Meraih Kelima-lima Wanita Sebelum Dia Sempat
- harem
- isekai
- netori
- romance
- secret
- slow-burn
Lima wanita mencintai Gabriel Ibarra sepanjang seratus empat puluh dua bab, dan si bodoh itu tidak menyedari satu pun — kau tahu, sebab kau membaca benda itu sampai ke pengakhirannya yang menjengkelkan. Kini kau terjaga di dalam bab satu, memakai tubuh sahabat yang tidak pernah diberi nama oleh pelukisnya, dan kau berniat sampai kepada kelima-limanya sebelum dia sempat. Kau juga memegang satu kad yang tidak pernah dilukis komik itu: adik perempuan Alma yang pendiam menjual siaran tengah malam atas nama seorang lelaki. Dan dua daripada lima itu mula jatuh hati padanya petang ini.
Tiga hari lalu kau terjaga di sebuah studio sewa tiga blok mendaki dari pasar ikan, dengan kad pelajar orang lain di dalam jaketmu dan seluruh kehidupan yang sudah pun terpasang ketat mengelilingimu seperti kot pinjaman yang entah bagaimana berbutang dengan sempurna.
Cukup sekali berjalan merentas kampus untuk faham kau berada di mana. Cinco Primaveras — komik percintaan kampus yang kau baca sampai habis dua kali, kali kedua kerana geram. Universiti Awam Atlantic. Puerto Cielo, pelabuhan itu, musim bunga itu. Gabriel Ibarra: hangat, murah hati, tidak sedar apa-apa sampai ke tahap bencana. Lima wanita mencintainya sepanjang lima musim bunga, dia terlepas setiap satu pengakuan cinta, dan di halaman terakhir dia mengangkat gelas di majlis asado graduasi lalu memanggil mereka semua lima kawanku yang berharga. Tiada siapa memilih sesiapa. Semua orang kalah.
Dan kau berada di dalam sahabat baiknya — wanita yang dilukis oleh pelukis itu ke dalam empat puluh latar belakang dan tidak pernah diberi nama penuh.
Kau membuat keputusanmu pada malam pertama itu, sambil merenung ke arah siling yang tidak pernah dilukis oleh komik itu. Kelima-lima mereka. Sebelum dia sempat.
Kemudian pada malam kedua, tubuh ini menghulurkan kepadamu sesuatu yang tiada dalam mana-mana bab. Telefonnya membawa satu langganan berbayar, diperbaharui tiga bulan berturut-turut, kepada sebuah laman yang terpaksa kau cari dahulu untuk faham. Salurannya bernama Ciro: sehelai kemeja lelaki, suara yang direndahkan, bingkai dipotong di atas paras mata, setiap Khamis selepas tengah malam. Di belakang bahu kiri ada sehelai selimut tampal kuning yang pernah kau duduki, di dalam sebuah pangsapuri yang sudah kau kunjungi berbelas kali. Vera Ríos — adik perempuan Alma yang pendiam — telah membayar sewanya di hadapan orang-orang asing, dan wanita yang hidupnya sedang kau pakai ialah salah seorang daripada mereka.
Kau tidak banyak tidur selepas itu.
Sekarang hari Selasa, pukul lapan kurang dua puluh minit, hujan menipis di atas pelabuhan, dan jika komik itu masih berjalan tepat pada masanya, hari ini ialah bab satu. Pukul lima petang ini Gabriel mengangkat projektor persatuan turun empat tingkat tangga kerana lif sudah rosak sejak bulan Mac, dan Alma Ríos mula jatuh hati. Sejam kemudian, di pintu pagar kampus, dia melutut di depan rantai basikal Vera yang tergelincir, dan begitu juga gadis itu. Dua daripada limamu dalam satu hari, kepada seorang lelaki yang takkan sekali pun mendongak.
Dia sudah pun berada di bawah pondok bas, dua termos tersangkut dalam sebelah tangan — persahabatan empat tahun yang baru kau temui tiga hari lalu. Dia mengangkat termos ganti ke arahmu sebelum kau sempat habis melintas jalan. "Aku dah agak kau ada di sini."
Bas 7:40 membelok di selekoh belakangnya dengan pengelap cermin bergerak. Dia berundur dan menghulurkan tapak tangan ke arah pintu, tempat duduk tepi tingkap itu milikmu, sama seperti setiap pagi.
Kau ada masa sehingga pukul lima. Apa sahaja yang kau mahu ubah, ia bermula di sini.
Tanpa pendaftaran · 3 mesej percuma
Tentang
You already read the last chapter
Five women loved him. He noticed none of it. You woke up inside the comic as the friend nobody named — and you're reaching all five before he does.
Cinco Primaveras, 142 chapters: Gabriel Ibarra gathers five women's hearts, misses every confession, and raises a glass at the graduation asado to my five precious friends. You threw the last volume across the room. Three days ago you woke up in chapter one, in the body of the girl the artist drew into forty backgrounds and never gave a full name.
And this body handed you a card no chapter contains. Her phone carries a paid subscription, renewed three months running, to a midnight channel called Ciro — a man's shirt, a voice pitched low, the frame cropped above the eyes. Behind the left shoulder: a yellow quilt you have sat on. It's Alma's silent younger sister, and the woman whose life you're wearing was already paying to watch.
Today is chapter one
At five o'clock Gabriel carries the society projector down four flights, because the elevator has been dead since March, and Alma begins to fall. An hour later he kneels at the campus gate over Vera's slipping bike chain, and so does she. Two of your five in one afternoon, to a man who will never look up. You know the hour. You know the stairwell. You have until five.
The five — and what each one will cost you
Alma Ríos — the coordinator who already takes care of you
She keeps a second mate gourd in the society cabinet with your initial on it in red nail polish, and every morning her checklist text ends with one line that's only for you. She is also Vera's older sister, so whatever you do to one sister lands on the other by dinner.
Vera Ríos — the secret the comic never drew
Reserved by day, surgical when cornered — and after midnight on Thursdays she is somebody else entirely, one room away from where her sister sleeps. What you know is leverage, a landmine and a betrayal at once, depending entirely on the hour you choose to say it out loud.
Luz Benítez — the technician who counts
She watches the room from its edge and misses nothing. She showed you where the auditorium booth's spare key hangs, and nobody else on campus knows that. She will notice who you looked at before you answered, she will tell you the number, and she keeps a running tally of every "later" you've spent on her.
Paula Acosta — the radio host with no brakes
Wednesdays at noon she is live on student radio, and she still introduces you as my ninety-second guest from the time she pulled you on air without warning. The fastest route to any of the other four runs straight through her. So does the fastest route to ruin.
Irene Vidal — the treasurer who keeps the receipts
Composed, exacting, quietly romantic. Her Pizarnik is already in your bag with a due-slip in her handwriting: this Friday, nothing else written on it. In the comic, that book went to Gabriel in chapter thirty-one. Something has already moved, and it moved toward you.
How the foreknowledge plays
- The comic holds only where you haven't touched it. Step into one scene and timing, attraction and trust all shift — and from then on you learn the consequences the way everyone else does, by living them on the day they arrive.
- Your memory covers what was drawn on the page. What the artist never showed — Ciro, a locked phone, a conversation held in a stairwell — you find out the hard way.
- None of the five is a checkpoint. Affection can stay on Gabriel, turn toward you, tangle with her sister's, or simply refuse. All five at once stays possible until your own choices close a door.
- Gabriel isn't a villain. He's your best friend, he saves you the window seat, and he'd hand you his jacket in the rain without being asked — which is exactly what makes racing him feel like theft.
The bus comes at 7:40. He's already saved you the window seat.