Chapter 48: Chapter 48

"Why are you smiling like a crazy person, Nez?" Ghea turned her head to the side, where her best friend was sitting, smiling like she had just gotten twenty billion dollars. Realizing that her words were being ignored, Ghea nudged Inez's arm.

"What the hell, Ghe? Why?" Inez gasped and asked a stupid question. Her eyes blinked. "Did Mrs. Iis come? Where is she?" Inez glanced around, looking up to see if her teacher was really in the classroom.

Inez complained softly, then threw an annoyed look at Ghea. "There's no Mrs. Iis either," she mumbled.

Ghea was so angry, she wanted to kill Inez if it wasn't a sin, and she went to the law. How could she not, Inez was really annoying and made her emotions start to rise to the surface, even though it was still noon. According to Ghea, it was still too early to let out her anger.

"Nez, can I hit your head with a hammer?" asked Ghea, who was already holding back her own anger.

Inez looked at Ghea while glaring super sharply. "Are you crazy? Do you think my head is a coconut that needs to be smashed?" Inez sneered softly.

"But you're so annoying! I didn't tell you that Mrs. Iis was coming, and then you smiled to yourself the whole time, and the worst part is that you didn't even listen to me. Is it wrong that I want to throw you into the frog pond behind the school?" She rolled her eyes lazily.

"Did you ask me to talk? When? How did I hear that?"

"No, I didn't ask you to talk. I asked you to go to the cafeteria." Ghea answered simply because she was too annoyed with her best friend. The early morning had made her irritation bubble uncontrollably.

"Cafeteria? But it's not broken yet, Ghe. The first period hasn't started yet. You haven't had breakfast at home? Then let me take you to the cafeteria! Don't let you faint and disturb the—"

"INEZ!" Ghea spontaneously shouted, cutting off Inez's long, unfinished speech.

Inez's lips pressed together instantly, her eyes blinking in confusion. "Why Ghe? Why are you shouting?"

"Yes, because you've been so annoying!" Ghea replied quickly. "You didn't understand what I meant. Never mind, I don't want to make a fuss in the morning. My brain is burning, I'm going to take a nap, bye!" Ghea laid her head down on the table. Her eyes closed.

Inez's lips chuckled softly, "What is this trance? How strange!" Inez shook her head in disbelief. After that, she didn't care about Ghea anymore, and Inez chose to dwell on her thoughts again.

Oh yeah? Where did you get there? Inez thought for a moment, then remembered, and her lips painted a beautiful smile. The memory of that night with Cakra, played neatly and coherently inside her skull. And Inez, will not forget that moment. She would keep it as long as possible, putting it in the corner of her memory so that she would always remember it, whenever.

After she was satisfied with imagining the incident, Inez refocused on her surroundings. She glanced at Ghea, who did not move at all. Inez took a long breath. "Are you really sleeping?" she muttered softly.

"Attention friends!"

Inez's head snapped up, she turned her face towards the front, when suddenly the voice of her classmate, more precisely the class president, was speaking loudly. Inez glanced at Ghea, wondering whether or not to wake up her best friend. However, Inez shrugged her shoulders, choosing to let Ghea swim comfortably in her dreams.

"Mrs. Iis is absent today," continued the class leader, a second after which a cheer went up. The students who were relatively lazy in attending lessons, like Inez, of course, were very happy, like they had just gotten a treasure of gold. However, the smart and ambitious students had a different response. Instead, they were annoyed, grumbling, and clucking their tongues at the empty hour.

"Husss! Shut up first!" The class leader told his class to be quiet by putting his index finger to his lips. "Don't let our voices reach the next class and disturb them. We'll get reprimanded." After the class was quiet again, he continued. "So guys, Mrs. Iis is absent because she has started her maternity leave. For next week, Mrs. Iis's class will be replaced with a new teacher temporarily until her leave is over. And don't be happy yet! We have homework to do."

