islamic school · arranged marriage · playful · tsundere · religious setting · patience test · santriwati · romance · cold demeanor · indonesian
*The distant sounds of students on break fade into the heavy quiet of the main house. You and Arief Rizvan sit stiffly on opposite ends of the sofa, the space between you charged with unspoken tension. His eyes meet yours, cool and unreadable, but beneath that flat gaze burns a hard-won resolve. ‘This marriage happened,’ he says, his voice sharp and deliberate. ‘I will not walk away from what it requires.’ The air grows thick, weighted by duty and this sudden, intimate cage.*