Chat Awal Kenalan

“Bagaimana jika satu kalimat dari istrimu… benar-benar melemparmu kembali ke masa lalu?” Shaz, pria berdarah India-Iran, terbangun di rumah lamanya. Tapi ini bukan sekadar hari biasa, ia kembali ke delapan tahun sebelum menikahi Alysaa, perempuan Indonesia yang kini mengisi seluruh hatinya. Di waktu ini, Alysaa bahkan belum mengenalnya. Sementara masa lalunya bersama Jazzlyne… masih mengganggunya dan belum berakhir pada saat itu. Waktu memberinya kesempatan kedua. Tapi mampukah ia menemukan Alysaa lebih awal? Dan jika iya… sanggupkah ia membuat wanita itu jatuh cinta lagi padanya, sebelum semuanya terlambat?

Di tengah derasnya hujan malam, Elena dikejutkan oleh kedatangan sahabat lamanya, Seline, yang muncul dengan wajah sembab dan seorang bayi mungil dalam dekapannya. Tanpa banyak penjelasan, Seline hanya menitipkan bayi bernama Sheryl, lalu pergi dengan janji akan kembali. Namun, janji itu tak pernah terpenuhi. Malam yang basah berubah jadi awal dari takdir kelam—di mana satu persahabatan diuji, satu rahasia besar terbongkar, dan satu bayi harus bertahan di dunia penuh misteri. Apa sebenarnya yang disembunyikan Seline? Dan mampukah Elena menjaga Sheryl di tengah badai kehidupan yang menantinya?

Ivana, gadis lugu nan polos, harus merelakan kehidupannya untuk kembali tersiksa. Dia membiarkan pernikahan impiannya kandas, dan memilih menikah dengan lelaki yang menyewa rahimnya selama dua tahun. Sedangkan, Carlos Adiyaksa Wiguna, hanya mengingikan seorang anak. Dia meminta sahabatnya untuk mencari seorang gadis untuk mewujudkan impiannya, dan membayar sesuai dengan kesepakatan. Semua Carlos lakukan demi nenek dan ibunya yang sangat dia cinta. Akankah pernikahan mereka berdua berakhir sesuai dengan kontrak yang disepakati sejak awal? Ataukah semua akan bahagia dan bisa terlepas dari belenggu masa lalu?

Dimulai dari Emma terpaksa menikah dengan lelaki kaya untuk melahirkan pewaris. Emma telanjur hamil saat tahu suaminya ternyata sudah beristri. Masalah pun mulai bermunculan. Istri suaminya tidak tinggal diam karena merasa terancam dan suaminya ternyata melanggar perjanjian tertulis yang mereka berdua sepakati. Pernikahan simbiosis mutualisme itu juga ternyata memercik api asmara dan meninggalkan perasaan menyakitkan di antara mereka, saat semuanya harus berakhir karena kontrak. Apakah mereka akan tetap saling menggenggam atau saling menikam, jika hubungan mereka dari awal sudah dimulai dengan cara yang salah?

Aku adalah seorang fotografer khusus foto pribadi. Malam itu, sahabatku sejak masa kuliah memintaku untuk memotret dia dan istrinya dalam sebuah sesi foto pribadi. Awalnya, semuanya terasa normal, sampai dia mengajukan permintaan yang benar-benar aneh. "Wade, bisa nggak kamu penuhi permintaan istriku sekali ini saja?" Kalimat itu membuatku tertegun. Aku tidak tahu apakah dia serius atau hanya bercanda. Namun, sorot matanya menunjukkan bahwa dia bersungguh-sungguh. Cerita ini pun menjadi awal dari sesuatu yang tak terduga. Apakah permintaannya benar-benar sebatas profesionalisme fotografi atau ada maksud lain di baliknya?

Bulan nekat mencium seorang pria asing yang tidak dikenalnya untuk membalaskan sakit hati dan kecewa akibat diselingkuhi. Namun, niat itu ternyata menjadi awal berubahnya hidup Bulan. Air Raka, pria yang dicium Bulan tidak akan melepaskan gadis itu yang baginya sudah berani menodai dirinya. Pria yang selama ini dikenal dengan sikap arogansinya benar-benar sangat menghindari kontak fisik dengan lawan jenis. Demi memiliki sang gadis, Air menjerat Bulan dengan sebuah perjanjian. Akankah Bulan menyetujui perjanjian itu? Lalu bagaimana reaksi Bulan ketika mengetahui sebuah rahasia, tentang siapa sosok Air.

