Viktor knew
A retelling of one of the part in Ejen Ali season two, part one of Misi: Orientasi
Ali was strangely restless today. He barely talked to Viktor, though paying attention just well so Viktor didn’t say anything about the obvious gleam in his eyes as Ali wandered off to his own world.
The bell barely rang when a swoosh movement behind him caught Viktor off guard from putting his books into his bag. He raised his head up. Ali ran out of the class, seeming in rush. His eyebrows raised.
“Ali?” Viktor called out, but of course Ali was too far ahead to hear.
Weird. Ali didn’t say anything exciting throughout the day, except that he couldn’t wait for school to finish. It’s not like he didn’t know Ali. Just like him, Ali often spent his time at home, doing homework and playing game whenever Viktor invited him over.
Though, for the past few months, he noticed his best friend changed. For the better, he could tell, because Ali was more focus in class now and he rarely did careless mistakes anymore. At least, lesser than what he used to be.
He had his suspicions, but he couldn’t let them out for Ali to hear anytime soon. Not when Alicia always threatened Ali to be careful and don’t do anything stupid, even when Ali wasn’t in the state of doing such in her presence. And definitely not when he could see the clear similarity between Ali’s appearance and the now silent Cyberwira’s, yet Ali didn’t even bother to boast about him being the admired figure.
Ali was keeping it quiet, and Viktor didn’t want to pry what he shouldn’t.
The only interesting thing happened to his best friend lately was that he was recruited into the Stamp Club, a club he only knew of the existence yesterday. That was his sole lead, and Viktor had no other choice anyway. So he went to the pitiful club room, hope rising as the door was slightly opened, much to his delight.
“Ali?” Viktor didn’t wait for long because the next second his best friend fumbled out of the room, Comot in tow. Now that the white cat was in his sight, he noticed that Ali didn’t bring her to class today. So she was here all along?
“What are you doing? Why did you went out so fast earlier?” Viktor asked him mundane questions, yet Ali was looking so stiff. Right then he knew that one, Ali didn’t expect Viktor would be there, and two, that Ali didn’t know how to answer him and three, that his brain was racking for some cover up.
“Uh…for Stamp Club of course.”
That was a fact.
Still, both Viktor and Ali knew club activities would mostly be done once a week. “Didn’t you had one yesterday? Today too?”
This club was something else then. The deal with the library was fishy enough. Everyone would see it as Alicia doing her job properly, punishing the unruly student and watching the said student while she could be somewhere else. But Viktor had been with Ali for so long, and wasn’t it doubtful that whenever Ali was gone, Alicia did too?
Ali smiled sheepishly, “I know right! Well, I did came in late.”
Connecting one and one together, Viktor raised his eyebrows a bit. “Why do you seem so excited to go?” Viktor peeked from Ali’s shoulder to see what inside. “Oh?” Perhaps the school renovated the room, and it was fancy, unlike what the outside view showed. “Is it fun?”
Ali’s panicky expression couldn’t be mistaken for a happy one, but he knew for sure that Ali wanted him to go away fast, for the reason he didn’t want to accidentally said something he shouldn’t, and because he did was excited for the club.
Though, Ali spread his arms to prevent Viktor from seeing the club room, as though a stamp book was a bizarre thing. It was, because who used stamp nowadays? But it would be Viktor’s amusement, if Ali had a stamp collection he hided somewhere in his room. Ali’s reaction to Viktor’s sudden enthusiasm was an indicator, that Ali was the worst liar he ever met.
“Eh? Ah…I-” Ali gulped. Viktor’s laid back act made him nervous, but he was fast to think of something, though it was a poor attempt. “Not fun at all! It’s really boring. Besides, the student’s intake is full. If there’s too many students, there’s won’t be enough stamp!”
At most everyone knew that Alicia and Ali were the official members of the Stamp Club, and probably the only ones. Say Viktor was talking nonsense, but he pretty sure these two places, the library and this club room, had a hidden pathway to their secret thing.
Viktor was silly for putting the school best student into his ridiculous thought, but how could he not.
“.…really?” Viktor narrowed his eyes, because for sure nobody would be interested to be in the old school club. But it’s not like Viktor would be getting the answers he wanted to hear soon, so he shrugged. “Well then. When you are done later, we meet online, okay?” Viktor bid him goodbye, and went away.
Guess he would be keep in the dark for as long as it took, huh?