REMEMBER ME?...
The Part 70
Vano and Kiara could only grimace for a moment before they finally both laughed.
“Yes! You can't help yourself from your friends but you're helping a cat without getting off. You're it's really something, you know?” Vano.
“But doesn't that matter? I have you who will take care of me. So I don't have to take care of myself!” reply Kiara.
Vano. “What if one day I go?”
Kiara tickled back. “Cannot be. You won't last a day without me.”
And hearing that, they laughed again.
Jakarta, 2006
Vano and Kiara re-enter the same high school. Perhaps more precisely Kiara who re-entered the same school as Vano because Vano certainly had entered the school first. In high school, Kiara's figure was already a little more mature. The girl is no longer silent if someone has a problem with her, and she begins to be independent.
In high school, Kiara was introduced by Brian, who had been a close friend of Vano since the first grade. And in the short meeting, the three can immediately make friends.
Seoul, 2007
As Kiara enters the second grade, Vano and Brian enter high school. Fortunately, their school was in the same area so they still met often. For this year, Vano felt there was a change in Kiara. The little girl he knew back then was a tomboyish little girl with short hair or hair tied one back. But this time, Kiara looked different.
When he first met her, during her graduation ceremony during junior high school, Vano first saw Kiara's long hair draped with the girl wearing a bando that was the same color as her shirt. It was the middle of spring, and seeing Kiara change under the cherry blossom cluster did not make things better.
Because it was at that moment that Vano realized that he liked Kiara.
Jakarta, 2008
Vano. He ran with all his might. It feels like dejavu. All looks the same as a few years ago, when he ran in elementary school just to look for Kiara. Now it's almost the same. It's just that the difference is that the girl is no longer a bully and Vano is not sure what happened. That's why he was more worried this time.
He gets word while he is in his room, that his sister asks Kiara whereabouts to him who has not come home and cannot be contacted. Armed with instinct, Vano was reckless to run to meet Kiara wherever he was.
A few dozen minutes of running, he arrived at the Kiara school. He intended to enter the gate that—untungnya—still open when he saw someone sitting at a bus stop not far from there. The Vano approached him, and sure enough. It was Kiara.
But the view he saw was not pleasant.
The girl's body was full of bruises. He's battered. There was a blue mark on the tip of his lips until his lips were swollen, his hair was messy, even his uniform was full of dirt.
“Kiara!”
The girl turned her head and only grimaced to see Vano's whereabouts there.
“Yes, what else happened to you?!” Vano panicked while sitting next to Kiara. He pulled the girl's face, watched her closely, then pulled Kiara's arm and observed the other wounds on the girl's body.
“So there's a classmate who's in trouble, so I'll help you. But I was hit by a few blows.. hehehe..”.
“Then how is it?”
“The child was hurt a lot! Even worse than me, it turns out that bully is creepy, huh! I can't think of—“
“How are you doing? Where else did the injury you got? Where else does it hurt?!”
Kiara was silent for a while before finally answering, “I. It's nothing much.” He said with a smile.
Vano. “Then why don't you go home? That way your wounds will be healed, right? Ought—“
“I'm waiting for you.” Cut Kiara.
Vano.
“My phone battery is off, so I can't reach you. I'm ashamed to go home alone like this. But I believe you will definitely come looking for me. So I waited for you.” Continue the girl.
Vano released his grip on Kiara's shoulder as well as sighed. “Kiara, listen to me.” Kiara raised her eyebrows, preparing to listen. “What if I don't come? Aren't you going home?”
“But you came—“
“Not that I mean.” Cut Vano. “You have to study independently, Kiara. I'm not gonna be here forever to help you, to find you, to keep you company, you know? You must learn to overcome shame and fear itself. Imagine how hard you'd be if you kept going like this for a few more years. I'll be entering university soon, and can't stay by your side.”
Kiara fell silent. His head was bowed in.
Vano nodded once more. He turned around and turned his back on the girl. “Get to my back. Can you walk? For this time alone, I will tolerate your independence. Come!”
The House of Kiara, 2008
A few weeks after the incident, Vano again got bad news about Kiara. The girl apparently tried to hide this news from a year ago, but unfortunately her mother had already told Vano's mother until it finally reached Vano's ear.
Kiara's sick. And it's not an ordinary pain. There is a special gene in Kiara that makes the girl suffer from pulmonary emphysema.
Vano has searched the internet, and from the results of his search, the disease is not good. Generally, the disease is for smokers, which makes the bulkhead between their lungs thin so they will have difficulty breathing and the only way to overcome it is to take medication regularly or if it is severe, severe, then surgery is the only way out.
His mother said that the emphysema suffered by Kiara is still in the early stages, so all the girl needs is treatment with ordinary drugs.
But still, it made Vano again worried so that the man immediately went to Kiara's house and approached the girl who was in the garden behind his house, drawing something.
“Oh, Vano! See what I drew? Draw you! Is my picture good?” kiara said while showing the results of the picture.
Vano ignored the girl's question and stood right in front of Kiara. “You... pain?” he felt stuck when he said the last word.
Kiara smiled and nodded. “I... turned out to be very weak, didn't I?”
Vano did not answer. He then sat on one of the chairs there, right in front of Kiara, only to be blocked by a round wooden table located in the middle. The man then took a picture of Kiara and smiled.
“Your picture is very good, Kiara.” The compliment. “And no.. You are not weak Kiara Kusuma, you are special.”
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