A.R: 14

A small pinging noise echoed from V’s laptop, interrupting the conversation. V hurriedly scrolled through all her emails before landing at the most recent. Rae bent down to read what she had found – it was a forwarded email with a bank transfer receipt:

Paid
Deposit Receipt Number
XXXXXXX

From: K. Persebi
XXX-XXX-0648

To: Yusef
XXX-XXX-8537

Amount: 1 000 000 000 Rp

Scheduled Payment Date: 10/10/XX

Payment ID: XXXXXXXX-XXXX-XXXX-5438

A few seconds of silence passed then processing took place. Rae’s eyebrows furrowed as he read the long number. He had never seen a number that big before. Was it possible for someone to have that much money?

‘Astaga!’ Jiu cursed, his hands clamping onto Rae’s shoulders, shaking him vigorously, ‘One billion rupiah!’

‘That’s like…nine million in yen…’ V muttered to herself, raking a shaky hand through her messy, orange hair. Rae shoved Jiu away, feeling nauseated.

‘That’s like, three hundred million each. That’s...massive.’ V calculated, her hands still in her hair.

Jiu leapt from his spot, sprinting to the cupboard near the opposite side of the room. He yanked out a duffel bag, slinging it over his shoulder, his eyes wild and his breathing irregular.

‘How do we go and get it?’

The splutter of the car engine slowly faded away as it drove into the night. He waved goodbye, as if the driver cared, and trekked down the dirt path, keeping his head low and his hood fully over his head. He wasn’t sure how popular his face was in barren towns like those, but he believed in the common phrase, “better safe than sorry.”

After a few minutes, he reached the shabby building, staring up at the glowing red letters above him (“MENTARI”) stepping into the humid room. The door signalled his entrance, a single bell echoing in the seemingly empty space. A reception desk sat ahead of him. The walls were covered in paintings and photos with meanings he could not decipher.

A dirty red carpet led a path from the entrance to the reception desk, which he realized held a young, dark woman. She did not look that much older than him (maybe a five-year difference?) and had curly dark hair that covered the sides of her face so that only her heavy makeup was visible. She was leaning back on her chair, phone in hand as she scrolled through it.

He walked up to the desk cautiously, careful not to draw too much attention to himself before she even noticed someone was in the room with her.

‘Apa yang kamu inginkan?’ She asked. Rae went straight to the point, unsure of what the girl asked but certain about what he wanted. He asked for a room, in English, for at least a month. The change in language seemed to catch the receptionist’s attention because she looked up at him, her eyes narrowed and bored.

‘English, you speak?’ She asked before clicking her tongue, ‘No mind, you look like English speaker.’ She asked, her tone demeaning. Rae frowned as he wondered what she meant (he didn’t look like an English speaker and he knew this because he was born and raised in Japan). Instead of answering, he shrugged, waiting for her to complete the request he had inquired.

When the receptionist realized that he was not going to answer, she rolled her slender eyes quite dramatically and sat up in her seat, typing God-knows-what on the desktop in front of her. She occasionally glanced up at Rae, giving him puzzling looks before returning. After a few minutes, she sighed, leaning back in her chair once again.

‘Name?’ She questioned, her arms folded across her chest as she grimaced at Rae, as if he was making the room rot.

If anything was rotten, it was definitely her attitude.

‘Seo-Jun Choi.’ He lied, spewing out the first two korean names he could put together. He couldn’t tell her an ethnically different sounding name as it would raise some eyebrows, so he improvised with Korean. That way, he at least looked the part.

The dark-haired woman clicked her tongue, glaring at Rae in an almost threatening way.

Eventually, she held out a key for him, her tongue poking the inside of her mouth: she obviously had something to say. But instead, he became the bigger person and walked away, hoping that he could find his room by himself as she didn’t tell him which floor it was on.

His room was situated on the third – and topmost – floor of the hotel. It was closest to the stairs, which Rae appreciated, and furthest away from the end of the corridor. From the front of his door (45), one could see everyone or thing that came up or down the stairs.

It was useful.

He unlocked his door. The room was dark and unbearably cold, the moonlight from the window glistening through the closed curtains. Rae fumbled around in the dark, searching for a light switch. The lights flashed on; the effect not as powerful as he hoped. The light bulb was dim and only helped to see things that were close to him – anything further remained a mystery.

Rae dropped his bag near the bed, searching the room for anything suspicious. After coming back with nothing, Rae allowed himself to relax. He plopped himself down on his bed, a sigh echoing around the bare room.

He was exhausted. Hours of being constantly on the move while hiding his face could really wear a man out. He had jumped from train to train, bus to bus, taxi to taxi all while having a major language barrier in between. He had picked up some phrases like “Selamat malam” (Good evening) and “Bisakah Anda mengantar saya” (Can you please drive me…) and that was it. Everything else was unknown territory.

Being with no partner was harder than he had imagined. Ever since him, V and Jiu split up, many things suddenly didn’t go his way. He had had a fight with a taxi driver over where he wanted to go, a run in with a police official who somehow didn’t recognize who he was and an old woman who had told him he looked old. The last one was not as bad, but it had hurt him the deepest – he was only seventeen, for goodness’s sake.

Nonetheless, he was tired and only longed for a good, long sleep. He could do things at his own pace now because he was by himself. It wasn’t that he was happy about it, but at least he could rest when and where he wanted to.

And rest he did.