As the morning drew to a close, the sun rose to a peak of increasing heat. It was half past eleven on the watch on Austin's wrist when the man checked it.
Actually, the purpose of Austin's visit to Kenan's boarding house was to discuss something important besides wanting to apologize—for his delay in coming to the cafe a few days ago. However, it ended with him chatting with Ersya, because, Kenan ignored him. Maybe the guy needs time, Austin thought so he didn't push.
In half an hour Austin will be home, back at the office. A field of money and employees awaited their boss. On top of that, he had to find a new assistant he could trust. Austin wanted to make Kenan his assistant, but he knew that the man would reject him outright.
While adjusting the two open wrist buttons of his shirt, and putting his tie back on—previously removed because it felt strangling, Austin thought maybe he would shower at the office after this and ask to be brought a new shirt and suit.
Even though Ersya had told Austin to shower at his place just as Ersya had told Kenan to shower in the morning. Before Austin could reply, Kenan interrupted by saying, "leave it alone, he can use the bathroom without permission if he wants to". And Austin immediately replied with, "Mas Kenan is right, he has told me to consider this boarding house as my own residence". And ended with Kenan snorting lightly.
Their gazes had met. And did Austin know—if it stirred any feelings in the older man, when Kenan looked at the pair of dark irises framed by the younger man's eye line.
Are you still angry with me, Kenan? I visited you very early in the morning, even though you didn't want to have a heart to heart talk. Austin muttered to himself.
Without a word, the next second Kenan left. Ersya opened her mouth even though not a word was spoken. Maybe she was still thinking about what to say or ask.
Austin opened a balcony door and stepped toward the man who still had his back to him. The back that was originally far away now looked closer as the distance disappeared. Austin could glimpse the grayish smoke rising slowly, then vanishing in the August wind.
"Stop smoking! It's not good for your health."
As soon as the words were spoken, his steps stopped right beside Kenan, who was bent over the balcony railing staring at the elementary school children in red and white uniforms coming home from school.
Instead of obeying, Kenan took another puff of his cigarette. Choosing to fill his lungs with nicotine rather than follow Austin's advice.
Austin smiled blandly. He said, "Don't ignore me like that! I came to the cafe but you weren't there."
Kenan exhaled a thick cloud of smoke from his mouth—along with the exhale of the man next to him.
"Alright, I'm sor ... ry." The stiff tone from Austin's mouth flowed along with the thick smoke that again billowed out of Kenan's mouth.
Next, Kenan turned his head toward Austin. Immediately, the half—unlit cigarette was snatched by Austin from Kenan's fingers. Just when he thought Austin was going to step on his cigarette again, the next second he was wrong. Austin pinched the end of the cigarette with his lips and took a long drag. They had indirectly kissed.
The bitterness of the smoke filled his mouth in between the sweetness. However, sweeter was the taste of Kenan's saliva which imprinted the tip of the cigarette slightly wet. Smoke escaped from Austin's slightly open mouth, and before the smoke was fully exhausted, the exit was tiredly closed using a light kiss from Kenan.
Suddenly, the cigarette pinned between Austin's two fingers just fell to the floor. Now they had kissed directly. In the ongoing kiss Kenan stepped on his cigarette. Austin's lips had become a bitter-sweet substitute for the cigarettes he had thrown away.
"Consider us even since I canceled my appointment without telling you." Kenan finally spoke, he paused for a few seconds, "maybe I'll make you do me wrong more often, so that I can hear the word sorry coming from your lips more often."
"I'm sorry," Austin said again, deliberately though quietly Kenan could still hear.
"You seem happy these days." Kenan commented after being content to ignore Austin.
"That's because I'll soon have—" his words trailed off, Austin looked at Kenan who was also staring at him.
Kenan's mouth opened as well-as if to continue Austin's sentence even though he didn't know what the man was going to say.
In an instant Austin changed his expression. "It's nothing," However, Kenan's eyes caught the movement of Austin's Adam's apple moving irregularly as if he was hiding a secret phrase in his throat.
Not wanting to know, Kenan didn't respond. He changed the subject to another direction. Kenan swallowed his saliva first before asking, "That video, did you delete it?"
