Nadira’s eyes lit up as Chandra walked into the canteen. “Kak Chandra, over here!” She stood up and excitedly waved her over to the table where she was sitting. 

Chandra waved in return, stepping further into the canteen to make her way there. There were only a few students and university staff chatting among the humble tables, indicating that most of the campus had their dinners at home. 

She took a deep breath in, calming herself from the discovery that she had made just moments before, placing a smile on her face as she walked towards Nadira’s table. 

The cool evening air and the sound of motorcycles driving through the damp asphalt roads accompanied the street lamps that lit up one by one as Chandra walked through the canteen. The sky was growing darker by the minute, retiring the shades of orange that had previously streaked among the clouds.

The long canteen table where Nadira was standing was filled with groups of people who turned their heads as Chandra approached them.

“Hello,” Chandra smiled, waving her hand in greeting.

Nadira beamed at her undergrad senior. She turned to her peers. “Everyone, this is Kak Chandra! She was my senior in undergrad,” she turned to Chandra. “Kak, these are the other grad students in the anthro program,” she gestured towards the groups of students sitting at the table.

The graduate students warmly said their hellos and Chandra went around the table, clasping their hands and repeating back their names as they introduced themselves to her. Although she wasn’t too active in her university’s anthropology network, she recognized some of the students and exchanged pleasantries as she went around.

She returned to where Nadira was sitting, her junior inviting her to sit across from her. There were three other students sitting nearby while the others sat a little ways away.

“Tea?” Nadira offered, reaching towards one of the extra glasses of tea on the table.

“Yes, please,” Chandra smiled. 

She gratefully received the warm glass, her hands slightly shaking in tandem with the fast beating of her own heart. She took a slow inhale, willing herself to calm down before she took a sip. 

She would process the discovery of the note later. 

“Thanks again for wanting to eat with us, by the way,” Nadira said, smiling apologetically at her senior. “I hope it didn’t inconvenience you or anything!”

Chandra shook her head to say it was fine. “I really don’t mind,” she smiled at the other students sitting with them. “It’s nice to hang out with fellow anthropology people again.” 

“Has it been a while since you saw people in the network?” Egles, who was sitting next to Nadira, asked. She had her chin gracefully propped up on one hand, her tightly wound curls sitting effortlessly on her head. She was referring to the inter-university anthropology network that spanned across different regions.

Chandra nodded. “I haven’t really kept in touch with people from uni, to be honest. I just randomly bump into them here and there.”

“Oh, same! I’m not in touch with people either,” Alice joined in, blowing her straightened bangs away from her face. Her white hoodie was several sizes larger than her body, but it somehow suited her style. “But then again, I’ve been super busy lately.”

“It is a busy time of the year,” Kang Joni, one of the older students, nodded in agreement. His beard complimented the uncle-like energy he carried as he sat with one hand on his knee and the other holding onto his glass of tea. “Everyone feels like they're scrambling from one place to another.”

Chandra smiled sympathetically at the group of four. “You guys have your thesis defense soon, huh?”

“Yuuup,” Egles laughed, her long earrings dangling in the air. “The stress is truly, no joke.”

“Ugh, I feel like my brain is particularly fried today,” Alice groaned, massaging her temples with the tips of her fingers. Her straight hair brushed the tops of her shoulders.

“We usually gather to destress and talk about how our writing is going,” Nadira patted Alice’s shoulder comfortingly. “Sometimes just hanging out is nice or we bounce ideas off of each other. It just helps to get out of your own head, y’know?”

Kang Joni hummed in agreement. “Gathering together is always nice. Makes ya feel less alone in the struggle,” he smiled, nudging a plate of fried tempe towards Alice and urged her to eat. “Sometimes the advisors join us for dinner,” he said to Chandra. “Prof Maria usually does but she was pretty busy today.”

Chandra looked at him in surprise.“Do you have Professor Maria as your advisor too?”

“She’s all our advisors actually, the four of us,” Kang Joni smiled, gesturing at the little group at the table. “That's how we got close! The other folks have Professor Wahyu, for better or for worse,” he said, glancing sympathetically at the other students who seemed to be holding serious discussions over their food.

The four graduate students sucked air through their teeth and playfully shook their heads, seemingly relieved that they were spared such a fate.

“Yikes,” Chandra grinned at them.

“Yikes is honestly right,” Nadira sighed as she glanced at the other students. "That man is stressing his students out!"

“What anthropology did you concentrate in, by the way?” Egles asked Chandra.

“Cultural," Chandra responded. "Mainly to do with dance.”

“Ooo, same here. I’m also concentrating in cultural anthro,” Egles nodded. “We've got a few grad students focusing on social dance and learning this year too—pretty neat stuff.”

“Oh! I’m glad there’s people in the program focusing on dance,” Chandra smiled. “It wasn’t all that common when I was in undergrad.”

“Her undergrad thesis was really good, by the way, guys,” Nadira said in mock-gossip to the group, one hand brought up to her mouth. “She wrote about dance and community-building. It was super fascinating!”

Chandra sheepishly waved her hand in a gesture to humbly deny such compliments.

“Oh whoa, is that what your undergrad thesis was about?” Alice perked up. “I think one of us is writing about that.”

Chandra tilted her head in surprise. “Really?”

“Yeah, she’s super cool and a really good dancer,” Alice pulled the sleeves of her hoodie over her hands before she held her glass of tea. “Sometimes I wonder why she’s even here. Like, shouldn't you be pursuing a dance career?” she laughed.

“Honestly same, she’s such a good dancer,” Nadira sighed, placing her chin on both of her hands. “You should’ve seen her at the all-campus hip hop cypher last week. The undergrads were so shocked when she hit the dance floor!”

“She’s really known for that thing she does when she swings her legs around her arms—what's it called?” Kang Joni waved his hands in the air, attempting to copy the dance move before chuckling and giving up. “My knees hurt the whole time I was watching them dance.”

Chandra quietly studied the color of the tea in her glass as the others continued to chat. She took a slow sip as the feeling that she might know who they were referring to creeped inside the hollow of her chest. The person in question was beginning to sound more familiar by the minute and she bit her tongue to stop herself from hoping.

“I don’t know where she is though, is she on her way?” Egles asked, looking around the canteen.

“Dunno, she said she’d be here today,” Alice followed suit, glancing around the food stalls.

“Oh, wait—there she is now!” Nadira waved in the general direction of someone behind Chandra. “Hi, Kak Kyra!”

Chandra froze. Her heart seemed to stop inside of her chest, the response of the person who Nadira had just addressed was lost to her ears as the sounds around her became muffled.

Her breath was caught in the pit of her lungs and all she could hear was the blood rushing in her ears and feel the adrenaline running through her body as she slowly turned her head, her mouth suddenly dry in anticipation of who she was about to see.

And there she was. 

The author of the notes within the margins.