Homebound [on-going]

Jared has always been on the outside looking in-sometimes on the inside looking out. He transferred from his province to a clannish laboratory school in Manila, feeling like fish out of water. He was a decent runner in the juniors league, but he looked forward to academics more than athletics.

The only place where he finally felt at ease was in a new university. Even then, it was easy to be nondescript in a sprawling campus.

But meeting a childhood acquaintance was about to draw him out of his shell.

He knew Mikael from their grade school paper. When Mikael attended arts boarding school after graduation, Jared forgot about him, and so did everyone else. After five years, he had to wonder: What happened to the bright, earnest Mikael? Who was this blank and brooding creative writing classmate?

Homebound tells the story of two young men coming to terms with their baggage, revisiting the places where they had taken them, and the hard-won decision of unpacking, perhaps with the help of each other.

(P.S. There will be lots of colloquial Tagalog expressions and terms that carry cultural context here. They won't impede the story flow. For anything unclear, Google is your friend!)