Austin was silent, he knew very well what the man beside him meant by the words 'that video' the video stored in a USB. His eyes looked troubled as they met with Kenan's dark eyes. "Yes, I deleted it," Austin replied softly like a whisper.
However, that answer was a lie to not worry Kenan. However, instead it was his heart that was unsettled, because in fact Austin didn't even remember where he put the USB containing the video files after they were transferred from his laptop a few years ago.
Austin swallowed when he found Kenan staring right into his eyes probingly, he knew Kenan was looking for a lie in his eyes.
"You don't have to worry!" Austin assured. However, that provoked a different kind of smile on Kenan's lips.
"Shouldn't you be the one worried about it?" he asked lightly.
Austin gasped. Kenan continued, "I was right, wasn't I? Compared to you, I'm a nobody. The people who see the video if it spreads, they'll just say 'Oh, is that Pradipta's son?' Or 'His son is getting karma for what his father did in the past' After that, eventually everything will disappear."
" ... "
"But for you, a famous businessman, that video could tarnish your name, ruin your status. I'm right, aren't I?" Kenan raised one eyebrow. "Not only you, but everyone involved in the video is also implicated. The only son of the future heir to the Wistara Group, a young prosecutor, and finally the son of the owner of the entertainment agency, Star ID Entertainment."
Kenan sighed with relief, "The video has been deleted, there's nothing to worry about." Patting Austin's shoulder, he met their gazes and said, "Let's go home!"
*
"Kenan Pradipta, his last education only reached the high school level. As a transfer student from a public high school, he moved to a private high school in the second semester of grade 11 under the name Serge Keano as his parent. At the age of sixteen, in 2007 he was adopted as a foster child, his identity was also briefly included in the list of Serge Leon Keano's extended family right after the name Austin. Bandung is where his biological parents were born and raised. His father, Yahya Pradipta, works as an assistant chief financial officer. In 1995, his father disappeared and was named a suspect in the embezzlement of public funds. Afterward, his mother took him to Jakarta. However, three years later, in 2000, she died of illness. Since then he lived in an orphanage before Monsieur Serge decided to adopt him."
A man in a black leather jacket explains to Helena in the private room of a Japanese restaurant. The man continued, "One week before graduation he left the Keano family without a trace. Although Serge had sent his men to search for his adopted son, his whereabouts vanished like the earth. In the third year after a fruitless search, Serge finally gave up."
"Three years of searching and no trace? How could that be? Aren't the people he works with so professional." Helena said skeptically.
The man who was Helena's father's messenger shook his head, "It's not that he can't be found, but there is someone who is deliberately hiding Kenan's whereabouts. Some people I know from the underworld say they've met the same person but with a different name, he might have changed his name and moved around."
"Then you must know his name?" the woman asked impatiently.
"Kenny, Kenan has changed his identity to Kenny. He also worked in the underworld under Markus' hand."
Helena's eyes widened, "Markus ..." Hearing the name, the woman's hands clenched into tight fists until her fingernails dug into her palms.
Markus. How could she not know the man. He was the man who had nearly bankrupted her father's company until she was forced to marry Austin. After learning that Kenan had worked with Markus, Helena's mind was immediately hit by anxiety. Her mind recalled the video, which she thought was one of the reasons for Kenan's departure from Keano's family ten years ago. And now the man was back, certainly not without reason Kenan's return to Monsieur Serge, even approaching Austin, her husband.
If it had been any other woman, she would have been on the edge of her seat, overly anxious and probably calling her husband on the spot to warn him about Kenan. However, it was Helena, the woman was the smart type. After finding out what the relationship between Austin and Kenan was like two weeks ago, she was still trying to control her emotions. Acting like she knew nothing. And continued to let Kenan carry out his plan, while Helena had also devised a plan to get rid of Kenan.
Helena is actually a good woman. However, her love for Austin was too great for her to let her eyes go dark. It doesn't matter if it's a foster brother or a sibling. As long as the man could threaten the integrity of her household, she would also play cunningly like Kenan did, even she had prepared weapons in advance in case she had to go to war with Kenan in the future.
Forgetting the untouched sashimi on the table, Helena asked again, "Then, who are the people close to Kenan?"
