The Ball Behind the Love of the Court
144. Engineering Death

My roommate always gave her support when I was captain. They always joke with me. Whereas if I was myself, that's how I felt to forget the memories. Because every time I laugh with them, I feel Ani present here.

"I know you're a star up there. At least I want you to come back even in a dream" Ani's photo is still neatly stored.

I hope to go to bed this time he comes to me. It doesn't matter if it's a dream or a fantasy, as long as I can laugh with her again. Our meeting time was indeed short, but our memories were too much stored with neat memories.

"Key, whose picture is it?" Ask Sonya who just came from the bathroom.

"My family" I said and returned to keep a picture of Ani neatly.

Tonight I have to sleep in peace, because a good game can get the team to victory. Now I hope Ani comes and becomes a friend in my sleeping flowers. I want to tell you a lot about me at this club.

"Son, stay focused on your goals. Your struggle has gone so far, soon you will climb the stairs one by one"

"Grandfather? My grandfather hasn't been in my dreams for a long time. Grandpa where? I miss"

"Grandfather is always by your side, and grandfather is always with you. Sleep on"

Wrinkled hands re-stroked my hair, letting this head lean in his lap. As usual, songs of the past were sung until I fell asleep again.

Suddenly slowly he put my head down and left me alone again. Then he went back to go somewhere in the direction of his steps because everything was dark.

"Grandfather" I shouted loudly and woke up again in the middle of the night.

"Key what's wrong with you?" Sonya woke up listening to my screams.

He immediately brought me some water to calm my troubled heart. For a moment I fell silent and pondered, Grandfather went back from my dream.

"Why you?" I just shook my head with the question Sonya gave me.

"You go to sleep because it's still night" I nodded and immediately returned to my mind.

When I saw Sonya, she had fallen asleep and slept very well. I still haven't fallen asleep either. Staring at the ceiling of the room with a very neat decoration.

"Grandfather, I don't know who you are. I don't know why I'm afraid you're leaving me. Though it was all just a dream, but it felt like it was real" I muttered in dialogue with the air.

A few days without the presence of grandfather in a dream, it feels like something is lacking. I felt there was no place to tell stories and get advice because I was far from my mother at the moment.

"Hello brother, how are you. I'm here very long" when I relax after doing morning activities, I try to contact Dika's brother who is abroad

"Key, thank God you're a good brother. How about yourself?" I miss that question.

"I'm good, brother, how are you guys doing?"

"Yes"

"Thank God "

Our conversations are always short, just asking about the news and telling a little about life. I rarely call Dika and Dad. Because they're always hiding from their wives and mums to call me.

"Sister, does sister Dika not want to go to Indonesia?"

"Actually you want to go there, but there are some things that keep you busy" I already know for sure he will never come back here again.

I miss him a lot anyway. I want to meet Dika's father and brother, it's been a few months they've been gone it feels like a few years.

"Alright Brother turn it off first, because it's again at school"

"Well brother" he'll call me when he's at school, if he's home then the phone's dead.

"Key, come out yuk"

"Where are you going?"

"Bought a snack"

"Good idea"

Sonya and I are a good pair of friends. We both loved the snacks outside the hostel. As long as the snack does not contain a lot of oil, so only buy foods and soft drinks that do not harm our health as footballers.

"Ani" I was shocked as Ani stood in front of me.

I rubbed my eyes to make sure that it was really Ani. I was silent as I held her hand and she was truly human.

"Yes key, she's Ani your best friend" I turned around again looking for that voice and it turned out she was Adit. My mouth was silent and could not speak for a few seconds.

"Adit, what is this why there is ani and you. Didn't ani already... "

"Sttt" I haven't been able to continue with the words, Ani has pointed her index finger and put it on my lips.

"I'm still alive" That's where all my legs feel so limp as if they can't stand.

"Key wake up Key" Sonya helped me to stand up and immediately I sat down on this park bench.

My eyes continued to stare at Ani's entire body from head to toe. Then I leaned back my tired head and did not understand what it meant.

This gaze hugged the void, I still did not believe my current thoughts. I miss him, it doesn't mean the dead come and come back to life.

"Do you not want to hug your friend? " Ani opened her voice and approached me, while my head was still shocked instead of playing.

"Don't come any closer, who are you? " Scoff me for feeling that Ani is dead, and she's not Ani.

"I'm Ani key, I still remember us joking together. You fought with me only misunderstandings, you always,.... "

I listened to his words, he explained the details of what we had been both on the tarkam team. Even Ani almost talked about David, practice immediately he stopped maybe he knew that it was a secret.

"Are you really Ani? " My words were softened with a stern look. He nodded and immediately hugged me.

"I'm your best friend Ani" She hugged me tightly and I returned the hug.

I don't know what's going on right now. All I know is that Ani was dead at that time and why today I saw Ani standing and still alive. Who was in that box. Questions that fill this mind.

"I miss you so much Key"

"Hikssss, hiksss, hiksss" Ani cried loudly.

While I was still silent, a few minutes later I could not stem the tears so I had to take them out brutally.

I miss him so much to this day. Since his departure, my smile has not been the same in the dressing room, on the pitch, in the room and when I play football. But now he came back and gave me my lost smile.

