Nicotine fumes were blowing out of the mouth of a man who was sitting on a comfortable sofa located in an abandoned building not far from Caius Ballad High School, a favorite private high school in East Jakarta.
He hummed a little, singing the song Lily from Alan Walker while continuing to exhale the smoke of pleasure from his respiratory tract. The reassuring solemn atmosphere didn't last so long that the continuous vibrations of the cell phone he had placed on the small table ruined it.
The man picked up the phone call and pressed the speaker icon, still leaning against the comfortable sofa he was sitting on.
"Say it," said Aldy, the man who has been almost forty minutes sitting comfortably in his throne chair.
A shaky voice mixed with panic spoke from across the line. "So-sorry, we lost."
Aldy slowly exhaled the nicotine fumes. "Hmm ... Okay."
Without further ado, Aldy disconnected the phone and threw away his cigarette in a random direction. He got up, stretched his stiff body a little, and took the iron pipe that was not far from where he was. Walk out of the abandoned building whose walls are covered in spray paint and head straight to the place where a gang fight between his school gang and a gang from another school is taking place.
Less than ten minutes walk, they were there. Dozens of Caius Ballad Private High School students were seen lying on the grass-less field, while dozens of other students in different school uniforms were excited about reasons that he didn't know yet.
Aldy approached them--dozens of students in different school uniforms--alone. And without warning, Aldy hit the iron pipe that he had been carrying, right on the heads of the first three people he faced.
As if they were hit by a storm that came from nowhere, Aldy wiped out the dozens of his opponents mercilessly, alone. A breaking bone after bone, draining the blood bit by bit from his enemies. The battle between Aldy and dozens of people at once was brutal. Until finally, only a man stood up, while the dozens of people who had previously been his opponents were lying unconscious around him.
The man who didn't even smile at the victory he had achieved with his own hands, just stared blankly at the sky after dropping the iron pipe covered with blood from his right hand.
Aldy continued to stare at the vast blue sky above his head, which at that time was not blocked by the slightest cloud. The sharp rays of the sun did not bother his eyes in the slightest.
Aldy took a deep breath. In his mind, he only thought about one thing. "Reen, when will you be able to see this bright sky?"
Reen is a nickname for his sister, Maureen Gabriella. Or you could say, the daughter of Heri, the man who adopted Aldy from a juvenile prison and invited him to live together. Yep. Maureen is not Aldy's biological younger sister. Aldy was originally just an orphan who grew up on the streets. Both of his parents died as a result of being tortured by debt collectors, thanks to his father's habit of gambling, leaving them with mounting debt.
Aldy also joined a gang of thugs in the area around where he lived when he was much younger, until he was betrayed by people he trusted so that Aldy had to spend a little of his teenage years in prison. He spent hard days in a place that contained delinquents of his age until finally, someone came and guaranteed his freedom on the condition that Aldy had to stay and live together with him.
That person was Heri Wijaya, someone who claims to be an old friend of his late father and also the biological father of Maureen Gabriella, a girl who has been lying in a coma in the hospital for a year due to an accident that happened to her. Although her fate was not as bad as her mother, who had to lose her life over the accident.
Maureen's parents had been divorced for a long time, about four years, and Maureen chose to live with her mother. And a year ago, when he heard the news that Maureen was hospitalized, it was the first time he had seen his only daughter again. And now, thanks to Heri's adoption of Aldy, he is now Maureen's older brother.
Aldy's cell phone vibrated again. When he checked it, it turned out that it was a call from Heri, his adopted father.
Aldy picked up the call and put the cell phone screen to his ear.
"Son, where are you?"
"Not far from school. Why?" Aldy asked back while kicking the face of his enemy who had just regained consciousness from fainting, making that person unconscious again.
"Are you fighting again?" Heri asked, in a slightly surprised tone because it had been a long time since Heri heard of Aldy joining a fight. Or even a massive school gang's fight.
"Yeah. Actually, I was lazy enough to do this. But my school gang had just been defeated. So, like it or not, I do have to step in."
"But, are you okay?" Even though he is not a biological child, Heri already thinks that Aldy, who is his adopted son, is like his own child. So, it's natural that he feels worried about Aldy because it has been a long time since he heard the news that Aldy was involved in dangerous things such as fights with other school students.
"Don't worry," replied Aldy with a cigarette sandwiched between his index and middle fingers. "You know yourself, that I can take care of myself better than anyone. Then, why did you call me again?"
"It's about your sister."
"Maureen? What happened to her?"
"She is awake. Now she is looking for whose voice she heard during her coma. She is looking for the owner of the voice who always accompanies her almost all the time. She's looking for you, Dy. Can you come now?"
A smile rose from Aldy's lips. Yep, a very rare smile was painted on the face of Rizaldy Pradipta, a second-year Caius Ballad High School student nicknamed the Caius Ballad Untouchable-Men, the most respected person from the cruelest school gang among other school gangs in the area.
Aldy looked up again at the sky after disconnecting the call with Heri.
"Reen ... it looks like you'll be able to see what I'm seeing now."