The man whose full name was Fabian took out a few photos and placed them on the table next to my unappetizing appetizer.
"I didn't get much information overall." Fabian said.
Helena's hands immediately scooped up the four sheets of photos, scrutinizing the portraits of the figures inside.
The man continued unprompted, "Starting from the left, the medium-sized men are Ersya and Bisma, then a woman with shoulder-length dark brown hair and bangs named Freya. The last is Ivan Northman."
In the last photo Helena's gaze turns more calm, it can be seen from the look in her eyes looking at the photo of a man named Ivan Northman. The man who had confessed his feelings when he was in middle school and the photo of the woman next to him was Freya.
If I'm being honest, Helena had met that woman. When compared to her in matters of love, that woman was probably less intelligent than her, but Helena had to admit that Freya was more reckless when it came to action.
Thinking of that woman, her memory went back to one week ago.
—
The sound of black high heels tapping on the floor is the rhythmic accompaniment to the jazz music playing in the cafe. It was a hot afternoon, with the sun baking the earth's surface with scorching rays. Luckily, the air-conditioning is able to reduce the heat.
A woman's index finger tapped the table to the beat, boredom setting in as she waited for someone who hadn't arrived since the promised time of two minutes. However, soon the sound of her tapping fingers was accompanied by the sound of approaching steps. He immediately directed his attention to the figure of the owner of the steps, the woman he had been waiting for.
As she sat down on a chair, the woman who had just arrived said, "Did I keep you waiting, Miss Helena?" she asked with a faint smile.
The woman who had been waiting—Helena returned her smile. "Not really," Her brown eyes looked at the woman in front of her whose age was not much different from hers, so she said, "Just call me Helena. No need to call me Miss, Freya."
"So, what did you mean by asking me to meet?" Freya got straight to the point. Frankly speaking, this was her first meeting with Helena. She didn't expect the wife of a famous hotelier to want to meet her.
Helena smiled. "Don't be in a hurry," She reached for the cup of cappuccino that was cooling down and took a sip." You're prettier than some of the models who have worked at my fashion house. And yet ... why would Kenan dump a woman like you?"
The surprised Freya almost stood up from her position, "What's your relationship with Kenan?!" There was a hint of emotion in her question.
Helena smiled blandly and shook her head. "No, it's not me who has a relationship with him, it's my husband." There was a pause, Helena snorted. "Kenan secretly tried to take Austin away from me, he was even willing to get fucked like a whore."
At the end of the sentence, Freya could hear Helena's teeth chattering. She knew very well that the woman in front of her was furious even though she was still contracting her. Seeing the reaction from Freya in front of her who showed a casual expression, Helena then asked, "You're not surprised?"
Freya let out a long sigh, "It's not that I'm not surprised, but the news of his sleeping with men is no longer surprising to me." Freya's lips curved into a smile, "If he's sleeping with another woman, this both surprises me and makes me hate him." Her eyes narrowed as she said the word hate.
Helena wondered, what made this woman in front of her love Kenan so much? But it was normal to hear that the man she loved was sleeping with another man.
In the midst of Helena's thoughts about Kenan, Freya muttered, "So Kenan approached Austin so he could be used ..." And that was heard by Helena albeit quietly.
"What do you mean used?"
"Kenan is just using your husband, he won't take him away from you, you just calm down. Before it's too late, you should act now to separate the two. If you don't, it's likely that something bad will happen?"
"Something bad? What do you mean?" Helena's tone rose several octaves.
Freya was silent for a few moments, leaving Helena staring at her with intense curiosity. She couldn't wait to call out to the woman, "Freya!"
Freya's originally downcast gaze moved to stare at Helena. "Right now it hasn't happened yet, it's just a matter of waiting for Kenan to act. You must stage a coup with him, now."
Freya finally knows why Kenan would rather pay all of Markus' money that he embezzled than run away with him to Canada. The man she still loves has someone easier to use, Austin Keano.
—
"Is there anything else I should do, Madam?"
The question snapped Helena out of her reverie, "Nothing, just keep an eye on him from outside if he goes out with Austin." She ordered.
And Fabian nodded back.
[]