“N-no! What are you talking about? I mean... yeah, Van? I just got startled!” Dafa cried, his voice slightly high-pitched and his panic through the roof.
“Startled by what? You’ve been saying my Sis’s name this whole time,” Ivan scoffed suspiciously. His eyes fixed sharply on Dafa’s increasingly red face. “And why’s your face so red? Are you coming down with something?”
“It’s nothing! This room’s just stuffy,” Dafa stammered, tugging at the collar of his dirty shirt and pretending he was overheated.
Galih, sitting beside Rama, turned around with an amused laugh. “Whoa, Van, this is dangerous. Looks like our new friend got hit with a sudden love spell from your Sis. And you, Daf—what’d you do to make Sis Anggun go ballistic?”
“It’s not like that, Gal...” Dafa mumbled helplessly. He chose to stare at the TV, pretending to focus on controlling his character in the game, even though his eyes weren’t focused at all.
Yet the harder he tried to forget the scene, the more vividly memories of Anggun spun through his head.
The sound of Anggun’s panicked breathing, the flash of her fierce, annoyed eyes, even the way the bedsheet had wrapped around her lovely body—all of it clung tightly to Dafa’s thoughts.
The morning sunlight began to filter through the gaps in the living room curtains.
Anggun came downstairs from the upper floor looking neat and refreshed. Her work shirt was perfectly in place, her hair neatly tied back, and the scent of her perfume immediately filled the room.
Her irritation from the night before hadn’t completely faded, but at the very least, she had to remain professional on her way to work.
As she passed the TV room, Anggun stopped.
Rama and Galih were fast asleep in haphazard positions on the carpet, while Ivan had dozed off on the couch, hugging a PlayStation controller.
And right beneath the couch, Dafa—the tall guy who had turned her day into a mess—was still sleeping soundly with his head resting against the edge of the floor mattress. His sleeping face looked innocent, completely different from the panic he’d shown the night before.
A wicked idea flashed through her mind, replacing the embarrassment that had been burning in her chest.
“Must be nice, lounging around here after making my day so miserable,” Anggun muttered with a mischievous smile in the darkness of the room. “I’m gonna mess with you, brat!”
Anggun reached into the work bag hanging from her shoulder and pulled out a bright red lipstick. Moving without a sound, she approached Dafa, who was still fast asleep.
She slowly knelt beside him. Without mercy, Anggun began drawing on Dafa’s face with the matte red lipstick.
First line: a thick, curving mustache above his lips.
Second line: thick red circles on both cheeks.
And for the finishing touch, Anggun wrote bold letters across Dafa’s forehead: “I LIKE GUYS.”
Anggun held back her laughter with all her might until her chest heaved. Looking at her artwork decorating Dafa’s handsome face, her irritation suddenly evaporated, replaced by unparalleled satisfaction.
She put the lipstick back in her bag, straightened her shirt, then whispered as she stepped out of the house, “We’re even now, Bratty Toy Boy.”
The woman promptly left for work, feeling victorious.
Fifteen minutes later, Dafa slowly stretched and opened his eyes. Thirst had woken him up. He casually rubbed his face, unknowingly smearing the thick red lipstick all over his cheeks and nose.
“Yaaawn...” Dafa sat up, rubbing his eyes.
Ivan, who had just woken up on the couch, ruffled his hair. Then his eyes accidentally landed on Dafa.
Pfft!
The man froze, staring wide-eyed at Dafa’s face, which now looked like a blood-smeared circus clown.
“D-Daf... what happened to your face?!” Ivan shouted, so shocked he nearly fell off the couch.
Still only half-awake, Dafa blinked in confusion. “Huh? What’s wrong with my face?”
Galih and Rama woke up at Ivan’s shout. Rubbing their eyes, they both turned toward Dafa—and the next second, uncontrollable laughter exploded through the living room.
“OH MY GOD, DAF! WHAT KIND OF LIPSTICK ACT WERE YOU DOING?!” Rama shrieked, clutching his stomach from laughing so hard.
“I swear, you look like a failed Ancol clown!” Galih chimed in, smacking the carpet.
Still staring wide-eyed, Ivan immediately pulled out his phone, turned on the front-facing camera, and held it right in front of Dafa’s face.
Dafa stared at the phone screen, and his eyes instantly flew wide open. The thick, curving mustache, the red circles on his cheeks now slightly smeared from rubbing them, and the words “I LIKE GUYS” were clearly printed across his forehead in bright red.
“OH MY GOD!” Dafa panicked and immediately scrubbed at his forehead with his sleeve, but the color only smeared farther in every direction. “Whose doing is this?!”
“Who else could it be but Sis Anggun?” Ivan replied, pointing toward the front door, which was already locked from the outside. “She just left for work. Besides, a flashy red lipstick like that has to belong to a girl. We’re all guys.”
*Auntie Anggun...* Dafa thought.
“Wow, Van... your Sis really holds a grudge,” Rama chuckled, wiping away tears from laughing too much. “But you’d better get to the bathroom fast, Daf. That lipstick looks like the matte kind that’s hard to remove.”
Dafa bolted to the downstairs bathroom. In front of the mirror, rubbing his cheeks with water and soap until they turned red, Dafa instead let out a quiet chuckle to himself.
To Anggun, the scribbles were complete revenge. But to Dafa Bara Herlambang, the thirty-year-old woman’s mischievous smile and reckless prank only made him even more insanely curious.