Noticing the Green Flags

Chapter 4 – Noticing the Green Flags

Kira didn’t think about Aleem the next day.

Not immediately.

Her Sunday began the way her Sundays always did–with messages in the group chat, plans made in fragments, and Wen showing up at her door with a tote bag that somehow always carried exactly what was needed.

Yuxin sent a photo of the dessert from the night before.

Yuxin: Heh. We didn’t even get a second slice.

Farah: Because someone kept talking and forgot to eat.

Aisyah: Name names.

Kira replied with a laughing emoji and went back to stirring her tea.

She wore the same borrowed earrings from yesterday, only because she hadn’t gotten around to returning them. The metal caught the light when she moved. It made her think, briefly, of the way a hand had held a plate before letting go.

Then she forgot.

It wasn’t until later–after the day had softened into evening–that she remembered him properly.

Not his face.

His behaviour.

Kira was in the kitchen, chopping fruit for a shared bowl while Wen sat at the counter reading the back of a snack packet like it contained secrets.

“You didn’t bring your scarf yesterday,” Wen said casually.

Kira glanced up. “I didn’t.”

Wen reached into her tote and pulled it out.

Kira blinked. “You carried that the whole time?”

Wen shrugged. “You would’ve been cold.”

Kira’s throat tightened in a way that had nothing to do with sentimentality and everything to do with recognition.

This was the kind of care she trusted–quiet, reliable, non-performative.

And then, without warning, her mind offered her a similar image.

Aleem, shifting his chair back without making it a thing.

Aleem, waiting for eye contact before releasing the plate.

Aleem, stepping back when Aisyah appeared.

He had not tried to take up space around her.

He had made space.

Kira resumed chopping, the knife tapping lightly against the board.

“Thinking about something?” Wen asked.

Kira hesitated. She didn’t lie. She just didn’t dramatise it.

“Someone I met yesterday,” she said.

Wen’s gaze lifted. Nothing sharp. Nothing teasing.

“Mm.”

Kira waited, half expecting questions.

Wen only said, “Did you like him?”

Kira considered it carefully.

“I didn’t feel… pulled,” she said.

Wen nodded as if that was an answer that made sense.

“Is that good or bad?”

Kira’s lips curved.

“Good,” she decided. “I think it’s good.”

Wen turned back to the snack packet. Conversation closed gently, without pressure.

Across town, Aleem’s evening was equally ordinary.

He was walking out of the gym with Fiz when Dan sent a voice note to the group chat.

Dan (voice note): Bro, the birthday crowd was good ah. So many decent people. Also–Aleem talked to someone. I saw that.

Aleem exhaled, amused.

Im replied first.

Im: Let him breathe.

Dan: I’m just saying! I’m proud!

Fiz opened the chat, read it once, and locked his phone.

“You did,” Fiz said.

Aleem glanced at him. “Did what?”

“Talked.”

Aleem scoffed. “I always talk.”

Fiz’s mouth twitched like it almost wanted to be a smile.

“Not like that.”

They crossed the parking lot. The night air sat cool on their skin.

Aleem didn’t know why his mind returned to Kira–not as a chase, not as a possibility, but as a detail he couldn’t quite put down.

He remembered how she didn’t angle her body toward him the way some people did when they wanted attention.

She had stayed where she was.

Like she had nowhere to be proved.

At the café after the gym, Im watched Aleem stir his drink too slowly.

“You’re thinking,” Im said.

“I’m not,” Aleem replied automatically.

Im leaned back, unbothered. “Okay.”

Dan leaned across the table anyway. “Was she pretty?”

Aleem rolled his eyes. “Of course she was.”

Dan grinned, triumphant.

Aaron, quiet as usual, spoke without looking up from his cup.

“Pretty isn’t the point,” he said.

Dan blinked. “Then what’s the point?”

Aaron looked at Aleem then, eyes steady.

“How you feel after you leave.”

The table went quiet for a second.

Aleem’s throat tightened slightly, the way it did when someone said something simple that landed too cleanly.

How did he feel after he left?

He had felt calm.

Not high.

Not unsettled.

Just… normal.

And maybe that was the most interesting thing.

“Aku okay sendiri. Tapi aku suka orang.”

I am fine on my own. But I like people.

He took his phone out and scrolled, not looking for her number–he didn’t have it–but opening the photo Dan had taken last night. A messy group picture. Everyone laughing mid-motion.

Kira was somewhere in it. Surrounded.

Not waiting.

Not searching.

Aleem stared at the image for a moment longer than necessary.

Then he put the phone away.

He didn’t message anyone about it.

He didn’t announce anything.

He simply carried the thought like he carried everything else: quietly, without urgency.