Unsaid Feelings

Woman in the Portrait

My head hurts. Shit!

Bongbong uttered inside his head the moment he woke up the next morning. He knew it would end up like that as they drank three cases of beers last night. Ako yata may pinakamaraming nainom kagabi. He thought as he recalled how much beer did he consumed after having an encounter with Leni last night. He just wanted to get drank last night hoping it would lessen the suffering he's going on because of his relationship with Leni.

He slowly got out of bed and took an early shower to lessen the hangover. Then, he decided to go to the nearest coffee shop to get some brewed coffee.

"Good morning, sir! Here's your coffee." The crew served him a cup of coffee.

Bongbong looked at the crew, it's the first time he saw him at the coffee shop, "Bago ka dito?"

"Yes sir. I just started yesterday po." The crew smiled at him. "Bakit po sir?"

Bongbong shook his head, "Nothing. You just reminded me of someone. What's your name?" He looked at the crew's nametag. "Alexander?"

The crew nodded, "Yes sir."

Bongbong smiled, "You got a nice name. It suits you."

Alexander smiled, "Thank you, sir."

——

"Mahal." Bongbong suddenly uttered breaking the silence inside the room.

"Hmm?" Leni responded absentmindedly.

Everyone especially the barkada looked at her with surprise expressions on their faces.

"Huh? Um nothing. I just thought—" Leni stammered after realizing how she makes things awkward.

"You thought Bong's calling you?" Neil smirked. The whole barkada chuckled.

Leni blushed, she really thought he was referring to her when he said mahal. "What? No. It's not—" she denied.

"It's okay, Lens. Minsan ganyan din si Bong, kayo kasi eh, sinanay nyo masyado sarili nyo sa tawagan na yan." Koko stated.

"Tigilan nyo nga yan." Bongbong interfered. "Move on."

"Wow! MOVE ON?!" Grace highlighted. "Big word!"

The boys laughed this time.

"Hey! I'm being serious. Stop it." Bongbong said seriously. They all turned quiet, suppressing their laughter. "Let's move on, stop being childish."

"Okay! Okay! Relax." Win surrendered, still trying not to laugh. They knew Bongbong wasn't telling the truth.

"And Atty." Bongbong turned his sight to Leni, she looked at him in return. "I'm not referring to you. Ang sinasabi kong mahal is these materials na nakalista sa binabasa ko. It's not you, I actually forgot that cheap terms of endearment."

Leni felt a pang on her chest. She wasn't expecting that from him, he hates her so much. The fact that he called their terms of endearment cheap makes her want to cry. "Yeah. Yeah. Sure." She just nodded and pretended to read but the truth is, she was just avoiding his eyes, her tears might fell.

The meeting ended after an hour, only Leni and Migz were the only ones who left inside the room as they sort their respective documents to their folders. He noticed that she was quiet and he knew why.

"It's not true." He uttered.

She frowned. "Huh?"

He smiled, "Yung sinabi ni Bong kanina about your terms of endearment, it's not true."