The first thing Leni always did was to think of Risa.
Maybe her mind always jumped first to the senator because Risa was always around. If "out of sight, out of mind" was true, then perhaps the opposite was also true; perhaps constantly being around someone made them stick around in your thoughts all the time.
Maybe Risa's natural presence added to the effect. Maybe she was so loud in every single way — in speech, in action, in all the senses — that Leni couldn't help but be drawn to her.
Maybe it was her own doing that made Leni think so much of Risa. Maybe in willingly giving so much of herself to Risa, Leni had become like ivy along the brick of a house, growing into all the nooks and crannies of Risa's personality. Maybe she had come to shape herself so much around the senator that thinking of Risa wasn't just a habit, but just simply the way Leni had learned to function.
Sometimes she worried that maybe she was too dependent on Risa. Was it healthy to be so completely intertwined with someone else, such that sometimes it was hard to tell where she ended and where Risa started? When she went out to lunch with her daughters, Leni found herself craving food that Risa liked. She tried doing activities like reading or watching Korean dramas, but invariably, halfway through a story, Leni would realize that she'd been seeing Risa in the main character all along.
On some days, she despaired at her predicament. On most days, though, she was happy about it. Proud of it, even. She liked that she and Risa were so in sync that they could win all the games at parties. She liked hearing her own verbal quirks in Risa's sentences especially in her interviews. She liked that they both bit their thumbs while thinking — especially the fact that neither of them could remember who had first started it.
Now, if Risa gets herself a boyfriend, how would she function?
From: VP Leni Robredo
That's good! Update me soon. Ingat ka and enjoy the dinner.😊
Risa probably has spent fifteen minutes staring at the vice president's reply to her message about going out with the man that kept on pursuing her since he met her. 'Yun na 'yun? She expected a more Leni-like reply, a reply that would probably say— Talaga? Pangit naman ng taste mo. or Tayo nalang ang mag-dinner, Ris. 'Wag na 'yan. Pangit. Her reply wasn't the normal teasing that she often says whenever Risa tells her about her dates. Her gut tells her that there's something more about her unusual reply but she couldn't put a finger on what it is.
Leni didn't send the initial message that she composed. She paused for a moment and focused on her breathing to help her do what is right and that was to support her best friend and be happy about it. Instead of overthinking her feelings because Risa is going on a date that night, she focused on reviewing the piled up papers on her desk and diligently scanning through it one by one.
Focus. Hindi mo kailangan maapektuhan sa date ni Risa. Focus. May trabaho ka pa.
She stayed away from the senator few days after she received the message from Risa that the dinner date went well and she arrived home safely. She poured all of her time into working on different projects for the Office of the Vice President. She attended a lot of speaking invitations even if it was far and hectic for her schedule, she accepted various offers of potential private partners for her office initiatives and thankfully helped her to erase the fact that she was bothered by the thought of Risa potentially having a boyfriend.
Risa went through senate hearings and finally took a break. As she sat down on her office chair, staring at the couch in front of her, she couldn't help but think of Leni and how they were sitting there just a few weeks ago when she visited her. She smiled at the thought of the vice president's comfortable shoulder when she let her rest after a tiring meeting.
