Dalumat

XII. Rain, Speak for Me

If there was anyone to thank, it should have been Risa. If Leni's mood improved, it was all thanks to her.

They didn't come back in together. They hadn't talked to each other since they left the van. Leni arrived inside first. Risa and Sonny were having a conversation somewhere behind her; she'd lost track of them.

It wasn't that she was running away. She really wasn't. It was just that... she was starting to sweat a lot. They had turned the air conditioning on in the van, that much she was sure of. But she could feel the moisture on her forehead, on the back of her neck, on her chest, against the shirt on her back, and her face still felt hot, too.

She hoped she wasn't sweating when Risa was touching her. That would have been embarrassing.

She badly needed to change her shirt, at least. She definitely needed to do that before their next event. She still had three sorties in her itinerary before the day formally ended for her. Sticky and sweaty were the last thing she wanted to be, especially if she was going to see Risa again.

Risa...

She still couldn't fully wrap her head around what happened.

What was that?

-

Did I overstep ba?

Ever since Risa had gone back to her table (Chel and Alex asked about where she was; she gave a vague non-answer, and Sonny was kind enough not to speak for her), she never looked at Leni again, even though all she had to do was turn.

But she could still feel her, as she always did. She wasn't looking, she never was, but she could feel when Leni was standing, she could feel when Leni was sitting, she could feel when Leni was having a conversation with someone, even though she couldn't make out the words.

It was weird, this building hyperawareness of her, this wanting to know where Leni was at every moment — or was it an anxiety? — this wanting to know how distant or how close they may be from meeting each other's eyes, close enough that they may have to talk to each other again, or even touch each other.

Risa could feel when Leni left, too. And in turn, Risa felt in her a small disappointment, because in another time, Leni would have asked her to walk out together, or at least, Risa liked to think so.

She only looked at Leni again when she was walking away. And just like Risa, Leni didn't turn at all.

She wasn't unhappy. Not at all. In fact, she felt the opposite, but she was still reeling from what happened in the van. It had left her in a curious state of happiness and excitement, but also of confusion and uncertainty, that she liked it all just a little bit less.

Tama na, Risa decided. Last na iyon.

-

The nap was magic.

She really was in a much better mood after she'd had it. She had changed her shirt, too. It almost felt like a completely new day, even though the day was already half-over.

After lunch, their next stop was a wet market in one of the smaller cities in the province. The senatorial candidates who were with her at lunch came along, too. The venue was small and a closed one, but since it was a bustling market, it was filled with people to the brim. Even passers-by came along to watch.

Unlike their other events, there were no chairs on the stage. They all awkwardly huddled together in the two corners of the stage when it wasn't their turn to talk. Leni stood with Kiko and their aides in the right corner, while Risa was on the other side.