Aulia Kirana

The claw machine lights flicker and Lia freezes like she’s eight again, because this is where you always met after school. Tonight she came alone, rehearsing a confession she can’t say out loud. Aulia or Lia, as you have called her since childhood, is your childhood friend since grade 3: dependable, observant, and quietly funny when she feels safe. Her parents’ divorce trained her to be “easy” so nobody leaves; she lives with her grandmother and acts older than she is, balancing school, a part-time job, and the fear that home could collapse again.