The Doctor & Me

Part 3

B-19-4 Soho Apartment
"Tadaa ! Welcome to my house.", Ifkar kekonon buat suprise. Dengan tangan didepakan, dia ingat rumah ni besar nau nak tada tada bagai. Diana buat muka toya. Yes dia tertanya tanya what kind of place she'd be living in. And she admit tempat ni looks real nice.

Masa mula mula sampai tadi, they were greeted by the guards on duty, a plump old gentleman yang Ifkar panggil 'Pak Akob'. Ifkar angkat tangan as sign of respect as if replying to his greeting.

The small gesture reminded Diana how he was back in the days. He was always a polite little fella who knows his way around elderly. Unlike Diana, who can sometimes be awkward and shy away, Ifkar can chat with them for hours and appears comfortable while doing so.

Oh how irony Diana thought. This man, previously a boy, whom she thought so kind and polite could bring her to the deepest hole of despair. A place where she thought she could never appreciate sunshine and smile again. Yes, this is the person who threw me into the pit of darkness and turn me this cold.

Ifkar snaps his finger in front of Diana's face, bringing her back to reality. She sees that now they are in the basement parking. Quite a dark and gloomy place, she can feel the eerieness creeping in.

"Jap jap I nak keluar lah ni.", Diana whines as she sees Ifkar is already out and about. Taking their luggage from the trunk. Nasib baik tak banyak barang nak bawak. Just some clothes and books and laptop. And her bunnies. All the essentials for Diana.

They carried the luggages to the elevator. Ifkar, dragging two huge luggages: an aqua coloured 24 inch luggage and an Hello Kitty special edition luggage. He can only pray none of his neighbour saw what he is carrying. It hurts his man pride to be associated with pink Hello Kitty luggage but a man gotta do what his wife gets him to do.

Diana walks around merrily hugging her teddy bear which she owns since two years ago. A fluffy teddy bear she hugs to sleep. Or the one she cried her hearts to at night.

Ding !

The elevator is there slowly opening its door revealing an empty square. Ifkar let out a sigh in relieve. No neighbour shall sees him with the thing he's carrying. He hauled her in dragging her luggage behind. The silence bothers Diana. She feels so awkward being in that small box with Ifkar only.

Not that she's claustrophobic or anything but she feels threaten. By his mere presence. Her mind wanders to the scene she saw on Suits. One particular scene where Mike and his girlfriends start making out in the elevator.

Stop thinking nonsense, idiot ! She shakes her head. Luckily Ifkar was standing in front of her not noticing her sudden motion.

The small screen displays 19 and a ding was heard before the doors open. They've reached level 19. Not even a minute has passed but it definitely feels torturingly long for Diana. Ifkar walks out of the elevator to the door on his right, flashed his card on the detector and the door unlocked.

They were in a long corridor with white walls and grey doors. On each doors there are a plate with numberings. B-19-1... B-19-2... B-19-3... Ifkar stops at B-19-4. He unlocks the door, swing it open and in the most foolish way he can think of, shows Diana her new home with a 'tadaaaa~ !'.

She was embarassed at his silliness. She knows he was just trying to cheer things up for her now that she's moving in to a new strange place. But she's all grown now. She can handle it. Besides, she wanted this. Not to live with him. But to stop pretending.

Yes. She was just pretending in front of her parents. That she's okay with him. That she loves him. Well actually the latter might be true. But she still hates some part of him. She was in love with him. But now she feel strong dislike, hate and anger.

Diana walks in and inspect the house. Two rooms with one bath. Oh this could be a disaster. In case they both have diarrhea and needs to use the toilet. She looks around the place. It is not big but well kept. And quite clean.

She walks to the bathroom. Holy shit. There is no wall separating the toilet and the shower. It is separated by glass ! This is going to be weird if one of us needs to use the toilet while another is showering. Ifkar was busy putting her luggage into the room. She went to their room.

Their room. Oh how weird. To be sharing a room with this guy. She darted to the other room. A single bed. With a table and chair and a cupboard. She went back to 'their room' finding Ifkar lying on the bed with both hand widespread.

'I want my own room.' she demands. 'I'll sleep in the other room.', she repeated as Ifkar stares at her with unfathomable look. 'What ?, she asks again when Ifkar keep fixing his dumb stares on her.

'I'm saving that room for guests. We might have guests you know.' Ifkar explains patiently. It is not uncommon to have relatives crash over for few days in Malay culture. They'd prefer to sleep over at relatives rather than going to hotel. It saves money. And bring the family closer.

'It's not like we have guests all the time.' Diana rolls her eyes. 'I'll just move into this room when we have guests. When we don't, I'll sleep there. Okay ?' She asked Ifkar. Ifkar nodded. 'Just keep your clothes here in this room so that it won't be a hassle to move them to and fro when guests come.' Ifkar said before turning on his side and rolls on the bed.

Diana walks to the closet. Ifkar had cleared some space for her clothes. Well, let's start unpacking she told herself.

Ifkar lies on the bed looking at Diana unpacking her clothes. His mind is racing with questions. Questions he dare not asks fearing her answers. Why is she making a fuss about wanting her own room. And why is she putting a barrier between them.

He feels them. The barrier between she and him. She did talk to him. But just when needed. And her answers were always purposeful. Ifkar misses those time where he could talks about deeper things. He wanted to connect with her. He miss her. Terribly. If only she knows.

Author's note:

Hello my dear readers,

Currently I'm two weeks away from my end of posting exam which in medschool means it's time to pull your hair of your scalp.

I'm so dead. If the updates came later than expected, I'm sorry.

Oh and what do you think about having this chapter written in English ? I didn't plan to but somehow it just happened that way.

If you want the BM version back, let me know !

Your terribly indecisive writer,
Aina.