Sighs of disappointment escaped from all the children, including Inez, who immediately stomped her feet under the table because she was too lazy to fill in the answers to the questions from the assignment. However, this would be a very pleasant thing for the diligent, smart, and ambitious student.

"The problem is in the textbook, the assignment is collected no later than before school. But, the sooner, the better. And as the class leader here, I ask Ronny and Bobby to get the textbooks from the library."

The two boys, who were told by the class leader, immediately went to get the books at the library, which, coincidentally, was not too far from their class.

Inez was already overwhelmed by the number of assignments. She wouldn't be able to do it. Really, Inez had thrown up her hands and raised the white flag. She gave up.

With a long sigh, Inez glanced at Ghea again. "Oh well, this kid is still late too." Inez smiled wryly, then she started patting Ghea's shoulder. "Ghe, wake up, Ghe! I have a lot of work to do."

Inez's first attempt failed. Ghea didn't move an inch from her deep sleep, so Inez couldn't help but do it again to get Ghea to wake up. Presumably, Ghea's dreams had traveled all the way to Europe.

"Ghea, come on and wake up! There's as much work as your sin to be done." Inez shook her body harder while increasing the volume of her voice.

And it worked!

Ghea squirmed for a moment, until she finally lifted her body and rubbed her eyes. Ghea moaned softly, then looked up at Inez with her eyes closed.

"Why Nez? Are you ready to go home?"

"Coming home? It's just the start of class, Ghea! You were just sleeping. That's why I don't know about this. Hurry up and wash your face!"

Instead of obeying Inez, Ghea asked a question. "Where's Mrs. Iis Nez?

"She's already on leave, Mrs. Iis is heavily pregnant. Our job now is to answer the questions. The book is being picked up, please wait."

Ghea just nodded her head.

"While you're waiting, you should wash your face first. That way, you won't get sleepy. How come you're already sleepy this early in the morning?"

"I slept because of you!" Ghea replied. Then she stood up from her seat. "Alright, move aside, I'm going to the toilet."

"Why am I the one being blamed?" Inez pointed at herself. But, Ghea ignored Inez, instead, she walked to the class president's bench, asked for permission like her, and then Ghea stepped out of the classroom.

Since the assignment was due at the latest in the afternoon before school, Inez felt that the next two hours were her golden time. It was useless for Inez to work on problems, not only because she couldn't, but also because she was too lazy to try to solve a problem just to find the right answer.

There was Ghea and her classmates, whom she could persuade to cheat on their answers. And finally, wandering outside the classroom was Inez's choice.

"I'm going to follow Ghea, accompany her to the restroom. It's okay, right?" Inez first asked the class president for approval.

"Yes, but don't go out afterward!"

It seemed like the class rep was well aware of Inez's behavior. Inez grimaced for a moment, then grinned softly and nodded. "Okay, I'll go out first then."

***

What Inez said did not match what the girl did. Instead of turning left to go to the restroom, Inez took another route. She walked in the middle of the corridor alone because other classes were still in session. Until finally, Inez chose to go to the cafeteria. Suddenly, her stomach wanted to eat pempek.

"There's nothing wrong with going to the cafeteria, right?" Inez muttered quietly, her feet quickly stepping towards the place. Of course the cafeteria was quiet! Inez would have no trouble ordering just one portion of pempek.

Inez finally chose the far end of the bench when her order came. Inez ate it with gusto. She was so focused on the pempek in her bowl that she didn't realize someone was sitting in front of her.

The boy in front of Inez smiled at Inez, who was focused on eating. Inez, who finally realized that there was someone in front of her, immediately looked up and jumped a little in surprise.

Inez coughed softly, and she hurriedly took her hot tea and drank it. After finishing, Inez glared widely. "Why are you here?" With a voice that was almost akin to shouting, Inez looked around her. It wasn't time to rest yet.

