This story will unfold softly, a little more with every Saturday, but sometimes, when the mood hits, I drop a bonus story."
Thank you for waiting — with quiet hearts and gentle dreams 🌙
— Mysterious Mouse
It is said that before humans are born on Earth, their souls originate from a star.
Every star in the sky holds two souls—a masculine and a feminine shard—that will one day fall into the world.
They will be born in different times, places, and families.
And when the time is right… the universe itself will bring them together.
No matter how.
Twin Flame.
Bandung, the 1980s.
A cool city, with large trees shading the streets, and the scent of rain still often lingering in the morning.
A girl was running toward her school. Her backpack bounced on her shoulders, her hair slightly messy from the wind.
Her name was Ratna Ardiansah.
A tall girl with large, dark brown-rimmed glasses—glasses that always made her feel like her face was drowning behind the thick lenses.
Ratna thought,
"Is my face a little… well, a little pretty? I don't know. Sometimes I doubt it. Maybe pretty, but… these glasses make me look weird."
She often wanted to take off her glasses at school, just to look beautiful—if only for herself.
Standing on the second-floor balcony, Ratna would sometimes lower her glasses and gaze far down below.
The cool morning breeze touched her face, making her want to scream,
"Hey, I am pretty! I'm pretty without glasses!"
Ratna's family had recently moved to Bandung. Their house was quite far from the school.
Ratna was the youngest of three siblings. Every morning, they walked about fifteen minutes to the angkot (public minivan) stop, then continued the journey for another fifteen minutes to school.
That day, Ratna had managed to fold her glasses and tuck them into her wallet. But before she could step out of the house, her father's voice boomed from inside.
"Ratna! Where are your glasses? Don't be careless!"
With a heavy heart, Ratna put them back on.
In truth, her myopia was still minor—minus half on the left, minus three-quarters on the right. But for some reason, her father always forced her to wear glasses every single day.
Her posture was ordinary, just like most high school girls. Shoulder-length, slightly wavy hair, a skirt five centimeters below the knee, and long socks covering her calves.
But in her own eyes, she felt different.
She wasn't a child of wealth like her friends at Harapan Muda High School—an elite school in Bandung filled with kids from well-off families.
Ratna was currently in her first year.
Her class had 21 students, and the neighboring class had 17.
In fact, it was a heavy financial burden for her parents to afford that school. But they still tried, hoping Ratna could get the best education and later attend a state university.
Part of the tuition was even covered by her grandfather, who was slightly more comfortable financially than her parents.
However, schooling among rich kids wasn't easy.
They liked uniformity—jackets, caps, shoes—even friendships felt like a sort of "membership."
The biggest clique at the school was led by Harold, the son of one of Harapan Muda School's biggest donors.
Ratna didn't belong to any gang.
She was too quiet, too "plain."
And to them, Ratna was just an uninteresting bookworm with thick glasses who wasn't worth inviting to join.
"You have to pay now!" shouted Michael, one of the gang members, that morning.
"The class jackets are ready, everyone has to buy one, so we look united!"
Ratna swallowed. "Um… I don't have the money. If I ask Papa, he'll definitely be angry."
All eyes turned toward her.
Maybe they weren't thinking anything, but Ratna felt like she was being mocked.
"No! Absolutely not!" her father snapped that night.
"I won't spend money on unnecessary things at school! If it's a jacket today, it'll be a cap tomorrow, and shoes the day after! They're just trying to make a profit!"
"Yes," chimed in Mother Sari, chopping vegetables in the kitchen.
"It's already good that you can attend that school. If it weren't for Grandpa, we probably couldn't afford it."
"That's enough, you study. Don't get involved in strange things," her father added sternly.
"A child must know their place," her mother gently interjected. "We don't have a lot of money, dear. You were sent to a school for rich people to absorb their knowledge, not to follow their lifestyle. You are not one of them."
Ratna remained silent.
Pressured by friends at school, pressured by her parents at home.
Her heart felt tight.
In class, two female students often bothered her—Vera and Rani.
For some reason, they liked throwing paper at Ratna and laughing.
Ratna felt like screaming.
Luckily, so far, they hadn't dared to get physical.
She could only pretend to laugh, as if she wasn't bothered, even though inwardly, she was truly cursing them.
Days at school were hard. But Ratna persisted.
She knew that only school could lead her out of this situation.
Fortunately, there was still Helen—her kind seatmate.
It helped; with Helen, Ratna could feel a little sane.
She didn't know why Helen wanted to be friends with her.
Helen wasn't a beautiful girl, but she had a way of making people comfortable.
And from here… everything will begin.
From cold Bandung, from a first look, from two souls that once… might have been a single star.