This Tuesday afternoon, Lyra decided to give her brain a break from her laptop screen and stacks of digital planner drafts. After nearly having her head explode two days ago from an emergency marathon helping Ales revise a project, she needed a total refresh. And the most effective escape was obviously wandering around aimlessly with Jeni.
Tired of their usual routine of grabbing meatball soup by the roadside, Jeni dragged Lyra to a new café that was currently all the rage. It had an aesthetic-minimalist concept, with an outdoor area full of greenery and warm lights.
“Raa, take my picture! But make it candid, okay? Like while I’m pretending to laugh prettily and holding my matcha,” Jeni called out as she busily fixed her hair and shifted around to find the best lighting. Lyra giggled and immediately raised her phone.
“One, two, three... smile!”
Lyra’s fingers nimbly pressed the camera button several times. “Got it! The lighting came out perfect, Jen.”
“Damn, awesome! You’re seriously the only bestie who understands my face’s aesthetic angles,” Jeni praised excitedly as she sorted through the shots Lyra had taken.
They continued chatting about everything under the sun while snacking—from ranting about the latest TikTok gossip to complaining about their everyday lives. The relaxed atmosphere slowly melted the weight in Lyra’s head.
While she was drinking her matcha, Jeni suddenly smacked her own forehead rather hard.
“Oh, shit, I just remembered!” Jeni exclaimed, nearly making Lyra choke. “My cousin texted me yesterday, Raa. He’s seriously stressed trying to find an admin staffer for his business.”
Lyra raised one eyebrow, caught between curiosity and doubt. “What kind of admin work are we talking about? Don’t tell me it’s some wholesale store where the merchandise keeps multiplying, because I’m out!”
“Of course not! How cruel would I have to be to dump you there?” Jeni snickered. “He runs a photo booth and custom souvenir-printing business. It’s fairly busy, but it’s still medium-sized. The work isn’t that complicated—mostly compiling orders, arranging photo schedules, and replying to customer chats.”
Lyra nodded a little. Sounds good, she thought. The business was straightforward and not so huge that it would be stressful, but it could bring in enough extra money for her regular spending. “I thought of you right away because you really like dealing with data summaries,” Jeni continued. “My cousin runs the business with a friend. Well, it’s that friend who asked him to find someone detail-oriented. Apparently, the friend is pretty straightforward at work, but laid-back.”
“Sure, Jen. Send the details to my WhatsApp later,” Lyra replied.
As the afternoon grew dark and a light drizzle began to fall, Lyra’s phone on the table vibrated. It was a voice call from Ales.
Lyra answered while sucking up the last of her matcha. “What’s up, Les?”
“Raa, your SSD enclosure from the other day got left on my TV stand,” Ales’s relaxed voice came through the phone, accompanied by the quiet sound of his television playing in the background.
Lyra furrowed her brow. “Huh, really? I thought I put it in my bag yesterday after I finished working on your draft.”
“It’s still here. Ion’s playing with it,” Ales replied, completely innocently.
“Dude! Don’t let Ion play with it, are you crazy? What if it breaks?” Lyra immediately panicked.
Ales just chuckled on the other end—the same smug, annoying laugh he always had. “Kidding, Raa. I already put it away in the cabinet. Where are you, out in the drizzle?” Ales asked.
“I’m hanging out. I was bored at home,” Lyra replied casually.
“With who?”
“Jeni,” Lyra answered casually, suddenly pointing her phone’s camera straight at Jeni’s face.
Jeni, who had been happily chewing on a snack, nearly died of shock. Her innocent face went blank in front of the camera, her mouth still slightly full. Ales burst out laughing when he saw Jeni’s startled expression on the other end of the screen. “Relax, Jen. It’s not like I’m going to ask you to share your food.”
Jeni immediately realized what had happened and glared adorably at the camera. “You two are insane! You shoved the camera at me out of nowhere! My face wasn’t ready, Ales!”
