Part 4

Airin blinked, clearing her vision. She wanted to squirm to see what time it was. 

"Oh, God!! Half past three? Three in the afternoon or..." Airin hesitated, glancing at the hotel room window. Dark. One word fittingly described what lay behind those curtains.

"No way," Airin mumbled, shocked. She quickly sat up, covering her bare body, searching for Zidan, who had taken advantage of her multiple times. "Zidan, where is he?"

Airin slid off the bed, wrapping a blanket around her innocent body. Searching for Zidan in the bathroom to question him. But alas, not even Zidan's scent lingered. The man had left.

"Damn it!" cursed Airin. She immediately grabbed her phone to call Zidan, asking why he left her alone in the hotel room after what they did from the late afternoon to midnight.

Airin still felt the pain in her lower body and her entire skeletal structure aching. Zidan had truly taken the opportunity to satisfy his desires until she lost consciousness. Truly, a despicable man.

'Airin, forgive me, I had to leave without saying goodbye. My dad was hospitalized after falling in the bathroom. I had to go home because mom panicked seeing dad in critical condition. I wanted to wake you up, but I couldn't bear it, knowing you must be exhausted after a long night. I left with a heavy heart, and once everything is okay, I'll ask mom to contact you. Please don't be angry with me, my love.'

Airin took a deep breath, exhaling harshly after reading Zidan's message from two hours ago. She pulled one corner of her lip when staring at herself in the wardrobe mirror.

Messy hair and a body marked with purplish-red signs of their forbidden love with Zidan. Airin laughed at herself, easily surrendering to Zidan. Despite talking to his mother, she shouldn't have willingly opened her legs to be enjoyed. Even now, Airin didn't know Zidan's address, and his phone number was inactive when he disappeared.

Airin roughly wiped her face, hoping no one knew how far she had gone, especially her parents, who worked hard in the village to fund her education. But she played with fire with a man from Jakarta, with an entirely unclear address.

"You're so foolish. What if you're pregnant?" Airin mumbled. Standing tall in front of the wardrobe mirror after she finished showering and packing to return to her boarding house. She caressed her still-flat stomach, biting her lip hard to ward off the fear that haunted her.

"But..." Airin stared blankly at the mirror in front of her, recalling Zidan's words about taking responsibility if she got pregnant. That meant they would marry sooner if she was pregnant, right?

"May you come soon. So my fear diminishes and vanishes. Come, so I no longer commit a great sin," she whispered in her heart. Praying to truly be pregnant and have a child. So she wouldn't have to wait a month to marry Zidan.

Because Airin was certain that until they got married, Zidan would keep coming back for her services. Moreover, she wouldn't be able to refuse, given that Zidan had thoroughly enjoyed her.

"I hope I get pregnant soon," Airin murmured. As she reached for the money Zidan intentionally left on the nightstand. He left it so Airin would have money to return to her boarding house, which was quite far from the hotel, including money for her daily expenses.

Airin realized, Zidan asked and was serviced, leaving behind a sum of money, and she had started resembling a prostitute. Airin also realized she was picked up on the street and went home alone with a sum of money.

"You're no different from a prostitute, Rin," Airin mocked herself. She grumbled throughout the journey from the room to the hotel lobby... until...

Bugh!!

"Ouch!" Airin shrieked as her backside hit the hard lobby floor.

"Sorry, I..." A man who accidentally bumped into Airin apologized, extending his hand to help. However, he was stunned when he saw who the woman he accidentally collided with was.

"Airin?"

"Mr. Fachri?"

They exclaimed simultaneously, both shocked by each other's presence at the hotel at such an unusual hour.

Fachri, one of her professors at the university, was undoubtedly surprised to find one of his students at the hotel. At dawn, no less, wearing the same clothes as yesterday.

Yes, Fachri could vividly recall that Airin wore a leaf-green blouse yesterday, exactly like what she was wearing now. Fachri was not mistaken at all, as he taught in Airin's classes from morning to afternoon. That meant the beautiful girl hadn't gone home but instead stopped at the hotel.

"Airin? What are you doing here?" Fachri asked, with an extraordinary surprise. However, he still helped Airin stand up, despite being the one who caused her to fall.

"I... I'm accompanying my parents who are staying at this hotel. They just arrived from the village, and I'm heading back to my boarding house to get ready for class. I'm afraid of being late, so I hurried." Airin rubbed her neck, almost losing her wits to come up with a suitable excuse to answer her professor's question.

"Oh, is that so?" Fachri scratched his non-itchy head. He tried to recall whether Airin had a morning schedule or not. Although his mind was sure that Airin only had afternoon classes with her department's professors. Hopefully, he was wrong in his recollection.

And hopefully, it was just his mind thinking negatively about Airin's presence in the hotel at such an early hour, not to mention a purplish-red mark peeking behind the collar of her blouse. Fachri reassured himself that it could be a wasp or giant mosquito bite.

"Yeah, that's it, Sir. What about you, coming here so early in the morning?" Now Airin turned the question back to Fachri, who was battling with his sanity.

"I came here to help my cousin's sister-in-law, checking whether her husband is really here or not. He lives in Jakarta now, so he can't keep an eye on his husband. And coincidentally, these past two days, her husband had meetings with clients here, but she received reports that it was just a lie. The person sent by my sister-in-law even said her husband went to this hotel with a woman. Unfortunately, the messenger had to leave immediately because her sister had an accident. So, I continued the task to verify the truth," Fachri explained thoroughly, not hiding anything from Airin.

Because he didn't want to be viewed negatively by his student, it would be an unpleasant gossip if any rumors spread throughout the campus.

"Oh, I see, Sir. Well then, I'll go back. Have a good duty!" Airin bowed slightly, bidding farewell to Fachri to leave.

Fachri just nodded. Despite Airin's attempts to hide something, he was still convinced that she was keeping something from him.

"Besides, there's no way there's a giant mosquito in this hotel," Fachri muttered, observing Airin, who was starting to move away and disappeared from his sight.

The twenty-six-year-old man could only hope that Airin wasn't involved in free relationships, and that mark earlier... was truly just a mosquito bite. Or maybe a birthmark?