He pulled out a chair and sat down,right in front of me.
For a while, my mind stalled.
My entire body felt hollow, as if my soul had slipped out of me.
Was this real?
Then his gaze lifted.
His eyes met mine, and that was the moment I began to exhale, and the breath I hadn’t known I was holding finally escaped.
As soon as our eyes met, I was that girl again. The one who cried all night, staring at the stars above my room, gripping a phone that was never answered.
My fingers clenched around my pants.
Even after ten years, he still had this grip on me.
We grew up in Jakarta, and we breathed its air for over a decade.
Zioh, Zeraiah, Tsabinu, and I.
Wasn’t it ironic? This capital city of Indonesia teemed with millions, but among them, fate brought together those destined to be apart.
Jakarta, and we shared one thing in common. Just as it had become a former capital, we too had become a—
Past tense.
My body started to quake. “Z… Zioh…” I whispered, almost inaudible.
The man sitting in front of me was Zioh Hadyan Danudara.
My ex–best friend,not only that,but he was also my ex–fiancé.
Before he left without a word.
2
Tshabina
“Dek, where are you? I’m already in your office parking lot.” After waiting more than twenty minutes, Tsabinu decided to call me again after dozens of unanswered calls he’d made in the past hour.
Ever since Andi told him I went out with Aditya, my twin brother had bombarded me with calls and texts. I’d often confide in him about how Aditya’s actions made me uncomfortable at times, and now, even though he rarely met my boss, he seemed to share the same dislike.
But Tsabinu didn’t know that the real storm in my chest tonight wasn’t about Aditya at all.
It was Zioh—Zioh Danudara.
I sat dazed, unable to properly process what just happened.
After ten long years, I met him again. The man I had tried reaching out to for five years, the one leaving my texts unread for a whole decade. And now… he was truly here.
Wherever I went, whatever I did, his shadow had always been there, without fail, without fading. The scent of cedarwood and vetiver was everywhere, in the worst possible way.
And what cut me the most was that those deep brown eyes hadchanged. Once, they would always light up when they saw me, glowing with warmth, like the morning sun spilling over my skin. But now…
They looked at me with coldness, seeping into my skin, as if I were standing bare in winter.
Even though I had no idea why.
