"Are you serious?" She asked with a red face. He thrust the ring in front of her, nodding as if someone had submitted a business proposal. Dumbfounded was the blonde woman, staring at the ring like water that pooled, damaging the dam. "B-but I don't know, Naufal. I- I have ..." An ellipsis. Breath blew from her nose.
Maybe, just maybe he thought that her mind would go to the word "yes" without any significant conflict in her heart. However, if Naufal knew how unexpected this engagement might be. "Think carefully, Jackie. He has been your friend for so long, you even dated him. But also, Marco had come all the way from the opposite dimension, I can't reject his love for me, the one buried for so long. Aaaaaah, what should I do?!" Thus was the woman's monologue. She looked at the ring like a fool. She can't determine whether this is yes or no answer. Naufal waited with a smile as if drawn by someone struck down with Parkinson's, unsteady, uncertain.
The Osso Bucco that Jackie had ordered froze, releasing the sway of its atoms into the air, cold as if blown by the wind. Water ran down her cheeks, but Naufal did not hear a single sob. "Jackie? What's the matter? " he asked. His eyebrows began to fuse, tying his forehead. "Fal, I ... I don't know what to say," she replied with a tremble. He swept her tears, slowly rubbed his cheek, a woman, in her 20s from California. "It's okay to say 'no,' Jackie Lynn Thomas," said Naufal. He could read her cry, the conflict inside her heart is expressed from the tremble of her shoulder, rubbed with his left hand, decorated with gold. Naufal's smile was swept away by the cold in the Dago area, only a step away from ITB, where he took his degree, whilst Jackie took a master's degree at Padjajaran University. Both have become friends - even dated, at one point – for so long. Initially from Instagram, as a result, begat to them this moment.
"I know your feelings, Jackie. If I were you, I would be confused too. Marco must also want you to return to his arms. Is he here because he loves Star? Certainly not," he explained. The tears change to anger, anger at herself. "Slap me right now! Don't you know how confused I am ?! Love is not a real thing that can be processed by logic, it is emotional! I can't choose! Slap me, Fal!" She fell weak at the restaurant. She lost fighting with herself. Naufal hugged her tightly, letting Jackie spill his emotions and tears into his coat. "Jackie ..." he commented whilst stroking the dress she wearing. The mint green of her dress seemed to wither.
"I'm sorry, Naufal; Muhammad Naufal Afif. I'm a fool," she said softly, behind the cry of regret. He just waits for certainty, but what actually happens is this. Naufal closed the ring box on the table and he pocketed it again in his coat pocket. He felt, he absorbed all the chaos of Jackie's soul into his robotic soul, stiff even. He hugs her head, rubbing her hair, scented with seven flowers. Only him and her knew how tormented Jackie was to choose one companion for the rest of her life, Marco or him. She just said unto Naufal, "The answer is in your hands." He paused, processing whether Marco would accept the conditions he would do.
A few days after the incident, Naufal waited at a café near ITB. He had to say all that had happened to Marco, whatever he answered. He can't decide unilaterally about Jackie's heart affair. He must talk to him. "Ah, Naufal, mi amigo," Marco said from the man, walking alongside to the Salman Mosque. Hands shook, minds blend. "Marco, sit down." Naufal offered, it was pretty parky out in Bandung and he ordered Marco a cappuccino. "Okay, so about that problem ..." The two fell silent. "Should-" Marco said, "Naufal, take her." "Wha?! how soon did you determine her fate ?!" Naufal asked in surprise. "Fal, I'm sorry," Marco said. "I-I'm really reckless. I can't obstruct your relationship like this. I'm really sorry, bro. I'm insolent," he explained. "Marco ... it's okay if you want to be with her again. I don't force her to be mine. If you still want to be with Jackie, please, do," Naufal said as if handing him over to Marco.
Leaves blown in the wind, trying to glance at the turmoil on the faces of the two men. "Sometimes, we must learn to let go of something," he said with a sigh. "If Jackie has loved you, even forgotten me, after all this time we separated, do I have the right to take it back for me?" Marco continued rhetorically. Naufal was stunned, didn't we ever fight each other over her heart, he thought. He sighed, letting the nitrogen and oxygen particles touch his skin. "Are you serious? Don't you still love her? " "We both know, Naufal," Marco said, "That's not true." Naufal nodded slowly, reached out to him and shook his hand, but Marco hugged him instead. "Keep Jackie well for me; this is the imperative of your king, okay?" "Sir, yes, Sir!" Naufal answered with a joking note of obedience. He quickly left, letting Marco all by himself in the café.
That night, Naufal knocked on the door of her apartment, in Buah Batu. "Come on in," said Jackie. She opened the door for Naufal while hugging him, as if she did not want him to leave. "What's the matter, Jackie?" Naufal asked. His face is covered with carbon dioxide, is blown by the exhaust fumes of the roads of Bandung. His mouth was as if his heart beat stopped, level, still. "Let me—" Hadn't he said a word yet, Jackie joined her lips and Naufal's, letting both of their ptyalin mix in their oral cavities. His hand held Naufal's neck as he pushed it to his face. He can only thought, this is the answer, a "yes", implicitly drawn on her face. "Jackie ...," said Naufal. "W-What ...?" "Yeah, a thousand times yes, Fal! I choose you!" cried Jackie. Naufal's cheeks as if their capillaries had blown. He did not expect that she would immediately declare her loyalty without any context-connection to him. He thought, maybe this was all karma, maybe this was the revenge—a sweet one—from his temper a few days ago. Naufal's eyes seemed to shed a tear, as if a leaking pipe. "Naufal, why?" asked Jackie. "If so ..." sobbed Naufal. Without warning, he lifted Jackie to his arms and he kiss her lips, making him blush. The look on both of their face as if flowers that blooms in spring. He recited his oath to Jackie, "Allow me to protect you, my dear!"
Both loved for hours and hours, they have become eternal covalence bonds.