Tzuyu has lived all her life, normally—as she would put it. She thinks the best way into it is to not get into trouble, silently do her things, and get on with it until she’s finished; not that she has any deadlines in life, she just does not want to live with the consequences of being behind. So, even if she desperately wants to quit, she does things for the sake of doing it—it was easier that way. This was also her same sentiments going into college—but college wasn’t easy. She wanted to quit, every day. But she does it not to disappoint her parents, and quite frankly, she really doesn’t know what else to do besides that because other things weren’t on her plans in life which were: live, study, go to work, and wait until she has lost every breath she could in this lifetime.

Tzuyu lives in a condominium near her university, and in it, she shares the place with three different people—to save money. She’s been living there for almost two years already, now on her sophomore year in college, and yet, she does not know her roommates very well except for the few conversations that they had. Tzuyu was never really a talker, so she just lets it be.

Tzuyu looked at her wristwatch and heaved a sigh—she got ten minutes left before the start of her first class and yet, here she is, still tying her shoes in the living room. Her university is only a few minutes away from her place—one of the reasons she wanted to live there (even though she does not want to live with strangers), but Tzuyu likes to take her time and take things slow.

But that day was just different. She simply did not want to go to any of her classes. Tzuyu never missed a class, but her willingness to quit was too tempting that day. So, here she is now, on the verge of being late even when her finals are coming up. She slouched on the couch, closing her eyes. I don’t want to go.

The unit was silent, with Tzuyu thinking that all her roommates went to the university by then; except for one who’s probably still sleeping. She does her best to avoid them as much as possible, because the last thing that she wanted was to have an awkward interaction with any of them. Not that she does not want to be close to them, she just does not know how—she’s afraid she’s too awkward and introverted for that.

“Aren’t you a little late now?” Tzuyu was startled; she immediately opened her eyes and gazed upon the direction of the voice, and to her surprise, one of her roommates was there — not very much asleep as she had thought. It was Sana. At this time of the day, the girl should still be asleep by now. Tzuyu knows for a fact that Minatozaki Sana wakes up a little late every Monday because of her afternoon class. They had a schedule of their classes pinned on their fridge, and Tzuyu doesn’t often see Sana on Monday mornings.

“I was slow…” was the only thing she could utter. Tzuyu doesn’t talk to Sana at all. On rare occasions that she does talk to her roommates, it’s normally to Momo. Or Mina. But no, not Sana.

Sana smiled at her response, observing Tzuyu from the kitchen as she pours herself a glass of water. “Seems like you were already sleeping earlier, though,” the girl said, chuckling.

Tzuyu did not know how to respond to that, so she just smiled as an answer. She then walked up from the couch and started heading towards the door. Before reaching it though, she turned to Sana and awkwardly looked at the drink she was holding — not wanting to directly look into the girl’s eyes – and mumbled, “I’m going now,” she scratched her nape, looking down, and awkwardly held her hand up, attempting to wave. “Bye...” she said, timidly. Before she could open the door completely, Sana spoke with rush, “Wait!”

Tzuyu turned her way, confused. “Uh… why?”

“Let’s ditch school, Tzuyu.”

***

For Sana, her roommate has always been a mystery. For the years that she had known and lived with her, she has never been close to the girl. A few pleasantries along the way, sure, but that was about it. It felt like the younger girl has never let her guard down with them; she’s always been quiet and lodged herself inside her room frequently than she’s ever stayed outside.

Tzuyu sparked Sana’s curiosity. She was something that she could not figure out, and the girl would not let her in for more. Sana has always been friendly, evidently so that when she walks inside the university, students would greet her ubiquitously. But Tzuyu was different, Sana could not muster up the courage to talk to the girl.

Despite the younger one’s distance, Sana thinks Tzuyu is a sweet person. She would often cook or bake pastries—which was mostly bread—and would leave some on the table for them to eat. She must not talk much, but she’s always been the kindest with her actions. Tzuyu always wore her face straight with her, but Sana finds it irresistibly cute, especially her fluffy cheeks. She has always wanted to poke Tzuyu’s cheeks along with her profound dimple (that she only discovered when Tzuyu was chewing, not because the girl smiled) if ever given a chance; she did not have much though and haven’t been able to do so for the past two years, not when Tzuyu visibly does not want to talk to her. Tzuyu have mingled with Momo and Mina, but never to her. And so, Sana thinks Tzuyu simply did not like her but was too civil to say it. Sana thinks that with Tzuyu, it’s always her actions that spoke loudly. Sana did not try anymore then, thinking it would be fine for her not to get close to Tzuyu as long as the latter is comfortable.

