Once Upon A Sailor

Five

Chapter 5

I DIDN'T HAVE the time to react to both of my internal chaos as I stood in front of Mr. Arceno's table. Sir Brann was standing on my left, and Triton... Oh, God. Triton—Triton was really here!

He was standing on my right. His look on his face was calmer now than when he spotted me outside the president's office. I could've sworn I also copied his reaction, but I immediately masked it off when Sir Bran introduced me to Mr. Arceno, and the president told me that he was begging me to accept the vacancy in their faculty. He told me about the three instructors that they... lost because of the supertyphoon. They were helping to rescue the families that were trapped on the topmost floor of their houses when a massive flood took them. I felt my heart grieve when I heard about what happened to them.

"Why aren't you breathing?" I snapped my head at Sir Brann when he whispered near my ear. I lifted my brows. Was he trying to make a joke? I doubted it. His face was blank. "Breathe. You're suffocating yourself."

"I'm not," I told him, returning my attention to Mr. Arceno. I refused to glance to my right, where I could feel an intense and chilling presence coming from Triton, who was trying to compete against Sir Bran for dominance. "I'm sorry about what happened, sir."

"Their lives weren't wasted. They became heroes to someone who wasn't capable of saving themselves or others," Sir Brann said beside me.

Mr. Arceno nodded his head in agreement. But I could still see in his eyes that deep inside of him, he was grieving for his people. This community was small, after all. Almost everyone knew each other. So it wasn't surprising that their hearts were tangled with one another, even though they weren't blood related.

"Ms. Bonneville—" Mr. Arceno's pleading eyes found mine. "I hope you'll consider our request. Kahit tatlong buwan lang. Habang hindi pa kami nakakahanap ng puwedeng pumalit kay Mrs. Chavez sa posisyon niya."

Mrs. Chavez... She's one of the teachers who sacrificed their lives to save the trapped families. Another pang hit my chest.

"Engineer Delmendo here accepted my request," Mr. Arceno suddenly said, gesturing to Triton beside me. I couldn't help myself from throwing him a swift glance. "He was supposed to be part of the volunteers from the Alpha Suarez Design Group who pledged to help in reconstructing the other buildings at the back, pero mas ginusto niyang magturo sa mga estudyante."

My lips parted an inch while staring at him. That explains why he was here, even though Nathaniel already told me that he wasn't going to be one of the volunteers from ASDG. He chose to volunteer to teach rather than do his actual job.

"I—" I cleared out my throat when the word came out rough before peeling my eyes off of Triton and looking back at Mr. Arceno. "I need to think about it, sir. As much as I want to teach, I don't have any experience doing so."

"Neither do I." My head whipped back to Triton when he spoke. "But I know how to connect with people. And teaching isn't just about technicalities. It needs a heart to be able to reach the ears and minds of the students, so you can pour all the knowledge that you have into their hearts and leave them with the wisdom of being someone who knows things by heart, not only by mind."

Triton's eyes glinted as he looked at me, and a small smile was on his lips. I felt a familiar heat crawling down my spine, and at the same time, a breathtaking ache knocked out the oxygen in my lungs. His words—those were... mine.

I avoided his gaze one last time and excused myself in front of the president. I already gave him the answer that I knew I was able to provide in the meantime. If he needed a concrete one, then I'm sorry. I wasn't yet ready.