"How was Japan?" Shri's old friend, Sufyan, asked as the waiter left. "Did you find a Japanese girl like you dreamed of?"
"Aiya, don't lah," Shri frowned, pulling his cup of teh tarik towards him.
Sufyan smirked. "Found or not?"
Shri sighed. "Yeah lah, yeah lah. I found one, okay?"
Sufyan started laughing. "Wow, I really wasn't expecting that! What, is she a geisha?"
"Yes..."
Sufyan gasped. "You're joking, right?"
"No, I'm not," Shri smirked. "She really is a geisha."
"Wah..." Sufyan chuckled. "Okay, whatever. I heard you're working on a new book. How's it going?"
"It's going good," Shri shrugged. "I'm already done with it actually."
"Really? Eh, where can I get lah? I wanna read it too."
"I think I saw some in the shop in Jaya Supermarket," Shri shrugged. "Go and have a look lah."
Sufyan frowned playfully. "Give me one for free lah. It's your book, what."
"Aiya, go and buy lah," Shri smirked. "I also need to buy okay? I mean, I got a few free copies but I gave one to my sister and one to... my girl in Japan."
Sufyan looked at him in surprise. "Oi..."
"What, she likes reading too," Shri pointed out. "She really wanted it."
Sufyan had a faraway look in his face, a faint smile forming on his lips. "I still remember how you were always writing in class whenever there was no teacher. Even with a teacher around, you got away with it for the most part since they always thought you were studying just because you have a book open in front of you."
Shri smirked. "I know. Smart, ain't I?"
"I also remember how you always got caught reading in class," Sufyan smirked. "And once the teacher confiscated your book and refused to return it until you begged her in the staff room after school."
Shri opened his mouth to speak but Sufyan went on.
"And once you left the book in the lab and had to go retrieve it while the seniors were mid-experimenting. Watching you take that book even caused their experiment to fail."
"I know, I know, can you stop now?" Shri sighed. "I like reading just as much as I like writing, okay?"
"Yeah, I know," Sufyan nodded. "And that's why I would steal your draft book without your knowledge to read them."
"You read my drafts?!"
"Yes I did. And I have to admit, they're quite interesting."
Shri sighed and leaned back in his seat. The waiter came over and placed a plate of chicken fried rice in front of him. He nodded at the waiter and leaned forward, grabbing his cutlery to eat.
"So bad lah, you," Shri sighed and started eating his rice. "By the way, when's puasa?"
"Nineteen," Sufyan said, taking a sip of his tea.
"Oh, for a second I thought you were dodging the fast," Shri smirked. "Never mind, I know you don't do that."
"There are people who do," Sufyan frowned, pushing his tea aside.
"Yeah..." Shri sighed and decided to change the subject. "Also, you're so mean. You read my drafts?!"
"What, I said your books are nice, right?" Sufyan laughed, forgetting about what he was talking about. He paused when the waiter placed the plate of fried Maggi noodles that he ordered. "Also, follow me to Jaya. I wanna buy your book."
"Sure," Shri shrugged. "I want to buy some stuff too.""Weh, which one is it?" Sufyan asked, looking at the row of Shri's books in surprise. "There's three."
"Take all of them lah," Shri insisted, having a handful of pens and mechanical pencils in his hand and a few notebooks tucked under his arm. "You said it yourself, my books are good."
Sufyan complied, never taking his eyes off Shri's smug face. "You were supposed to give this to me for free. You know that?"
"I wasn't the one who printed them," Shri pointed out with a shrug. "The publisher did that."
Sufyan sighed and looked at the other books before following Shri to the counter to pay. He looked at the time and realised something very important.
"Shri, I forgot to pray just now," Sufyan admitted when they left the shop. "I still have fifteen minutes before the next azan, I need to find the surau."
"I think I know where it is," Shri said, leading him to the lift lobby. "Come, I think they wrote it in the lift."