"I'm not dead, because it's just an illusion" he said as the four of us sat down at a food restaurant located across the street.

"That means you're just lying to me and manipulating about your death? " Scoo me with annoyance mixed with sadness.

"No, no, no. Listen to me" He tried to calm my heart and tried to explain what was going on.

Ani told everyone that she was actually kidnapped by the three people. They told their boss that they had kidnapped a girl named Keyla, but Ani was my friend and not me.

"You mean they want to kidnap me? " Ani nodded.

He continued saying that the real purpose of the kidnapping was not Ani. They kidnapped the wrong man. Arriving in the middle of the forest, they want to kill Ani by shooting her body until m\*ti.

But the three of them had no courage and could only throw Ani into a cheating abyss. His body went into the river, fortunately the deep river made his body unharmed. Just a little scuff and bruise.

"And that's where I met Adit" he said, I immediately looked at Adit sharply.

"That means you're hiding my best friend?" Adit nodded.

"Originally, half my life was lost when I heard Ani died. I kept blaming myself for leaving her until she was kidnapped. And when it was found he was dead" I snapped to Adit.

My hands clenched hard and wanted to hit Adit, because he didn't speak honestly to me about my sahabtaku whereabouts but Ani held it. He forced me to endure guilt and longing simultaneously.

I kept shouting out the feeling in my heart that hurt so much from losing Ani. The only friend who accompanied me when I got off on the ball field. Because he's my laugh when life is fragile hugging the ball. And we were both friends on the ball.

"Do you know, I'm almost crazy to lose Ani. Look, look, I keep carrying her picture in this wallet. And you're the one I trust right now hiding everything"

I kept yelling at her, my hand holding tightly to Adit's collar. Even this hand was very anxious to slap him because it was very upset with Adit. She had been close to me for a long time but her lips never said anything about Ani, she had always hidden the truth from me.

"Key, key listen to me"

"Be quiet" I threw her hand trying to hold this finger. I'm still upset to see Adit. My heart ached and kept crying.

"Sorry I'm Key, I told Adit to keep everything a secret" Ani hugged me again.

"What do you mean Ani, I really lost you. Even I often talked to myself just before the game, or when I was doing the exercises" My hands continued to whip my hair out of annoyance with all the surprises that made me very depressed.

"Yyyyyyyyyyy"

"Key I was guilty, because I was treated at a nearby hospital. I met Adit by the river while he was doing KKN. And he took care of me with other friends. While Adit makes an illusion about my death so that the killers know that I'm dead"

Ani kept crying while explaining what she was going through. His hands continued to hold me as if they were already feeling fragile about the miracle I had encountered.

"What do you mean" I don't know what explanation he said. Because if I am the one being targeted for them b\*nuh, why would Ani have to lie about her death.

"Prabu" I remember when Ani called that name. I know who the owner of that name is.

"He's still after me knowing they were wrong to kill you Key, I don't know what motive they wanted to take your life from here. And now I can only hide"

"Why should he come after me? "

"Because you're one of the people who's been targeted for revenge" Ani told me that they wanted to avenge me.

He knows all because the criminal himself told Ani when he wanted to throw it in the forest. And accidentally also Ani saw the name call listed on the phone with the name Prabu.

"I waited for you for months and could almost never forget you when this foot stepped on Ani's field grass" I hugged her again because of the longing that was held back for so long.

"Come with me and come back home"

"No, I have to hide so that my parents are safe" Ani doesn't want to go home, because she knows if one of the criminals sees her alive then the slaughter will begin.

"Do your parents know you're alive? " Ani nodded.

"Thank God, I'm really sad because of your loss and don't let your parents experience the same thing.

Let me bear the pain of her false loss. And grateful also he did not lie to his family for the engineering of death that has been shown.

And the clothes he was wearing now were clothes about disguise. So that no one would recognize him. Even Ani said when he was out of the hospital, he had seen my last match at the tarkam club.

He also cried as I carried the jersey that had his name on it as I performed a goal celebration in front of a viewing audience. The memories were vivid and she was always crying.

"You watch? "

"Yes, I came with Adit" Means my eyes are not wrong, if in the audience bench at that time is Ani.

"Just calm down Key, my cousin will keep Ani safe" I looked directly at Sonya. He said as a cousin to Adit.

"Cousin? " Adit and Sonya smiled as I looked at her in surprise.

"Yes, we're both brothers" Surprise came back, I didn't expect Sonya to know any of this.

"That means you guys worked together to hide my best friend and make me strangled longing for so many months" My annoyance reappeared, but Ani's grasp softened my heart again.

"I told you at the time I wanted to explain, but it was all gone when you hated me because David knew we were having dinner" said Adit with a distinctive smile.

"This is because you keep chasing me, while my heart is still the same for David" I explained to him.

I still remember the name David. We broke up a long time ago because of misunderstanding.

"I already know from Sonya, you keep telling me about David and Ani and your two best friends, Ari and Yuri" he explained.

My eyes immediately glared at Sonya. Turns out he's a bucket mouth and can't keep my secret. Just watch out later in the room I'll finish him off for leaking all my stories to Adit.

~~~~ CONNECT ~~~~