Niko wasn't really a risk taker but he couldn't get his mind off the 'anonymous' liker on his teaching videos. He was even more surprised when the liker also sent a link to lesson/activity ideas. It wasn't really unusual to receive them but when it happened a second time, Niko became even more curious. He had already been thinking of how to get to know his "dancing neighbor" and "window girl"; now "Riki" added to the list of people he wanted to meet. "Paano?" Niko thought. If he didn't join is barkada and friends at the volunteer center or start his online classes, he wouldn't have had human interactions at all due to the lockdown.
---
Riki stared at her neighbor's window, waiting for the time he'd start his morning activity. She saw him set up his recording device so she knew that he was about to begin. "Baka vlogger sya" Riki thought. "Sino kaya sya? Anong vlog site nya?"
Riki sat on her sofa while looking at her laptop which was on her lap. When she looked up, she saw "Bin" (named by her bestfriend, Ina), wearing a red shirt (which seemed to be his favorite). He was dancing (again) and his actions changed a lot. "Ano kaya ang content ng vlog nya?" Riki thought as she put her laptop beside her and watched Bin. After a few minutes of active movement, he got a basket which seemed to be filled with a few colored items. He sat down on the floor so Riki had to move slightly forward to see more. "Is he deaf?" she wondered when she saw Bin hold up an colored object with one hand and gesture with the other. The activity shifted to a quiet moment wherein Bin was hovered over something on his coffee table. Riki put her laptop back on her lap and resumed working. When she was finished, Bin was not in his living room anymore. On his window hung a paper mosaic rainbow.
---
Ina messaged that they needed more people to help in the community kitchen which was preparing meals for the frontliners.
"Di naman ako nagluluto" Riki replied.
"Di tayo magluluto. Either mag-ch-chop tayo ng veggies or magppack ng pagkain. O ano, g?"
"Now na?"
"Papunta na ako dun, so siguro in hour?"
"Okay. See you"
"See you"
---
"Dude, what are you doing today?"
"This afternoon? Wala naman, bakit?"
"They need help at the volunteer center again" Sam said.
"Ah. Ti-next nga ako ng Jose kanina."
"Ako rin. O ano?"
"O sige, bihis lang ako. See you there."
"Ok!"
---
Riki stepped out of her building in her t-shirt and jeans. She was busy adjusting her facemask that she didn't notice the biker who passed in front of her. He was headed in the same direction that Riki was going toward.
---
"...ihahatid natin tong mga gulay dun sa open kitchen sa kabila." Jose said while pointing to the pushcarts on the side of the vegetable and meat truck in the parking area.
Niko took over one pushcart filled with sacks of potatoes and brought it the area Jose mentioned. Sitting around mounds of potatoes were groups of three people peeling them. Niko distributed the sacks of potatoes amongst the groups.
"Ibubuhos ko ba?" He asked and Ina nodded her head.
"Thank you" Ina said.
Niko nodded and put the sack into his cart and left.
"Ano kaya ichura nya?" Ina wondered as she watched Niko leave the area. Like everyone else in the center, he was wearing his protective gear – a mask, a baseball cap with an attached face shield, gloves, and an apron. Ina and the kitchen workers wore something similar except that the girls wore bucket hats with shields.
Riki was concentrating on peeling the potatoes so she wasn't really paying attention to what Ina was saying. In their group of three, Jake also helped peeling the potatoes.
"Bakit sa iba ka pa tumitingin e andito naman ako" Jake said.
Riki heard this and looked at the two. "Yiheee..." she teased her best friend. Jake was also their friend. In fact, it was Ina who called him to volunteer in the community kitchen. Ina blushed when she saw the potato peel flower Jake had put on top of the mound of potatoes.
---
Riki didn't see her roof deck neighbor that evening. She had gone to the roof deck later than usual to relax a bit before bedtime. "Baka nag-jogging na sya kanina" Riki thought after staring at the empty rooftop across for a while.
In his apartment, Niko stood up from his desk, fed his fish and watered his plants, switched off the lights, and went to bed. He skipped jogging today because he had an energetic morning with the kids and was quite tired from hauling vegetables and other goods for most of the afternoon. Plus he biked to and from the center. Before actually going home, he biked around his city first.
"Thank you for the link to your Pinterest boards. I got the idea for the rainbow from there." Riki read on her laptop.
She slammed her laptop shut and ran to her window. She couldn't see through her lace curtains so she opened them fully. Though it was somehow dark inside her neighbor's window, she could see the arch of a rainbow. The fishtank in the living room had its lights on.
"Bin?" Riki nervously thought. "Teacher...Nyx" she corrected herself.
