LEONA

05

Pain

She hugged me tightly. "I missed you." She cried.

What? She's crying? Why is she crying? A-and why is she hugging me?

"Why a-are you c-crying?" Gusto kong tingnan ang mukha n'ya para ma-confirm iyon pero napaka-higpit ng yakap nito.

Too tight.

"No... let's stay like this a little more." Mas mahigpit ang yakap n'ya.

Can't breath.

For a moment, she doesn't sound scary, she doesn't looked intimidating. She's looks fragile and needed protection. I couldn't stop but  caressed her hair while she's hugging me.

That made me realized that we're in an awkward position. I can feel my face heated at the thought, I figured it's red as a tomato.

She always let me feel the feelings I'm not used to.

"Are you okay? You're not breathing?" She sounded worried.

D*mn! Hindi na pala ako humihinga.

Kumawala s'ya sa yakap at umiwas ako ng tingin. Gano'n din s'ya, ayaw n'ya siguro makita na umiiyak s'ya. In my case, I don't wanna let her see my flustered face.

"Okay, I'm good." She said matapos punasan ang luha n'ya.

Nang maka-recover ako ay tiningnan ko s'ya. "What are we gonna talk about?"

"Hindi ka ba bina-bother ng mga kampon ni Rodriguez?" She asked.

Pareho sila ng tanong ni Juan. Baka ipinadala talaga s'ya ni Leona. Hindi ko naman pwedeng e open sa kan'ya ang tungkol sa kapatid n'ya.

"What? Why would he?"

"It's nothing. But are there any strange things that happened while I'm not around? After the fight with Rodriguez?" She said looking serious.

"What? I don't know. Why are you asking me that?"

"I'll tell you the details after I get an answer." This time, she looked really serious. She can kill me instantly if she wanted to.

Natakot ako kaya napa-isip ako ng malalim, "My classmates, they approached me from time to time."

Aside from Juan following me within the school campus, those are the strangest so far after the fight.

"Give me their names." She took a black notebook that has a skull with a crossbones printed on the front cover.

"Why's there a skull on that?"

"Oh, this? It's just out of habit." She replied and started to write something on the notebook.

Why do I feel like if ever I told her the names and she'll write their names on that notebook, I feel like they would die or something bad would happen to them.

"What? Come on tell me." She's irritated.

"Just promise me, you wouldn't do anything harmful to them."  I pleaded.

"What? That depends on their performance. I'm not reckless."

Not reckless, my ass.

"I don't hurt people if they hadn't done anything hurtful to others, Timothy. I'll only investigate those people." Her voice sounds sincere.

Well, if she sounded sincere... Maybe I could at least tell her?

I told her the names and she wrote it.

"I'll make sure they won't lay a finger on you." She said, her words filled with assurance.

Her words got me dumbfounded again. Why? Why is she making me feel this way? Parang hihikain ako sa bilis ng tibok ng puso ko. Nararamdaman ko na naman na umiinit ang mukha ko, bakit parang lalagnatin na ako sa mga binibitawan n'yang mga salita.