The true worth of love showed up when someone you loved wasn’t present. I felt like that too. I thought I was prepared to give up on Maria, but no. My heart longed for her presence. I missed her sweet voice and smile.

I was worried too because It had been a month since the last time I saw her. She and her friends were suspended for two weeks because no physical harm was found on the bullied girls. If not for that, they would be expelled.

The bullied girls got compensation from the school. I didn’t know what was it, but I heard it would benefit them. The parents of the bullies were forced to ask for forgiveness too.

After their suspension had ended, only Maria’s friends came back to the school. They didn’t change for the better from what I heard, but people were more united to fight against bullies after that incident.

Maria never came to the school. One day, I visited her house to check her condition.

Maria lived in the big mansion on the hill. The gap between her house and the gate was around three kilometers. Without her, I wasn’t permitted to enter, so I asked the security at the gate.

“Good afternoon, Sir.” I bowed and kissed the security’s hand. The security’s expression became gentler when I showed a polite attitude.

“Do you want to check Miss Maria’s condition, Adrian Boy?”

“I am here for that, Sir. Do you know about Maria’s condition?”

“I already heard what happened. That day, her father was furious. After that, Miss Maria escaped from here. She said she would live with her aunt.

“Was none of her siblings stopped her?” I knew that was too much coming from me who had abandoned her too, but I was curious.

“You know her relationships with her other siblings aren’t good.”

I nodded. As her boyfriend, I knew things about her such as her family condition. Maria’s father had four wives. She was the daughter of the second wife, and her mother had passed away after she gave birth to her. Her siblings didn’t share the same mom like her, and in her house, there was an unspoken competition to become the sole inheritor of the father’s fortune. That was why Maria wasn’t close to her siblings.

Maria once told me her mother had an older sister. So, I decided to go there. Luckily, I once went to her aunt’s house.

The aunt lived in Jakarta City too. The only obstacle to go there was the traffic, but I finally arrived in front of a simple house.

I knocked on the door and waited for the aunt to go out. She still looked young for a lady in her forty. She lived with her husband, and they didn’t have a child yet, so I thought they would welcome Maria like she was their daughter, but that would happen if Maria came here in the first place.

“Maria never visited your house in the past month?” I asked the aunt.

The brunette woman rested her chin on her hand. Her face was filled with worry too. “Yes, is something happening to her?”

I explained what happened and she had a complicated expression, but she was mostly worried for Maria. “I know it. I should have taken Maria with me. Her father never cares about her. I will make him pay when he comes back from America.”

“Should we report this to the police, Aunty?” I was angry too for her family. Maria went missing for a month, but no one cared about her.

The aunty tapped my shoulder. “You should come home. I will take care of this. Thanks for caring about Maria.”

“But aunty….”

The aunt convinced me that she would take care of it, so I decided to trust her. Riding my Kamasaki Ninjutsu 250SL, I decided to go home. That night I couldn’t sleep at all. My mind was filled with my memories of Maria.

“Maria, where are you?”

…….

A few months ago.

I came to the school late because last night there was a soccer match between the Jack Club from Jakarta vs the Viking Club from Bandung. I had been a fan of the Jack ever since I was still in junior high school. Of course, I had bathed before I went to school.

There were two gates of the school, the front, and the side. The side gate was already closed as expected and I estimated the front gate was the same, but I didn’t lose hope. I was a strong boy. I could do anything if I tried.

I walked along the wall to the back of the school. At the intersection to the back, there was a pretty girl putting on a sad face. It was Maria Wilona.

She was a pretty girl with wavy brown hair and brown eyes, which was rare in here. I heard brown hair was common in this world, but in Indonesia, I mostly met people with black hair. Those who had brown hair usually colored it.

Her figure was nice. She had ample bosom under her white uniform, and her buttocks were quite round. I could see why she was one of the four prettiest girls in this school. However, my most favorite thing about her was her height. I estimated she was around my chest, a huggable size.

I stopped and greeted her, “Hey, are you stuck on the outside too?”

