DEAR
Episode 2

The next morning, I was still chewing on my last piece of bread. Qhaza left early to keep his body fit, he ran to a school not far from my house. Qarima was five minutes later because he was an exemplary student and a member of the osis, he had to be on time. Moreover, since he was a member of the osis, he had to be ten minutes earlier than the other students, the school regulations said as such. I have to be at school at 7 a.m. Fifteen minutes or thirty minutes is fine, the school security guard is tired of scolding me every day, there is no punishment as long as it does not pass from 8.30. If it passes from that time, at least I am not opened the school gate. Even so I was quite happy, since I had a reason to go home early today. And now it's almost seven. Time off.

Pip's! Pip's! Pip's! Horn honking. Strange, when we had no other car but an old car driven by my father to the office and, father had already left. “I'm leaving!” I said to Lea who was watering flowers in the garden in the courtyard of the house.

“Soul waiting for you!” Said.

“Tiwa? Lea knew him?” Ask wonder.

“Sure! Because he's been living next door since you were little.”

“Really!?”

“Hmmm.”

“So he's not a zombie?”

“Zombie? What is zombie?”

“Living life.”

Pip's! Pip's! Pip's! The horn again.

“Not, he's not a zombie, he's our neighbor. He often brings food home!”

“Really?” I pretend to care. But I'm pretty relieved, at least he's not a zombie. “I'm leaving!” I said to Lea. I boarded Tiwa's car which was waiting in front of the gate of the house and we set off together for school.

The reason why I didn't know about Tiwa, wasn't because I was always in the room or because I just didn't remember, it was just that I wasn't interested in opening the door for anyone when there was someone else in the house. If no one, I have a habit of opening the door wide, they will understand if they are welcome to enter. Nor am I interested in knowing who is coming or who is going as long as it is not related to my comfort, they will not distract me as long as they do not talk to me, think of it like ‘whatever do whatever you like’. Besides, I'm not a good person to remember someone's name or face, if they look ordinary. That's why I don't have to bother hanging out with other people because a few minutes after parting I will definitely forget about it soon. It is a congenital disease, since childhood. But Tiwa is different, well she's already made a pretty stressful first impression, which is why I still remember her. Dan− is no different from yesterday, she is very chatty.

Tiwa teaches three classes, Monday and Saturday. We will always go and go home together in those three days. For an anti-social person like me, it makes me uncomfortable even though I'm not really distracted. But it doesn't matter, at least as long as it doesn't hurt me financially.

My English teacher was not present. I'm grateful that he didn't come, because he has a strange habit. At first he will ask us all, ‘already understand?’ ‘not yet pack!’‘Ah time does not understand ... understand ya?!’ then he nodded. Since he was not present, we were all directed to the library by the class president and studied there. I love books, even if I don't read them. I also like to read books even though the book doesn't make me smart (it's an adult term for a fairy tale, comic book or novel). The adult I am referring to here is a person who is thirty years old and above. I chose the book based on the cover image, based on the title and the type of writing. It does not matter whether the content is interesting or not─an important picture. I chose yahg book the title is written in English─Wishper of the Heart─bisikan hearts. I chose it because it was the thinnest book I could find. I started reading, sheet by sheet resolved. When it was on the last sheet, the story ended without completion. Damnit damnit! That's why I don't like books, because sometimes it leaves me curious.

I started looking for them on the bookshelves, I checked them one by one and didn't find them. I also looked for it in the library database, there was only one title of the book. Which I am currently holding. I looked out the window in annoyance.

“What are you looking for?” The class leader approached me. Suddenly, as usual.

“Book!” Reply potluck.

“I know it's a book, the title?” I showed you the book I was holding. I am not sure to say it, the article spelled English writing different from Indonesian. Shameful if wrong.

“Oh, student articles.” Mumbled.

“Student articles?”

“You don't know?”

I shook my head, the class leader looked astonished. “You are, actually in which world do you live? You see the shape? It doesn't look like a book in general, it's more like a paper, right!”

“Hmm. Meaning what?”

“That means─what do you not know if this school allows anyone to donate a book in any form from all its students, provided it is worth reading─and of its kind this book was written by a student!”

“Then?”

“You still don't understand?” The class leader squinted at me, then sighed softly. “If the book you are looking for is free writing, chances are you will not find the second edition, because the author has no obligation to write the continuation and bring it here.”

“So?”

“So ... You can first check it in the library database, all incoming books must be recorded there!”

“I did!”

“Then?”

“What pity! That means you'll never find it on the bookshelf either!”

“Then I have to how?”

“Ya .. not how-how. Do you really want to read it?”

“Ya, very want.”

“Very want until you can't eat and sleep out of curiosity?”

“I will definitely eat if hungry and sleep if sleepy!”

“True also.” The class president bowed his head and thought for a moment, “Begin .. You can meet the author!”

“Writer?”

“Check the cover, there must be written the name of the author.”

Then I checked the cover. Written, “Fairel, 2006.”

“There, right?” I'm nodding. “Next it's up to you to what about the author!”

Then I smiled and thanked him. “Thank you, class president.” I said sincerely.

“Chairman class? You just called me class president?”

“Ya!”

“Begini ya Leva, I am indeed the class president but that does not mean you have to call me class president, right?”

“Then I should call you with what?”

“Of course with my name!”

“By your name? So your name is not ‘chair class’?”

“Te-certain no!”

“Alright, Class Chair!”

“IT'S NOT MY NAME!” He yelled. “You really don't know my name?”

“Ya!” Reply firmly.

YAAAA?!!!!

I may be anti-social, but I quite know some of the conditions in social life that happen outside the home through television. I watch anime almost all the time at home, then read comics when eating or when the electricity is cut off during the day. Hence I know a little where when people have to shout loudly and where when they have to be quiet and calm, I learn it. Like in the K-On anime! People shout when there is a music concert, or as in the anime Guilty Crown, people shout when bombed and brutally shot by criminals. But I've never seen in any anime, if it turns out that people are screaming in the library. It's strange! And talk about anime─anime is a term for cartoons originating from Japan. I am a lover of Japanese cartoons, as well as Japanese comics.

Because of my answers just now, all my classmates began to swarm me, they were noisy enough for a good reader. Then start asking, “How about my name?” “If I, do you know me?” “I'm quite popular in class, you must know me?” “How about my face? I'm sitting next to you, you know me, right?” The various questions they asked me only needed one answer. “No!”

HAAAAA!???? Just incredible! They were really at once like they had been trained by a choir special trainer. “What do you mean by no? What for all of us?” Ask one of them.

“Ya!”

Silent. And ... WHATAAAA????

Not just his name, I don't even recognize their faces. Are we in the same class? I just found out now, it turns out there's a face like this in my class. They introduced themselves to me, one by one. Although none of them can be remembered in the next minute and I was sure the next morning I had forgotten their faces, all of them. Except the class leader, Gin Arsalan. He said, “You can call me Gin!” And he's a man, I just found out. And for the first time in my life, I met that many people. WOW!