Chapter 5

The blinding flashlight made Rian instinctively shield his face with his palm. Aris immediately panicked beside him. In a swift motion, Aris shoved the brown folder off the desk, scattering its contents across the floor, then grabbed Rian by the sleeve.

“Run, Yan!” Aris whispered.

The sound of the front office door being kicked open echoed loudly. Mr. Hendra held a wooden softball bat in his right hand, his eyes fixed sharply on the two students standing near the filing cabinet.

“You two?! What the hell are you doing in the office in the middle of the night?!” Mr. Hendra shouted. His heavy footsteps grew louder as he approached them.

Aris didn't answer. He immediately pulled Rian over the work desk, knocking several stacks of papers and a pencil holder to the floor. They sprinted toward the side window, which was still open.

“Don't you dare run!” Mr. Hendra swung his softball bat.

BANG!

The wooden bat struck the edge of the metal desk right beside Rian. The impact was deafening. Rian instinctively twisted his body to avoid being hit.

Rian awkwardly climbed over the windowsill and fell face-first onto the wet grass. His knee struck a rock, tearing a small hole in his uniform trousers and leaving a stinging pain. Aris jumped out right behind him, nearly landing on Rian's back.

“Come on, hurry!”

Bona, who had been hiding behind the bushes, immediately emerged and ran toward them. The three of them raced through the darkness of the Class XI corridor. Behind them, the sound of Mr. Hendra's boots and his furious shouting remained clearly audible.

“Through the back field! The fence near the bamboo grove!” Aris shouted between ragged breaths.

The three of them plunged into the thick bamboo grove at the back corner of the school. Sharp branches scratched Rian's cheeks and hands. They climbed over a partially collapsed concrete wall and jumped down onto a residential street outside the school grounds.

They kept running until they were two blocks away from the school, then finally stopped beside a drainage ditch near the neighborhood security post.

Bona sat on the ground with his legs stretched out, clutching his chest. His face was pale.

“I can barely breathe. Mr. Hendra really was going to beat us with that bat.”

Aris braced his hands against his knees, coughing softly.

“He didn't get a good look at our faces, right? It was really dark inside.”

“I don't know,” Rian replied quietly.

He sat on the edge of the drainage ditch, staring at his hands, which were covered in scratches from the bamboo branches.

Aris pointed at Rian's right hand.

“Yan, what's that in your hand?”

Rian looked down at his own palm. Without realizing it, when Aris had pulled him earlier, Rian had managed to snatch a sheet of paper from the brown folder scattered across the floor. The crumpled paper was now clenched tightly in his fist.

Rian unfolded the paper beneath a streetlight. Bona and Aris leaned closer to look.

It was a student information form bearing Sarah's half-body photograph. In the upper-right corner was the numerical stamp G-0408, along with the words Handed Over. At the bottom of the paper was a copy of a bank payment receipt issued in the name of the school foundation, showing an amount of Rp150,000,000.

“One hundred and fifty million?” Bona whispered. “What the hell is this supposed to mean?”

Aris took the paper from Rian's hand.

“We'll talk about it later. Right now, let's split up and go home before someone sees us here.”

---

Bona's ragged breathing could still be heard as the three of them walked along the sidewalk toward the main road intersection. The lights in the small neighborhood shops had all gone out, leaving only the illumination from a Madura-style convenience stall and the dim yellow glow of the streetlights.

“My head is killing me. Seriously,” Bona said, rubbing his aching calves. “I practically bathed in mud back in those bushes.”

Aris folded Sarah's crumpled paper into four small sections before slipping it into his jeans pocket.

“Tomorrow, Mr. Hendra will definitely search the entire school grounds. If you've got scratches on your face or hands, just tell them you fell off your motorbike.”

“That's such a cliché excuse,” Bona replied.

“Then what excuse do you want to use? You want to admit that you were crawling through a bamboo grove?” Aris glanced at Rian, who had remained silent all along, walking with his head lowered. “Yan, just relax. I'm sure Mr. Hendra only saw the silhouettes of two people outside earlier.”

“Yeah,” Rian replied briefly.