She nodded at me weakly and put on a thin smile. I guessed she was panicked because she couldn’t enter the school. I meant that was normal for a student with a good reputation such as her.

“I know a way to enter the school. Want me to escort you inside?”

Her eyes brightened a little. “Can I enter?”

I slapped my chest. “Let me handle this.” I extended my hand and she accepted my invitation by holding it.

We walked to the back of the school. The wall was 1.5 times higher than my height and protected by sharp glasses and wires.

“Um, who is your name?” Maria asked.

“My name is Adrian Taher.”

“Adrian, you aren’t thinking to climb the wall, are you?”

I gave her a big grin. “Exactly.”

“But the wall is so high.”

I pointed at a water apple tree near the wall. One of its branches was passing the wall. “We can climb that tree.”

“I—I think I am fine with absent from the school for one day.”

I held her hand tighter. “I can carry you inside. I am strong. Will you trust me?”

I looked straight into her brown eyes. She hesitated for a moment, but in the end, she gave me a weak nod. I gave her my bag, knelt, and gestured her to ride on my back. She could only comply helplessly.

Maria lifted her long, gray skirt to her thighs. I was just a normal boy, so I couldn’t help but admire her smooth skin. It seemed she just realized she did that in front of me, and her face blushed. She hurriedly walked to my back.

Her arms coiled around my neck, and I held her thighs. A sweet scent of her shampoo entered my nose, and furthermore, her skin was really smooth. My heart raced like crazy. This was the first time a girl this close to me. I was stunned until her sound made my sense back.

“Are you going to stand here for hours?”

I laughed awkwardly. “I am sorry. This is the first time I hold a girl this close, and one of the prettiest girls in the school at that.”

I could her puffing shyly. “What are you talking about?”

To not embarrass her further, I began the operation to pass the wall. First, I climbed the water apple tree. Realizing I need my hands to climb, Maria took the initiative to coil her legs around my waist.

“Be careful, Adrian,” Maria whispered near my ear and somehow her sweet voice made me nervous too.

“Rest assured. Rest assured,” I said that to myself too. I needed to come back to my sense. It wasn’t the first time I did this. I could do it once more time.

It was two times more difficult, but I finally stood on the wall. I could feel her body shaking from fear. It was understandable because the wire was under my groin and my feet barely avoided sharpened glasses.

“Be safe, Adrian. Please don’t let my weight becomes your burden.”

I laughed out loud when I heard that. She wasn’t really that heavy. Like I said, I was strong.

I only paid attention to her cuteness and didn’t realize in front of me was a senior classroom. The windows were closed with curtains, but when I laughed, a male senior opened it, pointed at me, and shouted, “Teacher, there is a couple trying to enter the school by climbing the wall!”

“F*ck!” I panicked. As a fellow man, I couldn’t believe he dared to lynch me. I looked at his face and craved it in my mind. I didn’t care if he was a senior, but I would make him pay for this someday.

What I feared came true. The teacher opened the curtain and glared at me. Maria buried her face on my neck, and I could feel her breath, but I didn’t have time to enjoy the sensation.

The teacher was coincidentally the cruel math teacher, and I knew she taught a senior class too aside from my class. She shouted at me, but I could only advance. My other leg passed the wire and I jumped to the ground. Not stopping, I proceeded to run away like I was chased by a dog.

I entered a hallway where many school club rooms existed. I stopped in front of the Japanese Club.

“Maria, we have arrived.”

Maria got off of my back. She immediately touched my arms. “Are you okay? Are your arms sore?”

I turned back and saw blood coming out of her nose. “I am fine, but you aren’t fine. Your nose is bleeding. Perhaps you bumped your head when I jumped to the ground.”

As she was stunned by her blood, I took away my bag from her. Luckily, there would be a PE and I brought along a clean towel. I used it to help her wiping her bleeding nose. She didn’t even resist. She was like a harmless rabbit.

“What should we do?” Maria asked.

I tilted my head, feeling a bit confused. “Don’t you want to come back to your class?”

“But it isn’t the break time yet. There must be a teacher. Besides, I am afraid that cruel math teacher will look for us.”

