Kartika hopped off the bus and made her way towards the bakmi shop near the university campus. The air around her was dense with the afternoon humidity as her sandals stepped around loose piles of rocks on the asphalt roads. She silently hoped that it wouldn’t rain, though she knew it was futile to hope during the season of frequent rainfall. 

The grey clouds above watched her fidget with the straps of her bag as she walked along the busy street, weaving in and out of the crowds of people who were also on their way to lunch. Although there was excitement in the strides of her feet, there was also a nervousness that tugged at her lungs as she made her way down the street. 

She wondered how she could talk to her older sibling with ease.

Kartika had only asked her how the train ride had been and whether she had brought her own toothbrush when Chandra had arrived in the middle of the night, duffel bag in hand. It somehow made Kartika feel lonely to ask how Chandra had been in the past five years—as if they were long-lost acquaintances rather than siblings from birth.

She grabbed the straps of her tote bag and pulled it nearer to her chest. Well. The least she could do was to try her utmost best to get close to her older sibling again. Chandra wouldn’t have agreed to come to her wedding if she wanted absolutely nothing to do with her. At least, Kartika hoped that was the case.

As she got nearer to the shop, she spotted Chandra sitting at a table outside while sipping tea from a clear glass cup. A familiar sight that brought Kartika a rush of serotonin and a smile grew on her lips.

“Kak Dra!” Kartika called out, waving one hand to greet her.

Chandra looked up and waved her sister towards the table where she was sitting. Kartika made her way over and took the seat in front of her, scooting her chair close to the table.

They looked at each other and exchanged a pair of awkward smiles.

“Hi, Tik.”

“Hi, Kak,” Kartika smiled and was relieved to see Chandra smile in return. She quietly took in the figure of her older sibling before realizing that the silence had grown between them. “Did you um, find your way okay?” Kartika scratched the tip of her nose before slowly setting her bag down on the seat next to her.

“I did,” Chandra nodded. “Turns out I still remember where the shop is,” she glanced around the family-owned bakmi shop with a smile. She then nudged a glass of tea towards Kartika. “This is for you, by the way.”

“Oh! Thank you,” Kartika wrapped her fingers around the glass cup and took a sip, taking in the warmth that now filled her chest with ease. The tea was red as it was brown and wonderfully plain with no sugar—exactly like how they would make it at home.

“Did you take the bus?” Chandra asked, toying with the edge of the menu on the table.

Kartika nodded. “Mhmm. I hope you didn’t wait too long, by the way,” she sheepishly smiled an apology. “I forgot about the lunch rush hour and there was a bit of traffic on the road.”

Chandra shook her head to say that it was fine. “I just got here actually,” she said, picking up her glass cup. “I was having tea earlier with a librarian I know.”

Kartika watched as Chandra took a sip of tea. “And…you’re having tea again?” Kartika decided to tease, grinning at the cup in her older sibling’s hand.

Chandra blinked and looked at the cup in her hand. “Oh!” she laughed. “Guess I am, huh?”

Kartika looked at her, a ghost of a smile on her face. Kak Dra really is just like dad, she thought, as she brought her own glass cup to her lips to hide her smile of amusement. She took a sip as the silence settled in between them again. 

“Do you—?” they both abruptly said before staring at one another and bursting into laughter.

“You go first,” Kartika laughed.

Chandra chuckled. “Sorry, I was just going to ask if you wanted to order.” 

“Oh! Yes, please. That’s what I was gonna ask you too," Kartika grinned. "Have you ordered yet?”

“I haven’t. But I already know what I want,” Chandra said, tapping the menu on the table. “I was actually surprised that their menu hasn’t changed.”

“Yeah, it's mostly the same! The only thing they’ve added is the dessert menu,” Kartika said, pointing towards the sweetened shaved ice on the menu. “We can have some after if you want,” she looked up at Chandra, wondering if she would be interested.

“Sounds good,” Chandra smiled and rotated the menu so that it now faced Kartika. “You can order anything you’d like by the way, it’s on me.”

