Chapter 3

"Wait! Babe! Nathan!”

Nathan ignored the call behind him. His head is currently dizzy with various demands, whether from work or family and now? Does he still have to listen to his boyfriend whining about things that don't make sense? Seriously!

"Arga, if you just came to argue with me, it's better for you to go home. I have a lot of work to do and can't take all your nonsense." Nathan was still walking, leaving the younger man behind him. Nathan knew that the man was still following him, and that's why Nathan still had time to speak with confidence.

“Babe! Listen to me first—" Arga was finally able to keep up with Nathan who was a few steps ahead of him. The young man grabbed Nathan's arm to stop his movements, forcing his doctor lover to listen to what he had not finished saying.

As Arga wanted, Nathan finally complied, giving the man he loved the opportunity to say something more—but not to hear anything more ridiculous. Because if Arga did it, Nathan wouldn't hesitate to leave that man again.

“Listen, I said it for our good, Babe. Rather than you continuing to be required to marry again and again. Wouldn't it be better if we just told them about our relationship and revealed everything about your sexual orientation?!”

Nathan was about to interrupt because he couldn't understand his lover's way of thinking—but of course, Nathan's wishes were not allowed by Arga who still insisted on speaking and expressing what was on his mind.

“After you tell your family, we can leave this country, Babe. We go wherever will accept us. We can get married there and—”

"Enough, Arga. I said stop saying that kind of nonsense!” Nathan raised his voice angrily, although he remained guarded and made sure that no one heard their conversation at this time.

“I will do anything for us. I'm willing to come with you anywhere—”

“Arga!” Nathan's shouting finally made the person he was talking to stop, looking a little surprised by the sudden rise in his male voice.

“I told you to stop talking about that kind of nonsense, right?! So, can we stop now? It's better for you to go home and finish your final assignment, rather than thinking about such ridiculous actions." Nathan let go of Arga's grip on his arm, turned around, and continued walking, leaving the young man there.

What Nathan doesn't know is that the problem certainly doesn't end there—because his boyfriend still doesn't seem to accept their problem, which according to him, Nathan hasn't found a solution at all.

"Just say that you never loved me! It's always like that! Always prefer to please other people's feelings than mine! Just say that you never planned to make me a priority! Just tell me if you want to break up!" Arga shouted, this time the man was no longer waiting for Nathan's response who had actually stopped his steps again and even turned around.

Unfortunately, Arga had also done the same thing, turning around and leaving Nathan without intending to talk any further. His emotions and disappointment had taken over, while Nathan, who turned around, felt like he didn't have the energy to chase his boyfriend or explain and find the best way to solve their problem.

"If I intended to please other people, I would have agreed to my family's request for marriage, Arga. Unfortunately, I don't even know who I'm trying to make happy.” Nathan muttered, looking at Arga's back as he walked away and slowly disappeared from his sight.

***

"What else this time?" The woman with the apron with the coffee shop logo approached Liana with a cup of coffee in her hand. On the woman's left chest, there is a name tag that says "Katrin" as identification to help customers of the coffee shop if they need help and requires them to call the names of the workers there.

Even though... Katrin, who is now sitting next to Liana, is the owner of the shop herself, but she never differentiates her appearance from the other employees. Come down and jump straight in and just mingle with the other employees without any problems.

"This is your third cup of coffee today, you know?" Katrin's voice again, when the close friend she had known since middle school seemed to have no plans to speak up after her first question.

Liana's gaze, which was originally focused on the window in front of her with a view of the street and everyone going to and from there, now turned away and changed her focus to the woman beside her. The woman impolitely even exhaled in front of her friend's face, of course, accompanied by an annoying facial expression.

Katrin closed her eyes in patience. If it wasn't her friend, Katrin would spray anyone who dared to be rude to her like that. "It's up to you, I don't want to be your excuse at a time like this, basically I've warned you! If your stomach acid flares up because of this coffee, I don't want to know anymore."

"Especially? Of course, it's a matchmaking problem from my parents, right? Indeed, in the last few years, I have had other complaints that you are not used to hearing?" Liana commented when Katrin was about to leave there.

It's true, that Katrin was initially prepared to leave Liana and got up from the high chair at the long table designed to be attached to the window, one of Liana's favorite spots when visiting her friend's café. According to Lian, the sitting position facing the main road means she doesn't have to be distracted by other café visitors—especially customers who come with their partners or friends. It's not that Lian is jealous of seeing other couples together, but the adult woman sometimes feels uncomfortable with all this and for some reason is too lazy to look at it. Or... is this kind of reaction a form of "jealousy" that Lian has no intention of admitting?

Who knows, only Lian and God know about that. What is certain is that the aim of Katrin's café design is aimed at customers who want to be able to enjoy the view outside as another option if they are bored with the view inside the café, even though according to Liana, also comes as a regular customer of the café, the atmosphere inside the café This is considered comfortable and pleasant to visit even every day. Of course, that's Liana's assessment outside of her reasons for not liking to look at the entire café which is based on focusing on the visitors, not the place or interior design.

But in business, everything has tricks and strategies, right? One of them is to provide space for people who share Liana's thoughts so that they don't get bored of coming to her café.

“Well, isn't that normal? So why is it a problem again? If your parents have often asked you that and you have often heard it, why bother?"

Hearing that sound so easily from Katrin's mouth somehow made Lian feel annoyed. "It's nice to talk about, I'm the one who feels nauseous, I'm not kidding. It feels like being stuffed with noni juice every day, you know?”

Katrin's reaction when her friend gave a parable like that was immediately frowning in disgust. Just thinking about it made Katrin nauseous. “Is it... that bad?”

“Want to try it? Please just replace me for a week at home—or you don't need to replace me, just stay at my house for a week or two, you'll be sick of hearing that too.”

Katrin grimaced, immediately shaking her head reluctantly at the offer. "No, thank you." Katrin refused with a forced smile.

And her friend's answer made Liana sigh again for the umpteenth time today. "How can I stop them from suing me anymore, Rin? I feel like I want to tell them that I don't plan to get married at all in my life."

"And let your parents have a heart attack and go to the hospital?"

Realizing this made Lian's shoulders slump, the rest of his strength that afternoon was gone. Even though Katrin's sentence just now was the sentence she said to her psychiatrist the other day when Erick asked Lian to speak honestly to her parents, now Lian was the one who heard her words back to her.

Really, at times like this, when all these deadlocks arise, Lian feels like she just wants to find a shortcut.

“Or... should I just try getting married? But after a divorce like you—aww!” Lian grimaced, just as her back was patted hard by the woman beside her.