Night He Returned
Since the diagnosis day,
Aiman slowly disappeared.
Not completely.
But enough for Alya and Nadia to feel the distance.
Messages became shorter.
Replies became slower.
Sometimes—
there was no reply at all.
They understood something was wrong.
But Aiman never explained.
So they waited.
Until that night.
It started earlier than midnight.
Around 10:47 p.m.
Alya's phone vibrated.
She almost ignored it.
But when she saw the name on the screen—
she froze.
Aiman
It had been a long time since he messaged first.
"Awak sibuk ke malam ni?"
Simple sentence.
Yet enough to surprise her.
Alya
"Tak. Awak okay?"
She waited.
Normally, after diagnosis day—
Aiman would reply hours later.
Or not at all.
But this time—
his reply came quickly.
"Saya cuma nak tanya khabar."
Alya sat up on her bed.
Something felt different.
At almost the same time,
Nadia's phone vibrated too.
Aiman
"Awak masih berjaga?"
Nadia looked at the screen longer than usual.
He hadn't spoken like this in days.
Nadia
"Masih. Kenapa?"
There was a pause.
Long enough to feel strange.
Then his reply arrived.
"Saja nak pastikan awak okay."
Now Nadia knew.
Something wasn't normal tonight.
The conversation didn't stop there.
It continued.
Slow at first.
Careful.
Like Aiman was choosing every word.
11:30 p.m.
12:15 a.m.
1:40 a.m.
Still talking.
Still replying.
Still there.
For the first time since the diagnosis—
Aiman didn't disappear.
Instead,
he stayed.
Listening.
Asking.
Remembering things he normally ignored lately.
By 2:30 a.m.,
both Alya and Nadia were already certain.
This wasn't random.
This wasn't casual.
This night meant something.
Then close to 3:00 a.m.,
his messages changed slightly.
More serious.
More careful.
More like someone preparing something inside himself.
To Alya, he wrote:
"Terima kasih sebab selalu faham saya."
To Nadia, he wrote:
"Kalau nanti saya perlukan awak… awak masih ada kan?"dan awak pernah. Cakap,kalau suatu hari nanti awak hilang....adakah saya akan mencari awak?
Dan "yz"saya akan cari awak...,
Both of them stopped typing after reading those words.
Because both of them were thinking the same thing—
Why tonight?
Why suddenly after disappearing for so long?
And why did it feel
like Aiman was saying something
he couldn't say directly?
They didn't know yet.
But that night—
from the moment his first message arrived
until the clock reached 3:00 a.m.
something between them changed again. 🌙📩