breath, Kalea began her story with a gaze that was again cast straight ahead.

"That night, while you were living, I was confused. So confused, I couldn't think what to do next." Kalea said it started the story. There was a beautiful smile engraved on his face.

"The taxi driver you asked that night to take me home, I told him to leave. And what happened next made me realize how stupid I was to be human."

Gavin was still listening. Not one bit intends to cut off Kalea's speech even though the original intention of sitting here is to explain why she left that night.

"There were two thugs who blocked my move, Gavin. They touched me with dirty hands that they either used to harass how many women."

"One of them even said that I had no hope of escape, because they had more power than me." Kalea's voice began to tremble. Gavin wanted to grab the small hand that now had the fingers clinging to each other and carry it in a warm grip. But Gavin broke his intention because he didn't have that much courage.

"I've resigned. That night, I thought my life would end miserably." As Kalea turned her head towards him, Gavin felt his chest slashed with a dagger over and over again. Bemoan.

"But apparently God still loves me, so He sent Karel to save me from that scary situation." Miraculously, Kalea looked better when Karel's name was mentioned.

"Gavin, I'm sorry that Karel hit you that morning. I know he's wrong, but please, I'm sorry. Please do not take the matter of the morning to a more serious stage. I-i"

This time, Gavin did not want to hear anything. He did not want to hear Kalea pleading with him for anything. So, after gathering all the courage he had, Gavin grabbed Kalea's hand and grasped it tightly.

"I'm sorry." Said Gavin, who immediately made Kalea's lips tightly clenched.

"I'm sorry you're in such a bad situation, Kalea. And about Karel, you don't have to worry. I know what he did that morning just because he wanted to protect you. I understand exactly how Karel feels." Because I feel the same way. I also have someone I want to protect to the best of my ability, Kalea.

"Thank you." Kalea was about to pull her hand from Gavin's, but the man held her back.

"Kalea, can I hug you?" that sudden question certainly left Kalea speechless a thousand languages.

"I know you want to cry right now. You just don't want me to see you cry. Let me hug you, so you can cry."

Kalea's hard-earned tightness instantly turned into drops of tears as her small body was embraced by Gavin. For the first time, Kalea felt how comfortable her broad shoulders felt for her shedding the tears she held for days. In Gavin's arms, Kalea cried without a sound.