Chapter 16: Southbound
The day she left felt heavier than I expected.
Not dramatic.81Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡF1IofbFtGm
Not cinematic.
Just heavy.
She sent me a photo from the airport.
One suitcase.81Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡy3SJ1hxkco
One backpack.81Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpJlipi5m9r
Eyes that looked braver than she probably felt.
“Boarding soon,” she typed.
Davao.
Further south.81Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhRCgsoypK6
Further from Luzon.81Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ05aLCAFVkv
Further from everything familiar.
Further from me.
I tried to keep my voice steady when we called before takeoff.
“You’re going even farther now,” I said, half-joking.
But it wasn’t really a joke.
She smiled softly. “It’s still just distance.”
“It’ll be harder to visit you.”
She tilted her head. “Are you planning to? ”
One day, I wanted to say.
But my reality felt different.
Thesis expenses were piling up.81Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTHhWQrFoNa
Printing.81Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6LNQpPCgsd
Revisions.81Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgQ5FmeVmxo
Transportation.81Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZNs3uUfvIc
Deadlines stacking on top of each other.
Life wasn’t just emotional.
It was financial.
And I was scared.
Not of loving her.
But of not being able to keep up with everything.
“I’m afraid,” I admitted quietly.
She didn’t laugh.81Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmLrxzwV2dw
She didn’t brush it off.
“Why?”
“My thesis. The expenses. And now you’re even farther away.”
For the first time in weeks, she was the steady one.
“We’re not going to stop just because it’s farther,” she said gently. “Love isn’t measured in kilometers.”
She always had a way of making things sound simple.
As if love wasn’t as complicated as my overthinking.
When her plane took off, I watched the little airplane icon move across the tracking screen like it carried something fragile.
It did.
It carried her.
And a new chapter.
Her first call from Davao came hours later.
“I’m here,” she said.
I could hear the difference immediately.
The air sounded quieter somehow.
Less rushed.
Her grandmother’s voice echoed faintly in the background.
“How are you? ” I asked.
“Okay,” she said. Then softer, “It feels… different. But good.”
The first few days were all about adjusting.
Unpacking.81Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRUxHODUjWI
Rearranging her old room.81Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡu4uWj6mlVe
Seeing childhood things still untouched.
“She really didn’t change anything,” she said one night, running her fingers over an old shelf. “It’s like she was waiting for me.”
There was comfort in that.
Davao didn’t feel like an escape.
It felt like shelter.
She started looking for schools almost immediately.
Requirements.81Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcFqZlVQRBU
Transcripts.81Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡm4ZtA8Omop
Entrance processes.
Life didn’t pause for grief.
It simply redirected.
I watched her move through it with quiet determination.
Stronger than she realized.
Meanwhile, I was buried in my thesis.
Chapters to revise.81Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkW8K3CtoME
Consultations to attend.81Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHuyArgOxBB
Expenses appearing out of nowhere.
Some nights, I felt the weight of both.
The pressure to finish.81Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4BibqQnRa5
The fear of not being enough.81Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMoWzSMyPFL
The reality was that she was now even farther south while I was stuck between deadlines and doubt.
There were small arguments.
Mostly about time.
“You’re busy again,” she would say.
“I have a consultation,” I’d reply, a little defensive.
“And what about me? ”
“You know you’re important.”
“I know. But sometimes it feels like I come second to your thesis.”
And maybe sometimes she did.
Not by choice.
But by necessity.
We learned something during those small arguments.
Love doesn’t remove stress.
It just teaches you how to navigate it together.
There were nights when we both apologized at the same time.
“Sorry.”
“Sorry too.”
And we’d laugh at how silly pride felt compared to losing each other.
When she finally found a school she liked, she called me immediately.
“I think this is the one.”
Her eyes were brighter.
Hope had returned in a quieter form.
Not the fragile hospital kind.81Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnCGcSsFi0z
Not the desperate prayer kind.
But the rebuilding kind.
“I’m proud of you,” I told her.
And I meant it.
Because she didn’t just move cities.
She rebuilt her life in one.
Days in Davao slowly found a rhythm.
Morning routines with her grandmother.81Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBDYvqQhPLS
Afternoon errands.81Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡW2QLutKg2L
Evening calls with me.
Sometimes she would show me the sunset outside her window.
Davao sunsets felt wider.
Calmer.
And I would sit in my small corner in Luzon, thesis drafts scattered around me, listening to her talk about jeepney routes and new classmates she’d met.
We were still us.
Still laughing.81Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpedpM4ciuJ
Still sharing random thoughts.81Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuvhJVWcGe2
Still arguing about small things like who ended the call first.
Distance didn’t erase that.
If anything, it made us more intentional.
“You’re farther away now,” I said one night again, softer this time.
“But I’m still here,” she replied.
And she was right.
Distance changed geography.
Not existence.
Life kept moving.
She adjusted.81Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡisMATqaySr
I progressed slowly with my thesis.81Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXaPlN8CYyu
Expenses got managed one payment at a time.
It wasn’t glamorous.
It wasn’t easy.
But it was real.
And somehow
We were still happy.
Not the carefree kind.
But the earned kind.
The kind that survives funerals.81Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwxEBQ3fcrn
Airports.81Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTuV5ZjbD3b
Financial stress.81Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0welq7jhFi
Cities change.
There were still small arguments.81Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsFgf5DEzK1
Still moments of insecurity.81Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmlv0UKZzrI
Still nights when I missed her more than I could explain.
But there were also kalimba songs.81Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4FFwvhoZpq
Late-night laughter.81Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡICLz7j3KiT
Careful whispers about the future.
Davao became part of our story.
Not as distant.
But as proof.
Proof that love can stretch without breaking.
Proof that even when life pulls you south and responsibilities hold you north
You can still meet each other in the middle.
Through screens.81Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡi0NNHkGaAR
Through effort.81Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzRk6zXeBvC
Through choosing each other again and again.
And as long as she kept saying,
“I’m here."
I believed that no matter how far the map stretched
We still were too.
ns216.73.217.39da2
and then Add to home screen.