The Love of Habib
Chapters 17.1

In the pesantren cottage staff office, there is a room devoted to guests or meetings. Because the room is deliberately made large and spacious, sometimes this room is often used for hearings in boarding schools when faced with serious cases. Just like today, this room was already filled with many people. No matter men or women, they gathered in the room without mixing.

Fortunately, the hearing was conducted this morning and only gathered staff. If done after returning to school, this place must have been crowded with students and students.

This morning's trial was indeed very frightening, a lie if Aish did not feel afraid or nervous. No, his reaction was the same as his two best friends. But he tried to organize his mood so as not to be seen by his two friends, controlling himself to stay calm. He also has a plan for this trial. Obviously, in front of the habib where he might want to lose his dignity. He must show that he is a good santriwati and virtuous in this congregation.

"Come in."

The three of them were brought into the room.

Aish noticed the room was quite spacious. Inside that sat only Umi and Abah, while the others stood around the room.

"Lho, this is the monkey?" Dira stared strangely at the sight of the naughty man here.

Aish and Gisel instantly recognized the man's back. Standing in the middle of the room facing Umi and Abah, the boy's back looked weak.

Looking at the boy, Aish smiled obliquely, "He was the one who complained to the boarding school yesterday. He said we ran away from the boarding school, so we were chased yesterday." Aish whispered to the two of them.

Hearing this, Dira's expression was instantly grim.

"Damn it, how dare he talk nonsense about us. Who wants to escape? Obviously he was the one who wanted to run away from the cottage! Why would he bring someone else's motorcycle?" Mumbled Dira wrathful.

His eyes glared fiercely at the back of the boy, said Khalif, he was the one who made the false report so that the three of them were chased by many people yesterday.

Due to the panic the three of them had an accident, fortunately it was only a small accident so it did not have a big impact. If Dira is not careful, then it does not rule out the possibility that they will have a major accident.

"Okay, don't be angry. We can talk about it here now." Gisel shook Dira's arm to close her mouth.

They were carried into the middle of the room, standing parallel to the Caliph at a distance of xua meters away.

"Everyone has come?" Ask Abah in front of them.

"Already, Abah. The parties involved have arrived. But we couldn't find the owner of the bike so we couldn't bring him here to testify." A young man spoke beside Abah.

They've been looking from yesterday, wondering who the citizens who owned this bike. But residents do not know it so for a while the motorbike is still being held in the boarding school because it is not yet known who the owner is.

Abah nodded lightly, "Let's see you. It's a precious thing." Abah said.

Ustad nodded lightly full of respect, "I've made arrangements and asked the santri to continue searching."

After speaking, the young man re-enforced his back and stood straight beside Abah's chair. Apparently the oustad was a confidant of Abah in the boarding house.

I don't know what prayer Abah said, because both Aish and his two best friends don't understand at all. They simply stood obediently in front of everyone waiting for this matter to be discussed.

"Yesterday there was an accident near our boarding school. The people who had an accident were three sisters who came from our boarding school. Someone reported that they wanted to escape from the boarding school with a motorbike of a resident in this area." His old eyes turned to look towards the Caliph.

"Sir Khalif, please explain what happened yesterday." Abah instructed the Caliph to repeat what happened yesterday.

The Caliph straightened his back after being called Abah. His handsome face was now even more charming as his lips formed a reassuring smile.

"Good, Abah. Yesterday I got permission to go out to buy necessities outside the boarding school. The plan is I want to buy additional sarongs again because there are some of my sheaths are too worn and not worth wearing anymore. While walking to one of the shops in front of the boarding school, I saw some santriwati behaving strangely. They were walking around on the side of the road as if afraid of being seen by the people of the cottage. Suspicious, I followed them from behind and was shocked to see them picking up the parked motorbike by the side of the road. I don't know who the owner of the bike was because when it was taken, the owner wasn't there. But one thing is certain that I know that the bike is not theirs. I was so scared and hurriedly went to ask the people for help in the boarding-house"

"Lied!" Shouted Dira could no longer bear to hear his false testimony.

Motor people?

Right, it belongs to people! But the first person to wear it was the Caliph! But why did he tell me the story as if the bike was first invented by the three of them?

Very fake!

Very fake!

"Umi and Abah, monkey boy - I mean this man gave false testimony to all of you. It's true we used the bike, but we didn't intend to steal it! The first time the bike was used was yesterday. I think he stole people's bikes which is why I pretended to threaten him on the street yesterday. And this is what I do not understand from his testimony. He left as soon as I threatened, leaving the bike by the side of the road. We were in a hurry to get to the market and there were no taxis passing by so I decided to borrow the bike. The bike really only wanted us to borrow to the market, but why did he testify that you took someone else's bike when he brought the bike first? And also Abah, where did he get the conclusion that we wanted to escape from the boarding house? Fine, we do admit that we are new children who have not taken religion seriously. Since coming to the cottage, there have been many problems that we caused. But that was a month ago when we came here recently. Maybe you guys will find it hard to believe, even though we were forced to live here very comfortably now, so where could we possibly escape from the boarding house? We were so angry to hear it. Obviously we wanted to go to the market to buy something but misunderstood the run from the boarding house, this is slander!" Dira spoke out loud with an excited spirit.

He was greatly challenged by the false testimony of the Caliph and had ambitions to bring him down. It's delicious, he thought. What sins did he have to the Caliph that made him give false testimony. Is it because he caught Khalid snooping at the school?

Iyeakah?

Too childish!

Khalif glanced at Dira sharply, looking very angry, "What empty muzzle are you talking about?!"

Dira was very surprised by his sharp tone of speech. For a moment, his mouth shriveled unable to utter a word.

"Omong empty? You clearly know if what he's saying is nonsense or not. Umi and Abah," Aish switched to picking up the talk box.

He turned his attention to look at Umi and Abah with a calm expression. Naturally this light and calm demeanor earned a good point in the hearts of the people.

"Yesterday's accident was our fault. Without permission from the cottage, the three of you are reckless to go to the market with someone else's motorbike. But believe me, the bike was not stolen but borrowed. It's just that we didn't know the owner at the time because the bike was just abandoned by this man. Panicked and pressed for time, the three of us desperately used it. We did not know that this man had already called many people to chase after us. Abah and Umi could imagine how shocked we were when they found out that a group of people running also chased after us for no reason. We were so scared that we ended up in an accident. Fortunately we just fell into the rice fields so as not to endanger the lives of the three of us or the people on the road. Umi and Abah, these allegations are not true. The three of us knew this mistake, and we were also willing to fix the bike and the rice fields we damaged, he said, but we were completely unwilling to accept the accusations from him because we really did not want to escape from the boarding house. Please give us all three justice."