“Hey, you two are always roaming around. Go home already—it’s drizzling. If Lyra gets a fever from getting soaked, her brain’ll get even more useless,” Ales quipped.
“Your mouth is so obnoxious! I’m not listening to you,” Lyra grumbled, turning the camera back toward her own face. “That’s enough. This call is so pointless!”
“Yeah, yeah, go home before it gets heavier,” Ales replied casually before Lyra abruptly ended the call.
As soon as the phone screen went dark, Jeni hissed softly while shaking her head. “You two are unbelievable! I was happily chewing and suddenly you shoved a camera in my face. Thank God I didn’t choke!” Lyra chuckled softly as she straightened her bag. “Sorry, Jen. Besides, your reaction was priceless.”
“You scared the crap out of me, asshole,” Jeni grumbled, pretending to pout before finally giggling herself. “But that’s just Ales. From high school to having a kid, he still hasn’t lost that obnoxious streak. He’s been consistently annoying this whole time.”
“Seriously. He’s nuts. His annoying side has never gone away,” Lyra complained. Even though she was grumbling, that irritation unconsciously made the weight in her head evaporate.
“Come on, let’s head back! Better than Ion’s dad cursing us to get rained on for real,” Jeni said as she stood up from her chair.
While tidying her things, Jeni typed something on her phone. “Here, I sent my cousin’s contact to your WhatsApp.”
Lyra checked her phone and saw a new contact in their chat: Lumina Studio — Aris.
“Awesome, thanks, Jen. I’ll try messaging him tonight,” Lyra replied as she slipped her phone into her bag.
The two of them finally got up and headed to the register to pay for their order. But just after stepping outside the café entrance and starting toward the parking area, the sky suddenly turned pitch-black, and heavy rain immediately poured down on the earth without mercy.
“Holy crap, it’s coming down hard! Run!” Jeni screamed.
Without a second thought, they covered their heads with their bags and sprinted through the rain toward the motorcycle parking lot. By the time they reached Jeni’s scooter, their clothes were already completely soaked.
“Jen, hurry and open the seat! Where’s the raincoat?” Lyra shouted, shivering against the cold.
Jeni rummaged through her motorcycle’s storage compartment and held up the only raincoat they had: a bright red plastic poncho. “Here! But it’s just one of those wide ponchos with a single head opening, Raa!”
Since there was only one head opening, Jeni put the poncho over herself and took the handlebars in front. Lyra had no choice but to hunch down behind her, her head stuck inside the dark back fold of the poncho with no head opening, while both arms hugged Jeni tightly around the waist to keep the poncho from flying away.
Lyra’s position was incredibly strange and stuffy, like she was hiding inside a sarong. But only a few meters after the motorcycle started moving down the street, Lyra suddenly felt rainwater spray hard onto her face inside the darkness of the poncho.
Lyra wiped her drenched face and looked up at the poncho fabric. “JENI! WHY IS THERE A HAND-SPAN-SIZED HOLE IN THE PONCHO RIGHT IN FRONT OF MY FACE, FOR FUCK’S SAKE?!” Lyra screamed in frustration from inside the poncho.
Jeni glanced at her in the rearview mirror and immediately burst out laughing so hard that the motorcycle wobbled a little. “It’s fine, Raa! Just think of it as free roadside ablution!”
“JENI, YOU BITCH! ARE YOU TRYING TO GET US KILLED IN THE STUPIDEST WAY POSSIBLE?!” Lyra screamed, growing even more annoyed, though she couldn’t hold back her own absurd laughter behind the torn red fabric.
“Hang in there, Raa! We’re almost at your place!” Jeni shouted back over the rain, still laughing happily at the handlebars.
The scooter continued through the heavy rain, carrying the two of them—both thoroughly soaked and exhausted from laughing way too much the entire ride.
To be continued!
A little interlude from Ales and Lyra hehe. Happy reading—I hope you enjoy this chapter 🤗