At nine o'clock in the morning, Adel was drying the two towels that she used when taking a shower. She hooked the two towels on the hooks available in the garden behind her house, especially the sun loungers. When finished, she reached for her phone in the pocket of the knee-length shorts she was wearing as she walked into the living room, wanting to relax for a while while watching a mukbang video on YouTube. She grabbed the TV remote and sat down on the couch. She put her phone beside her in case her Mom or Dad called. Today the aunts from dad’s family will come to the house because they want to stop by. They said they want to meet us all for a day out, and at this time, mom and dad are picking up the aunts at the station. Her mother, Andien, has prepared a variety of dishes, ranging from heavy to light.
Before the sun actually rose, Adel decided to spend the morning running around the neighborhood for a while. It's been a full month that Adel has not run in the morning, even though she should run once every Sunday morning to stretch her stiff muscles, because she just sits in front of the computer doing office work and plays with Janu, her five-year-old cat. Right now, Janu is currently sleeping well in her room.
Abel, her younger sister, came two minutes after the mukbang video started and sat down next to her. Abel brought instant popcorn and offered to eat with Adel. Adel remained focused on the video in front of her, but her hand went to the snack bag and she took one to three pieces of popcorn and ate them. Breaking the silence, the sound of the gate opening made Adel stop the video, which was showing someone eating deliciously and leaving the living room together with Abel.
Adel and Abel saw their parents' car coming in; their parents and aunts started to get out happily. Unfortunately, the joy was not felt by Adel. Adel's entire feelings were immediately dominated by anxiety when she saw her aunts because she was afraid of what might happen today. It started three years ago. The first time Adel felt pressured was when she met her aunts. Question: When will you get married? When are you getting married? Success always makes her sick. This topic has been continuously discussed for three years. The question of when she will get married has been heard hundreds of times by Adel's ears, and Adel's mouth is foaming at the thought of answering that question. Bored. It's like there aren't any other questions, even though there are still many good and decent questions to ask rather than questions that just irritate her like that. And Adel has no idea what will happen today; plus, she is already twenty-eight years old, so maybe the aunts will think Adel is old enough to have a child, and Rafi, Abel's boyfriend (they've been dating for five years), came to their house today.
Everything seems to be going well, at least so far. Rafi came two hours after the aunties came. Andien and Arya, her dad, and aunts greeted him cheerfully, but poor Rafi had been surrounded by aunts with questions about when he would marry Abel for thirty minutes. But Rafi is great because he can answer it casually. The aunts were very satisfied with Rafi's statement, and Abel was ready to scold her aunts because their questions were very annoying, but she was restrained by Andien. Not caring about Andien's ban, Abel tells Rafi that Rafi needs to eat because he hasn't eaten since he came to this house, and the aunts let Rafi go to the dining room to eat. When Abel realized she could get Rafi out of her aunts' clutches, she exhaled a sigh of relief. Abel must have felt bad for Rafi because he was bombarded with annoying questions, thought Adel.
After Abel and Rafi entered the dining room, followed by Andien, the aunts began to turn around and approach Adel, who was busy eating the fruit salad made by her mother on the opposite sofa at the time. Adel's heart began to beat fast; her nightmare was about to begin.
Aunt Citra was the one who started this question out of curiosity, "How about you, Del? Already has a boyfriend?" Adel, who had already guessed the question, was still surprised that she choked, and Andien, who had just returned from the dining room, immediately took Adel a glass filled with mineral water and gave it to her. After taking a sip, Adel replied casually, pretending to be relaxed, "Um, I don't have a boyfriend." Huh, we're back to this again, she thought.
Aunt Ratna said while sitting next to Adel, "Loh? How come? You're already twenty-eight years old, you know." Adel frowned in surprise, "So? I'm enjoying my solitude. No need to worry, hehe." Adel ended with a small chuckle. She tried to hide her annoyance, but at the same time, it was awkward because she didn't know what to say. Bored and very annoying.
Aunt Ayu added, “We don't need to worry? What do you mean, Del? At your age, you should be married and have two children!”
Citra added passionately, "That's right! You know, when we were twenty-one years old, we were married and had one child. How dare you, who are twenty-eight years old, not even be married? What will people say about your parents because you, their child, are not married yet? And keep in mind that your parents are getting older all the time!"
Hearing those words, Adel turned to Andien, who was standing not far from where she sat, wincing because of the words of her husband's older siblings that disturbed Adel. Adel then looked around for Arya, who did not appear to be in this room, possibly because he was still eating in the dining room despite having finished eating fifteen minutes earlier. Adel daydreamed. She remembered when she graduated from college a few years ago, she told her parents that she had no intention of getting married for quite a long time because she was still not ready and wanted to focus on herself first, and they did not mind it until now, but why are these aunts, who are not very, very, very close to her and do not know much about her, even taking care of it? Odd.