Beyond His World

5

DRAKE.

It was around 11 p.m when I finally plucked up the courage to go to my neighbor's unit and return his shirt.

Gising pa kaya 'yun? What if bukas ko nalang ibalik? Magagalit ba siya?

"Baka mamaya sungitan nanaman ako nun. Matutulog nalang ako mababadtrip pa 'ko. Eh kung bukas naman, edi bungad naman sa umaga yung kasungitan niya?" I said while debating with myself as I  stood at the front porch.

I tilted my head to the side before taking a deep breath and finally getting out of my unit.

But oh, what a coincidence.

As I was going out of my unit, my neighbor was also on his way out. Our eyes meet for a second, surprising me a little.

"Uhh, aalis ka?" I asked.

He nodded. "Why?"

I approached him and held out his shirt. "Ibabalik ko lang sana 'tong shirt mo. Nalabhan ko na 'yan. Tinupi ko na nang maayos para—"

"Thank you." He said as he took the shirt from me.

Diba ang rude???

"I said thank you." Huh? Nababasa ba niya nasa isip ko? Alam ko namang nag-"thank you" na siya pero by "rude" I mean lagi niyang pinuputol yung—

"I didn't mean to cut you off, by the way. But thank you for returning my shirt."

I smiled and nodded, disregarding the thoughts running in my mind.

"Yeah, no problem. By the way–" I stopped him when he was about to walk away.

He raised his eyebrow at me as I sheepishly grinned.

"Anong pangalan mo? Dalawang araw na tayong nagkikita tapos nakitulog na ako sa bahay mo at nakihiram ng damit but I still don't know your name." My neighbor didn't answer. He just stood there, staring at me.

"I mean, hindi ba magandang magkakilala tayo? We live in the same neighborhood and we'll probably interact often so..." I exhaled. "Mas maganda siguro kung magkakilala tayo?"

I extended my hand, giving him a smile. "I'm Drake, by the way."

He just stared at my hand for a little while before saying, "Simon."

I shyly put my hand down. "Nice to meet you, Simon."

"Saan ka pupunta?" Ang chismoso ko naman tonight.

"Grocery."

"Really? At this hour?"

"Uhm... Y-yes. Mas gusto ko kasing lumalabas kapag gabi." Simon explained and I nodded.

"Hmm, okay. Sige, uwi na 'ko." I was about to turn around when an idea suddenly popped in my mind.

"Wait, Simon– Pwede sumama?" I asked. His eyes widened a bit and confusion was written all over his face.

"Uhm... well, if you—"

"Joke lang." I laughed. "Hehe, joke lang, uuwi na talaga ako. Ingat. Bye!" I waved my hand at him, gave him one last smile, before finally turning around to walk back to my unit.

----

At four in the morning, Drake was awoken by a call from the hospital. A patient was sent in the emergency room. He was shot at his abdomen, near his kidney. The nurses say the doctors in the hospital refuse to treat him because he is a homeless man, and the moment Drake found out about it, he immediately got dressed and stormed out of the penthouse.