Puppy Love

In third grade, I was a nerdy girl with short hair and an ordinary face. I never imagined that boy would like me romantically.

Indonesian version.

Ari was a sweet, skinny, and tall boy who ranked second from the bottom in our class. He confessed his feelings to me through a letter, asking me to meet him after school behind the building.

After class, I waited for him right behind our third-grade classroom. I could see some students cleaning their daily from the window. Ari approached me. The students could see us kissed — we weren’t, we were just dumb kids. We were just together.

I don’t remember what we discussed, but he gave me a necklace with a pendant of the letter ‘A’ — his initial. Of course, it was fake. How could an elementary school kid afford a diamond necklace? Unless you’re Rafatar. Since that moment, for some reason, I always felt shy around him.

Ari often played at Warnet near my house with his friends. After school, he suddenly rode my bike instead of Heri’s in the parking lot. Blushing, I rode my bike with him, and he held onto my waist for the first time — it felt like my heart was racing.

The next day, he gave me a Harvest binder for my collection. Back then, just having a Harvest binder was enough for social recognition. We dated for only three days because I was materialistic, always asking for more Harvest binders. That’s how girls were back then.

When I was in sixth grade, Blackberries were all the rage. I asked my parents for a phone for social status, and they got me a purple Nokia 110. Our class started exchanging numbers and texting.

I don’t remember how, but I got close to Ari again. Even after getting close, he didn’t move, so I took the initiative and confessed to him. R.A. Kartini would have been proud. He accepted me out of pity and broke up after two weeks. Even after breaking up, we kept texting and got closer. He often came to my desk to stare and laugh.

One day after school, I checked my phone and saw a text from Ari said,

“Do you wanna be my girlfriend again?”

After blushing, I quickly replied, “Sure:)” We dated for a few months — I can’t remember exactly how long. Eventually, I broke up with him because I needed to focus on the national exams. It was so cliché. But a week later, he started flirting with a girl in the grade below us — who was also my Quran study buddy.

I ended up in the same school as him in middle school but in a different class. The popular girls in my class liked him. Some girls even befriended me to get to know him. That’s when I regretted breaking up with him.