Chapter 29 — A Small Crack
Arga's days started to feel like a loop.
Wake up. Go to work. Sit in front of the screen. Go home when the sky was already dark.
Nothing was wrong. But nothing felt right either.
At the office, he finished his edit faster than usual. His hands moved on their own. His focus was there, but his mind wasn't fully present.
"Done," he muttered, saving the file.
He glanced toward the window. Rain again. Jakarta had been like this for days.
His phone vibrated on the desk.
From her.
"I'm tired. Today was long."
Arga read the message without much reaction. He typed a reply, stopped, then changed it.
"Hang in there."
Sent.
The reply came a bit later.
"Yeah. Thanks."
Short. Safe. Cold.
Arga placed his phone face down. Lately, their conversations were always like this. No fights. No warmth. Like two people carefully avoiding the wrong topic.
That afternoon, Arga went home on time. Not early, not late. On the train, he stood quietly, looking at his reflection in the glass. He looked tired—but not from lack of sleep.
"Tired of thinking," he whispered.
At his apartment, he sat down without turning on the lights. The city outside stayed loud, like it didn't care at all.
He opened the chat app again. His fingers moved quickly.
"When can we meet?"
He stared at the sentence for a few seconds.
Then deleted it.
Not because he didn't want to meet.
Because he already knew what the answer would be.
The night grew deeper. Arga opened his laptop, intending to double-check his work. Instead of opening the project folder, he opened a browser tab.
He paused.
"If this keeps going…" he murmured.
His hand moved, searching for something unrelated to chats, distance, or waiting for someone else. Articles. Forums. Talks about money. About the future. He didn't really read—just skimmed.
For the first time, he felt the need to have something he could control on his own.
His phone buzzed again.
From her.
"Sorry I couldn't talk much earlier. I was really tired."
Arga replied quickly this time.
"It's okay. I get it."
That wasn't a lie.
But it wasn't the whole truth either.
He closed the laptop and lay down, staring at the ceiling. One small but unsettling thought settled in his mind:
This relationship wasn't cracking because of a fight.
It was cracking because everything had been postponed for too long.
And without realizing it, Arga had started looking for something else to hold onto.
Not to run away—
but so he wouldn't fall alone.