Page 69 of Behind Frenemy Lines

Charles

It was witha degree of relief that I left Kriya with her terrifying friends to go to my own flat. Now knew what it felt like to be a lowly staff member at Jurassic Park, cleaning up the raptor enclosure while being eyed up by the inmates.

The moment Kriya had turned her back to do her laundry, the scariest friend, in the yellow dungarees—Zurina—had said:

“Can I ask, are you and Kriya seeing each other?”

CG: “Er, no.”

Zurina: “Hmm.”

The innocent-looking one with the baby (May Yin) piped up. “Can I ask something too?”

Zurina: “I haven’t finished.” To me: “Are you interested in her?”

CG: “Er—”

Kriya must be right that I’ve got a terrible poker face. May Yin patted my arm and said:

“Don’t worry. You don’t need to answer. Is it my turn yet?”

Zurina: “I mean, if you’re going to sabotage my turn…”

May Yin: “Is something going on at work with Kriya’s boss?”

Zurina: “Forget my question. I want to know this too.”

Wasn’t sure what to say. If Kriya hadn’t told her friends about Arthur’s conduct, it hardly seemed my place to.

CG: “Why do you ask?”

May Yin: “I don’t know. It feels like something’s going on. She hasn’t talked about her boss in a while.”

Zurina: “Yeah, usually she’ll mention him. It’s suspicious.”

May Yin: “We should ask you, since you’re in the same industry. Kriya’s always saying we don’t understand about her boss, because we’re not lawyers. Is it normal, how the boss treats her? She’s almost like the second wife like that.”

Zurina: “Without the benefits of being bini kedua!”

CG: “I have limited visibility of their relationship.”

Hesitated, with two hopeful pairs of eyes on me. Three, counting the baby, but he was probably just hoping to have another go at grabbing my spectacles.

CG: “But from what I’ve seen, I wouldn’t say it’s normal, no. It seems fairly dysfunctional.”

Zurina, to May Yin: “I told you.”

May Yin: “I know! I also told her what. We all told her.” She sighed. “The problem with Kriya is she’s so used to looking after other people. But if you ask her to stand up for herself, she doesn’t want.”

Zurina: “It’s because of her parents. They’re nice, but they’re a bit useless. It’s like they’re the children and she has to look after them.”

Thought of Ma and Ba.

CG: “That happens in some families.”

Rice cooker clicked to “keep warm” mode as the rice finished cooking. Zurina opened it and made an approving noise. Said:

“Well, he has my blessing to go out with Kriya.” Looked up at me. “Just please don’t be a manchild like Tom. She earned most of the money, she did all the cooking, she did all the housework.”

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