Part 2 (What Did I Do Wrong?)

"Hey, where are you? I'm at your office parking lot. Come on, we still need to get cake for Dad, right?" Tsabinu, who had been waiting for more than 20 minutes, finally decided to call his younger sister when she didn't show up.

"Yeah, just a sec, I'm still on my way with Mr. Aditya." Tshabina replied.

"Where have you been? Why aren't you at the office?" Asked Tsabinu, sounding curious and a bit possessive.

"I just met with my boss for work stuff, wait a minute, I'm gonna hang up, it's unconfortable with Mr. Aditya." Before Tsabinu could respond, Tsabina had already ended their conversation.

---

Mr. Aditya, who had just arrived, came up to Tsabinu with Tsabina following behind, even though Tsabina had told her boss to just go on ahead, "Mr. Tsabinu, sorry, I brought your sister with me. We just met Mr. Hendrik Thahir and a few other colleagues." Said Aditya.

"Yes sure, it's fine, thank you for bringing my sister, we'll take our leave now, Mr. Aditya." Said Tsabinu goodbye while shaking Aditya's hand, and Tsabina followed behind him.

--

"Hey, so..you just met the Minister, were you spreading charm?" Tsabinu teased his younger sister, still focused on driving.

"What are you talking about, spreading charm?"

"Yeah, spreading charm, oozing charm, fluttering around?"

Hearing that, Tshabina, who had been playing with her phone, put it back in her bag. "You're getting annoying, you know." Tshabina replied, already in a bad mood, turning her face towards the window.

"Why not? It's the Minister, come on, charm never hurts, who knows he might be impressed and—" Tsabinu hadn't finished his sentence when his sister cut him off sharply.

"No need, I'm enjoying my life, being an ordinary employee is tiring enough."

"Exactly, no need. Because if you're short on cash, I'm here right? Hey Bib, can you add some money? Hey Bib, can you send me some GoPay? Bibu I want to check this out but I'm 100 short, can you help me, please…" Tsabinu finally stopped teasing his sister when she glared at him. "Just kidding, twin, you're so sensitive."

A long silence hung between them in the middle of Jakarta's infamous rush hour traffic. It was always like this; during rush hour, there was always a jam. Honestly, Tsabinu hated going anywhere after work, not just because he was tired, but because Jakarta's traffic was enough to make anyone lose their cool. But today, Tsabinu noticed something was off with his twin sister; Tshabina. Usually, in this kind of traffic, Tshabina would chatter away, telling Tsabinu all about her day—especially after meeting someone amazing. If Tshabina was in a good mood, Tsabinu knew she'd be talking non-stop, especially since they were heading to celebrate their dad's birthday tonight. So why was his sister so subdued? Or… could it be…? Before Tsabinu could ask, his sister spoke.

"You know already, right? Of course you do. How could you not know?"

"What–"

"You know what I mean."

"Zioh? Yeah, I know. People at the office have been buzzing about Mr. Bakti's second child returning to Indonesia after ten years. How could I not know? He's my boss's son." Tsabinu replied calmly, occasionally glancing at his sister.

"Why didn't you tell me?" Tshabina glared at her twin brother, demanding an explanation.

"Well, did you even want to know? Andi sometimes shows you news about Zioh or Zeremia, and you don't care. You even threw Andi's phone and broke it! Do you even know how much it hurts when you hit something?"

"At least if I knew, I wouldn't have acted like such an idiot when I saw him earlier! Turns out Zioh's working on my office project! I almost fainted when I saw him, he's even more handsome." Tshabina mumbled the last sentence so softly it was almost impossible to hear.

"Why would an ordinary employee meet Zioh? Do they invite ordinary employees to important client meetings?"

"Shut up, you annoying pest!" Tshabina's temper flared. When Tshabina was upset, she didn't bother using polite language with her older brother, who was only 30 minutes older than her.

"Yeah, Mr. Aditya invited you again, right? Sounds like Andi was right, Aditya seems to have a crush on—" Tsabina cut her brother off again, this time with a playful pinch on his arm.

"Shut up, I wanna sleep. Wake me up when we get to the bakery," Said Tshabina while reclining her car seat into a comfortable sleeping position.

---

When they got home, Tshabina let out a long sigh when she saw this chatty person at her house. "Hhh… what are you doing here?"

"Celebrating our dad's birthday. What? You don't look very happy." Andi replied nonchalantly.

"Ugh… my dad, I'm gonna tell your dad, ndi! You've got your own dad at home but you're just mooching off someone else, go home! It's late, it's not good for a kid like you to be out this late."

"You jerk! You're the one who keep rejects my calls?! You're leaving me with a thousand and one questions, how can I go back home! Besides, I love your dad, and he loves me too!" Andi exclaimed at length, making Tshabina even more reluctant to deal with him.

"Anyway, I'll interrogate you tonight! Damn!!!! You met Zioh, didn't you?! You freaking know I almost slipped in the cafe earlier because I was so shocked to hear he's back in Indonesia, ESPECIALLY WORKING ON OUR COMPANY PROJECT! Shit..shit..shit…you met Zioh, didn't you?! I heard from Lisa that the bosses want to meet him, which means you must have been there, Didit always takes you everywhere, and what about your twin who works at Zioh's father's company. You freakin' dog," Andi pointed Tsabinu. " I'm gonna interrogate you tonight too! You kept this hot news quiet, you must have known it from—" Andi's outburst was cut short as Tshabina had already filled a glass with water and was about to throw it at him.

"Shut up, will you? This is hot water, Andi. My dad's still sleeping, don't be noisy."

Seeing that, Andi immediately zipped his mouth, "Okay….sorry, so let's quickly go to your room, you have to tell me everything from A-Z."