They stopped for a moment in front of a Madura-style convenience stall. Aris bought three plastic bags of iced tea and a pack of single cigarettes. Rian leaned his back against an electricity pole and drank his iced tea until only the ice cubes remained. His head was still throbbing from the lingering side effects of what had happened earlier, but the bleeding from his nose had completely stopped.

A dark green public minibus heading toward Bona's neighborhood arrived first. Its horn sounded twice.

“I'll go first,” Bona said as he climbed through the rear door.

“Sure. Be careful, Bon,” Aris replied.

Not long after Bona's minibus disappeared around the corner, another minibus heading toward Rian and Aris's neighborhood arrived. The two of them climbed aboard and sat on the rearmost bench near the door, which the driver had deliberately left open.

Neither of them spoke throughout the journey. The only sound was the minibus engine roaring loudly as it cut through the increasingly deserted streets.

---

The next morning, the atmosphere at Garuda Nusantara Senior High School felt far more tense than usual. The main gate was being guarded by Mr. Hendra himself and two school security guards. Every student entering the grounds had their uniform checked, but Mr. Hendra's eyes kept scrutinizing them from head to toe.

Rian walked with his head slightly lowered, using his somewhat long bangs to cover the faint scratches on his left cheek. Aris walked beside him with his usual relaxed demeanor, his hands tucked into his trouser pockets.

“Morning, Sir,” Aris greeted Mr. Hendra as they passed him.

Mr. Hendra didn't return the greeting. His eyes remained fixed on Rian.

“Rian. Stop for a moment.”

Rian halted. His heart suddenly began pounding, but he tried to keep his expression neutral.

“Yes, Sir?”

Mr. Hendra took a step forward. His tall, broad frame cast a shadow over Rian's body. His eyes examined Rian's forehead and temples.

“What happened to your face? You've got a lot of scratches.”

“I fell off my motorbike last night, Sir, when I went out to buy medicine for my mother,” Rian answered quietly, following the story Aris had suggested the night before.

Mr. Hendra narrowed his eyes. His rough hand suddenly gripped Rian's shoulder rather tightly, holding him in place.

“Where were you last night at eight o'clock?”

“At home, Sir. Looking after my mother,” Rian answered truthfully about his mother's presence, although he lied about the time.

Aris turned toward them, putting on a deliberately confused expression.

“What's going on, Sir? Did something else go missing at school?”

Mr. Hendra shot Aris a sharp glance.

“Don't interfere, Aris. Get to class!”

Aris didn't move. He simply stood beside Rian with his arms crossed.

“I'm just asking a question, Sir. I'm worried a real burglar might have broken in.”

Mr. Hendra released his grip on Rian's shoulder. He straightened his uniform and let out a quiet snort.

“Someone tried to break into the student affairs office last night. If I find out that the culprit is a student from this school, I'll make sure they're expelled immediately and taken to the police station.”

Rian merely nodded without daring to maintain eye contact with Mr. Hendra for too long.

“May I go to class now, Sir?”

“Go. Don't wander around during class hours,” Mr. Hendra said coldly.

The two of them hurried down the corridor toward their classroom. Once they were far enough away from Mr. Hendra, Aris nudged Rian's arm lightly.

“We're safe. He's just fishing for information. He doesn't have any proof yet.”

“But he's already suspicious,” Rian whispered.

“Well, being suspicious is part of his job,” Aris replied casually.

In front of Class XI-B, Bona was already waiting for them with a plastic bag containing nasi uduk. He looked somewhat relieved when he saw Rian and Aris arrive safely without getting caught.

“So? Everything okay?” Bona asked quietly as Rian and Aris approached.

“Everything's fine,” Aris replied briefly. “But we need to hide that paper from last night somewhere no one will ever find it.”

“Where are you keeping it now?” Rian asked.

Aris patted the inner pocket of a black jacket folded inside his schoolbag.

“In my bag. We'll figure out where to put it during the break. For now, let's get inside. The history teacher is about to come this way.”

Rian sat down at his desk and placed his schoolbag on top of it. He stared at the open classroom door. Outside, Farel and his gang had just walked past, laughing loudly and paying no attention to the increasingly strange atmosphere that had been hanging over the school day after day.

Rian took a deep breath, trying to calm the lingering tension in his chest.