The morning sun had not yet fully appeared on the eastern horizon when Reyhan Arkananta was already standing in front of the main gate of Nusantara High School. 6:15 a.m. Western Indonesia Time was an absolute fixture on the Student Council President's schedule for conducting surprise inspections of the uniforms and accessories worn by arriving students. In his hand, the black imitation-leather notebook lay open once again, ready to record even the smallest violation. The cool morning air, damp with the night's dew, seemed to go unnoticed by Reyhan; one hundred percent of his focus was fixed on the discipline of the hundreds of students beginning to crowd the gate.
Students passed through one by one in an orderly fashion. Some straightened their ties for fear of having their names recorded, while others hurriedly tucked their shirts into their skirts or pants. Yet amid the morning bustle, Reyhan's thoughts suddenly drifted back to what had happened the previous afternoon in the art room. Kirana Paramitha's sharp black eyes, the pungent smell of oil paint, and the challenging words the girl had thrown at him seemed to replay in his head like a broken tape.
*“Is your whole life run by a stopwatch or something, Rey? Every second has to follow a schedule... Don’t you ever get tired of being so rigid and always right, like a robot?”*
Reyhan snorted softly and shook his head, trying to banish the image. He adjusted his glasses, then put his cold, impassive expression back on when he spotted a very familiar figure strolling toward the school gate.
Kirana arrived in her usual style: her gray-and-white school uniform looked neat yet somehow disheveled because she had deliberately left the top button undone, her long hair was tied in a high ponytail with several wisps falling around her face, and a large backpack hung loosely from one shoulder. What made Reyhan's brow furrow most sharply was the fact that Kirana was walking slowly while chewing gum, with a white earbud still hanging from her left ear.
Reyhan stepped forward and blocked Kirana's path right at the edge of the school's paved courtyard.
Kirana abruptly put on the brakes. She looked up, then lazily lowered one earbud from her ear. A thin, mischievous smile immediately curved across her lips when she saw who was standing in front of her in such a demanding stance.
“Morning to you too, Mr. Most Dutiful Student Council President in the World,” Kirana greeted cheerfully, showing no fear at all in the face of Reyhan's sharp stare. “Wow, it’s barely morning and you already look so tense. Didn’t get enough fresh air, or did you not sleep last night because you were thinking about yesterday’s art-room punishment?”
“Kirana Paramitha,” Reyhan called in a low, cold voice laden with authority. He stared straight into the girl's eyes without blinking. “First, remove that earbud before you pass through the school gate. Under Chapter Two, Article Four of the school code of conduct, listening to music on an electronic device on school grounds before recess is a violation. Second, button your collar properly right now.”
Kirana snorted softly and rolled her eyes lazily, but she still followed the first instruction, removing the earbud and stuffing it carelessly into her skirt pocket. As for the button, however, she merely snorted derisively and folded her arms across her chest.
“Oh, please, Mr. Morality Inspector. I left just one button undone so I could breathe, not to show off or violate public decency,” Kirana protested. “When it’s buttoned all the way up like this, it feels like a boa constrictor is choking me, you know? Want to try it?”
“Don’t argue,” Reyhan cut in firmly, ignoring the pointless joke. He opened his black notebook, took a pen from his breast pocket, and began scratching ink across the white page. “Being out of uniform—even though you arrived on time according to the clock—is still considered a minor disciplinary violation. I’m officially giving your name one demerit point today.”
Kirana peeked at the page in Reyhan's notebook with curiosity wrapped in irritation. “Wow, you’re heartless. It’s only the second day of school, and my name already dominates your blacklist like an Interpol fugitive. Cut back on your hobby of writing down people’s names, Rey. If you stay single until you’re old because you’re too scary, don’t blame me.”
“Focus on your responsibilities as a student, not my personal affairs,” Reyhan replied coldly, closing his notebook with a sharp snap. “And remember, at exactly three this afternoon, you’re to be in the art room to continue the second day of your punishment. Don’t even think about running off or skipping it, or your punishment will be doubled to cleaning every bathroom on the third floor.”