"Hey! No room, let's just do it here." Tshabinu scolded as Andi and his younger sister had already started climbing the stairs.

"Seriously, Bibu, you said we shouldn't be noisy, so I'm bringing Biba upstairs." Andi retorted, apparently super curious while Bibu was being a nuisance.

"No way, a boy and girl alone in a room, just do it here." Replied Tshabinu, already pulling his younger sibling's arm to prevent them from going upstairs.

Andi rolled his eyes lazily at his friend's protest, "Come on, if I had liked your sister, it would've happened a long time ago. I've been around this chick for years now. Besides, your little sis is still hung up on her ex and isn't exactly thrilled to see me. Just chill, man, don't complicate things; why don't you join in too? You're getting dragged into this meeting tonight, and honestly, you're the most ridiculous one here! Let's sort out the cake in the room while we're at it, hurry up you two!" Andi rambled on.

Tsabinu pondered for a moment after hearing Andi's incessant chatter. "How did we even become friends with him?" Said Tsabinu as Andi headed upstairs, leaving the twins behind.

A sigh escaped from Tshabina's lips. "I don't know, poor us." Tshabina replied, then followed Andi upstairs.

---

"So basically, you met Zioh, right? How is he? Is he different now?" The three of them were lounging next to Tshabina's bed, with her in the middle.

"Hm." Tshabina replied curtly, which naturally ignited her friend's emotions.

"Come on, What's that?! You're acting like a mute! Answer properly when I ask you something."

"Hhh...besides, my sister is still tired, you're just giving her more hassle." Tsabinu shot back, seeing his sibling's weary face.

Andi then looked Tshabina up and down. "Yeah, it's not just physical tiredness, it's emotional tiredness too."

Tshabina could only sigh, "Hhh...so how do you want me to answer?" This friend of hers always managed to exhaust her.

"Answer properly, beautiful lady, how was it when you met? What's Zioh Hadyan Danudara like now? Did you two chat? What did he say?"

A moment after Andi bombarded her with questions, Tshabina found herself reminiscing about what just happened. "Well, he was just making small talk with the superios about the project, and yeah....he's even more handsome now."

"Damn, I knew it. See, I told you, Bib. He's even hotter. You always turn away whenever I show you his pictures and news articles. So, what did you talk about with him?" Andi continued to ask questions while Tsabinu just silently stared at the two of them.

Tshabina recalled the earlier incident, pondering for a while before finally saying, "Nothing. He just stared at me for a bit, then ignored me until the meeting ended." Tshabina exclaimed while glancing at the pile of photos hanging above her bed, where those photos captured memories of them from childhood to halfway through high school. Them; Tshabina, Tsabinu, Zeremia, and Zioh. Oh, and Andi's face was sprinkled in there, too.

"Really? Just that? After 10 freaking years? Nothing else, Bib? Come on, something, anything—" Andi stopped mid-sentence as Tshabina who was sitting beside him started crying. "Hey… why are you crying…?"

Tsabinu could only sigh upon seeing his sister cry. "Ugh… I already told you, when someone's tired, don't bother them, Andi." Said Tsabinu while handing a tissue to his sister.

Andi immediately grabbed the bottled water next to him and offered it to Tshabina. "Why is it on me? I'm 100% sure the reason she's crying isn't because of me." Andi retorted, not accepting it.

"Alright, I'm going to take a shower, Dad's birthday is in two hours." Said Tshabina as she got up and headed towards the bathroom, which wasn't far from the bed where they were sitting. "Use warm water, Bib! It's already night." Tsabinu yelled as it seemed his sister didn't want to sit with them any longer.

The moment she closed the bathroom door, Andi and Tsabinu looked at each other. Apparently, their long-standing familiarity allowed them to instantly connect on what to do when Tshabina was in a bad mood like this.

"Okay, Welcome to Waikiki, which season? One or two?" Asked Andi, already grabbing the remote TV.

"I think she'd prefer season one, you know, the one with the old beat-up car," Tsabinu said casually.

"Pfft….okay." Andi chuckled softly, starting to type up Tshabina's go-to Korean drama for when she's sad.

"Alright, I'll grab her favorite snacks downstairs."

Tshabina didn't know how many times she'd sighed while showering, she couldn't understand why she felt so heartbroken. Seeing Zioh ignore her, even when she called out to him earlier, was enough to hurt her.

She really wanted to chat, to ask how he was doing, even though she already knew the answer—he was probably fine, right? How could he not be? That guy was incredibly successful now, a famous architect in their motherland, so successful he'd been featured in news articles and won awards, and he graduated from Oxford on time with a 3.92 GPA. There was no way his life was bad.

But still, Tshabina wanted to hear it straight from Zioh's mouth. Why had he and Zeremia changed? Why had they left her and Tsabinu without a word? Why had they decide to cut ties after that night? For 10 years, Tsabina tried to be patient, trying to understand the situation, especially given what happened a decade ago that shattered Zioh's and Zeremia's world. Tshabina and Tsabinu had also been devastated by it and Tsabina had wanted to be there with them at that time. But why? Why had they left her? "Why, Zi? Why did you throw me away like I'm nothing? What did I do wrong...?"

Tsabina could only whisper, and she didn't even realize her tears had started to fall again, mingling with the water from the shower soaking her face. Then her phone notification made her look up at the washbasin nightstand near the shower.

With her hands still wet, Tshabina read the message that had just come in on her phone. A message that made her whole body tremble.

"Sophie?" Just one word, but enough to make Tshabina's heart pound. How could it not? The message was from Zioh. He'd used his old number, the one that had been inactive for ten years after he moved away, but now it was active again, and he'd even messaged her first!

Another message popped up on her phone soon after. 

Zioh:

ah I apologize, I meant to say Ms. Tshabina, right? This is Natashya.