"Am I forbidden to go to the cafeteria? Are you the only one who's allowed?" The boy in front of Inez chuckled softly.

Inez snorted rudely. "There are plenty of benches, right? Look around you. There are more than ten empty benches. Why are you sitting here?"

"There's you, Nez, I want to sit here. Together with you. Don't get angry with me. I won't do anything to you."

"Get out of here, or shall I?" said Inez angrily. She glared, "Listen to me, Rian, I don't like having you around. Do you understand me?

Rian smiled instead. "Don't be angry, Nez, just sit down. I'll accompany you to eat."

"I don't need it! I already know how you look when you want to get close to me."

"What is it, Nez?" Rian baited Inez while chuckling softly.

"What else is there besides trying to force me to be your girlfriend? Remember, I won't be interested in being your girlfriend forever. Got it?" Inez gritted her teeth furiously, before she kicked the table with such force that her emotions came out brutally. Inez's breathing was already ragged.

With long strides, the girl with the beautiful flowing hair walked out of the cafeteria.

"All this time you've been rejecting me," Rian said suddenly, making Inez's steps stop for a moment. Rian smiled because he succeeded in preventing Inez from staying in place. Rian took a deep breath, then continued. "But Nez, you never gavqe me a clear reason why you didn't want to be with me."

In that instant, Inez turned around. Her eyes, which were so sharp and piercing, pierced right into Rian's eyes. Inez, whose position was not too far from Rian, then took a deep breath, her lopsided smile printed so clearly on her lips. "Reason? You want my reasons why I don't want to date you?"

"Yeah, I need that." Rian nodded.

Inez smiled wryly. "Kara." After saying that one word, Inez could see that the look on Rian's face was one of confusion. Without saying anything more, Inez walked away at an accelerated pace, avoiding the possibility of Rian bombarding her with more questions.

Inez didn't care about her pempek and hot tea, her appetite was gone, and the reason was none other than Rian. Because of that boy, Inez didn't want to stay in the cafeteria for long. And Inez finally decided to go back to class instead.

Rian was still sitting in the cafeteria chair, thinking about what Inez had just said. He thought for a long time, until finally his eyes widened. Rian remembered the name Inez had just mentioned. Rian shook his head weakly, there was no way Inez would reject him just because of the name she mentioned just now.

Choosing to return to class, Rian walked casually with his hands stuffed into his pants pockets. Until finally, Rian's eyes found Ghea, who was walking a few meters ahead of him. Rian immediately went after Ghea, his steps speeding up.

"Ghea!" Rian called out, his voice sounding loud. Ghea, who heard him, stopped her steps.

Ghea circulated her vision, until finally, when her net found Rian, who was running towards her, Ghea felt that her heart was beating fast. There was no doubt that Ghea's heart would always swell when she met that boy, it was soothing, even though Ghea sometimes felt hurt when Rian kept talking about Inez.

"Rian? What's wrong?" Nervously as soon as her older brother, whom she secretly loved, stood in front of her with a smile.

"It's okay, I just saw you by accident. Where are you going?" asked Rian.

"I'm going to class, I was just out of the toilet. Do you need me?" A second after asking that question, Ghea realized that she shouldn't have asked it. Of course, Rian had something to discuss with Inez. Ghea already knew and memorized it. Ghea grimaced unpleasantly. "Do you want to ask about Inez again?"

Rian frowned.

Ghea sighed rudely, she thought she should settle this matter right now. For some reason, Ghea felt hurt when the discussion between her and Rian always led to Inez. Yes, Ghea knew that she was nothing to that guy. But, her heart would hurt even more if she just kept quiet.

"Before that, I want to apologize to Rian." Ghea looked up, staring at Rian's face with her heart thundering. "I don't think I can help you with Inez anymore, I'm sorry, I can't anymore. I'll go to class first." Inez immediately resigned, then walked with quick steps.

"Ghe, are you angry with me?" asked Rian.