Chapter I: It's not the right time to fall in love.

"Mas, can I ask you some questions? Not about class subjects, well, it's rather personal." 

"Please. But on one condition."

"Yes?"

"I'll ask you questions in return some other time. And you must answer them truthfully."

I smiled.

"Deal." 

 ***

On one afternoon, I got a message from my fiancé (he's my husband now, alhamdulillah). He was on his attempt to transfer our chat history into his new phone and turned out failing.

"Sorry," he said.

"I've lost our chats."

Well, he was just as lovely as he could be.

He always thinks that it's crucial to keep everything archived. Unlike him, I'm clumsy when it comes to keeping things, I'd rather just remember or write them down in the blog like I'm doing right now.

So, the CHAPTERS OF OURS is basically dedicated to him and to our old times.

Also of course, to any readers who feel like jumping in :)

***

It was a morning in my class when I approached him and asked that question. Obviously, there was a reason behind my action.
So this very brilliant person had the image of cold, arrogant, and unapproachable dude. He was so quiet that people start assuming things. I couldn't help but gaining curiosity myself.

There's no such thing as unapproachable, I thought. 
He just needs a right friend to talk.

I can say that morning was my first real-deal conversation with him. Not every love story begin with sparks, rainbows, unicorns, lollipops, and love at first sight... but,
I'll be damned if I didn't ask him that question on that morning.


Then it was around October 2016 when we both stayed late at class, I needed to discuss some subject with him. The talks went so fun in the end, honestly, that was the first time I thought we can be friends after all. Especially after I asked him about his heart:

"It's not the right time to fall in love." 

I grinned happily.

You see, to my experience, friendship between a guy and a girl could get really ugly if the feelings involved. So his sentence was a music to my ears and I replied right away,

"I know, riiight?!"

Back then, I never thought about love life seriously. People could only guess and I didn't bother telling them the truth. I had severe trust issues and stuffs, not a chance I would put my heart at stake, not when I got my goals ahead.

Well yes, it’d be so thrilling to pursue my doctoral degree and spend my life in England someday. So relationship was nothing but a distraction to me. All I need is a friend, in this temporary pseudo-college-life I had, with a logical mind as clear as mine.

And there he was.

I asked him my next question,

"Will it be so strange if we do it again some other time? I mean anywhere but here."

He just looked at me, no words. Even I wasn't sure why I asked him that but it was nothing serious. I quickly highlighted the point,

"No drama, Mas. I promise." 

"Well, of course! It'll be my pleasure." 

Then we went back to dormitory.

I got a new friend that day.

***