An old-looking-young-man

An old-looking-young-man

It was a fine morning when I was walking hastily across Parterre to get my faculty. Glancing at my watch, it was 9.20 a.m. I was 20 minutes late for an appointment with one of my lecturers. As I got there, I rubbed the perspiration on my forehead and then knocked the door. When I was entering the waiting room, there were two people sitting, an old man with grey hair whom I presume to be the secretary, and a young man with a brown hair, judging from his appearance, he was a foreign student supposedly from Tajikistan, Azerbaijan, or somewhere near Russia. As I walked into the room, the old man smilingly greeted me “Hananta, Mr Suk was waiting for you, but now he is in a meeting. You can sit right there” while pointing at a sofa. Then I sat down, released my bag, took some reading book, and then started reading it.

When I was turning the pages, the old man said in Sundanese “Hananta, budak ieu ti Kazakhstan, ganteng nya?” (Hananta, he was from Kazakhstan, he’s handsome, isn't he?).

With a phony smile, I said in Sundanese as well “Muhun pak” (yes sir). But actually, what I wanted to say was “So what’s the point? Who cares? Do you think I am a gay? No matter how handsome he is, I won’t fall in love with him anyway”.

Then I continued reading after such an unimportant interruption. However, because of my curiosity, I listened to their conversation and pretended to keep reading.

From that, I knew that the young man was in some kind of trouble and was waiting for Mr Suk as well. I glanced at my watch and said to myself: “Shit, it’s gonna take a long time”

There was the silence of the grave in the room until the old man tried to break the ice. He told me a joke about the young man. He spoke in Sundanese again “Tingali Ta, si ieu umurna 20 taun, tapi bengeutna kolot pisan nya” (Ta, look at him, He is just 20 years old, but his face is old as hell). Then he laughed undoubtedly out loud.

And again, with such a phony smile, I said “Yes, sir” while glancing at the young man who looked crossed, he frowned. I wonder if he was angry – or at least, felt inconvenienced because there was an old man laughed his ass off in from of his damn eyes.

Shortly after that, there came two old women said that they needed to use a fax. At that time, I definitely knew what was gonna happen if the old people were gathered, they would chatter.

And I was right, the three old people made fun of the poor old-looking-young-man whose the face looked more and more confused. They spoke in Sundanese, presumed that the young man wouldn’t understand what they were saying.

I felt sorry for the young man, but at that time, I just couldn’t help being silent. I just wanted to feel their happiness for a bit, so I laughed, but not at the young man, I laughed at the situation in which three old people were trying to escape from the boredom of their routines life, and to make their life years younger by making a-young-foreign-student as the ‘direct object’. 

The laughter suddenly ceased as a professor came and talked to the young man in sundanese, on the threshold, he asked “Kumaha damang?” (How are you?).

And the young man answered “Aya masalah pak, tapi ieu bade dicarioskeun sareng pak Suk” (Actually there’s a trouble sir, but I’m going to talk about it with Mr Suk).

“Oh, sok atuh, cing bener nya” (Oh, so make it right then) and the professor left right away.

For some minutes after the professor left, somehow the situation was quiet. I saw the old man’s eyes were bulking, so as the two old women’s. They looked nervous to death. I said to myself “Oh god! This guy can speak Sundanese”. I bet the old people were thinking of what I was thinking.

The quiet crept into the room, and soon the laughter changed into silence, as cemetery.

Both of the old women left the room right away. Well, they had the same idea of leaving room as mine, but they implemented it first though. A couple of minutes later, the old man stood up, still with a nervous face. Awkwardly, the old man said whole pointing out to some direction “Uh, I.. I need to go to check some drafts” and promptly disappear as wind.

Then, there were only me and the young-man-with-old-face. I was like a sinner being judged for all my filthy deeds. I felt his gaze stabbed me on the eyes. I thought “God! Why should the old man leave? He’s the one who is responsible”

I glanced at my watch repeatedly, the time move twice slower as usual. I started setting up some plans to leave the room. I should leave this place immediately; anyway, the meeting seemed to take years. Besides, the young man was the first to come. So I pretended to check my phone, and called someone while leaving the room.