Chapter 16: Southbound
The day she left felt heavier than I expected.
Not dramatic.103Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡplkBZAy1bt
Not cinematic.
Just heavy.
She sent me a photo from the airport.
One suitcase.103Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡi9sTr1PoN4
One backpack.103Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFCv7em00tB
Eyes that looked braver than she probably felt.
“Boarding soon,” she typed.
Davao.
Further south.103Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3t1vBpZsan
Further from Luzon.103Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMsjs7O49fD
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.103Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPrIZ9Z1GmC
Printing.103Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWgM3VGVjcF
Revisions.103Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ23WlgeTvEE
Transportation.103Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWu2y4kJECx
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.103Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOIQsNaEwsA
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.103Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXFaQ73d4vT
Rearranging her old room.103Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtF52CtPYgX
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.103Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkMtd6xN61Q
Transcripts.103Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡI0AWSTSC5P
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.103Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡErvKxfpKfv
Consultations to attend.103Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ24S9qIR8u0
Expenses appearing out of nowhere.
Some nights, I felt the weight of both.
The pressure to finish.103Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbshhs09OjA
The fear of not being enough.103Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCwEvD1RJUj
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.103Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡt3bf1k8KNa
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.103Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqS4hNoX1gZ
Afternoon errands.103Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsWGYBpPzc1
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.103Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHyKHXO9kbW
Still sharing random thoughts.103Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3L47ZHgJfw
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.103Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCmLq9SeWqN
I progressed slowly with my thesis.103Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4X57ZOt0GX
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.103Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ75uw5CyYUA
Airports.103Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhkZBT7GeoN
Financial stress.103Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcwcLTb5Ts5
Cities change.
There were still small arguments.103Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcnLelBKrZq
Still moments of insecurity.103Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡV6DeGNAsS5
Still nights when I missed her more than I could explain.
But there were also kalimba songs.103Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhPqqVWhfcY
Late-night laughter.103Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5ceRrEGwGy
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.103Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7pjUsFjhiv
Through effort.103Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKeDWCYuTxk
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.
ns216.73.216.38da2
and then Add to home screen.