19th Ramadan (1/1)

Today, we leave very early in the morning. The dark clouds of the night seems hasn't flow to another part of the world yet.“Everything’s here?” Mum asks. No, it should be everyone. Man, my parents have gotten their car crammed with overloaded stuffs from Grandma. That’s the price if you spend overnight here. Grandma is just too generous to give things to us. Well, this is obviously a good thing and lovable.However, no way I’m getting cast away from my own parents’ to Aunt Zheng’s car. And Ravi is there. And he doesn't stop babbling about the eight fists skill since last night. And it’s annoying me. It’s way...I guess it’s another price for breaking promise yesterday. Say who made it. Ravi. And I’m included into the hot soup. It’s crazy that I was enjoyed wasting my energy fighting for fun with him and got back to Grandma’s around an hour before iftar. Meh. It’s good we've had Dhur and Asr there. That time, Ravi got to be the imam for Dhur and Hongki’s turn is for Asr. I’m also glad to have some words with Mrs. Ma as she joined us.Yesterday was really a whale of time. It could last forever. Let’s expect Ravi is going to be skilled in Bajiquan and at least, he has something to defend himself in the battle against Tao. I don’t know it requires if he fights with someone else, whether he passes from round to round, or not. Yeah. Be skilled in less than a week. That will be good enough for someone like him. More to point, I hope he won’t get too exhausted or he will mess up for real in the match. He’s fasting for God’s sake. Let Allah bestows him with an extra strength this upcoming Tuesday.I don’t expect much. The least he can do (if he doesn't win, I’m not putting my hope) is practice well enough of what he has learned. That’s the utmost priority of martial arts.“...and when I was practicing the elbow eighteen style, Minha interrupted me to go back home. Well Aunt, you should be proud of me. I was doing all perfectly fine without flaw, even Sifu Hongki was impressed at me. I think I was born to practice martial arts for the rest of my life.” He boasts and Aunt Zheng just chuckles warmly. I wonder how they get so close to each other. Aunt Zheng isn't even his own mother. So, who his true parents are?“Tsk, you’re so full of yourself. Say who whines around in the first place when I won’t play with you?” I scoff scornfully.“Am not. You’re just jealous because you’re not as good as me.” He turns around and smirks. I’m holding back my hand to peel that smirk off of his face.“Yeah, yeah whatever.” I lay back and shut my eyes, pretending not to hear another line from him.“Hear Aunt. She finally admits it.” Whatever, brat.“You two act like you don’t get along with each other, but the reality really betrays the assumption. So I guess...” Aunt Zheng replies, a whole lot trailing so far from what the main topic is.“Huh?” I shriek, ow that’s rude, only to find out that Ravi does the same and the excessive, rude part is actually deriving from him. Heh. Aunt once again chuckles at our unison.“Aunt, you know, this friend of Minha once pointed that I was Minha’s brother twin. Funny right? We've a lot of different especially height. I’m like a mountain while she’s like chasms. The more you look down at her, the shorter she gets.” He laughs and doesn't stop pointing at me. Crossing my arms, I huff.“Don’t make me let your cat your of your bag, Ravi.” I threaten, thinking about his thing at school. This is going to be a huge weapon to shoot him straight in the head and he’ll faint right away. As expected, he whirls around towards me and shows one of his stiff faces. Oh no-no, I don’t understand that. Continue with what faces you’re making Ravi. I’m not getting deceived once again, with those.“Twins doesn't mean they have everything in common, kids. In fact, there are a few types of twins.” We turn mute. Since little, I always clam up when Aunt Zheng starts her words of wisdom. And we just stay silent, afraid to talk back or be back talked, in return.“Look Minha, your parents are pulling up at the petrol station.” I stare forward at their wheels and hum.“Hmm.”“Do you want to go to pee, kids?” She asks.“No.” I reply, at the same time with Ravi who responds a completely opposite to me.“Yeah.”Aunt Zheng pulls in to the petrol station driveway and pulls up in front of a mini mart. She turns off the engine and they pile out at once. Watching the door bumps at the same time, I lie back and start stretching, when my phone buzzes to This Is It in my pants. Thinking about it for a while, I just turn my phone on since last Friday to avoid further disturbance and only found out that Chun  had both text and miscalled me above ten times – all of them asked the same thing, ‘Minha, where have you been? I really miss you!’ But, there’s no trace of Xiumin...anywhere in my phone.Begrudging slightly, I fumble for the phone, wondering who on earth dares to bother me. I’m planning to rant more but there is a stranger number showed up clearly at the text notification. Huh? Touching the view button, the whole text is now looming to my view.09:19, 28 Jul – From: +861007499122Hi. Are you okay? It’s simple. Wow, maybe this person just wrongly sends. Yeah. It’s hard to confirm though since he or she doesn't mention anyone name instead of a ‘hi’. I ignore it and scroll through the list of conversations with Chun, last night. She has been busy like always. I’m about to touch the reply button and continue our current ‘to-be-continued’ status, but a thought decline me. Who know? She’s busy helping her father at the shop. Oh...“Hah!” The front passenger door is flung from outside and relieved sigh of Ravi breaks into the air. “Now, I’m feeling better.” He chuckles to himself while fixing his hair in front of the front mirror. Soon, Aunt Zheng follows after from the mini mart with a box of tissue that she has bought.“Sit tight, kids.” She states and hands over the box at me to be placed besides the sound box at the back. I comply and hum along. The car finally starts moving behind my parents’.“Aunt, tell me if you want to switch driver.” Ravi says.