Sana, now junior in college, is often bored, especially on Tuesday afternoons when her break is short enough for her not to get out of the campus so she won’t be late for her next class—but long enough to drive her insane in boredom. She has tried all the approach she could to kill the time: hangout with different people (her roommates and close friends, Momo and Mina, are in class), tour around the campus to see things she has never seen and eat on the stalls inside, et cetera; but with time, all these things have become dull to her, so here she is, thinking of a new way to survive this sunny Tuesday afternoon.

She thought of the thing she didn’t like the most: reading. Sana has always had a curious mind, often wondering where everything emerged from. Her mind can wander even to the simplest of things—like the sight she’s seeing, the food she’s eating, and goes all the way to centuries before her time. Despite this, she doesn’t like reading; she’s often distracted that it’s difficult for her to concentrate on a book—but she can totally read a whole thread of gossip on Twitter in spite of havoc emanating around her vicinity. The irony.

With these thoughts, Sana found herself inside the library. She’s been there before, but never to read a book from it. She scoured the place to find an interesting book she could handle, but settled for the old research papers. Sana wondered if anyone has ever read those. The archives, on where it was from was secluded and kind of creepy, and the study was too obsolete to be used for present studies. Even so, she chose them, thinking it would vestige some curiosity within her. What are people from the ‘80s going on about? It was a paper from 1989, a research about the future of technology. Sana was curious of how these people would perceive the technology years from their present—it was an odd choice. Well, she got an interesting laugh from the movie Back to the Future, so she thinks she’d get that from the paper as well; but she was wrong. Something else cranked up her interest – a note inside.

“Cliches are so stupid, but I have no one to talk to, so I decided I’d leave a letter from one of the books here. Day 1! If you find this, please reply. I’d check this every day.”

At the back of the note was a count of how many days had passed. The last one being Day 24, and the date yesterday. The person who wrote this haven’t checked the book on this day yet.

“Wow,” Sana chuckled. “Who in their right mind?”

Sana quickly fished out a pen and a notebook from her bag and wrote back, with a grin on her face.

If you wanted to try this out, you should’ve picked a more accessible book :p 24 days is waaay too long!

-Your Day 25

Sana slipped the note back on the research book, brought it back on the archives and hurriedly left the library to prepare for her next class. Sana knows, she’d go back to the library once more—with a bigger smile on her face. For the first time in a while, her Tuesday was worth it and she can’t wait for the Day 26th to come.

Sana came back on the library the next day and headed straight to the archives. She’s found the paper: ‘Traveling to the Future with Technology: How Different Might It Be?’ Sana suppressed a smile. The mysterious person behind this has been checking and listing the dates on her note, so she was hoping she’d check yesterday. Sana took a deep breath, closed her eyes, and smiled; please, a reply. Sana doesn’t know if it’s because of the thrill of the unknown, but she was delighted by the surprise of her boring Tuesday, so she didn’t care about who’d be on the other end of the line anymore. She liked the thrill; her curious mind was floating.

I believe fate would lead me to the right person, regardless of how inconceivable that might be. But I guess it worked

Hello, Day 25 :)

Sana held out a smile until the last of the note. She thought that the person was odd. But she didn’t care. So she started writing back with the same smile plastered on her face.

***

It’s been two weeks since Sana replied to the anonymous writer. It’s also been two weeks of them writing back to each other, every day. Sana has known the stranger through the things they’ve written, the person was studying Computer Science and read the research paper, which made sense. They were also into romantic films, which Sana have already realized—Why else would they leave a letter on a book if it wasn’t for that? It made her smile. The thought of the other person made her smile.

A couple of days later, Sana printed a wallflower as she didn’t know where to find a real one and didn’t want it to wither. She slipped it on the book, along with another note.

You remind me of this, a wallflower. We’re on a party of books and you chose one that’s not going to be picked out easily—thankfully I am the sun who lets you bloom ;p

Sana came back the day after. There wasn’t a new note inside—her note was gone, but the wallflower was still there. The absence of a note from her pen pal made her pout in dismay, but she quickly recovered when she flipped the wallflower.

A smile crossed Sana’s face when she saw what was written on the back.

It had a number, and beside it was ‘can’t go to the library often anymore, my midterms are coming! You can text me here. And I want you to keep the wallflower… it needs its sun beside it. I say this in hopes of seeing your sunray one day, too’

Sana didn’t know if it was because it’s now easier to connect with the stranger, or the fact that the mystery person went with her joke of being the sun, or the last comment insinuating the other one wanted to meet her—but out of all the things she has read from numerous notes they’ve exchanged, this one made her feel warm and fuzzy inside. With these thoughts, she kept the wallflower in her wallet.

What transpired after that was something Sana expected and hoped would happen. Wallflower, the nickname Sana gave the stranger, started messaging her every day. It was their same routine as before—but now with the convenience of their phone; they have already traveled to the future. Sana has discovered that Wallflower had a knack for comedy, there wasn’t a day where she isn’t laughing because of the person. They would only message each other, but it was enough to give Sana some satisfaction. She feels calm and warm whenever she’s talking to her.

