Forbearance

The 25th September 2019 protest was the first demonstration Sean took part in as a Industrial High School (IHS) student. Even though he proclaimed “I was taught in Civic Education, dammit. I know how crooked this bill is,” he actually understood zero s**t about it except from what the internet viral headline news said, which are: 1) If a chicken fed on someone’s yard, the chicken owner would get a 10 million fine, and 2) to have a very hot s*x out of their own’s wife consent would be categorized as r**e and led to jail. Yes, that was all he knew. There was more about committing abortion and criticizing the president meant prison time, there was also bits imprisoning the homeless (so the country could take care of them?)—nah, Sean didn’t bother to dig up the details. So why did he join another protest, now? It was just for fun, and as a mean to answer the neighboring IHS boss’ challenge, Herma, that bastard. Yesterday that Herma sneered, “Tsk, your entire IHS got no guts if you won’t support our varsity seniors tomorrow. Just go and wear a skirt!” after he knew that Sean was too lazy to gather his schoolmates and walk down the street. And yes, true, it was the sole reason that lit Sean’s fire, who then pick up his speaker and rounded up his men. They are going down the street and pick a fight with the so-called People Representative: The Council. Yes. Seriously. He just wanted to brawl. But honestly Sean felt a bit challenged after arriving at the scene of the case. How couldn’t he after joining the crowd and got such rowdy applause! Usually the adults wouldn’t even acknowledge them and label the IHS kids as societal dud, only knowing how to street brawl, and oh so on and on. So how couldn’t Sean feel happy about this situation? The spirited students and also the cheering lower-class pumped the blood in Sean’s heart, lifting up the will to show how manly he was. And then the chaos broke out. Oh, Sean was on fire, guys! He was fearless despite everything. Primary point: he needs to make his seniors oration is heard by the elites and tromp his way inside the parliament building. "HOLLY s**t! TEAR GAS! TEAR GAS!” The warning exploded, then he saw a police officer threw something to the crowd, PLOP! And panic erupted.  The students were running around blindly to take cover. Women's shouts overlapped on each other’s. Terror went rampant and high tension enshrouded the place. Sean could hear the cries of protests of the students. “DAMN SIR! THERE ARE LOTS OF GIRLS HERE, SIR!” “MR. POLICE OFFICER! YOUR JOB IS TO PROTECT THE PEOPLE, SIR!” “GET BACK! GET AWAY, THERE’S THE TEAR GAS!” “f*****g DOG, I HAVEN’T EVEN FINISHED WIPING MY SNOT AND I GOT GASSED AGAIN!” All of these made Sean's heart furious. Mad! The police was... keep attacking so they could be pushed back. Weren't polices duty to serve the justice?! So why did they do this?! Nuts! What faults did these collage students commit to make these honorable sirs did that? These seniors didn’t loot! They were obedient and asked politely for a discussion with the elites, the government, but what did they got?! Grinding his teeth, Sean looked around. He saw his senior brothers were in chaos. It was clear that they tried to help each others, obviously the male students tried to shield the female students. On the other hand, these policemen acted like… As he could not hold back his storm of emotions, Sean trod to the front line. He was determined to safeguard this spot. He braced his body. “Brothers! Sisters! Get back! Let us handle this!” He yelled and informed them as he ran. “Joko! Do it!” then he shouted at his friend, Joko, who was coincidentally trying to lit the fuse of his magical wand–the firecracker. “Ready!” Joko made his position. He moved his body in a certain way aaand ... “AVADA KEDAVRA!!” he shouted as he flung his weapon towards the police as if he was the you-know-who from you-know-what movies. Whoosh whooosh whoooosh—the firecrackers flew and bloomed, the fire sparked all over the place, forcing the police front-liners to scatter. And then something unexpected happened. A small cylinder was thrown from the direction of security force of Indonesian Republic. Tear gas! AGAIN! Eaten up by rage because of the immature figures equipped with shield and bullet vests, Sean made a bold move. The brunette teen picked up the tear gas bare-handed – which was damn! f*****g DOGS, IT BURNS!–and hurled it back to the f*****g police as he screamed, “Eat this!!” “Whoa! Madlad!” Sean heard many clicked their tongue in awe to what he did. It made a proud smile drawn on his thin lips. Suddenly there was a big hand that grabbed his own, made him turned around just to find a college student stood behind him and examined his now blistered palm. A disapproving click came out from the student’s curvy lips before a ground-shaking holler, “MEDIC! This kid’s hand is burnt!” and the next thing Sean do was one-sidedly pulled around. Spontaneously, the blue-eyed teen yanked his hand. This person did as he like to call him a kid and even treated him like a kid, damned dog! f*****g pulling him around like this! But it wouldn’t budge. The big hand of this adult was dragging him while also enforcing the grip, seizing Sean of his freedom. Sean frowned at seeing this and tried again. Same result. The big hand was still encircling his wrist and he was still dragged out of the crowd towards the side, where it was full with tired students and the medic. Feeling if he relent, submit, and followed this older man without putting up a fight would be akin to a hit on his pride, Sean tried yanking his hand once again. This time his lips also got to work, he chose persuasion, “Bro, please let go. I’m fin—“ only to be cut when the student suddenly turn back to him and inspected his wounds. Oh, God!