"Run, Sa! Hurry!" Hendra shouted, outpacing his friend Mahesa, who was jogging behind him. Mahesa's long sigh already showed just how lazy the boy was. They were still wearing their blue-and-white middle-school uniforms, marking them as middle schoolers. Beneath the scorching sun directly overhead, Hendra was still full of energy, even as his skin grew darker from the burn.
"I didn't know he was this active," Mahesa complained. A small squirrel standing beside Mahesa's foot looked up and sighed too, as if it understood his complaint. The squirrel then ran off, climbed the nearest large tree, and leaped onto the power line stretching above the sidewalk.
"Sa, come on!" Hendra called again. He shouted loudly enough that several people turned to look at him. Mahesa quickly followed, speeding up so he could catch his friend.
But as they passed a tall building that looked like an empty, unfinished, abandoned building, Mahesa stopped. He turned to look at it. Hendra stopped too and called Mahesa again, but there was no response, as if Mahesa couldn't hear him. Mahesa walked into the building's grounds without paying attention to Hendra's shouts. From above, the squirrel could be seen following Mahesa. It leaped from the utility pole onto the nearest tree, then ran ahead of Mahesa. It seemed to be leading the way so Mahesa would follow.
"I knew he was weird from the start, but he could at least not make things difficult," Hendra muttered. In the end, he turned around and followed Mahesa with a resigned sigh.
Mahesa climbed the building's stairs one step at a time. He really was letting the little squirrel lead him from the front.
"Where to?" Mahesa asked.
"The top floor," the little squirrel replied. Its tiny footsteps changed into the footsteps of a human, and it transformed into a seven-year-old boy. Mahesa hurried after him, grabbed the boy's arm, and disappeared on the next step.
Up there, on the fourteenth floor, another boy was crouching at the edge of the building. He lowered his head and stared down, as if making sure how tall the building was. Once he had convinced himself, the boy stood straight and let the wind high above whip against his body. He imagined himself falling and slamming into the air. His feet were already ready to jump.
"He's thirteen years old," said a loud voice, making the boy stop. His eyes returned to the world. He turned and saw two boys staring at him: Mahesa and the squirrel boy, Karma.
"I'm thirteen too, Karma."
"Mahesa is thirteen."
"And I'm Mahesa too." Mahesa began to show his irritation because he didn't understand what Karma meant.
"Mahesa," called the boy who had now forgotten his original purpose. He tried to walk closer, but after just one step, the boy stepped on a loose pebble, twisting his ankle. His body refused to obey him, as if it was only following the boy's primary objective: falling.
"Mahesa!" Mahesa now shouted his own name.
"Mahesa meets Mahesa," Karma murmured. Mahesa ran and leaped, reaching for the thin body staring blankly at him in midair. The Mahesa he didn't know leaped and called his name. Their hands touched, and they disappeared in the air.
"Maika Nara," Karma whispered, chanting a spell. Mahesa landed in front of him with the boy clinging tightly to Mahesa's hand.
"What the hell? How is that possible?" Hendra, standing at the entrance to the emergency stairwell, rubbed his eyes as if he couldn't believe what he had just seen.
"I'm Mahesa too, Mahesa Gaska Dianggar. Nice to meet you, Mahesa." The boy introduced himself and smiled at Mahesa. Then he ran down the stairs without waiting for Mahesa's response. Even Hendra, whom he had just passed, could only stare in confusion at what had happened. Hendra was left wondering which of them actually wasn't an ordinary human.