Forbearance

02 : That Man Alma mater Coat

The one thing that a Sean Dwiki Ardanta knew was, the riot in the protest he was part of got carried away. It was getting wild. The guarding police were also seemed exhausted, while the students were going down one by one. 

By now, it was clear that both sides was exhausted. They who were still standing tall, push themselves only supported by morales. 

Honestly, however, this kind of pace was emotionally straining. The bubbling emotion, ignited others’ and boom! Anarchy exploded! 

Riot. 

The ground where the students spoke their oration had changed. 

This morning calm situation was flipped.

Even Sean’s friends flung torch towards the police. There was also someone who got too barbaric to hurl a sawed and geared roller chain on at the defense force. Sean had a part in this riot too. He fought to open a breach for the students. 

How, you ask? 

Ha! Sean coordinated his troops to take over one of the water cannon, of course. Together he climbed over the titan vehicle and once he took over it, he shouted brazenly, “SIR! LET’S BATHE TOGETHER, SIR! THEN LET WE KNOW YOUR SEXY SIX-PACKS!!” and shot the high-velocity of water against the police. Yeah, he hijacked the water cannon.

Ha! It wasn’t fair if they are the only one who get wet, the police should too!

“Oi Sen, we better off hijack a passing truck than that water cannon,” one of Sean’s friend tossed an idea once he got down from one water cannon and was moving to another. He wore a serious expression. Huh? A truck?!

“What’s with you? Afraid you got cuffed before you get to the second water cannon?!” Sean narrowed his eyes, boldly expressing his dislike. He did this so the college students won’t be shot by the water cannon, duh! To open the path! High-pressured water streams would break the police officers stances easier! 

“s**t. That ain’t it. We push back the police with the truck and then we jump on the water cannon, dammit,” the young comrade with wild hair explained and knocked Sean’s head with the back of his hand. Somehow the idea sounded brilliant in Sean’s ears and they hurried up to execute the idea.

It wasn’t hard to get a truck, yea even though it was a downgraded into a pick-up truck, the point was Sean and comrades got a barge to burst through the defense. And SLAM! One of the IHS kids got ballsy and… knocked over a police officer. No, it wasn’t Sean, but Sean cheered when the police barricade fell.

Up next, they trod in while throwing stones and armed with wooden sticks. Some police officers were blindly beaten up by them, laughing and tossing provocations like, “Make a way, sir! Or we’ll run over you! We’ll run all over you!”

The college students who were watching could only shake their heads at their barbarities. Sean knew a few of those collage students gave them the look of ‘why are you doing these? To these poor police officers? Use a truck? It is too much, dude! That is wrong...’ but he pretended he didn’t know. He acted like he didn’t care and kept laughing as he scared the state apparatus.

At least until suddenly there was a siren and somehow strings of panicked screams echoed and a barracuda showed itself. Funnily enough, the car didn’t discriminate; the driver step on the gas. All out.

“WATCH OUT!! GET AWAY! YOU’LL GET HIT!”

“OI, WATCH OUT! OI!”

Sean could only freeze up as he saw the polices purposely stepped aside, making a way for the huge car to drive in. He could really just watch, even when his friends scattered and yelled at him to get back, he was nailed to the ground, watching the headlights got closer and closer.

And ear-wrecking sound of the car horn BEEP BEEEEP in front of him.

“WATCH OUT!!!!” 

But no, he didn’t get hit. Right before the car hit him, from the side there was a figure wearing an alma mater who jumped over, hugged him, enveloped him with his big body and brought them rolling over the asphalt to avoid the deathly crash. Then there were yelling from right and left.

“SEAN!!!”

“HESA!!!”

The name Hesa was screamed by someone, making Sean return to the earth. He quickly looked up and so surprised when he saw a familiar face.... with blood on his head, while his arms wrapped around him, protecting him. It was right before a pained groan was heard, “ouch....”

“B-BIG BROTHER! BROTHER! ARE YOU ALRIGHT?!” Sean hurriedly break away, he reached out to Hesa who was still lying and holding on his head. His face was pale from blood... THERE WAS BLOOD FLOWING FROM HIS HEAD!

“HESA!! Get off!”

Sean was stunned when he was pushed away, Andre came over to Hesa’s side and swiftly did a quick probing on his friend. From his position, Sean could see the student’s pale face. It wasn’t just Andre, some students wearing the same alma mater coat started circling them with Hesa at the center. They looked panicked, one of them asked, “Hesa, we call the ambulance, yes?”

From behind them... Sean could only sit on his knees, his eyes wide open. His heart beat so fast, blood slowly drained from his face; he went pale as the tremor on his body got stronger. 

At first... he only went for the brawl and didn’t care much about his own life.

But seeing someone... got hurt because of him, right in front of his eyes... and even more this person was…

It made Sean realize that this protest wasn’t a playground. Losing a life isn’t a chickenshit.

“I’m fine, guys, I’m fine. No fussing over this, please.”

Sean looked at Hesa who was trying to sit up while still holding on his head. The man talked with the surrounding people with their local language, whatever it was, Sean didn’t know. One thing was clear, after Hesa sat up, the young man looked at him sharply. Sudden silence enveloped.

“What did I say, hm?” asked Hesa to Sean. His tone cold and filled with pressure.

“S-sorry... brother...” whimpered Sean finally, after his moment of silence. He bowed down, regretting his reckless act and disobedience after what Hesa had said before.

Sean thought the curly haired man would scorn him or something. However, rather than a scorning him, Hesa spoke to Andre instead, “Andre, check on him. Make sure he doesn’t get hurt,” as he stood up and started a dialogue with his friends once again.

Worry latched in Sean’s chest. Why did Hesa asked him to be checked on? Hesa was the one who get blood on him? And what were they talking about? They seemed to be ... leaving?

And it really was as Sean feared, they were leaving. As he was being checked on, one of the students with deep blue alma mater coat spoke, “just get a gonejek and get on the train to catch the last flight.” (gonejek: taxibike)

“Hes, he’s alright, just light scratch here and there from the brawl,” Andre stood up after plastering the hansaplast on the wound on Sean’s elbow. Hm? Tsk-tsk. When did his elbow got scratched and his jacket was torn like this? He didn’t realize that!

“Your wounds, Hes, fix it first, ok! You’ll get flagged from the flight!” Andre moved towards Hesa and started cleaning the wound on his friend’s head before plastering similar hansaplast on it. It turned out... it was a light wound too, just slightly bigger that it made looked so serious than it was.

Done with the treatment, Sean and Hesa looked at each other and ended up with Hesa letting out a long exhale. In that instant Hesa took off his alma mater coat and zap! he threw his coat at Sean. “Wear it! Got drenched and now scratches, your mother will go crazy seeing her son comes home like that,” Hesa warned.

Then, before Sean could react to it, again, Hesa turned around and left. 

Leaving him who could only watch that back went further away, squeezing the deep blue alma mater coat at hand.

Leaving him with the thrumming in his heart.

*[tbc]*