Episode 4

The morning after, Ryan, having roused from sleep, embarked on his customary routine—dashing back and forth over a hundred meter stretch from his home, only pausing for rest when fatigue set in.

This was his daily ritual to maintain his body's vitality. Meanwhile, the wounds he had sustained the previous evening did not deter him from exercising.

After his morning workout, soaked with sweat, Ryan headed home to clean up and ready himself for the long day ahead at the motorcycle repair shop where he worked.

An hour later, clad in his work attire, Ryan prepared to leave for the shop. As a dutiful son, he made sure to bid farewell and seek his mother's blessings, unlike the typical youth of today who might just dash off without a word. Only then did he set out.

The repair shop was a mere ten-minute journey from his home. "Oi, Yan! You're here!" shouted a young man from inside the shop. His name was Apri, Ryan's colleague.

"I'm here, Pri! Since when do you arrive so early?" casually asked Ryan.

"Hahaha... You know how it is, Yan! It's the end of the month! Time to hustle for that extra paycheck!" Apri replied with a laugh.

"At it again!" Ryan laughed, his friend's antics leaving him momentarily speechless.

Apri worked full time at the shop, unlike Ryan who only worked on Sundays or on his university holidays. "By the way, Yan, how's Novie, your girlfriend? It's been almost half a year—I haven't seen her around. Where is she?" Apri inquired suddenly.

Ryan's face, initially bright with a smile, instantly reddened and distorted unpleasantly, taking Apri by surprise.

"What's wrong, Yan?" Apri asked.

"I've broken up with her! No, to be more accurate, she dumped me!" Ryan answered with a bitter smile.

"What?! Since when? And why?" Apri exclaimed in shock, knowing well how affectionate Ryan and Novie had been. The sudden news of their breakup was staggering.

"Five months and twenty-one days ago! And the reason—you must have already guessed!" Ryan replied weakly, his recollection painfully exact to the date of his heartache.

Ryan remembered a day when he and Novie were playing in a park not far from his house. Novie was overjoyed, her smiles reserved only for Ryan.

But then the skies darkened abruptly, and soon heavy rain poured. Novie, not having driven her car that day, had to follow Ryan to his humble home, revealing a truth she'd researched but refused to believe until seeing it firsthand—that Ryan was a poor orphan.

Novie's façade collapsed upon this revelation, her smile vanishing as she sought to distance herself from Ryan's poverty.

Sensing Novie's change, Ryan mistook her discomfort for coldness from the rain and thought little more of it.

But the next day at university, Novie approached him with a young man, announcing their breakup and introducing Dimas Kurniawan as her new boyfriend. They left hand-in-hand, leaving Ryan stunned and speechless.

The story of Ryan's breakup due to status disparity spread across campus, branding him as the poor boy and subjecting him to relentless bullying.

Back in the present, at the repair shop, Apri, witnessing his friend's painful smirk, simply patted Ryan's shoulder for comfort.

Instead of calming down, Ryan's face grew redder and more sullen. "What now, Yan?" Apri asked innocently.

"What's with your head! Your hands are covered in oil, dammit! My clothes are all dirty now!" Ryan grumbled.

Realizing his error, Apri quickly withdrew his greasy hands. "Oh! Ahaha... Sorry about that! I completely spaced!" he said, his laugh booming.

"I swear... You and your... Anyway, what are you working on with those dirty hands?" Ryan continued, changing the subject.

"Oh, this is Mr. Sugeng's motorcycle. He complains it died because it ran out of oil! And your task, Yan, is that one!" Apri said, pointing to a motorcycle with a flat tire.

"A puncture?" Ryan inquired.

"Exactly!" Apri confirmed.

They both set to work—Apri dismantling Mr. Sugeng's engine which had run dry, while Ryan patched up the flat tire Apri had pointed out.

Ryan examined the motorcycle tire's exterior, shaking his head upon spotting an object resembling a mushroom nail or an umbrella spike with four sharp corners, and which appeared translucent. 'What kind of nail is this?' he wondered.

He attempted to remove the strange nail with his bare hands, but it proved to be stubborn. 'This is impossible!' he grumbled internally.

Continuing to wrestle with the peculiar nail, Ryan's finger accidentally brushed one of its sharp edges. "Ouch!" he cried out, startling Apri.

"What's the issue, Yan?" Apri asked with concern, seeing Ryan wince.

"Ah, nothing, Pri! This stubborn nail is just a pain to pull out!" Ryan responded.

"Well, use pliers! Look inside—there's a toolbox in that room," Apri suggested, motioning to the wooden box filled with workshop tools.

"Got it!" Ryan replied and hurried off to retrieve the pliers.

What Ryan didn't realize as he walked away was that a droplet of his blood, drawn by the earlier scrape, had been absorbed by the mysterious object, which emitted a faint glow and then shot a ray into Ryan's body, melding with his very being.

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