He didn't say anything. He just raised his phone to his ear and smiled. She did the same, even though they were face to face.
She laughed, the sound cracking with relief. "Tengoklah usaha, bang."
She almost dropped the device. Her hands trembled as she swiped to answer. "Hello?" she whispered.
"Aku naik bas dari Penang pukul 5 petang. Aku tak bawa telefon sampai bateri habis. Aku cuma ingat satu benda: aku taknak jadi suara dalam telefon kau. Aku nak jadi laki yang pegang tangan kau." -Awek Melayu Phone Sex-
Their relationship was built entirely on suara (voice). It started with playful taunts during a badminton match on TV. "Your liao is so weak, Aina," he'd tease. "At least my liao shows up on time, Irfan," she'd fire back.
"Aina... aku kat luar rumah kau."
For a moment, there was only static. Then, his voice—deeper than usual, raw with emotion. He didn't say anything
Just as tears began to blur her vision, her phone vibrated. Not a text. A phone call.
She had typed it out, stared at the blinking cursor for ten minutes, then deleted it. Finally, she pressed the voice note button, her heart hammering against her ribs. "Irfan... aku rasa aku dah jatuh cinta dengan suara kau. Dengan cara kau sebut nama aku. Tapi aku takut. Telefon ni boleh putus bila-bila masa."
Aina scrolled through her phone for the hundredth time that night, the blue light illuminating her worried face. The clock struck midnight, and still, no reply. Her Awek Melayu pride told her to just lock the screen and go to sleep. But her heart, tangled in the wires of a phone relationship, wouldn’t let her. She laughed, the sound cracking with relief
She froze. "What?"
Aina ran to her window, pulling the curtain aside. There he was—not a profile picture, not a filtered image. A real boy, tired, holding a faded backpack, looking up at her phone's light in the window.
She ran downstairs, her baju kurung flying behind her. When she opened the door, the cold night air hit her, but his warmth was closer.
His name was Irfan. She’d met him in a random gaming chatroom three months ago. He lived in Penang; she was in Johor Bahru. They had never seen each other’s full faces—only carefully angled profile pictures and voice notes sent under the cover of night.