Belle | #1

24| Indah

2 4

I n d a h 

(n.) beautiful, lovely.

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What a plot twist you were.

– Faraway

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Aladdin noticed.

Adam barely stayed around in the apartment for a full ten minutes, and that's when Aladdin couldn't help but piece everything else together. Like how Adam's room is almost empty, with the remnants of his closet sprawled on his bed, and how even his inventions were no longer decorating the apartment; like how his toothbrush isn't in their shared bathroom, and how even his schoolbooks aren't littered around the apartment as they usually are.

It was as if Adam was slowly drifting away from his own home.

Aladdin only got to see Adam that one time after he came back from his mother's, and never again after that. It was Reece who would come every now and then, cleaning up the remaining of Adam's mess in his room. Even Aladdin noticed how Adam's room looked as though it was packed in absolute hurry and frantic. Reece usually came alone, and it was always with sullen eyes and pursed lips, as though too many questions were running through his brain to process.

He was here again today, wiping the kitchen counter.

"You know," Aladdin started, settling two cups of shay on a tray, "you don't have to come here just to clean. I'm offended that you don't even trust me with that, and I live here."

Reece cracked a small smile at that. "Trust me, it's more about me than it is about you." Aladdin settled the tray on the kitchen table, and offered Reece his cup of shay. "Just trying to make sense of everything."

Aladdin settled on the floor and took one sip of his shay. "He doesn't come back here. I've been alone for weeks."

Reece circled the rim of his cup with his index finger. "I know."

Aladdin perked at that. "How did you? You never asked me."

Reece grinned, but there was tiredness behind it. "I know Adam more than I know myself." Aladdin nodded his head, impressed. "He also quit his job." Reece whispered quietly, burying his head in his hands.

Aladdin's sip of tea paused midair. He lowered his cup down again. "What did you just say?"

It was clear that Reece never told a soul before Aladdin. His eyes were shut when his face emerged from the grip of his hands. "He quit his job," he said, a muscle tense in his jaw. "I asked last week."

Aladdin was at loss for words. His cup of shay was settled back on the tray. "You can't be serious," he said, shaking his head. Even Abu was quietly settled on his shoulder, unmoving. Aladdin had no idea what to say, because he saw how important that job was to Adam through the endless evenings when Adam would quietly enter the apartment door, with weighed down eyes, but a small smile on his lips. "Hope I didn't wake you," he'd whisper, even though Aladdin was up doing assignments for university.

"There's something wrong," Reece said, and his voice was as strained as his eyes. Knowing him, Aladdin would've guessed that he spent a few days spiraling out of control about this entire thing. "Nothing is making sense and even if nothing is making sense, Adam should've at least told us something. Anything."

Aladdin let out a small breath. "Maybe he's alright? I mean by the looks of things, surely this means that he's got himself covered if he doesn't need to work anymore."