Chapter 4

After hitting her best friend on the back, Katrin wasn't satisfied. She still doesn't accept how Liana describes her married life, as if she is trivializing what has happened.

“You think I divorced because of my wishes? Because of my will? For reasons like yours? No way!" Katrin blurted out, not accepting that her life case was used as a benchmark and compared to the problems her friend was facing.

Even though they are close, that doesn't mean Katrin can't feel insulted or hurt by Lian's words. As a friend, it was Katrin's obligation to remind Liana if the child spoke out of line. Rather than reprimanding her by talking about Liana's bad things with other people, it would be better if Katrin reprimanded her directly in front of the person concerned, right? In the future, it is hoped that Lian will not repeat the same thing, then it will further hurt the feelings of other people who don't know him that well and not think it was a joke.

Liana, who was scolded, pouted, not because she was offended by Katrin's actual reprimand, but more because she realized that she shouldn't discuss things like this with her friend who was hurt by the pain of separation.

"Sorry, I did not mean to…"

"There's no need to apologize, just remember that discussions about this don't always sound pleasant to everyone." Katrin's message.

Lian nodded obediently, like a good child. Seeing this made Katrin's emotions calm down a little, she also calmed down because her friend could still be told well even though she was in a bad mood.

"Okay, I'll stay for now, just drink the coffee—after that, go home and rest. Don't think anything wrong anymore." Katrin advised, that this time she got up from the chair she was sitting on and left Lian to be alone again.

The woman turned her gaze back to the street with very busy traffic—how could it not be if it was now the time for people to leave the office to go to their respective destinations?

Sitting there for a long time with her mind wandering somewhere, Liana didn't realize that someone had been sitting next to her for a few minutes. And just like Lian, the figure of the man sitting next to Lian also seemed unfocused with the telephone pressed to his ear and their conversation was quite serious on the telephone line.

At first, Lian didn't bother, because in a public place, there would be lots of people with various needs around her. But when the person's hand suddenly moved closer to her position, Lian of course felt disturbed—her eyes widened when it turned out that what the man was aiming for was her coffee which Lian hadn't touched since earlier, it was still in the same position as where Katrin had put it.

“Eh—Sir, that's mine!” Liana scolded, stopping the movement of the man beside her who was initially still focused on the phone still pressed to his ear.

The man was silent for a moment, checking where his hand was reaching out. As soon as he realized that the coffee cup he had reached was right next to his coffee cup. The man hastily moved his hand away from the coffee cup he was holding.

“Ah—sorry, I didn't see...”

“It's okay. I'm also sorry for surprising you. My voice rose because I was shocked when suddenly your hand took my drink."

The man beside him grimaced, once again saying sorry to Liana who also smiled awkwardly. After that, the two people returned to their respective activities. Liana was daydreaming about the highway, and the man was talking to someone on the telephone again.

They don't know that these accidental meetings will later become meetings that cannot be avoided, and even become meetings that require the two of them to stay together.

***

“I know my complaint every time I come here is the same, Doc. But what do you want to do? I don't have anything else that I'm concerned about, but this one problem seems to never end." Liana spoke in front of her psychiatrist—always and never far away.

Sometimes it's a good thing for Liana to go to her psychiatrist because that way the woman doesn't do anything stupid or strange. It's just that, for Erick—even though his services are paid for by Liana, Liana still sometimes comes without knowing the time.

No—Erick isn't complaining, it's just... Ah, or does Erick want to complain? It's true, working in a profession like this, patients sometimes come at any time, even if it's not practice hours.

“Today I even overwhelmed my best friend with my complaints. Ah, not overwhelmed... hm... how to say it, huh? "It's just that more and more I feel that because of this problem, I'm crossing the line in my thinking, sometimes."

Erick's frown appeared when he heard his patient's statement. After focusing on the story that Lian was telling, Erick finally felt that it was time for him to speak.

“Things that cross the line? Crossed what kind of line, if I may ask?"

“I brought up her marriage and divorce.”

Erick's eyebrows rose. "Why? What made you bring it up?”

The woman in front of him exhaled. Changing her sitting position, which was originally quite upright, now becomes slouched and looks not enthusiastic at all. For a woman in her mid-thirties, Liana looks more expressive than other women in her age range—because usually, women who are in their mid-thirties or turning forty tend to be less expressive, although this obviously cannot be used as a benchmark, because again on the personality of each person. And of course, his age shows that there are advantages and of course disadvantages to the attitude he displays.

"I said, maybe to keep my parents quiet, one way is to follow their wishes to get married, yes, but it's only limited to getting married—not building a household. So I said to my friend, maybe I need to find someone willing to marry me and divorce after we have had enough of the marriage."

Erick should be used to hearing this, because it's clear he's not only encountered this kind of problem once or twice, and is a fairly common problem among women of the same age as Liana. Based on the same problem, a brilliant career but a love relationship is the opposite.

Sounds like it's not a problem that a psychiatrist should be hearing about, because if you take it from here, shouldn't their solution be to go to a matchmaking agency or something? But what people don't know, like Liana for example, who doesn't have the desire to get married—for women who experience this kind of problem, it's not a soul mate they want to find, but peace of mind. That's why they prefer to go to a psychiatrist or psychologist, rather than a matchmaking agency.

What makes these successful people mentally disturbed is not because they feel comfortable with their own lives, but rather because the people around them demand that they become what they don't want.

“You regret saying that?” Erick asked, after feeling like he had enough to observe his patient.

Liana's gaze at Erick looked ambiguous. Two things can be interpreted from that kind of look in the eyes, but unfortunately, these two things are contradictory.

“I regret saying it in front of my best friend because I realize I shouldn't say that to someone who has sensitive problems with their marriage and divorce. But..."

"But?"

“I don't feel like I have to correct what I said. Because lately, that solution sounds promising for my survival and peace of life.”

Erick wanted to say a lot about this, about marriage and solutions that Liana thought looked or sounded promising. But since the woman ended their consultation session because it was already quite late, Erick was speechless... Even though it was Lian who came when Erick was about to go home, it was also the woman who ended it for the same reason.

"Sorry, I promised to disturb your rest time which should have started earlier. But because you came, I had to hear my story here first. So I'd better go home because it's getting late."

Of course, Erick couldn't hold back the woman just because he wanted to. Maybe they can talk about this at the next consultation session.