Chapter 16: Southbound
The day she left felt heavier than I expected.
Not dramatic.101Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvzO7hT8rOW
Not cinematic.
Just heavy.
She sent me a photo from the airport.
One suitcase.101Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcDtiacatDP
One backpack.101Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXjFolkJy8r
Eyes that looked braver than she probably felt.
“Boarding soon,” she typed.
Davao.
Further south.101Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLun1lmVqj7
Further from Luzon.101Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7nOr3fLYYz
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.101Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwpl791D8yr
Printing.101Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzIw3I7UVy7
Revisions.101Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYwvhSsyaMt
Transportation.101Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFqqvYhrO2o
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.101Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqxjZwiABYh
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.101Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQvolC6wKbN
Rearranging her old room.101Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡw90RGAC6fm
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.101Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnoYxKheCZ2
Transcripts.101Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAa960aXSOD
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.101Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQdohwk5JjJ
Consultations to attend.101Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKtuKr80Kub
Expenses appearing out of nowhere.
Some nights, I felt the weight of both.
The pressure to finish.101Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6OPjuCLGr5
The fear of not being enough.101Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYzErZUN9Wr
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.101Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡU7yGUpLL7d
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.101Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTdMwdqv9Qe
Afternoon errands.101Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXbMqcwPypp
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.101Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVoQDmifHFA
Still sharing random thoughts.101Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡeyZvC37oVf
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.101Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡX2MHY3Tqt5
I progressed slowly with my thesis.101Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2WM6u7Owvi
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.101Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡemUk1HUKKP
Airports.101Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2xTtMqY9MY
Financial stress.101Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjdwixf642l
Cities change.
There were still small arguments.101Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡc3L1mbveRI
Still moments of insecurity.101Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKiSAaazwii
Still nights when I missed her more than I could explain.
But there were also kalimba songs.101Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdKYatEqBvN
Late-night laughter.101Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtfLs12Nfot
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.101Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrjaKRqFhgT
Through effort.101Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5PUIotP4R1
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.
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and then Add to home screen.