Chapter 21: Rian’s Idea

While Dara was busy watching her favorite drama, I quietly went upstairs to meet Rian in his room. I knocked softly on the door. From inside, a voice told me to come in. Without hesitation, I opened the door and stepped inside.

“Hi, Rian,” I greeted him with a sweet smile that I deliberately put on.

“Come in, Frel,” he replied with a smile.

My gaze fell on Rian, who looked serious as he examined several stacks of documents on his work desk. I moved closer slowly.

“Busy?” I asked.

“Quite,” he answered after glancing briefly in my direction. “What’s up?”

He refocused on the documents, signing several sheets of paper with quick movements.

There should still have been two hours before his usual time to come home from the office. Could it be because of my request earlier?

I brushed the thought aside and walked toward the bed not far from his desk. I sat down, then grabbed a bolster and hugged it tightly.

“Nothing,” I said irritably. “Do I really need to have an important matter first just to be allowed to chat?”

Rian chuckled. He slid the chair he had been sitting on and placed it right in front of me. He sat facing me, a faint smile still lingering on his face.

“If there’s nothing going on, then why did you two end up arguing earlier?” he said while playfully pulling both of my cheeks until I winced.

“As for that…,” I said hesitantly. “Before telling you, I want to say thank you and apologize at the same time.”

“Alright. I accept the thanks. Now, what’s the apology for?”

I fell silent. Rian raised one eyebrow, waiting for my explanation.

A sudden wave of nervousness washed over me. This was not the first time I had been overwhelmed by guilt in front of him. My memory drifted to an old incident, when he had panicked while looking for his beloved fish that had disappeared from the aquarium, not knowing that I was the one who took it and gave it to a cat that was almost run over by a vehicle.

“I’m sorry,” I finally said. “Because of me, you ended up coming home from work earlier. When all I meant was to ask you to buy martabak on your way home later. There was no need to rush like this.”

“So that’s the only reason?”

I lowered my head and nodded slowly.

Rian immediately burst out laughing. “I thought it was something serious. Don’t act all melancholic in front of me. It doesn’t suit your face. Same with Dara. You two are more suited to giggling like unstable teenagers.”

I put on a sulky face. “Why do you have to call us unstable teenagers?”

Rian chuckled. “Don’t you realize? Every time you meet, it’s always gossip about handsome guys and plotting missions to confess your feelings. If that’s not unstable, then what is?”

He flicked my forehead. I reflexively rubbed it in annoyance.

“Huh. And who is the one who most often gives options on how to confess feelings?” I grumbled in protest.

His laughter grew even louder.

When he was not busy, Rian often joined in. In fact, it was not uncommon for him to offer various solutions to get closer to the guys we liked. Unfortunately, almost all of his ideas ended in embarrassing failures. Sometimes Dara and I even thought that he deliberately wanted to embarrass us with his weird and tacky ideas. What was even stranger was that we still carried out all of his suggestions. In the end, we would confront him, and he would only respond with loud laughter that sounded completely shameless.

“That’s why, don’t get too full of yourself,” he said casually. “Besides, before you sent that message earlier, I had already planned to come home early to study all of this.” He pointed at the stack of documents on his desk.

I let out a sigh of relief. Thank goodness he hadn’t come home early because of me.

Finally, I told him everything that had happened between Dara and me. About my meeting with Kevan, about Dara falling for Kenn, about how excited she was when she first met that guy. I also told him about the various plans Dara had that always failed before they could even be carried out, up to the incident when I unconsciously left her behind for Kevan and ended with Dara sulking throughout the entire class period.

Just as I had expected, Rian’s eyes widened, then he burst into loud laughter.

He moved onto the bed beside me, then rolled around while clutching his stomach. His laughter became more and more uncontrollable.

Suddenly, the bedroom door flew open hard. Dara stood in the doorway, breathing heavily, her face flushed red with anger. Her hand shot up, pointing straight at Rian without hesitation.

“Shut up. I heard everything.”

Instead of stopping, Rian’s laughter grew even louder.

Dara strode forward, grabbed the nearest pillow, and slammed it down onto Rian’s head.

“That hurts.”

“Good. That’s payback for laughing at me.”

The pillow struck again.

“Ouch. That hurts, Dara.”

“Too bad. Now take your punishment from me.”

Rian rolled to the side while covering his head with both hands. But Dara was no less agile. She followed his every move, making sure the pillow kept landing squarely on Rian’s head.

Thud.

Dara kept hitting him mercilessly. The sound of the blows was solid and loud. I started to worry watching them. Rian’s head might end up seriously hurt if this continued.

“Hey, I’m your older brother. Want me to curse you into being single for the rest of your life?”

“Do you dare?” Dara snorted. “You ugly toad.”

Thud. Thud.

Rian finally managed to scoot away. He raised his hands in surrender. “Okay, okay, sorry. I won’t laugh at you anymore. Now stop hitting me. I feel like a thief being beaten by a mob.”

Hearing that, Dara immediately stopped her attack.

“One more time you laugh at me, and it won’t be a pillow that does the talking,” she said sharply while raising her clenched fist right in front of Rian’s face. “Got it?”

Rian nodded quickly, trying to suppress the smile still lingering on his face.

“Do you want me to give you some tips on how to confess your feelings to the person you like?” he asked afterward. His tone turned serious.

I scoffed. “It’s probably the same old ideas.”

“This time it’s different, Frel,” Rian replied casually. “More creative and guaranteed to work. How about it?”

I wasn’t really interested. Ideas about how to get closer to Kevan were still swirling in my head. I just needed to wait for the right time. But Dara was clearly different. Her eyes immediately lit up the moment she heard the words idea and guaranteed to work.

In less than a few minutes, Dara had already jumped up and hugged Rian enthusiastically, nearly knocking him backward.

“Whoa, easy,” Rian protested. “So enthusiastic.”

“What idea? I want it. I want it,” Dara rushed, ignoring his protest.

Rian smiled mischievously. “But there’s a condition.”

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