I Miss You, Jakarta


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Hi Jakarta,

How have you been? I have missed you. Writing to you now feels strange, as if you are part of the Past that seem farther away than one second ago, or writing to an ex lover that I had to break up with although I still love you dearly. I suppose we are just two good friends that separated by distance and busy schedules. How long have I not seen you? Ten months? One year? I have been thinking about you lately. I see you in the slow songs just as if you are right outside my window or sometimes in the warmth August sun. 

I hope you are doing great. I vaguely remember the last time I saw you. Last summer you were not well, weren't you? You were slightly gloomy, coughing dirty smoke and had the temperature of a thousand suns. But you still spoiled me with friendly surprises. I heard you are in a much better shape now, better looking, I heard. Although I have got to say, I am a bit jealous to hear everything about you only from others. But I would settle with this as I am far from you, and until I get to see you in flesh, hopefully soon, I don't mind.

I'm so sorry that I missed your birthday. In this letter might as well I address an apology that never been said, the day when I swore to leave you, stay away from you, and said that I hated you. I did not mean it. I said it because I loved you, so much, that I had to leave in order to understand. You taught me patience and appreciation. I would have hated the snow or the rain if it was not because of you. And I learned to appreciate the merry of warm weather, too.

In case if you are wondering, I'm doing great, Jakarta. London's been amazing. Oh, I wish you could have seen the way London lights up at night. It's beautiful. That bridges in the East, it glows like the moon. I thought of you, of course. I wouldn't lie if I hadn't wished you to be like that. But my favourite part is the way London speaks. The accent sounds like a poetry to my ear, almost like a magic spell that bound me in awe. I don't know, there is something magical about London that I cannot get enough. I may be in love, who knows.

But our relationship exceeds what I have with London, don't you think? We had been through so many things together and although London glows like the moon, your beauty lies in the familiarity of Sudirman street, in the same mother language, in my grandparent's house when I learned how to swim, in that local food taste, and on that stage where I found my first love. So, even though I may be in love with London now, I do still love you. I hope you don't expect me to forget you soon. Don't ever expect me to forget you at all. You are my first home, and you will always be. I may have given up on you when I left, but I never stopped loving you. I don't think I ever could.

And I miss you very much.

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