I scratched my head. The cruel math teacher only saw my face, but I couldn’t assure her with just a word, so I had an idea. I took out a key and unlocked the door of the Japanese Club secretary room. “Let’s hide inside until the rest time,” I said as I opened the door.

When we entered the room and I locked the door again, I just realized I was alone with one of the four prettiest girls in this school. It just happened naturally because we were both in panic, but I began to feel nervous at the moment.

Maria clicked the lamp button, but the lamp didn’t lit. I wasn’t a Japanese Club member, but I just remembered Raffi Saputra—the member of this club—mentioned about the lamp of his club didn’t work anymore and they needed to change it.

The room was dim, and there were only the two of us. My heart raced wildly. However, Maria seemed to not be bothered by our situation and instead asked, “Why is the lamp not working?”

“I—I don’t know. I am not a member of this club.”

“How do you have the key to this room, though?”

“My brother was an alumnus of this school. He used to be the president of this club, so he has this room’s spare key until now.”

The situation suddenly became awkward for both of us since we no longer knew what to say. I darted my eyes around the room and finally decided to sit on the floor and leaned against the wall.

The room’s size was small and other spots were occupied with items and stuff, so Maria decided to sit beside me.

I tried to busy myself with my smartphone, but I couldn’t concentrate with her beside me. This woman smelled so good. Her perfume and her shampoo blended well and created a harmony of scents.

I decided I want to know her better, but before I could start a conversation, she leaned toward me. My heart was taken aback, thinking about what she wanted to do.

“Adrian, do you have a phone charger? I didn’t bring mine.”

“Ah, of course.”

I gave her my phone charger. The stop contact was quite far beside her, so she had to crawl there, exposing her plump buttocks in front of my face. When she turned around, I pretended to be busy with my phone.

It seemed she wasn’t the type to play her phone while it was charging. She could only hug her knees and wandered in her mind. I kind of pitied her, and my purpose was to know her better anyway, so I invited her, “Maria, I just found this super cute cat video. Want to try watching it?”

To be honest, I rarely watched animal videos on Wetube, but the first video that came in my recommendation was a video about a scared kitten.

Maria took a look at my phone and her eyes shone. “Ah, I have watched this. She is so cute. Looks, she is screaming even though the person in this video only pats her head.”

There was a pause in our conversation, but I could feel the ice around us started to melt a little. I gave her my sincere smile. “I am glad you like it. So, are you a cat person?”

“I like both cats and dogs. As long as they are fluffy, I like them.”

“Then, do you like a ferret?”

“Of course. They are cute little things. Why did you ask about a ferret? Do you have them as your pet?”

“Nah, my friend—Stevan Liontin owns a male one. He is currently looking for a mate for his little cute pet. I have his pictures on my phone. Wait, let me show you.”

I opened the gallery on my phone. Luckily, there wasn't any lewd image in my phone that could make me look bad in her mind. She praised me for how neat I maintained my gallery with folders.

Stevan sometimes took pictures of his pet with my phone, and I was glad it could be useful, especially when I saw she liked the ferret.

“Omg, he is so cute,” she said.

“I can send his pictures to you. Do you want it?”

“Sure, send it to my Myapp.”

“Well, I want to, but I don’t know your phone numbers. What’re your numbers?”

I started to think that I was a smooth man when she gave me her numbers. Or, maybe she was just easygoing. That made me wonder whether this wonderful girl already had a boyfriend or not, but I knew we weren’t close enough to be in that conversation, so I held myself.

We began to familiar with each other as we had more conversations. I wanted this moment to be longer, but a sound of footsteps broke our good moment.

Maria’s body became stiff and she looked at me in panic. In front of me was a table and a black shroud on the top of it. I heard the Japanese Club would hold a festival and this shroud would be used for ghost house stuff.

I didn’t care and used the black shroud to envelop both of us. The footsteps stopped in front of this room, and I heard the click sound of the door. Maria seemed to be scared and closed her body to me. I could feel her soft bosom on my arms.