MIONG: And the Sublime Paralytic

Tanto

What would Appy's morning groggy face look like?

Maybe Miong will never know, for the 2 days they have been together, Appy is the kind to wake up earlier than the sun. The boy has excused himself from school because of his condition. Good thing it was already March, just two weeks before graduation. Appy's final exams are over, and according to his professors who kept on texting him, he would be the class valedictorian after passing his Senior High Thesis, which he is doing all alone.

The living room area is full of papers, scribbles, and notes. Appy wakes up at 3 am just to make these papers and read the most updated books that he makes Miong borrow in U.P. library. Miong could say the boy is enjoying his access to the library when it was the sole reason why he got into that accident that night.

Appy did explain that he was sneaking into U.P. campus library but he cannot use the front gates because he's not a student there, nor does he have any connections. So one night, in Katipunan flyover, he crossed the street to get to the secret forest passage.

He needs these books for his thesis, and maybe it's a blessing in disguise that now he can make Miong borrow everything he likes.

It's a fucking huge trade-off, though.
Legs over intellectual access?
Who would want that?
Appy, maybe.

Miong was woken up by a pillow-throw. He was mad the first time Appy did this, but he got used to it immediately and just assisted Appy out of the bed so that he could proceed on doing his academic business in the living room. To explain, Miong is always the groggy one when waking up, so he never really pondered what Appy was doing. Being half-asleep at 3 am, he never realized that...

...Appy is making his thesis by hand.

"Where's your laptop?" It was already 7 am and Miong just finished cooking for his majesty.

"Uh, I don't have laptop." Appy said, busy consolidating his notes.

"Then how do you type those?"

"I go to the nearest internet cafe then type my papers. I saw a net cafe downstairs and I'm going to make you pay for a typing job." Appy answered, not bothering to look up.

Miong just shrugged it. Appy cannot go downstairs since Miong insisted that he must not go anywhere without him. Because of this stupid rule he made, Appy to orders him around again, like bring his hand-written papers to the shop attendant then pay for the typing-job. It's equivalent exchange the boys have agreed on. As a law student, Miong can say he's doing illegal detention. He can't fathom why he's so strict about the boy, either.

Just as predicted, the boy ordered him to bring the papers to the net cafe.

In school during break time, he asked one wishy-washy soul, that guy he can call one of his friends, about his weird feelings.

"Bro." Miong called, acting close with the guy.

"Yeah?" The guy answered, his eyes far from the present. High again, most probably.

"I know you'll forget about this so I'm asking you. What does it mean when you always take care of a person, and you're not mad about it?"

"Are you a med-student? Because that means you're getting the gist of your job." the high guy answered. This little college thing is from engineering department. Poor soul, maybe the lack of sleep got to him that he's not even aware that Miko Angelo the great is talking to him.

"Uh, no. I'm not a med student."

"Then I don't know. What else do you do to this person?"

Miong recalled his memories of this past few days. Oh, there was a weird feeling recalling them, maybe because not once in his life has he ever let a person get into his condo, and let that person trash it. "He orders me around, me... the great me. But I'm okay with it. And I'm always worrying about him. I want to make sure he's safe, like he's not peeing on himself, he's not spilling juice onto himself, he's not, somehow, lying on the kitchen floor while on his phone, saying 'I fell reaching the orange juice but I can't get up so I waited until you get home.'"