Semester six finally came to an end.
Gilang had taken his final exam just a little while ago with his friends. Some students had already gone back to their respective villages, while others were still making plans—or didn't have any plans at all. Gilang himself hadn't decided whether he would go back to his village or not.
As he was leaving the college campus, Gilang ran into Nisa.
“Gilang,” Nisa called.
“Yeah, Nis,” Gilang replied.
“Aren't you with Dimas?” Nisa asked.
“No, Dimas left ahead of me in a hurry. He said he wanted to get ready to go back to his village,” Gilang answered.
Nisa said, “What about you, Lang? Aren't you going home?”
Gilang said, “Um... I don't know yet. I'll see how things go later.”
Nisa said, “Give me a ride home.”
“Huh?” Gilang replied, looking a little confused. It wasn't like Nisa to ask him for a ride home.
“Yeah, give me a ride. We can go home together. Why? Can't you?”
“Um... I'd have to drive around again after dropping you off, Nis.”
“Oh, I see. Fine, I'll go back by myself,” Nisa replied as she walked away from Gilang.
Gilang stood there for a moment, then called out to Nisa,
“Nisa, wait. Come on, let's go home together,” he said while jogging after her.
“That's more like it,” Nisa replied.
The two of them walked to the parking lot, then left the college campus together.
Partway there, Nisa asked Gilang to stop at a convenience store to buy a few things for the house. “Lang, stop at the convenience store up ahead, okay? There's something I need to buy.”
“So that's why you asked me to go with you. Turns out you had an ulterior motive. Fine, I have something to buy too,” Gilang replied.
When they arrived at the convenience store,
“Lang, carry the basket for me,” Nisa said.
“Why me?” Gilang asked.
“Because you're a guy. Carrying the basket is your job, obviously. I'll pick out the stuff,” Nisa said with a slight smile.
“Seriously? I'm not your boyfriend.”
“I know you're not, but just pretend you are.”
“What do you mean?” Gilang asked, his face confused and curious.
“Don't get your hopes up... Don't think weird thoughts. Just carry it. We're going over there.”
Gilang fell silent for a moment, then followed Nisa without saying a word.
After they finished shopping, Gilang drove Nisa home, then went straight back to his rented room, took a shower, cleaned up, and sat down on the sofa to relax.
For some reason, he still couldn't stop thinking about their shopping trip. With a small smile, he murmured to himself, “Nisa's actually pretty sweet, huh? But I've never seen her going around with a guy. Even though, come to think of it, plenty of guys on campus try to get close to her. Why am I even thinking about that?”
Gilang felt something a little strange at the time, but he didn't understand what it was yet.
“Ding...” His phone chimed with an incoming message.
“Thanks for driving me home earlier, Lang,” the message read. It was from Nisa.
Huh, that's unusual. Back when they worked on group assignments together, Nisa hardly ever texted him. And when she did, it was usually just in the group chat to discuss the assignment. Hmm... Gilang thought.
“Okay,” Gilang replied curtly.
He set his phone down, then chose to lie down in his bedroom.
He turned on the bedside lamp while thinking about whether he should go back to his village this semester or stay here until the semester break was over. Even if he went back to the village, there wasn't anything important he needed to do.
Maybe it's better to stay here. I can also make more thorough preparations for my final semester later, Gilang thought.
Maybe because of his somewhat introverted side, he preferred being alone in his room to sitting around in the middle of a crowd. That was also why Gilang only had a few close friends.