On a cold Sunday evening, Sana couldn’t get the other person on the line out of her mind. She had told Mina and Momo about this certain Wallflower, and they were skeptical of the person, “What if that’s a murderer? A criminal? You don’t even know her!” Sana rolled her eyes at them at the time, but it lingers to her now; She doesn’t even know what this person looks like. Sana knows a lot of things about this person by now—she’s a girl studying on the same university, she knows her preference in things—her love for bread, her fondness of animals, and her views on things; But it was never to a point where it gets too personal. They have not seen each other and have not even described what they looked like; they were comfortable with each other’s companies that they didn’t bother anymore. Sana would be lying if she said she didn’t want to meet this person, though.

Sana was a curious mind. She would often think and question things, wondering. Despite this, she didn’t like reading but went on with it—she didn’t like reading, but she loved every word from the notes that she received on that research book. Sana would often question things: was it fate that made me go to the library that day or was it a mere coincidence? Was it truly fate?  She would always try to find an answer—most of the things she would think of was one search away, like how the invention of computers came about, or the statistics of libraries and books that befell in line with the continuous success of technology; but she could not find an answer as to why and how she have let herself so open to a person whom she have not even met – how was she able to contain her desire of knowing the person behind the screen—or paper? She does not know; and so, she asked.

Hey…

I was wondering… Do you want to meet?

Sana would often receive a good night message from Wallflower every night, constantly.

There was none that night.

Sana looked through the window of her room—the sun outside was beautiful, it was a sunny Monday morning, and the clouds were b over the bright blue sky. The flowers would have loved today’s weather. But Sana was feeling nothing but that—perhaps she needs her own sun to make her feel okay.

Sana groaned as she tossed her phone back onto her bed; she had only slept for five hours, and the lack of something on her inbox added to her sullen mood that morning. At this time of the day, she would get a good morning message—but there was none, again. Wallflower has never replied to her message, not even a simple ‘no.’ Sana would understand if the other person was uncomfortable with the idea, she was not forcing her if she’s not ready yet—but she chose to ignore Sana.

Sana heaved a sigh and went out of her room quietly, not having enough energy in her. She knows no one would be out, it was a few minutes before 9:00 AM and all her roommates have morning classes. But to her surprise, Tzuyu was sitting on the couch with her eyes closed. Sana looked at her for a while. She smiled at herself, Tzuyu’s really cute. The younger girl had a crease on her forehead, she looks kind of distressed, but Sana found herself smiling at the sight.

“Aren’t you a little late now?” Sana asked as she walked into the kitchen. She doesn’t know why she’s talking to Tzuyu today. She often skips small talks with Tzuyu because she felt that the girl isn’t interested with that at all; so, why? was it the fact that she wasn’t in a good mood and Tzuyu seems to be in a sour mood as well? Or was it because regardless of her state, Tzuyu’s cute face made her smile? Sana found herself finding an answer again.

Tzuyu widened her eyes at Sana. How cute.

Sana was looking fondly at Tzuyu whilst making small conversations with her, which wasn’t that much; but she was fine with that.

Sana didn’t know what came to her but when she saw how adorable Tzuyu was when she attempted a wave, she couldn’t help it— “Wait!” she said in haste.

Tzuyu turned back with a puzzled eye. “Uh… why?” Sana could ask the same, with all the unanswered questions inside her head, it was one of them. She also doesn’t know why she didn’t want Tzuyu to leave. Perhaps I feel alone, she thought.

“Let’s ditch school, Tzuyu.”

Tzuyu was dazed. She didn’t know how to react. Tzuyu was muted for a while, not knowing what words to utter—she was brought back to reality when Sana spoke again, “I mean… it’s fine if you don’t want to,” Sana smiled but the look in her eyes says the otherwise.

Sana had a beautiful, sultry eyes, one of the most beautiful Tzuyu has ever seen. It twinkled brighter than any stars Tzuyu could find, it was another constellation of their own. The gleam in them was bright and in sync with the coffee-colored setting inside it – it was so deep and mesmerizing, Tzuyu wonders how it would feel to get lost in them, if she wasn’t already drowning.

“No… okay. I’ll, uhm, be with you.” Tzuyu felt like she’d choke—she was sure she was stuttering.

Sana smiled brightly, “Okay! I’ll just wash up and I’ll be back,”

Tzuyu took a deep breath when Sana left and crashed her body on the couch once more. Granted, she didn’t want to go to her class today and something bad had happened to her, but finals are coming up and it would be hard for her to catch up.

But Tzuyu knows, she’d say yes to whatever Sana would say when she looked into her eyes. It already happened before… and it happened again.

Tzuy