Chapter 3 - Neighbors
1186 Kata
"Please ... open wider! Help me!" Aira rushed into the apartment without thinking. She just wanted to save her life from the ‘moving doll’ that she didn’t know why it was chasing her.
“Save!” Aira sighed in relief. She smelled a soothing coffee fragrant, she closed her eyes, and started to calm down until a voice broke her thoughts.
“Save from what?!” someone said.
“I-I'm sorry!” Aira exclaimed as she sat up and fixed her clothes that had gotten a bit messy.
“How long are you going to be on top of me? Aira Smith,” said the voice.
Startled by hearing her name, Aira quickly looked at the source of the voice. It was Alden Altair, the detective who had rejected her case yesterday—now lying beneath her, with her sitting on top of him.
Ding. Click.
“It’s been a while, and you’re already cheating, huh?” a woman’s voice came from behind the door.
Aira turned around and saw a beautiful woman wearing dark sunglasses. She felt extremely embarrassed by this situation.
“It’s not what you think!” Alden said as he stood up and ruffled his hair.
Aira, confused by the situation, tried to explain and apologize. Alden invited both women to sit in his slightly messy living room.
Aira and Alden both hadn’t expected that they were neighbors.
“So, you’re Alden’s college friend? I’m Puri Altair, Alden’s older sister. I didn’t think Alden would finally have a female friend,” said Puri.
“Are you a celebrity? Why are you wearing sunglasses inside the house?” Alden teased his sister.
Puri took off her sunglasses, revealing dark bags under her eyes and mascara that had started to smudge from the corners of his eyes.
“Hahaha… what is that?” Alden said with laughter filling the room.
“You’re so cruel!” Puri hit her brother with the sofa pillow next to her.
“Did you just cry?” Aira asked, trying to understand.
Hearing that words, Puri began to cry in her chair.
‘Typical woman, she cries even more when you ask her like that,’ Alden thought, watching his sister act like a child.
“I came here to ask for your help, Alden,” Puri said.
“It seems like you two are going to have a serious talk. Sorry to interrupt,” Aira said as she stood up from the sofa and tried to escape from the awkward situation.
Puri suddenly stopped her from leaving. Aira turned around, curious to know her intention. “Can you help me?” Puri asked.
“It seems the Angel Fortune has smiled upon me today. Will you be my model?” Puri suddenly suggested.
“Puri... don’t make things more complicated. What’s really going on?” Alden interrupted.
Puri explained that the fashion show she was going to hold was threatened with cancellation because someone had sent her a threatening letter.
For some reason, the letter had leaked and was discovered by both the main models.
Puri asked Alden to find out who had sent the letter and suddenly came up with the idea of asking her younger brother and his female friend to be the replacement models for the event.
Alden furrowed his brow and said, “This doesn’t make sense. How could I be a model? Are you out of your mind?” he protested.
“Please! The event is tomorrow.”
Aira, who had been silent this whole time, suddenly offered to help.
“I’ll do it,” Aira said briefly.
“I told you it was a crazy idea. How could she- wait, what?! You agree?!” Alden asked, shocked.
“Really? You’re so kind,” Puri immediately hugged Aira and turned to her younger brother.
“A stranger is willing to help me. Do you really share the same blood as me?” Puri teased her brother.
After a few minutes of convincing Alden, he finally gave in. He didn’t want his sister to ignore him for months like a few years ago.
“Fine. We just need to pose, right?” Alden asked.
“Yeah, pose and walk down the catwalk as a marriage couple,” Puri replied.
“WHAT?!” Alden and Aira shouted in unison.
“Well, it's a wedding attire fashion show. Remember. You already agreed,” Puri grinned widely, showing off her white teeth.
“Agreed... agreed." Suddenly, a funny voice echoed in response to Puri’s words.
Aira looked and saw the same bird that had approached Alden at the campus when they first met. Aira then realized that her apartment building allowed pets to live there, just like the dog that had chased her earlier.
***
Aira eventually found her apartment unit. She walked around, admiring the European-style interior design and the luxurious furniture surrounding her.
She lay down on her bed, which felt strangely familiar. She stared at the ceiling and thought about the events that had just happened.
She still couldn’t believe she had her own apartment and was coincidentally in the same building as Alden. This was her opportunity, Aira thought.
Aira walked to a corner of the room, approaching a coffee machine that looked new.
She didn’t know she liked coffee. Aira tried to turn on the coffee machine, and it worked perfectly. She remembered Alden’s coffee-scented perfume.
‘What am I thinking?’ Aira thought, feeling embarrassed.
The next morning… Aira finished showering and getting dressed. She looked at herself in the mirror and applied some lip balm.
She suddenly remembered that the clothes she wore yesterday were the only ones she had packed.
Ding! Tong!
‘It must be Alden. What if he thinks I haven’t changed clothes since yesterday because I’m wearing the same outfit?’ she thought.
After a few minutes, Aira opened the door. She saw Alden also wearing an outfit similar to yesterday’s.
“Are you ready?” Alden asked.
“Yeah… I think so,” Aira replied as she stepped out of her apartment unit.
Alden handed something to Aira, then casually walked ahead of her towards the elevator. Aira looked at what Alden gave her—it was a sandwich that looked very tempting.
“Delicious. How did you know I haven’t had breakfast?” Aira asked as she took her first bite of the sandwich.
“It’s still seven in the morning. You probably haven’t had breakfast because you just moved into your apartment and don’t know the area well. And yesterday, you only had a very small handbag. There’s no way you could have brought food in that bag. So, you must not have had breakfast,” Alden explained with his analysis.
“Wow! You really are a detective! You remember all the details like that,” Aira said, impressed.
“You’ll be even more impressed by someone who’s better than me at remembering,” Alden replied, as if he could read her mind.
“Who?” Aira asked while chewing a bite of her sandwich.
“You’ll find out later,” Alden answered.
- Penulis
