Sandali // FayeYoko

Chapter 5

At first, I didn’t even realize it was happening. Yohana wasn’t trying to fix me—she was just there, like a sudden burst of sunlight on a rainy day. Walang pasakalye, walang pilit. But with every conversation, every laugh we shared, something heavy inside me began to loosen.

"Kape tayo mamaya?" she asked one afternoon, her voice bright as she crouched beside the garden bed, admiring a small patch of blooming daisies.

"Gusto mo ba talaga akong kasama?" I teased, raising an eyebrow.

She laughed, that sounded like the soft tinkling of wind chimes on a summer day. "Aba, siyempre. Who else would I drag to try weird new coffee flavors?"

I found myself smiling without realizing it.

There was something about Yohana—maybe it was the way she saw beauty in small things, like how she’d stop mid-conversation just to marvel at a butterfly or the texture of a leaf. Or maybe it was how she didn’t ask too many questions about my past.

Walang usisero, walang judgment. It was as if she knew that some things were better left unspoken, at least for now.

We sat side by side on the grass, the garden wrapping us in its quiet comfort. I watched her pull out a small notebook from her bag, flipping through pages filled with doodles and random notes. "Nagdo-drawing ka pala?"

She grinned, holding the notebook up for me to see. "Minsan. Pero mostly nonsense lang ‘to.'

"Let me see." I took the notebook from her, flipping through the pages. There were tiny sketches—flowers, animals, random faces—and odd phrases written in messy script.

"Life is too short for boring coffee," read one page, accompanied by a drawing of a coffee cup with wings.

I chuckled. "You’re weird."

"Thank you," she said with mock pride, tilting her head like she just won a trophy.

For the first time in a while, I felt... light. Hindi ko alam kung paano nangyari, pero naramdaman ko na parang may nawawalang piraso sa loob ko na bumabalik na muli.

The days started blending together, each one filled with conversations that lasted longer than I expected. Minsan sa garden, minsan sa maliit na café na natagpuan namin sa may kanto, we’d just sit and talk—about everything and nothing. I found myself looking forward to these moments with her, as if her presence was slowly stitching me back together.

"Faylene," she said one evening as we sat under the twilight sky, the garden bathed in the soft glow of fireflies. "What do you really want to do? Like, if fear or failure weren’t an issue?"

The question caught me off guard. Nobody had asked me that before. Or maybe, no one bothered to ask at the right time.

I leaned back on my hands, letting her question hang in the air. “I’m not sure,” I admitted. “Parang... ang tagal ko nang hindi nag-isip ng para sa sarili ko.”

Yohana didn’t push, didn’t try to pry. She just sat with me in that silence, her presence a gentle reminder that it was okay not to have all the answers right now.

There was one afternoon when the clouds threatened rain, pero hindi namin pinansin. We were too engrossed in one of our endless conversations.

"Kung ikaw ‘yung superhero, anong magiging power mo?" she asked out of nowhere, her face serious in a way that made me laugh.

"Superpower?" I thought for a moment. "Siguro, invisibility."

She raised an eyebrow. "Bakit naman invisibility? Parang ang lungkot naman."