The Girl, The Knight, and The Sleeping Princess

17. The Phone Call

"I wanna play, I wanna meet brother Kai." Miki answered innocently. 

"You can't!" forbid Troya. 

She was annoyed because her younger brother was always following her wherever she went. Especially when she came out with a bicycle. Troya was already in ninth grade, 15 years old, her activities were different from an eight year old boy. She probably still loved playing soccer and basketball with all the boys in the housing complex. But, she felt annoyed if she was followed by her little brother. And usually, if she forbid, Kai would allow Miki to play together. It sucks!  So of course, even if Troya yelled out to forbid Miki from following her, the boy wouldn't listen to her. 

A few minutes later, they finally arrived at the garden complex which was probably only fifty meters from her house. She saw that Kai had arrived, and at this time he was sitting on a park bench checking the messages on his smartphone. 

A few meters away, a group of children with different age, from the age of five to teenagers, were having fun playing together. One group was playing soccer, one group was playing basketball, one group was just chatting and joking. Not all boys, of course. In this park there were also several girls. 

"Kai, sorry for being late!" said Troya when her bike stopped right in front of the boy. 

Shortly thereafter, Miki also got there and got off his bike, "Hello, brother Kai," greeted Miki politely. 

Kai smiled at Troya, “It's okay, there are a few things I want to check too, after all. Hello too, Miki! The sticker is new, huh?" Kai turned to look at Miki and pointed to the ultraman sticker on the bicycle handlebar. 

Miki nodded happily because the boy immediately recognised the new sticker. He sit on Kai's left side, and Troya to his right. Kai grew up so well. He was already 180 cm tall, not too thin, brown skinned, short hair with a spike on top, sitting between two kids who really adored him. 

Sometimes Kai felt a little uncomfortable, because these two kids always followed him everywhere. But on the other hand, he felt happy and proud. Because for some reason, he really cared to these two children, especially the girl. Since long time ago, since the first time they met. But until this moment, Kai didn't know whether the feeling he had was love, or was it just the feeling of a brother's affection for his younger sister. One thing for sure he knew, even though he really liked girls with long hair, but that did not apply to Troya, who until this moment still had short hair like boys.

Kai smiled at Troya who seemed still busy tying the scarf around her neck. Kai also recognised the scarf he gave. He intended to ask Troya something. 

"Brother Kai, I can dribble basketball, you know!" cut Miki suddenly before he had the chance to talk to Troya. 

Like it or not, Kai turned to look at Miki and smiled, “Wow, that's really cool! Unfortunately I don't bring a basketball right now. If I brought it, I could see your play." 

"Sure, next time we play again, I will bring the ball. Then we could play together right?" 

“Or maybe next time I can stop by your house. We'll play together in the backyard." Kai smiled, remembering that in the backyard of Troya's house there was a basketball hoop that was deliberately placed there by Om Alden, Troya's father. 

Miki laughed happily at that. He did have an older sister who was a tomboy and could play basketball really good, sometimes they even played it together in their spare time. But as a boy, of course the sensation would be very different if he could play with an older brother. 

 Troya laughed, happy to see the happiness felt by her brother. In fact, if Kai could come and play with her at home -considering that lately this guy was very-very busy with his school stuffs- surely the happiest one would be Troya herself. 

"I will enroll in the same high school as you!" said Troya. 

Kai laughed at that. Actually it was not the first time he had heard those words from the girl's mouth, it had been dozens of times since he had just entered high school though.

“My school has strict rules, you know! When you got seven points for your exams, you have to take the remedial exam," said Kai teasing his lovely friend. 

Troya was surprised to hear that, “That's not fair! Ugh! Why would you enrol such a strict school! Why don't you go to high school near our housing complex? It's just as prestigious as your school right now!" 

Kai didn't answer her question, instead he just smiled. Then one of the boys in the park called and asked him to join in playing basketball, to play three on three. Kai agreed. He asked Troya to hold on his cellphone and hat. 

In the other side, Miki looked very enthusiastic because he could see one of his idols playing basketball. So he watched Kai's match right on the sidelines. Meanwhile, Troya was just waiting from the the park bench, a few meters away from the basketball field. Of course that was because she was currently appointed as a storage counter, where she had to look after three bicycles, a wallet, a hat and an expensive looking cellphone. 

When Troya was busy watching the game -while occasionally shouting encouragement for her friend- Kai's cellphone beeped, a sign that a message had come in. At first Troya didn't pay attention to it, until finally a call came in. 

Troya got surprised and accidentally shifted the screen and took the call. 

“Hello, Kai? Have you received my email? I sent an example of a college registration to Germany from my brother. I already applied for a scholarship. So maybe you should already send it, too!" said the voice even before Troya said hello.

For a moment, Troya kept silent because she was shocked to heard what the caller said. Overseas study application form? Well, Kai was still at the eleventh grade. Even though this year he would promoted to twelfth grade, it's still a year later. 

"Hello, Kai? Are you there?" asked the caller impatiently. 

But instead of answering the call, Troya was pensive. Her mind was thinking about the news. Kai was going to study abroad, that's really far. She wouldn't be able to meet Kai if she missed and wanted to talk to him about everythings. 

Abroad was far away, transportation costs were expensive. There was no guarantee if Kai could go home every three months. Maybe even the boy would only come home once a year. Kai family was not a very rich family. They were not the kind who could go back and forth from abroad. Imagining how lonely her life would be when Kai went to college abroad, for some reason Troya suddenly felt dizzy and empty. 

Meanwhile, in the field, Kai could hear his cellphone ring. Therefore, he stole a glance at Troya's place. Initially if the phone only rang once, he would continue playing basketball and probably call the caller when he finished playing. But when he looked at Troya, he found something strange on the girl's face. 

Troya seemed lost. And there's no need to guess anything, she had to have picked up the phone earlier and heard what he's been up to lately. Suddenly he had a bad feeling. Therefore, he asked his friends to stop playing and was replaced by other kid. Miki who saw that was a little surprised. But when he saw that Kai was going to her older sister, Miki decided to ignore her. Maybe he should find something to do on his own.

"Troya, are you okay?" Kai asked, touching his friend's shoulder softly.[]