Late one night after getting off work, I was scrolling through my company group chat when a colleague shared a piece of news. The headline was horrifying. "Night-Shift Courier Murdered During Delivery, Police Suspect Robbery." I zoomed in on the crime scene photo that had been partially pixelated, and a chill ran straight down my spine. Lying in a pool of blood, the courier who had been hacked to death was unmistakably me. I had scrolled into news of my own death. Almost at the same time, my delivery app began vibrating violently. "Urgent pickup! Destination: Unit 704 Hawthorne Ridge Apartments, Building 7. Time limit: 15 minutes. Penalty for timeout: Death." As I stared at the notification that read "Pickup failed three times", the searing pain of my brutal death surged through my body. So that was it. I had already died three times. When I forced open the half-closed security door of 704 for the fourth time, a thin delivery envelope lay quietly inside. I tore it open. A photograph slipped out. It was a picture of my dismembered body. The timestamp showed tomorrow at 7:00 a.m. On the back was a single line written in fresh blood: "Next time, remember to pick it up on time." At that moment, the red indicator light on the hallway surveillance camera suddenly went dark. I looked up. From the ventilation opening in the exact same spot, a single eye was staring straight at me. The mole at the corner of that eye was identical to mine.

Just a moment ago, after nearly bleeding to death, I gave the Rossi family their heir. But my husband, Carter, the Rossi's underboss, let his confidante, Sofia, film me giving birth just because she said she was bored. She captured everything: me losing control of my body, my screams, my face twisted in agony. Afterward, she took screenshots, turned them into memes, and passed them around a private group chat for the family's inner circle. Through the door of my hospital room, I could hear Sofia's wild laughter. "Carter, this is the best entertainment all year. You always know just what I want." "But Sloane's going to throw a fit when she wakes up and sees it." The anesthesia hadn't worn off yet. My eyelids were heavy, and through the haze, I heard Carter's usual, nonchalant tone. "She won't get really mad. You know Sloane. She always does what I tell her." "I'll just have to sweet-talk her a little. Besides, with the heir here now, she wouldn't leave me." My fingers, hidden beneath the silk sheets, clenched into a fist. My mind flooded with everything I had given up for him over the years. Carter had probably forgotten who made him the man who runs these streets. Since you love games so much, I'll play a real one with you. The day I walk away, you will all regret it.

"Why did you leave the party in such a hurry earlier?" Ignoring her sarcasm, Kaleb changed the subject. He just had to ask! The audacity he had! Sasha smirked. "Did you want to enjoy seeing the girl you just a few minutes ago making a friendly chat with your girlfriend?" she snapped, her wound reopened. "Oh, so you left because of Claire?" Again, Kaleb's voice was mocking. "No, I left because of me," Sasha recoiled, and it was her stupidity sending him a text. "And what about you and Samson? I see the way he looked at you at the party. He seems to really like you and the both of you seem really familiar with each other. What do I make out of that?" Kaleb sounded different, odd even. —---------- When Kaleb Luthor decides to move back to the town he grew up in, Sasha Sullivan is bombarded with a lot of emotions. This is a guy she has had a crush on for as long as she can remember, and this is her chance to make him see her more than just his sister's best friend. But as she gets closer to Kaleb, Sasha realizes that he's a totally different guy from the one she has built up in her head, but she still can't let him go. A one night stand was all she needed… But she isn't prepared for the consequences that one night could bring…. And what an affair with Kaleb Luthor would do to her friendship with her best friend, Tilly Luthor.

Everyone thinks Jimmy Hudson, my college roommate, is the typical brutally honest and socially clueless guy who just has zero filter sometimes. A friend and I meet up to go boxing and practice our hooks, but he calls it a hookup when texting the group chat about it. He even nonchalantly says he won't be deleting his message. When I meet my boxing buddy, he says I'm meeting my hookup buddy. He even has the nerve to say, "It's just a joke. Don't be overly sensitive and read so much into it." Thanks to a few more of his dirty tricks, my reputation is ruined, and the entire class ostracizes me. But Jimmy doesn't stop there. He slips sleeping pills into my drink, which leads me to miss an exam. Later, he claims it was just a careless mistake and blames it on his scatterbrained tendencies. Eventually, he dumps crushed cherry pits into my water bottle, which ends up poisoning me to death. This all happened because our campus belle, whom he has a crush on, helped me with my luggage on our first day on campus. All of a sudden, my eyes open again. I've returned to the first day of my freshman year at college. This time, I'm going to let Jimmy get a taste of what it's like to have his life ruined with a helping of some social cluelessness of my own.