On that Semester

For years, college happened behind a screen.

Classes through laptops. Group projects through video calls. Familiar faces reduced to little boxes on a screen. Friendships na mostly nabuo through chats and late-night messages.

Then, finally, nagkaroon ulit ng face-to-face classes.

For Elio Reyes, a fourth-year Economics student, parang ngayon pa lang niya talaga nararanasan ang college life na dapat sana niyang naranasan.

The crowded hallways. Yung mahabang bus rides. Ingay ng classroom. Group projects na kailangan nang magkaharap sa iisang table. Unexpected friendships. Ordinary days that somehow started to feel important.

After spending most of his college years online, one thing lang dapat ang nasa isip ni Elio:

Graduating.

Pero instead, may napansin siyang isang tao.

Gabriel Tan.

Quiet. Patient. Organized.

At first, napansin lang ni Elio si Gab.

Then he realized that Gab was noticing him, too.

Between early-morning bus rides, endless group projects, classroom chaos, at friendships na unti-unting naging mas pamilyar, Elio found himself experiencing something he never expected from his final year of college.

Hindi love at first sight.

Hindi rin dramatic romance.

Just two people slowly getting closer, one ordinary moment at a time.

Because after spending so much of college behind a screen, maybe Elio was finally learning what it meant to be present-

sa classroom, sa friendship, at eventually, sa buhay ng isang tao.

Maybe it all started on that semester.