"I didn't start the fuss," said Ali nonchalantly. His gaze was still fixed on mine.
I stared back at him until my eyes bulged with irritation, and when we were in standby mode like this, a fight between us was almost inevitable. I was prepared with various choices of words in case he started to offend me.
"Never mind, Zie. No need to prolong." Seri touched my arm, making my gaze drift to him for a moment.
I looked back at Ali again, but for some reason, the guy wasn't as inflamed as usual; he just smiled mischievously while looking at me with disdain. Ali ignored me and started counting the checklists we would use for data collection according to the number of family heads.
I immediately went back to my room to get what I needed for data collection later. I also put an umbrella in my bag because the weather was a little cloudy. I was afraid that suddenly it would rain heavily. Seri and Ani tried to cheer me up and asked me not to be angry with Ali because it was a mutual decision. They also requested that the commotion between us not be brought here; I just smiled wryly.
When I returned to the living room, it turned out that there were already two cadres who would accompany us. The plan is that one group of us will be accompanied by one cadre to collect data. We had met them in the village meeting hall earlier, so we no longer introduced ourselves.
After talking for a while, Seri and Airin's group collected data in their respective places. The cadres who accompanied Ria's group came soon, and they immediately said goodbye to collect data.
After Ria and her group left, just the two of us in the living room, the atmosphere between us was awkward; Ali and I were immersed in each other's busyness. I play with my phone and open my blue social media homepage to see my friends' status.
I turned when I felt Ali staring at me. I was pretty surprised when I saw his gaze as cold as before. My heart immediately beats fast when our gazes meet, especially when we both can't take our eyes in a straight line. This is precisely what I want to avoid from him, the uncomfortable feeling that hugs me tightly when I'm with him.
We were still staring at each other as a woman's crisp voice broke the silence between us and made me blush. We saw a woman standing at the door who knows how long.
"Assalamu'alaikum..." he repeated after we woke up from our shock.
"Wa'alakum salam," we answered almost simultaneously,
A woman of about thirty-seven, smiling, entered the living room. I stood up and greeted him with a shy smile, and I felt uncomfortable seeing his meaningful gaze on Ali and me. I looked at the beautiful woman with shoulder-length hair without letting go of my smile; it seemed I didn't see her at the village hall.
"I'm Santi, Mas, Miss," as if she could read my thoughts, and the woman introduced herself with a smile. "I will accompany Mbak and Mas to collect data at RT 4. Incidentally, I have not returned from the house of a relative who has a celebration,"
"Yes, ma'am. I'm Ali, and this is my friend Zie," Ali introduced ourselves to the girl.
We immediately invited him to sit down first and offered him a drink.
"Drink first, ma'am," I said, putting the glass of tea that was still intact in front of him.
"Later, mother just drank," Santi smiled again. "Where's mommy?"
"In the back, ma'am. I'll call you, okay?"
"Eh, you don't have to, sis. Let's go now, so it won't be too late because the place is quite far."
"Fine," Ali and I answered almost at the same time.
We immediately got up from our seats and walked out of the house after telling Mbok Tu. We walked along the cobbled streets and passed the homes of the locals that my friends were recording. The location we went to turned out to be a bit separate from other sites. After we walked to the far end of the house, we crossed the fields to the row of houses above us.
The road was getting up and uphill, making my breath begin to run out of breath. I tried to keep up with Mrs. Santi's fast pace but was always too behind., Ali, who was walking in front of me, occasionally turned around and smiled mockingly at me.
I stopped under a tree on the side of the road we were passing. The place we were going was the highest. From where I stood, I could see such a beautiful panorama, the city where I studied looks tiny from here, and what amazed me the most were the clumps of clouds that floated over the cornfields parallel to my feet.
I stopped for a moment to catch my breath while capturing the scenery around me. I asked Mrs. Santi to take my photos, and then with a little shyly, asked Ali to take my picture with Bu Santi. After taking pictures with Mrs. Santi, I asked Ali for my cell phone, but instead, he handed it to Mrs. Santi and asked Mrs. Santi to take a photo of the two of us. I immediately pouted while Ali chuckled at my expression.
"Come on, smile, sis." Mrs. Santi ordered.
I immediately raised the corners of my mouth and turned my back to Ali. The boy again laughed. Mrs. Santi immediately told me to face her and asked me to smile wider. Bu Santi took photos of us with different poses before finally continuing our journey.
While walking, I checked the photos that Mrs. Santi took earlier; it turned out that the shots were not inferior to professional photographers. I was surprised when I saw my pictures with Ali. In the photo, our poses look very intimate, like dating people. Even though I feel my pose is standard but looks very good in this photo. At first, I wanted to delete my pictures with Ali, but I feel sorry that the results were excellent.
After chatting along the way, I finally found out that Mrs. Santi is not originally from here but is a city person who got a husband from here and she also has photography skills, that's why our photos look so good because Mrs. Santi always takes the right moment when aiming my cellphone camera.
***