The cellphone, which he had ignored for 2 hours ago, suddenly vibrated, indicating that there was an incoming message. Glancing briefly, Diaz's brow furrowed seeing the name on his cell phone screen. Familiar indeed, but the name had not shown existence in his life for a long time. It was long enough for Diaz himself to be surprised that the person still remembered him. Times have changed, it's easy to make friends with a social media account, and anyone can get in touch with people from their past, maybe... this is one of the things that happened to Diaz. And the man was quite surprised because this woman suddenly contacted him. Even though as he recalled, even when they were still in touch in the same school environment, it could be said that they weren't close enough to exchange news these days. Then why? Dismissing all preconceived notions that went too far, Diaz reached for his cell phone and opened the notification listed to read the contents of the short message. From : Claire
It had been a week since Diaz had gotten a sudden message from Claire. There was also no news about the woman for a week. Their conversation ended exactly that very second. The first day after the impromptu proposal Diaz was still wondering, the second day he began to wonder why Claire didn't contact him anymore or just to explain why she suddenly sent messages like that. On the third day, there was still a little thing that stuck in Diaz's heart to just forget it. Until the fourth day without news and Diaz was reluctant to contact and ask first, but the man finally decided to forget it. Likewise the fifth and sixth days. The office was still quiet when Diaz arrived and started his work early until slowly the atmosphere changed with the arrival of one co-worker after another. They greeted Diaz with serious pleasantries behind the cubicle. One or two people offered him coffee as an encouragement to start the day's work, but Diaz politely declined, saying he would get his coffee later.
His footsteps echoed in his ears. Walking down the corridor, which was still busy that afternoon, filled with patients, doctors, nurses, janitors, and relatives who visited with their respective activities. The surroundings are crowded, but his brain is not like that. The man couldn't digest the situation, he didn't even have time to speculate why he was the one who was contacted to visit this place. Everything felt empty, only his body moved according to instincts that came from nowhere.That moment was exactly the 23 minutes since Diaz received a call from the hospital where he is now. That second, right where he was standing in front of the ward of someone who had brought him here, staring blankly as he finally stopped and came face to face with the ward of someone he was supposed to meet soon. But as soon as he saw a familiar name written on the information board attached to the door to the infirmary, Diaz's hasty steps stopped, Diaz, froze for a few seconds that passed until some
If only Elise wasn't there, Diaz somehow calmed her pounding heart when she heard those words. Diaz's disbelieving look after receiving Elise's sad expression was returned by the woman bitterly which means "please understand". It was as if this sentence wasn't the first time Elise had heard it. Even with all the responses he received, Diaz still didn't understand how such a sentence could come out of their mouths. Even though it was clear that their nephew was not in good condition, how could they utter such horrible words? Diaz had been missing from Claire's life for more than ten years and didn't know what happened to his middle school friend. But even for ordinary people, hearing such a curse would not make them understand, what happened and what bad things made Claire worthy of such a curse. Elise gestured to Diaz who was still stunned in his place, asking the man to follow her to stay away from those who were still discussing things not much different there. The woman in an offi
Finally, for the first time, Diaz could see Claire up close. Observing the sleeping face of his junior high school friend whom he had not met for ten years. Not much had changed, the woman's facial features only looked more mature than the last time they met, but what he saw was still the Claire he knew, though when Claire opened her eyes, he don't know if the impression was still the same or not.But that's not the case, the existence of Claire's uncle and aunt who are now sitting opposite Diaz is the main axis now. The atmosphere around him clearly couldn't be said to be friendly, especially after what happened before the three of them ended up gathering in that infirmary.Diaz was still trying to avoid the question that seemed ready to be pointed at him in plain sight by busy observing Claire beside her bed. Before that baritone voice, he heard and couldn't help but draw his attention away from just focusing on Claire."So your name is—Diaz?"Clumsy. Or somehow, Diaz was confused a
"Are you awake?" were the first words that came out of Diaz's mouth as soon as he saw Claire blinking slowly, opening her eyes and trying to adjust the light entering her retinas.He moved the chair that he was sitting on to get closer to the bed Claire was in. Diaz didn't feel the need to overreact, seeing as Claire seemed to be fine in her consciousness, even if something felt Claire and made her body uncomfortable, Diaz would of course rush to call the doctor or nurse on duty."I'm okay," Claire muttered hoarsely, trying to energize every little movement she made. Her body was unbelievably limp, her throat was dry and her eyelids felt heavy until all the movements she was trying to make seemed to slow down. The presence of someone she hadn't seen in a long time didn't necessarily surprise Claire, even though she had just woken up from her subconscious, Claire's brain was used to quickly digesting the situation after what she had experienced before lying in this bed. And Claire coul
The place was quiet, only a few people were sitting in one or two chairs scattered in every corner of the room. Diaz was there, one of them, with a cup of coffee he had just bought five minutes ago at one of the drink counters. Diaz spends his afternoons in the hospital canteen with his cell phone to his ear. "Sorry, Ed, I left suddenly. But earlier I called HR for a half-day permit." "I heard from Sonia earlier, that your family has been admitted to the hospital. How are things?" Unbeknownst to Edwin—the person who is currently on the phone with him—Diaz grimaced at the statement as well as the question. The reason is that he did use the excuse of "relatives being hospitalized" to apply for permission to the HRD office, but hearing it from Edwin made him feel like someone who was being caught lying. That excuse sounded stupid now, even though Diaz wasn't lying about himself having to rush to the hospital, but describing Claire as an important family or relative was ridiculous. Jus
Elise closes the door slowly. She even held her breath to make sure that her movements didn't make any disturbing noises. Her lips pressed tightly together, holding her back against the door for a few seconds before deciding to leave without looking back. In her heart with a regretful look on her face, Elise mumbled the word sorry many times. Sorry to the two people who are now isolating themselves and decided to have a one-on-one conversation."Sorry, Mr. Diaz, for making you confused today. And sorry, Ms. Claire, for involving people without Ms. Claire's knowledge and permission..." Elise's lips mumbled as she recited the sentence along with her steps away from the now forbidden room, for her.***Inside, the two high school acquaintances exchanged glances. Neither one relented, nor felt intimidated even though the gazes they gave each other were too sharp for two people who were in an unplanned reunion. For some women who receive Diaz's gaze at this time, perhaps that kind of look