“SIS! Let go! You’re gonna make Ivan’s friend go bald!” Ivan screamed, frantically trying to pull his sister’s arm away.
“Can’t! I already swore I’d pull this jerk’s hair if I ever ran into him again!” Anggun raged, not loosening her grip on Dafa’s thick hair in the slightest.
All Dafa could do was grimace in resignation while holding his head to keep the pain from getting worse. “Ugh... Auntie, please, Auntie! I’m sorry. I swear, I didn’t mean to do either of those things!”
Amid the chaos, Dafa’s groans, and Ivan’s panic, a voice came from the open front door.
“Excuse me... Assalamu’alaikum.”
The fight stopped instantly.
Anggun stood frozen, her hand still gripping Dafa’s hair tightly. Dafa froze in a hunched position, while Ivan held his breath. All three of them turned toward the door at once.
Rama and Galih had just arrived. Ivan’s two friends stood frozen in the doorway, staring wide-eyed with their mouths slightly open at the astonishing scene in the living room.
“Wa’alaikumsalam...” Ivan answered haltingly, slowly removing his hand from Anggun’s shoulder.
Rama cleared his throat awkwardly, shifting his gaze from Anggun’s hand still planted on Dafa’s head, to Dafa’s bright-red face, and finally to Anggun’s terrifyingly furious expression.
“Sorry... did we come at the wrong time, Van?” Rama asked quietly.
“Or the wrong house?” Galih chimed in innocently, glancing at the house number sign outside. “Are you guys... reenacting a domestic-abuse scene or something?”
Galih’s comment immediately snapped Anggun back to reality. Breathing hard, she released Dafa’s hair, and the tall man rubbed his head with a relieved grimace.
Anggun straightened her slightly rumpled T-shirt, trying to regain control even as her chest continued rising and falling with embarrassment and anger.
“It’s nothing,” Anggun said coldly, giving Dafa the deadliest glare imaginable. “We’re not done yet. I’ll teach you a lesson that’ll hurt a lot more than this!”
Without waiting for anyone to respond, Anggun turned and strode upstairs, leaving behind the thunderous sound of her bedroom door slamming shut on the second floor.
Crash!
The downstairs suddenly fell silent. Rama and Galih slowly stepped inside and approached Dafa, who was still rubbing his skull.
“Daf... what did Sis Anggun do to you?” Rama asked, dying of curiosity. “You just started making your mark in the group, and you’ve already gotten your hair pulled?”
All Dafa could do was let out a long sigh, staring at the stairs leading to the second floor with a jumble of regret, guilt, and trauma swirling inside him.
“It’s a long story, bro,” Dafa muttered. “The point is... I can’t talk about it right now.”
Ivan narrowed his eyes, studying Dafa suspiciously. “I’m going to demand an explanation from you later. This concerns my sister.”
Dafa swallowed awkwardly. “Y-you mean... your sister?”
“Yeah. It’s just the two of us living here,” Ivan replied curtly.
Seeing the tense, awkward atmosphere, Rama quickly cut in. “All right, enough! Instead of sitting around like this, let’s just have some fun.”
“Rama’s right,” Galih added. “I brought my guitar too, so we can liven things up.”
Ivan shook his head. “Don’t be loud. It’d be rude to the neighbors. Especially since it’s almost one in the morning.”
“We’ll only play for a bit, come on...” Galih coaxed. “Or how about we play some PlayStation?”
“Yeah, okay, PlayStation sounds good,” Ivan finally agreed.
Ivan then turned and led his friends toward the TV room. But he stopped when he realized Dafa was still standing frozen near the stairs, staring blankly toward the upper floor.
“Daf? Come on! Why are you still standing there?” Ivan called out in confusion.
Dafa jolted, rubbed the back of his neck, which felt hot, and hurriedly followed his three friends into the TV room.
The three of them sat cross-legged on the floor mattress. The room was lit only by the glow of the TV screen and a dim lamp as Ivan busily turned on the console and prepared the game controllers for them.
The game began. The rapid clicking of the controllers and Rama and Galih’s cheers filled the room.
Dafa, however, was completely different from the others. The man looked utterly distracted, his eyes fixed on the TV screen while his thoughts drifted back to the incident upstairs just minutes earlier.
The image of Anggun’s shapely, wet body, her clean white skin, and the curves of her figure etched clearly into his memory suddenly filled Dafa’s mind.
Before he realized it, wild fantasies began spinning through his head. The thrilling sensation sent his blood rushing, until a flush spread across his face, ears, and down to his neck.
“Daf! Hey?!” Ivan scolded, nudging Dafa’s arm with his game controller.
Dafa nearly jumped out of his skin, and his answer flew spontaneously from his lips. “Yeah, Auntie?!”
Ivan knitted his brows in confusion, then narrowed his eyes at Dafa’s bright-red face. “Auntie? Are you thinking about my sister?!”