Part 6

Airin was annoyed. After making her way to building three, Fachri asked her to come to his office in the main building. With a seemingly innocent face, he requested her to wait there while also asking for help in bringing a stack of assignments from the class he currently taught.

With reluctant steps and a perfectly pouted lip, Airin headed to Fachri's office. Navigating through corridors and up and down stairs, she finally reached the youngest lecturer's room.

Airin was stunned, witnessing the neatness and pleasant aroma of the room. While the campus had cleaning staff, the distinct fragrance emanating from Fachri's office was different—unique and pleasing to the olfactory senses. The spacious room was also impeccably organized, not messy at all.

While waiting for Fachri, who knows when would arrive, Airin arranged the books on the table. She sat down, folded her hands on the table, and resumed her nap that was interrupted by Fachri's request.

"Sorry for making you wait," Fachri said, suddenly appearing at the door of his room. This startled Airin, who was dozing. She rubbed her face and looked towards Fachri, who was now standing beside her.

"Let's have lunch before we begin." Fachri placed two plastic bags containing two boxes and two glasses of orange juice on the table.

Airin's eyebrows furrowed. Lunch? How long had she been asleep that Fachri came and invited her for lunch? Was it she who slept for a long time, or was Fachri exaggerating?

"It's already half past twelve noon. It's lunchtime, isn't it?" Fachri said again, sitting in his chair and starting to open the lunch boxes. The distinctive aroma of spicy sambal and fried chicken immediately tempted her sense of smell.

"That..."

"It's level eight spicy chicken from the place in front of the campus. Your favorite food," Fachri continued, ignoring Airin's bewilderment as he already started eating his lunch.

"For me, Sir?" Airin asked, still contemplating the lunch box in front of her.

Fachri nodded, continuing to chew his food. He had no intention of engaging in lengthy conversation with Airin yet. He hadn't found the right topic to delve into to gather information about who the real Airin was.

Moreover, ever since Fachri stumbled upon a photo that deeply troubled him while checking Airin's social media account — something he did to find her favorite food.

In that photo, there was a pair of hands holding each other with a caption, 'May our relationship be blessed soon, so I can introduce you to the world.'

It was incredibly romantic, but it raised significant questions for Fachri when he noticed the initial 'M' tattooed on one of the hands' wrists, strikingly similar to the one belonging to the husband of his cousin.

Fachri was aware that the person holding Airin's hand in the photo was the man he was searching for. Moreover, they had coincidentally met at the same hotel in the early morning, the one targeted by Mayang. It could be that the woman mentioned by the hotel receptionist was Airin.

"Do you know how I like spicy food?"

After a considerable silence, Airin finally spoke up. Out of the blue, she felt compelled to ask how Fachri knew about her food preferences. They had never exchanged greetings or even spoken if it wasn't related to campus matters.

"Your social media. I checked it there, afraid of buying the wrong food for you. I'm sorry if I intruded in finding out what you like." Fachri, feeling uneasy about prying into Airin's personal life, forced a smile to hide any negative thoughts he might harbor.

"Ah, it's okay, Sir. It's a public social media after all. So, it doesn't matter if you scrolled down to my very first post. There's nothing important there anyway." Airin quickly dismissed Fachri's concern, preventing him from suspecting that she might be angry or something.

"Are you sure your social media is public? I saw a photo of hands holding each other. As far as I know, you don't have a boyfriend or male friends." Fachri straightened his back, sitting properly and swiftly swallowing the food still in his mouth. He feared that any bad news might divert the food's course, leading it from his stomach back out through his nose.

"Oh, that..." Airin immediately took out her phone, showing the photo Fachri mentioned. "These are my boyfriend's hands, Sir. Unfortunately, our relationship has to be kept from the public. He said it's to avoid anyone knowing that we're together because he's currently persuading his parents to give their blessings to us."

"Why is that?" Fachri pursued.

Airin pursed her lips. "Because I'm not from a wealthy family. So, it has to be kept secret until an undetermined time."

"Oh, like a caste difference in a soap opera, huh?" Fachri nodded. "But, Rin, your name is Airin. Why does the tattoo say 'M'?"

"Tattoo?" Airin looked confused, reviewing the photo she took two weeks ago. Her eyebrows furrowed when she confirmed Fachri's statement. M, whose initial was engraved on Zidan's wrist? Surely, that initial was related to someone very special to him.

"You didn't notice that your boyfriend has that tattoo?"

Like a seasoned interrogator, Fachri sought information that might serve as a clue to conclude his investigation. Or at least, he could ensure that Airin's boyfriend was different from Mayang's husband.

Airin shook her head. "No, I don't know anything about it." She bit her lower lip hard. It was incredibly foolish not to know anything about her own boyfriend, even though they had been intimate multiple times. She didn't even know his address.

"Uh, why?" Fachri blinked. Airin's face, which was previously bright, turned gloomy. It seemed that a mixture of sadness and anger was gathering in her heart.

"I and he met through social media. I don't know who he is and where he lives. All I know is that he's a businessman from Jakarta. I've talked to his mother, but only through video calls without him introducing his name or whereabouts."

"I don't know anything, but I've already placed so much love and hope. I even hoped to get married, although every time he went to his city, it was challenging to communicate. Unless he was outside Jakarta. He even invited me on vacation when he had assignments in other cities."

Fachri was taken aback. He remembered Mayang's story that her husband no longer wanted to be accompanied on assignments outside the city. Another point of similarity found between Airin's boyfriend and Mayang's husband.

"You don't know who he is and where he lives. I hope your relationship with him isn't too deep yet, Rin," Fachri sighed. Leaning back in his chair, he was truly afraid that Airin had gone too far, considering where they met that morning and the red mark still peeking from under her blouse collar.

Fachri also couldn't fathom what would happen if Airin's boyfriend turned out to be the same person as Mayang's husband. Who should yield between the two of them?

"I..." 

"If I may know, who is your boyfriend? And please don't tell me you don't even know his name!" Fachri emphasized every word he uttered.