Sofia and Firdaus #1

      Sofia came to an abrupt halt as she spotted a familiar tall, buff body figure from its back. Despite the fact that she just sprinted 2 kilometers, her thick, dark-brown hair fell perfectly on top of her shoulders. She can feel her heart thumping really hard in her chest that she wondered why hadn't her ribs exploded yet. The lines that she was well-rehearsed were clouding in her head. And now is the time to say it out loud. Mustering every ounce of confidence she had, she blurted out, "Firdaus, wait!" and that figure stopped walking.

      The second Firdaus turned around and scrutinized her face, she started to have second thoughts. 'Maybe this whole lot shit was a bad idea'. And when a big, wide smile spread across that very handsome face, she was convinced that this whole lot shit was a bad idea. Their eyes locked together and everything else seemed to have frozen for what seemed like hours. Her knees weakened. Her heart stopped pumping. Trails of words were now jumbled up in her mind. 'Oh my! What do I say first?'

"Where do you think you're going? You haven't paid last night's dinner yet!"

Fuck it. Fuck logic now.

    A grimace was the closest he could come to changing his facial expression since he was no longer geared for smiling. Shaking his head in disbelief, Firdaus walked towards Sofia and withdrew a few notes from his wallet.

"Keep the change", he thrust the money in her hands.

     Next thing she knew, she was facing his back again. 'Just why did you do that, you stupid arsehole?!' Her innerself shrieked. This should not end this way. She must stop him. It's now or never. Hastily, she followed Firdaus.

"Where are you leaving to?" she tried to sound casual while trying to keep pace with him. It was hard considering the fact that Firdaus' lower limbs were long and each of his footstep was double hers.

"Thought you'd never ask?"

"Thought wrong, then".

Firdaus sighed and spoke, "To Ipoh".

"Didn't even bother to tell me, huh?"

"Guilty as charged. But you were too busy with your new 'friend' to even ask me before."

Sofia struggled to suppress the urge to laugh but to no avail. She first snorted, then giggled and lastly burst into laughter. Tears oozed out of the corner of her eyes. "Seriously? Are you really bringing up that topic now?"

     Firdaus sighed and stopped pacing in the middle of the jostling crowd. He faced Sofia and with a huge effort, he uttered "My instinct says go to Ipoh. Wherever it leads me to, I will follow. Now, I must go to Ipoh." He reached for Sofia's hands and held it for some time. Then he continued, "My train is in 10 minutes. Please take a good care of yourself. They might be after you once they learn that I am gone." He looked into her eyes, hoping for her to understand but Sofia quickly looked away when his gaze got so intense that it would have poked her eyeballs.

She then pulled her hands and dug out something from her jeans pocket. While clearing her throat, she waved a train ticket in front of Firdaus' face and said "No, I'm going with you".