Kartika choked on her tea. “Ack—no! It’s on me!” She awkwardly accepted the tissues Chandra passed to her. “I’m the one who asked you to come back for my wedding, so I’m the one treating you!”

Chandra laughed. “No, I’m the one treating you because you’re the one having a wedding. No discussion,” she playfully added as Kartika opened her mouth to protest.

“Kak,” Kartika groaned, secretly pleased that they were playing this game. “You came all the way back to town, at least allow me to pay for your meal!”

“Well, consider this as a thank you for my train tickets that you paid for,” Chandra looked at her pointedly.

Kartika pouted, having no comeback to offer for her sibling’s reasonable point. “Oh, alright,” she relented. She pointed towards Chandra. “But I’m treating you next time!” 

Chandra merely laughed again.

Kartika looked thoughtfully at the menu to choose what she wanted to eat. “I guess I’ll order the bakmi with chicken,” she said, glancing at the other options that didn’t seem too appealing to her at the moment. “That’s what I usually get and it never gets old.”

“Good choice,” Chandra nodded. She pointed at one of the menu options. “You wanna get a serving of boiled pangsit too? We can share.”

“Ooo, yes!” Kartika then pointed towards one of the pictures of bakmi with her chin. “Are you getting the mushroom bakmi, then?”

“Yea—oh,” Chandra looked up at her sister. “You remember,” she stated.

Kartika looked at her incredulously before bursting into laughter. “Kak—you tried to make mushroom bakmi from scratch in high school because you loved it that much,” Kartika shook her head, still laughing. “Of course I remember.”

Chandra blinked before her smile slowly returned and she quietly laughed with Kartika. “Well, I did make it rather successfully back then.”

“Right, you forgot the part where you used a little bit of too much soy sauce,” Kartika teased, grinning at her sibling’s lack of cooking skills.

“It was for flavor!” Chandra protested, chuckling.

“I know,” Kartika nodded in good nature. “I just wonder if the original Hokkien bakmi tastes like you chugged fish sauce from the bottle.”

Chandra grinned. “Yeah, probably not.”

They both laughed. The awkwardness that had weighed between them began to slowly dissipate into the afternoon air, leaving behind a clarity that in truth—they had absolutely nothing to worry about in their efforts to reconnect with one another. Their smiles were wider now, warmed by the taste of tea and the memories from their shared past, and Chandra’s smile gave Kartika hope that her older sibling might eventually open up to her over time. 

One of the waiters passed by their table on their way to the kitchen and Chandra waved to them that they were ready to order. 

“So,” Kartika turned to her sibling after the waiter had left. “How has the campus changed since you left?”

“It’s still pretty much the same, really,” Chandra said as she leaned her cheek on her hand. “They renovated a lot of the buildings but everything else feels pretty similar. I’ll actually be heading back tomorrow to have dinner with one of my juniors.”

“One of the anthropology majors?” Kartika asked, wondering if she knew who it was.

“Mhmm. I also wanna walk around there again for a bit," Chandra seemed to smile to herself. "It was nice to see the campus after so long.”

Kartika nodded. “Did you go there to see anything in particular or were you just there to wander around?” She picked up her glass cup to take another sip of tea. 

“Ah,” Chandra lightly tapped her fingers across the surface of her own cup. Her eyes looked down at her fingertips that fluttered over the surface of the glass. “I was just wandering around,” she then smoothed her hand over the menu that didn’t need straightening. “Nothing in particular to see.”

Kartika looked at her behind the rim of her glass cup. 

It would be a while, Kartika thought, before Chandra would be comfortable in telling her what made talking about the university campus such a sensitive subject for her. But Kartika didn’t mind. She was ready to wait for however long her sibling needed.

Just seeing Chandra sit across from her in her older sibling’s favorite bakmi shop, the shop auntie stepping out of the kitchen to shriek in delight and dote on her long-lost regular—Kartika was already content with where they were at the moment.

It was good to spend time with her older sibling again.