The rain is pouring down noisily, drowning other voices including the teacher’s voice in front of the class. It was already a pretty boring class and this rain made Reza drowsier. The view outside the window was dark as cloud covered the sky and few times a flash of thunder would appear followed by thundering roar shaking the earth. It was a really heavy rainstorm.

The school bell rung but there is nowhere to go in this rain. He just sat there after putting his notebook into the bag, holding his head with his hand as he sighed.

“Are you not going home?” a girl with bob hair approaches him. It was the vice class rep, Nia. “I mean… sure, it’s raining. I suppose you didn’t bring an umbrella. I can lend you one.”

“No need, thanks for the offer though.” Reza flashed a smile to her before dismissing her.

“Well, if you ever change your mind, I’ll be in the library.” Nia went off on her own. She probably have her friend waiting in the library. There is quite a lot of homework for next week so they probably are working on it together. He entertained the thought of visiting them and get all the help he could but there is a sudden business he need to attend.

It was cold and he needed to pee. Without much thought he took off with his bag to the bathroom. Seems like he is not the only one who thought to wait for the rain to ease off.

And he’s not the only one who feels the cold and needed to do their business. He cursed his luck as he stand on the line. The guy with square eye glasses in front of him seems to be holding up really well. So while waiting, he spoke to him.

“Oh, hey. Yeah, it’s pretty darn long. Who knew everyone is going to take shelter in school.” Andre sighed.

“Why are you still here anyway?” Reza asked out of driving the conversation forward. He isn’t particularly interested or curious, but it’s a good distraction.

“Oh, I’m with my friends at the library doing the homework mister Susanto gave. He is such an ass for giving us so many task.”

“Is it the one where you have to complete all of the practice section in the textbook?” Reza inquired as Mr. Susanto is the same teacher teaching him Math.

“Yeah, you got that as well? You should join us.”

“I’ll come later.”

After holding it for a while, he was able to let it all out. Once his business ended, he went to the canteen and took a tuna mayo-stuffed bread wrapped in plastic. As he turns back, somebody bumped into him.

He is the mysterious guy. His name is apparently Dama. There is not much known about him, but he seems to be a really asocial person. He rarely talk and even after bumping to Reza, his voice was so quiet that Reza can barely hear his voice. It wasn't a big deal so Reza just let it pass.

Looking at him, Reza didn’t know what to feel. The image of the weaker, less sociable version of himself sprung in his mind. That edgy junior highschooler would always walk alone on school corridor, bumping to pretty much everyone, eating in the most secluded place ever and thinking that he is the only person that understand him.

What a time.

He shook his head to forget all those memories. They are things from the past and he is just happy to be where he is right now, a normal senior highschool student doing senior highschool student things. No need to dwell in the dark past.

He moved along the corridor before finally finding the library. After putting his bag in a locker, he put his note book, stationery, and his bread to a transparent totebag. It took no time before he finally spotted Nia and Andre in a discussion room tucked in a corner.

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The room was filled by six people before Reza comes in. They were sitting before a large oval table that can accommodate ten people. After Nia and Andre greeted him, he noticed two of his classmates and other student that he didn’t really know.

“You want to join us? That’s awesome!” exclaimed Nia once Reza stated his intention coming here.

“I didn’t know you are the kind of guy who would go into this kind of study group,” Rita greeted him while a girl wearing hijab named Jihan just say hi.

“Neither do I. It’s better than just sitting in the class doing nothing.”

“That make sense, anyway welcome! I hope you don’t come here just to get free answer!”

It was what Reza had hoped but it won’t hurt him to use a bit of his brain. “Thank you. So where are we right now?”

It was a nice study session. Reza didn’t put much input but nobody really mind as long as they keep progressing through the homework. There is a lot occasional break where they just talk about anything.

“Have you heard the news?” Rita, while her eyes wide open, excitedly recount the news that reported this morning. “I can’t believe there is a wild animal in our city!”

“The description was pretty gory, I’d say.” Bambang, Andre’s classmates along with Zion, replied just as excitedly as Rita. The news did take quite a buzz that everyone has been talking about it all day. “This city might not be the most advance city in the country, but wild animal shouldn’t be here! The zoo probably lost one of its collection.”

“But shouldn’t there already be an announcement about that?” Jihan gave a really good point. The headline of the news should’ve been ‘A Zoo Animal Ran Away And Mauled A Passer-by!’

“What kind of animal is that anyway? The one that killed a person?” Rita’s eye is brimming with curiosity.

“Nobody seems to see or notice what animal attacking the poor guy,” answered Bambang. “Considering our country, I’ll say a tiger.”

“But, that doesn’t make any sense? Not only this city is far away from any forest, tiger is considered extinct especially one that is endemic to our island.” Nia objected because exactly five years ago it was announced that the last tiger who used to rule this land finally died.

“Well, what if it’s not just ordinary tiger. It’s the white tiger?”

“But white tiger doesn’t exist in this country?”

“No, No, No. THE White Tiger. The mythical beast of old kingdom!”

Silent filled the air around us. The White Tiger is one of the legendary folklore from this country. It is said that in the age of sword and shield, people are actually able to contact the other world and draw power from it. Some are even able to summon entity from the other side. In this story, the king of old kingdom were waging war with colonizer from Europe. In order to repel them, they form a pact with the mythical being called the White Tiger to bring its army to help old kingdom repeling them.

However, it is just a mere folklore. They probably just brought a tiger from India to fight those colonizer. Nia seems to be on the same train of thought. “It’s just a folklore. While we should respect it, as it is one of our few heritage left protected, doesn’t mean we can believe every word of its story.”

“Regardless,” Andre finally speak up anxiously, “we should take the news as a warning. This is the first of it, but since the perpetrator has yet to be found, I think there will be more.”

“That’s good! We don’t need to go to school for the sake of our safety!” Bambang excitedly interject Andre.

“As much as I want that, I don’t think the school are going to permit that unless they specifically ordered us to. The thing is, they aren’t going to take a stance or anything until things get out of control.”

“So what should we do?” Rita, seems to be worried by all of this, asked a question in response to Nia's statement.

“We should make a group to go home.”

Reza thought the idea of going home in group is not a bad idea –he just don’t know who he is going with. His house seems to be the opposite of everyone’s direction. So, it’s not like he doesn’t want to be together with other, it’s just he can’t.

All of that is something to worry for later. Right now, they were able to come back to their study, or rather, redirecting their worry to their study. Reza, and probably everyone in the room, seems to be troubled with that piece of news. Rita apologized for ruining the mood but they just handwaved it and focusing more on the study.

All of those talk and discussion made his throat feels dry, “I’m gonna get some water.”

“Could you check outside? If the rain stop or at least ease off a bit, we should end this early.”

Reza just gave a nod of approval before taking his break. He walked down the corridor to canteen when he passed Dama again. This time they didn’t bump and Reza just ignored him. After getting a water bottle he walked to the nearest window. The rain has subsided. He noticed there is no longer sound of rain hitting the roof of the school.

For a second, he saw a man standing in the open before he blinked and that man is gone in an instant.

This might be just his imagination so he ignored it and went back to the library. After telling the group that the rain has stopped, they pack their things up and went home immediately. They went in group except Reza. He thought it would be fine as long as he open his eyes on the surrounding. Luckily, nothing happened to him. On his bed, he hoped that the news was just a one time occurrence.