Seeing my confused expression, instead of taking the initiative to explain what he meant, he just chuckled softly, stroked the top of my head (and for some reason, I felt comfortable every time he did it), then invited me into his car.
“You first, Little Bunny.”
After opening the car door, he motioned for me to get in and placed his hand over my head so I wouldn’t bump it—a gesture he’d made last week too—then closed the door before I could thank him. He walked around the car and got in. When he started the engine, he shot me a quick glance, clicked his tongue softly, then leaned toward me, startling me because I thought he was going to hug me again. Turns out, he was only fastening my seat belt.
“Thank you.”
“You’re welcome, Bunny.” Galih shifted his gaze from me to the road. When I first met him, I hadn’t paid much attention to this guy, but now I was taking the opportunity to observe him. Today, he wasn’t wearing his suit or the glasses he’d had on when we first met last week. He was only wearing a dark blue shirt and a blue-and-white horizontally striped tie, loosened slightly. (He looked so, so freaking tempting to me right now. Seriously!) His sleeves were rolled up a little, revealing his slender, defined wrists, his watch matching his skin tone, his graceful fingers, and his hands turning the steering wheel while he wore that serious expression …
That’s not fair! How can he look this perfect just by driving a car!?
“Why, Little Bunny?” he asked, without taking his eyes off the highway, wearing a mischievous smile. “Starting to fall for my face? You’ve been staring at me this whole time.”
“N—no, I haven’t …”
“Your voice shakes when you’re embarrassed, huh? So cute …” He laughed at my answer. “Keep being this chatty, cute, and sweet. I like it.”
Like it? What did he mean? Did he like it the way I liked sweet foods like cake, or did he mean the kind of liking Tiara had talked about in the cafeteria earlier? Just thinking about the idea confused me. Ugh!
“Oh, right. I almost forgot. I want to take you somewhere. Do you have plans? If you can’t, I’ll just take you straight home.”
“Not really. But where are we going?”
Galih seemed relieved when he heard my answer. “Then it’s no problem. There’s a place I want to visit. But I don’t know if you’ll like it. Just tell me later if you don’t, okay?”
“Okay.”
“The beach?”
Galih nodded enthusiastically. “Yeah. This is what I wanted to show you. I come here when I want to be alone or when I’m looking for inspiration for my work. I usually come here by myself, but now I want to share this place with you too, because you’re special. So …”
I didn’t hear much of what he said next because I became absorbed in my own thoughts. As I swallowed, my mind suddenly spun back to what had happened twelve years ago, when I was in third grade.
The sound of the waves during high tide, the sea breeze that seemed to gently slap my cheeks, the scent of the ocean that I’d last smelled twelve years ago—I hadn’t experienced any of it in so long. I didn’t enjoy it at all.
Remembering everything connected to the beach forced me to remember the time I drowned and was saved by my friend, who was eventually swept away by the current and disappeared. It brought back my fear of the beach.