–Sean really forgot how to breathe seeing how close the man’s face was. Oh my forever-in-damnation dogs, my God! He’s so handsome! “Hes, opo’o?” The teenager’s string of thoughts was again cut as the foreign language entered his hearing. He looked to the side, at another college student with buzzcut hair who was conjured beside them out of nowhere. “Darn, you know what? This kid picked up a tear gas bare-handed!” answered the curly haired man in front of Sean. Sean frowned in confusion, what were they talking about? What language? Surely, it wasn't Bahasa. “Fukin’, serious?” “Go look at it yourself!” Sean felt his hand got handed over, now being held by the buzzcut guy while the curly-haired took a first aid box and talked to a nearby guy for mineral water. What next was two college students, whom Sean didn’t know at all, took care of his hand after they sat under a tree, in the street-side where there were less people around. The curly-haired looked a bit clueless about medical stuff. He just crossed his arms and watched over his friend treating Sean’s wounds. At this moment Sean could take a better look at these two humans before him. At first he thought they were from Bandung, recalling the Alma mater coat they wore was blue. However, instead of a sitting elephant emblem on the left chest, he saw an emblem of a king and his two kids. Written on it was University of B— “You’re alright, yes? Does it hurts?” The gentle question dispersed Sean’s concentration. He reflexively looked up, stare at his inquisitor, the curly-haired man. Worry splashed across his manly face, even his eyebrows slanted upwards. This part made Sean forgot once again how to properly breathe. Shit! What the f**k is happening with his heart?! Getting chummy with the girls didn’t make him lose his cool, then the f**k why it generated thunderstorms just by seeing this brother?! “N-n-no, it’s nothing, bro!” said Sean fast and a little out of breath due to the lack of oxygen. To his bad luck, Sean’s behavior made the man with defined nose and white skin drawing their faces closer and inspecting Sean from top to toe. Hands crossed over his chest and a disbelieving expression. “Are you sure?” still with his disbelieving face, the man kept shortening their distances before a big hand on Sean’s forehead. Nodding as he confirmed Sean’s body temperature, the man looked deep in thought before mumbling, “Hm... hot. You are feverish, yes? Let us go to the Hospit—ouch! Crickets! What’s wrong with you, Ndre?” He yelled in annoyance at the buzzcut guy with the language that.... once again Sean didn’t understand. “Of course his body is hot. We’re just right under the sun. Don’t exaggerate, woo!” Sean kept his silence while listening to their conversation. His current viewing perspective was drawn onto one point, which was the curly haired man. His heart was getting out of control and drumming percussion non-stop. Ok, he knew now that he needed to learn more about his s****l orientation. But realizing this here, at this kind of crucial moment? Just by watching this handsome senior with thick eyebrows and strong jaw? f**k! "HESA! WHERE IS HESA FROM EAST JAVA?! COORDINATOR HESA FROM EAST JAVA, PLEASE COME HERE!" Sean frowned when the bellowing voice split the clamoring noise and the curly haired man he was paying attention was reaction to it. Sean’s heart suddenly was at loss, please don’t let this brother the one whom … “High on demand, real busy...” the buzzcut guy gave a wolf whistle and cackling when the man Sean paid attention to began to stand up. “Shut it,” a swear out of the thin lips, “Uh, stay with this Andre bro one sec’, can you? I was called. Don’t go anywhere else with your hand like that. Don’t show off, don’t play heroes. Be careful, you’re still a kid,” said the man named Hesa to Sean. The man smiled gently after that. The smile, again, made Sean breathless. Unfortunately, without waiting for Sean’s answer, the man left. It made Sean sad. He unconsciously reached his hand out as if he wanted to touch. Yet the wide back of that man walked away, focusing to move and made his way through the crowd. Sean felt his stomach churned seeing this. His heart hadn’t calm down yet and he had to know the feeling of loss. Pathetic! “Big bro Andre, where is brother Hesa come fro— huh, bro? Big bro Andre?” Not wanting to lose the clue of who that man was, Sean looked at Andre’s way only to find him missing. Sean saw the buzzcut guy called too to treat someone over there, seemed to be a water cannon target and hurt his stomach. A girl. A long inhale after and Sean raised to his feet. His gaze swept right and left to find someone he knew before letting out a long exhale and running towards the front line. Not a single one of his friend took a lazy picnic at the back like he did. If he let himself be so laid back, where would he put his face as the boss of IHS Nusantara? Okay, this was his show time. *[tbc]*