Aline didn’t plan to sneak into the giant white estate all by herself from the beginning and dragged Taufik in to sneak with her. Though young and not quite the age of an adult, Aline was just as tall as the cowardly Taufik, whose bronzed skin matched the tone of her long, straight hair. Taufik himself had darker features that gave the young man a sense of gloominess.
Up on the courtyard wall, Taufik had straddled the vine-covered ledge and reached a hand out to Aline, who quickly pulled herself up. That round, chubby face Taufik grew up alongside was alight with impish intents.
“I decided: I want to get to the kitchen.” Aline announced.
“That’s fine, but a place like this will definitely have more than one kitchen,” Taufik felt that she was taking their breaking-and-entering too lightly, “and now look at us. I don’t think this dirt will ever come off.”
Aline swatted his shoulder carelessly, “Shut up, you can just make us more.”
Taufik sighed bitterly in his heart. He had an exam in two days. And then a gig. And internships to apply for. For what did he have to come all the way out here for? Now? Huh?
No matter, it was useless to bargain with this girl.
The two bravely leapt off the ledge into a row of bushes. The rustling of those dark, droopy leaves was no louder than the brush of the wind. Taufik mourned for his ruined clothes and quickly zipped up his jacket. At the very least, he refused to get his hands and arms dirty.
Aline and Taufik were childhood friends brought together by their families. Though Aline was older than Taufik by a few years, Taufik ended up becoming a natural peacemaker to all troubles Aline-related. Jumping the wall of a giant, cold, rich people’s residence was nowhere near the most worrying thing that Aline had pressured Taufik to do with her.
Originally, their parents cooed at the amusingly harmonious relationship between them, exclaiming that Aline’s energetic and curious disposition was handsomely paired with Taufik’s quiet stubbornness. However, when Aline started to commit more daring acts of exploration regardless of law, Taufik only shook his head whilst accompanying her. When asked to help control Aline’s little adventures, Taufik could only shrug helplessly and admit that he, too, was invested. Aline, on the other hand, would only smile and run off when approached.
At that point, all discussions of marriage had ceased: the two had grown up to be not childhood sweethearts, but enablers.
In all honesty, Aline and Taufik weren’t particularly against the marriage: seeing the other in a romantic lens was impossible, but that was the case for everyone else in their eyes anyways. Aline spared no disdain over love and happily pushed the limits of the law, while Taufik was simply emotionally constipated since birth and rejected all forms of intimacy. Marriage was a great excuse for Aline to continue dragging Taufik along, while also leaving Taufik free from tangled, emotional affairs.
They were certainly soulmates in every sense of the word.
Taufik had only just finished wiping away what dirt he could from his clothes when Aline bounded up to him with an explosive bouquet of flowers and a sparkle in her eyes. He trailed his eyes over the tousled bushes behind her.
“... I’ll accept it if you can name all those you’ve picked. If you can’t, you better be ready to learn how to fertilize plants properly.”
“Then, teach me, college boy!” Aline set the entire bouquet to rest on her left ear, giving her a strange lump of vibrant colors in contrast to her rich black hair.
Taufik considered the pros and cons of following up with his flimsy threat and decided that there were no pros at all.
He persuaded her to focus on finding the kitchen first.
Naturally, Rui was able to hear all this with little difficulty.
At first he was alarmed at the blatant trespassing and wondered how he could quickly get a security guard over, but after hearing the childish banter, he was more perplexed than frightened. Without realizing it, he slowly rolled past the courtyard’s partition.
Aline and Taufik fell dumb at the sight of the mummy in a wheelchair.
“... Taufik what culture is that. Quick. Please.”
“Being a ‘college boy’ doesn’t mean that I learned anything more than you did.”
“Useless fashion major!”
Little mummy Rui: “…”
Seeing that the person didn’t respond but continued sitting with their head cocked to the side, Aline scampered forward to investigate. What is this cosplay? The person frozen in place was wrapped with many layers of silk sashes of blue and green -- not a single speck of centimeter was bared. A thick, colorful quilt draped across the wheelchair, making the stranger seem even more frail and pitiful. Where the feet and arms should be was instead thick lengths of rope tying the person to the chair, only barely noticeable if one could fight past the swarming visions of the quilt.
Now that she had a proper look… wasn’t this very suspicious? At first Aline assumed that this person might have a sort of sun allergy, but was it so severe that they had to keep their limbs pinned in place lest a single movement dispersed the strips of silk?
What was the point of tying someone up if they were skinny enough to be blown away by the breath of a butterfly?
Taufik saw her thoughts fly plain and clear across her face and shook his head. Sometimes there is no use in trying to understand things and one must accept them as they are.
Aline introduced herself and bluntly asked, “Do you know the way to the main kitchen?”
Rui was speechless, that is, both figuratively and literally. It was obvious that they were strangers to the Haas family, but they would actually dare to ask for directions to the first person they met?
Then Rui remembered that most people were cursed with sight and had probably seen something strange.
He could only helplessly cock his head to his other shoulder while he further warped his understanding of the world he had no place in.
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