Here All Along

chapter 15

A few days passed.

Win started taking subways back and forth to university. I insisted to drop him but knowing my work schedule was being compromised (negligible, really), he refused. He had already shifted to his dorm after a week which gave us hardly any time to spend together. Honestly, i wanted him to prolong his stay at my home but knew that it was important if he lived with students like him. It would have been better to stay at a college dorm for better college life experience. So I resisted from trying to stop him. It felt like we were back in the long distance zone except it was a lot better knowing he was just a few streets away than five hundred miles.

One day, I was feeling a little tired but had to be with mom at home so i couldn't really dine with Win. I wanted to see him though so the best I could do was to make an excuse and drop by the University. I texted him around the time his classes got over, saying I needed to collect some documents from principal's office and told to meet me at the exit door.

I lowered the window down and saw him at a distance, laughing with two boys before he saw me and waved. I smiled, waving slightly. It always warmed me to see how he never walked slowly towards me as if I'd disappear if he didn't come running fast.

"It feels like forever since i saw you" he said, throwing his bag behind at the seat.

"How have you been?" I asked, caressing his hair, "you're not skipping meals, are you?"

"Umhmm" he said, splaying his legs at the area above the glove box and leaning back against the headboard. He seemed tired of his swimming practices.

"Were they friends?" I asked casually.

He nodded, closing his eyes.

"What do I call them?"

"The shorter one was Fong. And the taller..Luke."

May be I imagined things. Or may be Win actually flustered a little when he said Luke's name. In any case, i did not want to pry.

He flashed his eyes open and jostled forward.

"Wait - wasn't it today..."

"Yeah" I said, understanding what he was going to say.

"How did it go?" He asked carefully.

"It was okay. There marriage was anyway over ages ago. It just got legal today."

"Hey...." his voice lingered and he reached out for my hand, interweaving both of ours together.

I looked at him looking back at me.

"We will be fine" he said and I knew we would.

So I smiled weakly, kissing the back of his hand and feeling my weariness fading away. It was moments like these when I'd feel what a magical thing love is. How magical he himself was. How giddy the feeling of love and how beautiful the boy I loved. And how alive the world around us was, a moving display of colours so vast and vibrant. But then, I had to let his hand go and my euphoric bubble would burst, knocking the reality down on me and I'd wonder, why to love when it hurts?

Why to hold the hand that does not want to fit in yours?

And as if to answer me, universe would conspire Win to look at me and smile. And remember? It was impossible to not smile when he was smiling at me. So i would smile and realise you love because you love. There is no reason to it and if there were, I was too much in love to figure it out.

"Should I drop you at your dorm?" I asked, jingling my keys.

"I could stay at your place if you want" he said worriedly.