"Okay..." Sufyan nodded.Shri brought Sufyan to the surau and waited outside, holding the plastic bags for the stuff they got. He decided to read a book, one he just bought during their shopping spree, and patiently waited as his friend prayed. He was suddenly reminded of his school days with Sufyan, where he would wait outside the school's surau with a book just like now, during the days where they had to stay back for a few hours for extra-curricular activities. Shri would sometimes enter the surau to wait for him inside too, and sometimes they would hang out in there together if it was empty.
The shopping centre was nearly empty too, save for himself and a few others roaming around. Shri was just glad that he had the bench all to himself so he was free to sit and read.
"Shri?" He looked up when someone called his name.
It was Mikail.
"Eh, Mikail!" Shri closed his book and got up. "What are you doing here?"
"Came with my wife," Mikail shrugged, pointing a thumb towards the women's surau. "She's still praying with the baby."
"Oh okay..." Shri nodded. "I'm waiting for my friend. He's still praying in there."
"Yeah, I just finished praying too," Mikail chuckled. "I forgot to pray earlier... Nisa and I have been out the whole day since noon."
Shri looked at the time and realised that it was nearly four thirty. "Oh yeah, prayer time is almost over, right?"
"Yeah," Mikail nodded. "I'll pray at home after the azan later. Hopefully we arrive home before Maghreb."
"Where do you actually live?" Shri asked, seeing how there were hours more.
"Right here, Section 14 only," Mikail said, pointing in the direction of his home since it's quite near the mall itself.
"Then? Surely you have enough time, right?"
"Yeah, but we're going for a movie," Mikail grinned, crinkling his moustache and lifting his bearded chin. "Here only, AmCorp."
Shri's face lit up. "Oh! The new mall! How is it? I haven't really been to it much."
"It's quite good, there's a theatre too," Mikail added. "We're gonna watch—"
"Eh, Shri!" Another voice interrupted, followed by Sufyan coming to view.
"Oh, you're done," Shri smiled at him and turned back to Mikail. "See you later, Mik. Enjoy your movie." He spotted Nisa coming over with their baby while adjusting her hijab with one hand. "There, your wife is done too."
"Oh," Mikail straightened himself when he spotted her. "Bye, Shri." He nodded at Sufyan and met up with his wife.Mohammad Sufyan bin Ayub, Shri's close friend since secondary school.
This is Khairunisa 'Nisa' binti Abdullah. She actually wears a hijab that covers up to her chest, but this is the closest I could get in the Sims. I tried, I really did, to find a proper hijab but nope. This is the closest I could get, even that because of Sims 3: World Adventures. I think this comes from Al Simhara, Egypt.
-teh tarik translates to pulled tea. It's because of the action of pouring a cup of sweet milk tea from a certain height several times to make it frothy. I don't know how else to explain it but it looks like the tea is being pulled.
-puasa means fasting. In Malaysia we sometimes call the Ramadan month as Bulan Puasa or Fasting Month.
-azan is the Muslim prayer that plays through the speakers at the top of mosques. It comes five times a day, sunrise, afternoon, teatime, at sunset, and at night. It marks the next prayer time, and that's why you can see Sufyan mentioning that he still has time to pray since the next azan hasn't come yet.
-surau is a prayer room for the Muslims and it is usually found in places like schools, offices, malls, and literally every public places.
-Jaya Supermarket is one of the oldest malls in Petaling Jaya. It went through reconstruction back in 2009, and have now been rebuilt. It is now called the Jaya Shopping Centre. It's a very iconic mall since it's PJ's oldest. Well, not anymore since it's been rebuilt lol.
-Maghreb means sunset time. It's when the fourth azan of the day comes.
-also the AmCorp Mall is a real place too. It's actually a very important landmark of Petaling Jaya because that's literally the first thing you see if you go to PJ through Kuala Lumpur. That is, if you use the Jalan Timur exit. But sadly, the theatre has long been closed lol. On the other hand, the new Jaya Shopping Centre has one now. Talk about switching places.
YOU ARE READING
Ride on Time
RomanceShri, a writer from Malaysia who had always dreamed of visiting Japan and Misao, a Geisha from Kyoto with a kind heart and an interest for Indian movies. A love between two people from two different worlds who meet but are forced to part because of...