Arel was still standing behind the bookstore counter, staring at his phone screen. The message contained only one sentence, but it was enough to send his thoughts back to the past.
“Arel, we need to talk.”
The sender’s name made his chest feel heavy.
Reno.
It had been a very long time since Arel had heard anything about him.
Reno wasn’t a stranger in Arel’s life. They used to be close friends. In fact, Reno had been one of the people who spent the most time with Arel before everything changed.
But their relationship had ended amid countless misunderstandings that were never resolved.
Arel slipped his phone into his pocket.
Maya, who was arranging books on a shelf, noticed the change in his expression.
“Bad news?”
Arel came back to himself.
“Huh?”
“You look like you just read something that sent your thoughts somewhere else.”
Arel gave a faint smile.
“I did.”
“Want to talk about it?”
Arel slowly shook his head.
“I don’t know yet.”
Maya didn’t pressure him.
“If you’re not ready, that’s okay.”
The words reminded Arel of all the people who had said something similar to him.
The difference was that he used to see other people’s concern as a burden.
Now he was beginning to learn how to accept it.
All day, the message continued to distract Arel.
Not because he didn’t want to meet Reno.
But because he was afraid.
Afraid that everything from the past would resurface.
Afraid he would hear something he had spent all this time avoiding.
When the store began to empty out, Arel finally opened the message again.
His fingers moved slowly.
“When?”
That was the only word he sent.
Less than a minute later, Reno replied.
“Tomorrow afternoon. The usual place.”
Arel stared at the message.
The usual place.
A sentence that carried so many memories.
It was a small field near their old school. The place where they used to sit for hours, talking about their dreams and plans for the future.
It was also where they had their last fight.
That night, Arel had trouble sleeping.
He imagined all kinds of possibilities.
What if Reno blamed him?
What if the meeting only reopened old wounds?
What if all the blame really did belong to him?
The thoughts kept surfacing until Arel finally picked up his notebook.
He opened to a blank page.
Then he wrote:
“I can’t keep avoiding something just because I’m afraid.”
After writing the sentence, he closed the notebook.
The next day, Arel continued working as usual.
But Maya could tell that his mind wasn’t entirely at the store.
“You have plans today?”
Arel nodded.
“Yeah.”
“Sounds important.”
“It is.”
Maya smiled.
“Then don’t be late.”
Arel let out a quiet laugh.
“Why is that what you’re saying?”
“Because sometimes people get so caught up thinking about a conversation that they forget simple things.”
Arel nodded.
Another small piece of advice.
But for some reason, it always felt exactly right.
That afternoon, Arel walked toward the old field.
The place was still the same as it had been back then.
The long bench beneath the tree was still there.
The field that used to be crowded now looked much quieter.
Arel stood a few yards away.
Not long afterward, someone arrived.
Reno.
They looked at each other.
Neither of them spoke right away.
Finally, Reno broke the silence.
“You really came.”
Arel shoved his hands into his jacket pockets.
“Yeah.”
“I thought you wouldn’t come.”
“I almost didn’t.”
Reno smiled faintly.
“Still the same.”
“What do you mean?”
“Still honest when you talk.”
Arel didn’t answer.
They sat on the same bench as they had in the past.
For several minutes, there was only silence.
Until finally, Reno drew a breath.
“I heard you left.”
Arel looked straight ahead.
“Yeah.”
“Why?”
The question was simple.
But Arel had heard it far too many times.
The difference was that this time, he tried to answer.
“I was losing my direction.”
Reno looked at him.
“And leaving became your choice?”
Arel nodded slightly.
“Yeah.”
Reno looked disappointed.
“You know what, Rel? What made me angry wasn’t that you left.”
“Then what was it?”
“That you left without believing there was someone willing to listen to you.”
Arel fell silent.
The words were similar to something someone else had once said to him.
Because the real problem hadn’t been about leaving.
It had been about shutting every door.
“I thought no one would understand back then.”
Reno shook his head.
“That was just what you thought.”
Arel lowered his head.
“I was wrong.”
Reno didn’t answer right away.
“I was wrong too.”
Arel turned toward him.
“You?”
“Yeah.”
Reno looked at the grass in front of them.
“I was too busy being angry back then. I thought you were deliberately distancing yourself from us.”
“But the truth was?”
“The truth was, you were actually struggling.”
Arel said nothing.
He had been waiting a very long time for someone to say that.
Not to justify everything he had done.
But to acknowledge that there had been things no one ever saw.
“I’m sorry, Rel.”
Arel was startled.
“Why are you apologizing?”
“Because I stopped trying to find out how you were doing.”
The afternoon wind blew softly.
For the first time in a long while, Arel felt some of the old weight lift.
“I’m sorry too.”
Reno looked at him.
“For leaving?”
Arel shook his head.
“For making the people who cared about me feel abandoned.”
Reno smiled faintly.
“That’s a more mature answer than the Arel I used to know.”
Arel laughed softly.
“So I’m old now?”
“No. It means you’ve learned.”
The two of them fell silent again.
But this time, the silence was different.
It wasn’t silence because there was a problem.
It was the silence of two people who had finally put something long buried to rest.
Before they left, Reno said,
“Rel.”
“Yeah?”
“Come back when you’re ready.”
Arel looked at him.
“I still don’t know when that’ll be.”
“That’s okay.”
“But I’m trying.”
Reno nodded.
“That’s enough.”
That night, Arel walked home feeling lighter.
He realized that he hadn’t been the only one who was hurt all this time.
There were other people who had felt the loss too.
And maybe going home wasn’t about returning to the same place.
Maybe it was about becoming again the person he had almost abandoned.
Someone who still had hope.
Someone who could still make everything right.
But when Arel reached his room, a new message appeared.
This time, it was from Raka.
“Rel, there’s something you need to know.”
Arel stared at the screen.
A few seconds later, another message came in.
“This is about why everything started changing back then.”
Arel froze.
Because all this time, he had thought he knew everything about the past.
It turned out there was still one story he had never heard.