Meeting

The days passed uneventfully, with nothing to do but go through the motions. Yet, ordinary days like these hadn't felt peaceful for Karin in a long time. While some of her classmates had returned to their usual selves, the rest remained moody and lethargic.

Now, Karin sat alone in the bustling school cafeteria, surrounded by students chatting and laughing. Their cheerful energy felt distant as she sat there, burdened by guilt even for attempting to smile. The food in front of her had gone cold—she had no appetite at all.

"Karin, can we talk for a moment?"

The sudden voice startled her as someone took the seat across from her without asking.

Karin looked up, confused, at the boy sitting across from her. Her eyes shifted to the name tag on his uniform, which read Arzan.

"What is it?" she asked.

"This is important," Arzan said, clearly uncomfortable discussing the matter in such a public space. His sudden approach had already drawn some curious stares.

"Well, what is it?"

Karin's stubbornness only added to Arzan's frustration. Taking a deep breath, he finally said, "It's about Mr. Ali's blacklist."

The mention of that made Karin freeze. Her eyes widened in shock before she quickly stood up and followed Arzan out of the cafeteria. She never expected that someone else would suspect that cursed book too.

They walked to the far end of the first-floor corridor in the science building, where an out-of-order restroom sat unused. It was a quiet spot, away from prying eyes.

"What about Mr. Ali?" Karin asked without any small talk, jumping straight to the point.

"Have you seen what's inside his book?" Arzan pulled out a sheet of paper containing a list of names he had remembered from the book. "I've seen it, and I wrote down some of the names I could recall."

Karin took the paper from him and scanned the list. Some names were familiar, while others she didn't recognize. She couldn't help but be impressed by Arzan's memory. Her own name was on the list too. "Yeah, I've seen it briefly."

"Then you must've seen Heri's name crossed out, right?" Arzan pointed at the names on the paper. "As far as I've seen, none of these names have appeared in the book three times yet, except Heri. He's the only one crossed out."

Karin nodded in response, her mind occupied with recalling the names on the list.

"Do you think he's the killer?" Arzan finally asked the question Karin had been dreading. But it was also the question that reminded her just how terrifying that teacher was.

"Rin? Are you okay?" Arzan asked, concerned, as Karin suddenly seemed to lose her balance. He quickly moved to help her, but she waved him off with a gesture.

Slowly, Karin sat on the cold floor, trying to steady her breathing. A wave of nausea swept over her again. For the past few days, the trauma she had been experiencing would often resurface, especially during Mr. Ali's classes. She had been trying her best to suppress all the discomfort deep within.

"Rin, do you want some water? I can get it for you," Arzan offered, panicked at how unwell she looked.

"No, don't bother. Just give me five minutes. Stay here, but don't talk," Karin said, trying to calm herself. She didn't want to trouble anyone.

In the silence of those five minutes, the bell rang, signaling the start of the next class. Hearing it, Karin finally spoke. "Sorry, it's time for class. I guess we'll have to talk another time." She stood up with difficulty. "It wouldn't be funny if Mr. Ali caught us skipping."

"Let's just go home," Arzan suggested softly. "It's already the last period anyway. I'll help you get permission from your teacher. This isn't skipping if we're excused, right?"

Karin agreed with his reasoning. She decided to ask for permission from her teacher. Arzan offered to go to the third floor alone to request permission and grab Karin's bag, but she insisted on accompanying him.

In the end, they successfully got permission from their teacher. Afterward, they planned to find a suitable place to continue their conversation.

***

Now the two of them were sitting in a café located quite far from their school. Talking about something like this required a place rarely visited by anyone from school.

"Thanks for the treat." Karin broke the silence between them. She felt awkward being alone with a boy her age.

"Sure," Arzan replied, taking another sip of his drink as he thought about how to proceed with the conversation. "Oh, by the way, we haven't officially introduced ourselves. I'm Arzan, from 12th grade Science 1."

"Karin, 12th grade Social Studies 3."

"So..." Arzan hesitated but knew he had to get to the point. "Are you ready to talk about Mr. Ali?" Karin nodded, though hesitantly. "About that book—there seems to be a connection between it and Heri's death."

Hearing Heri's name made Karin's heart race, but she tried to stay calm so as not to alarm Arzan.

"Do you think he's the killer?" Arzan repeated the question.

Before answering, Karin needed to know something about him. "Why do you suspect Mr. Ali?"

"Oh, right, I haven't told you yet. Sorry." Arzan then began recounting the events of the murder day. He explained how he was the first to witness Mr. Budi's body, brutally murdered. Arzan also revealed that he suffered from trauma, causing him to forget most of the sequence of events and the face of the killer. He could only recall the broad outline.

Karin was stunned by this revelation. She hadn't expected that someone else knew about it too. "And you didn't try to report it to the police?"

"Believe it or not, I did. I filed an anonymous report because I wasn't entirely sure at the time that the person I saw was the killer." Arzan rubbed his face in frustration. "I doubted my own memory, so I chose to report anonymously. But to this day, the police haven't done anything."

"Sorry, I didn't mean to sound harsh earlier," Karin said, feeling guilty after hearing Arzan's confession.

"It's fine. One thing I'm certain of is that the killer's build closely resembles Mr. Ali's."

"A friend of mine also saw someone with the same height as Mr. Ali on the night Heri disappeared. So, it's safe to say there's a 90% chance that person is the killer," Karin admitted, her voice trembling.

The thought of Heri's murderer being someone so close to her terrified Karin. She couldn't imagine learning English from a murderer. Her conscience often screamed that he was guilty, but her logic forced her to deny the connections that seemed too clear to ignore.

In the end, they exchanged all the information they had about Mr. Ali. Their shared conviction about the killer drove them to agree to work together to stop him. Neither of them wanted any more victims to fall because of their hesitation.

This decision led them toward something much bigger and far more dangerous, a path they could no longer turn back from.