“Yes, Boss, yes! Ready to execute!” Kirana answered mockingly, giving a sloppy military salute before finally walking past Reyhan and deliberately brushing her shoulder lightly against his.
All Reyhan could do was let out a long breath, suppressing the flare of anger that suddenly burned in his chest every time he interacted with the girl.
Time passed quickly until the afternoon bell rang sharply. True to the promise and punishment she had been given, Kirana was back in the third-floor art room. This time, her task was no longer sweeping the floor or organizing paint, but taking a new inventory of hundreds of paintbrushes in various sizes scattered inside a large wooden box.
The room was quiet, accompanied only by the afternoon wind whispering through the gaps in the glass windows and the rustle of brushes being arranged according to their thickness numbers. Kirana sat cross-legged on the wooden floor, wearing a dark blue cloth apron already worn thin and stained with paint here and there.
In the middle of sorting the brushes, the art-room door suddenly creaked softly and swung open.
Reyhan stepped into the room. This time, he came without an attendance clipboard or his black notebook. He wore his uniform shirt with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows, revealing the toned muscles in his arms, built through his regular basketball workouts. In his left hand were two paper cups filled with hot drinks he had bought from the school cooperative cafeteria.
Kirana looked up. One eyebrow lifted at the sight of the Student Council President showing up in the quiet afternoon without any of his formal work accessories.
“Well, what kind of wind blew our honorable Student Council President into his prison cell?” Kirana asked sarcastically, though a note of curiosity slipped into her voice. She set the brush in her hand on the table and stared intently at Reyhan.
Reyhan walked closer, then placed one of the paper cups on the wooden table directly in front of Kirana. He pulled over a nearby wooden chair and sat down without saying much, stretching his legs out in front of him.
“Don’t get the wrong idea,” Reyhan said flatly, avoiding direct eye contact with Kirana. “The cafeteria had an excess supply of hot chocolate because the extracurricular club students’ order was suddenly canceled. Rather than let it go to waste, I brought it here since I happened to be passing by.”
Kirana looked at the paper cup, then shifted her gaze to Reyhan's slightly tired face. Beneath the dim fluorescent lights of the art room, Reyhan's features looked softer than they did when he stood on the assembly podium or at the school gate. Kirana smiled faintly, with a meaningful expression that made Reyhan uncomfortable and immediately turn his face toward the window.
“Just say you came here on purpose because you missed me—or at least because you were curious whether I was really doing my punishment properly instead of escaping through the window,” Kirana teased as she reached for the paper cup and inhaled the sweet chocolate aroma rising warmly from it. “Thanks, Mr. President. Turns out there’s still a conscience beneath that stiff robot mask of yours, after all. You do care about prisoners.”
“Don’t be so full of yourself, Kirana,” Reyhan quickly objected, raising his voice as he turned back to meet the girl's gaze. “I came here to make sure this brush inventory is completed on time before five. The principal is inspecting the art lab facilities tomorrow, and I don’t want even the smallest mistake tarnishing the Student Council report.”
Kirana chuckled softly, her bright laugh sounding so unfamiliar yet somehow not unpleasant to Reyhan's ears. She sipped the hot chocolate slowly, enjoying the sweetness that immediately warmed her throat amid the steadily cooling afternoon air.
“Yeah, yeah, the Student Council report comes first,” Kirana said, setting her cup back on the table. She picked up the box of brushes again, then glanced toward Reyhan, who was still sitting quietly beside her with no intention of getting up and leaving anytime soon. “By the way, Rey... If you keep chasing perfection in everything, when do you make time for yourself? Don’t you ever get tired of being the person who has to seem perfect in front of everyone?”
The question hung in the air again, piercing the cold defenses Reyhan always kept at the ready. For a moment, the art room fell silent. There was no sound except the whisper of the afternoon wind and Reyhan's own heartbeat, suddenly pounding faster than usual.
Reyhan stared at the cup of hot chocolate in his hand, feeling its warmth spread through his fingers, but his thoughts drifted far away as he considered how right the simple question from the unruly girl in front of him really was. And for the first time in his life, Reyhan could not find the right answer to say.