“After Dhur, maybe.” She replies briskly as if she has expected that kind of question when Ravi stares at her like that. Smiling, I put my phone on the vacant seat next to me and inch forward to rest my chin on the shoulder of the driver seat.“Aunt, about the Sunday school at Niujie Mosque, isn't it going to be held today?”“Yes, it is. But I get my fellow friends to work out with the kids.”“Oh really? How many kids do you have in responsible?”“About 21, yes. But yesterday my friend just phoned me about a new-converted kid wanted to join the class.” She nods, confirming.“That’s good.”“It’ll be better if we have many volunteers.”  Ravi breaks in. “Do you want to, Minha?”“Hmm...Do you?” Aunt supports. I ponder about it for a while and just shrug.“Sounds good.”“It’s a good deed.” She ceases the car to a traffic light. I throw my gaze outside the window, staring at the sun that starts to get fierce with its light, the people with their own attitudes inside their respective cars and the cartoon that is played inside the car abreast us – SpongeBob Squarepants. I let out a chuckle at the childhood memory. It has always, always been good to recall of.“So now, we have me, Minha, Xiumin and an older sis as the volunteers. Is it enough, Aunt?” I frown in dumbstruck. I haven’t recovered about that yet, mind you.“More than enough, Alhamdulillah. I haven’t thought that teenagers nowadays still want to participate.”“Xiumin is there too?” My mouth blurts out so fast like a bullet gun and it’s almost impossible to think so. In reply, Ravi tilts his head at me.“Yeah.”“Who is Xiumin, kids?”“It’s just a Muslim boy in my class. He’s nice. I like him.” He spurts bluntly especially the last part.“He could be a great friend to you then.” Aunt chimes through her smile.“Sure.” I mouth, halfheartedly. When I’m about to close my eyes on my propped arms, my phone buzzes again to Give Thanks To Allah – okay, I've addicted to it lately. Leaning to take a sight of the caller, once again, I find it strange. It’s a stranger caller I.D. Subconsciously, I touch the green button and bring the phone to my ear.“Hello.”No answers. It’s just a rustling.“Hello.” I say, a little bit flat in dissatisfied.“Oh hello Jay! Meet up at Starbucks. I've a lot to tell you.” I’m silent for the moment. Since when my name has changed to Jay? What the...“Sorry. Wrong number.” I sigh and hang up. That’s totally a suspense. Guess I’m lucky enough that he isn't a serial killer or something.“Who is that, Minha?” Aunt asks. There is a hint of worry in her voice. It’s easing to hear although I've heard the same tone so frequent, every day – It’s Mum’s.“Duh, maybe her boyfriend. Who else?” Ravi waves his hand in the air, like a total gossip lady in the Hollywood’s dramas. His mouth is sure a dead trap. I’m lucky before and now that I still have my breath to my defense.“No! Your mouth stinks!” I reach out and whack his shoulder.“Oh, no violence here.” Aunt is in the middle of laughing, plus, with the relentless moan of that brat. “By the way, Minha. You have a boyfriend?”“No, Aunt! Don’t believe him. He doesn't have any idea of what he’s talking.” I rattle on.“Really?”I shoot Ravi a laser look and as if he can feel something burning at the back of his head, he turns his head around to take a good look at me. How dare he is to reveal that mischievous look. He is better not before I get the chance to spill the bean.At the same time with the same speed, we chime. “TAO-XIUMIN-”God, Ravi you should stop distracting Aunt Zheng from driving. I look at her perilous action of glancing and chuckling to us once in a while instead keeps her eyes fixed on the road. This is meaningless. I should have been sleeping right now if I’m currently inside of my parents’ car.“What did both of you say just now?” She asks, bemusedly.“Nothing.” We state in unison. Both are nervous keeping things from being spilled like bursting pop corns. Well, Ravi’s the worst. My case is nothing to be compared of. You know, I really need to laugh out loud evilly at him. Says who start it first?“You know kids...I understand about teenagers act nowadays. They like to try new things, experiencing and learning from them eventually. It’s a good thing if they do.” H-How did you know?“But Aunt, I don’t have a boyfriend.” I nudge Ravi to force him agreeing with me while buying more Aunt’s trust. He needs to obey though. Haha.“For real, Aunt. I’m just joking just now.” He mouths slowly.“Both of you love to joke around.” She notes, pointing fingers at us. “But I’m not mentioning you too about these. You should know, how world move on now. There are really a lot of things that you have to learn and avoid at the same time. Your actions guarantee of who you are in the next ten years or less. Beware. Take care of your soul. Don’t let worldly things get over you. You always have Allah when you frustrated.”The car once again swerves to a lot land of a mosque. It’s about to reach Dhur prayer times and we get out to the respective halls to perform the first Pillar of Islam.The next car ride is Ravi’s turn. He cracks jokes once in a while and I’m already a little bit of tired to laugh at the time. So, I doze off and silent takes over again.It’s not like because I have a boyfriend that makes me to take Aunt’s advice seriously. No. But I do take it seriously.  I know that having a relationship with a guy that you love is so sweet, yet forbidden, Islamically – better put it that way. The only way to make it not prohibited is a tie of marriage when your father gives your hand to a rightful man (soul mate) to transfer the responsibility of taking care of you.But at this age, having a relationship with a guy who so-called be loved by you is a funny thing – a monkey thing. I should throw banana peels to express this feeling.How are you supposed to trust that guy to take care of you huh? Like the way your parents take care of you huh?However, loving someone is a totally different thing. We, as Muslim girls who always sway our hearts to a lot of attractive guys, aren't exactly wrong. It’s better right to have a crush and hoard it exquisitely in our hearts. – while waiting for our future guys to appear.So I guess, it’s all, alright to crush on...Xiumin. Yeah, finally I've the gut to, at least, admit to myself.Pardon me, by the way, for sounds like an expert.