That morning, Renzo was still thinking about the letter he had found the day before. Ever since he opened that old envelope, his mind hadn't been able to truly settle down. So many things kept circling in his head.
Who had written the letter?
Why had it been kept in the old house?
And why did that person feel there was someone who needed to know the truth?
Renzo sat at his bedroom desk, staring at the brown envelope he had placed in front of him.
"Who are you really talking about?" he murmured.
He picked up the letter again and read it for what felt like the hundredth time. Every sentence seemed to hold a hidden meaning. As if the letter's writer had deliberately left clues little by little.
Renzo tried looking for a date or some other mark on the paper, but the result was still the same.
There was no name.
No time.
No clear clue.
Just a story left hanging.
Renzo's phone suddenly rang.
Rian's name appeared on the screen.
Renzo answered the call.
"Why are you calling so early?" Renzo asked.
"Because I know you're still thinking about that letter," Rian replied casually.
Renzo fell silent for a moment.
"How do you know?"
"Because you looked different yesterday. Usually, when something's bothering you, you pretend to be relaxed. But yesterday, you looked like someone who'd just found buried treasure."
Renzo chuckled.
"It's not buried treasure."
"Then what is it?"
Renzo glanced at the letter on the desk.
"Something I don't understand yet."
Rian was silent for a few seconds.
"Then let's figure it out."
"We?"
"Yeah, we. You think I'm going to let you search for something weird all by yourself?"
Renzo smiled.
"Even though you're usually the one who's least interested in getting involved in other people's business."
"This is different. I'm curious too."
After the conversation ended, Renzo got ready to return to the old house. He felt that simply reading the letter wasn't enough. He had to find out whether anything had been left behind there.
An hour later, Renzo met Rian in front of the old house.
Rian looked at the old building and raised an eyebrow.
"Honestly, this place is kind of creepy."
Renzo opened the gate.
"Are you scared?"
"Scared? No."
Rian paused for a moment.
"I just feel a little uncomfortable."
Renzo laughed.
"You say you're not scared, but your face says otherwise."
They went inside the house.
That day, they decided to search more thoroughly. They opened several cabinets, looked through stacks of old books, and checked every corner of the rooms that might have been hiding something.
After searching for almost an hour, Rian found a small box inside a desk drawer.
"Renzo, come here."
Renzo immediately went over.
"What is it?"
Rian pulled out a small wooden box covered in dust.
"Looks like it's been stored here for a really long time."
Renzo wiped the top of the box clean.
There was no lock.
He opened it slowly.
Inside were several old photographs, a shirt button, and a small scrap of paper.
Renzo picked up one of the photographs.
It showed several people standing in front of the same house.
The old house.
But one person caught Renzo's attention.
A young man he had never seen before.
"Who is he?" Renzo asked.
Rian looked at the photograph too.
"I don't know."
Renzo turned the photograph over.
There was handwriting on the back.
"For someone who's still searching for answers."
Renzo immediately fell silent.
The handwriting was the same as the writing on the letter.
"This was written by the same person," Renzo said quietly.
Rian looked at Renzo's face.
"Are you sure?"
Renzo nodded.
"Yeah. Look at the shape of the letters."
They began to realize that finding the letter the day before hadn't been a coincidence.
Someone had deliberately left a trail.
Renzo took the small scrap of paper from the box.
There were only a few words written on it.
"Taman Selatan. The last day."
Renzo read the sentence over and over.
"Taman Selatan again."
Rian leaned against the desk.
"Then that place must be important."
"But I don't know where it is."
Rian thought for a moment.
"I might know."
Renzo looked at him immediately.
"You do?"
"When I was little, I heard about that place. Supposedly, there was an old park in the southern part of the city that had been closed for a long time."
"Why was it closed?"
Rian shrugged.
"I don't know. They say there's an old story about it."
Renzo grew even more curious.
"What story?"
Rian looked at him.
"They say someone was waiting for another person to come, but that person never returned."
The sentence made Renzo remember the contents of the letter again.
Someone had left without explaining why.
A promise that had yet to be fulfilled.
Everything seemed to be starting to connect.
Yet the more answers he found, the more new questions appeared.
That afternoon, they left the old house carrying several things they had found.
Renzo carefully stored the letter, the photograph, and the scrap of paper.
On the way home, Rian looked at Renzo, who remained silent the entire time.
"Something on your mind?"
"Yeah."
"What?"
Renzo looked out the window.
"I feel like this letter isn't just about someone's past."
"What do you mean?"
Renzo drew a breath.
"I feel like there's a reason I was the one who found this letter."
Rian didn't answer right away.
He knew Renzo wasn't the kind of person who easily believed in things like that.
If Renzo said something, it meant he truly felt something was going on.
That night, Renzo opened the letter again.
This time, he noticed something he hadn't paid much attention to before.
At the edge of the paper was a nearly invisible trace of writing.
Renzo took a small lamp and examined it more closely.
Slowly, a few words began to come into view.
"If you find this..."
Renzo stopped.
His heart seemed to beat faster.
He continued reading.
"...don't look for me. Look for the reason I had to leave."
Renzo froze.
"What does that mean?"
Before he could think any further, a notification sound came from his phone.
A message had arrived from an unknown number.
Renzo opened it.
There was only one sentence.
"I know you found the letter."
Renzo immediately sat up straight.
His hand stopped moving.
Who was this person?
How did they know about the letter?
Renzo stared at his phone screen, his mind filled with questions.
A few seconds later, a second message came in.
"If you want to know the truth, don't go to Taman Selatan alone."
Renzo stared at the message for a long time.
The night, which had initially felt ordinary, suddenly became the beginning of something much bigger.
And for the first time since finding the letter, Renzo felt that someone might be watching him.