Just two friends falling in love, little by little.
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This is a work of fiction. Anything written here is born purely out of the author's imagination. This work uses English for narration and Tagalog for dialogue and may contain mature scenes.
She looked so focused doing that. Writing her own name. There was something childlike about it, like how little children color their drawings — with an extreme carefulness, so as not to go beyond the lines. She even drew a heart beside her name, too.
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When she finished, Leni straightened up and patted Risa's hand, meeting Risa's gaze with a winning smile, her eyes curving the way they did.
"O baka gusto mo sa leeg?"
Risa smacked Leni's arm with the paper fan with a laugh. "Sira."
"Biro lang."
Risa had gone through many campaigns, had signed things herself and had seen candidates sign many things, but never people, and, above all, never her — not that she would ever let anyone do that to begin with.
But there was a first for everything. She couldn't believe she just let Leni do that.
Leni lang talaga.
"Risa lang din."
...?
Leni handed the marker to Risa. "Dali. Ako rin. Please?"
Risa accepted the marker, a little bewildered at first, but then mentally shrugged. It was a harmless thing, what they were doing. So maybe they were feeling playful. Good mood si Veep, she recalled someone saying earlier. She had no plans of spoiling that.
Leni stretched her right arm towards Risa, offering her own wrist. "'Risa.' Lagay mo."
Risa held Leni's forearm with her left hand and bent down, gently stretching the skin first before pointing the tip of the marker onto it. She wrote her own name, taking her time, not wanting to mess it up.
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When she finished, she looked up to find Leni looking at her strangely, but it was immediately replaced by a softer expression when Risa gave her her own smile, her eyes almost disappearing the way they did.
Leni raised her newly signed wrist up, a cursive Risa right beside her face, as if showing it off to Risa.
Risa laughed. Oh, if only she could take a picture of that.
She tilted her head, pretending to appraise what she was seeing, and nodded in approval. "Bagay."
"Ako lang meron nito."
Hearing the unabashed joy in Leni's voice, and seeing it in her eyes, as if getting Risa's name written on her skin was a collector's item, Risa couldn't deny feeling more than a little special, even though there was a chance that Leni could just be fooling around with her.
She could be, but she'd take it, anyway.
Of course, Leni didn't need to know that.
"Ewan ko sa'yo," Risa said as nonchalantly as she could with a dismissive chuckle, hoping that it didn't show.
She remembered that they weren't alone, and she was curious if people were looking at them, but not curious enough for her to turn around and look. Maybe, she was better off not knowing.
She wondered if Leni minded, having started all this. Would she feel embarrassed?
"How was the teachers' event, by the way?" Risa asked, breaking the moment first.
"Okay naman. Nakakatuwa nga eh. May nagbigay sa'kin ng isang kahon ng Berocca."
They both shared a laugh at that.
"Sasama ka ba sa next rally?"
"Hindi na. Kailangan ko nang dumiretso sa grand rally if I want to make it on time."
"Sige..." Leni nodded quietly, looking down for a second before looking up again. "See you later na lang?"
Risa smiled and nodded back. "Later na lang." She placed her hand on Leni's elbow, squeezing it once before pulling away.
Leni started walking away then, followed by her entourage of guards, looking back only once to wave goodbye at Risa, Risa's name looking like a tiny tattoo on her wrist from afar. Risa waved back with her unmarked hand, Leni's name a secret on her wrist by her hip.
