She feels his skin next to her, even though layers of clothing separates their bodies..

She sits still, never glancing at him, but she sees him, his profile almost perfect… she sees him at the corner of her tired eyes.. she feels him next to him, not moving…

they sat apart together, they look at one direction but sees different things.

he jerks his hands, and stomps his feet gently but with a roughness that is tender. he moves them as though he has an invisible drum-set in front of him; he moves his head to the tune of his player.. by the beat of his body, he is listening to rock, alternative rock.. he is not afraid to show his enjoyment, but not too careless to look like a fool..

she sees him, and with a smile so small, she spreads the corner of her lips, thus emerge a faint glee, almost a smirk, only its as innocent as he.. he must like his music a lot.

she sees him without looking… his hair, untidy but cool, is tied at the base of his neck.. he almost seemed to be a band player, a rock star. he wears his hood-less jacket like it’s a part of his body; he seems one with it.. his pants are loose, but not baggy.. and on the floor lay a pair of plain chucks full of dirt and stains of today and the days before..

he must be just a kid, a tall kid, she thought.. he’s too young for anything…

his music mellows down, he stops moving his hands and feet… he sat quietly, not making any sound..

on his hands, he holds two things; his very slim mobile phone and his half empty plastic bottle of cold tea..

his mobile phone lights up, he then clicks and presses the keys.. perhaps he is sending a message, or simply reading it.. he moves his body slightly forward as he puts the mobile phone on the right pocket of his worn-out jeans. he then removes the lid of his tea drink.. the smell of apple flavor fills the air, she can almost taste it..

he makes no sound at all except the sound of the lid touching, twisting around the mouth of the bottle..

he continues to listen to his player… but he remains very still… still seemingly oblivious of her existence, as if he’s just sitting alone in his room and no one in the world can see or hear him; it’s almost like he’s meditating.. to the tune of rock music…

then, as she did earlier, he spoke… not to her directly though… he spoke as he gave his fare… she was startled.. his voice… they’re not of very young boys… his voice is bold and big. his voice is that of a man, a young man.. he’s not a kid after all… he’s a young man, maybe her age.. or maybe a year younger or older..

the vehicle moved for the first time.. it’s time for them to go… every turn at every corner makes them seem closer to each other… no word between them is spoken, no glances are exchanged, yet, for the first time, she feels that he feels what she feels…. and he feels that she also feels what he feels…. words will just ruin things for them… he never glanced at her, even once, nor did she turn her gaze at him…. but they see each other… in a way that people who look directly into the eyes of the other cannot feel…

the vehicle stops, it is time for her to go… so long, dear friend, she says on her mind… he went down, before her… then she left the vehicle too.. but then, he walked away from her… it seemed that they got off the same stop, who would’ve guessed this. not her, not him…

and so they walked… he was up front; she, just a couple of steps behind him… now she can look at him, without really looking at him… she sees him walk, his stride not so rough, and not so soft… he walks slower that she… so she had to change her pace…

she sees his hair, his ponytail.. his hair sways with the wind and with his walk.. his bag is small, like a smaller version of a messenger bag… olympus, it says… he might be into photography too, she thinks…

they turned at the corner, they stopped at the same time.. he has a few steps to her right… she was looking at her left, waiting for another ride.. she doesn’t know if he’s looking at her, she doesn’t what to think about it. all she knew was that even if she didn’t look, he’s a few inches to her right… that was enough for her…

she hails a jeepney, she’s the first passenger to get inside… people followed her suit… he still stood there, where she last saw him; she could see her from where she was sitting… then, he walked towards the end of the jeepney, he got in.. he was headed towards the same direction! this is almost funny! Funny in a good way…

she sat nearest the back of the jeepney, he sat 3 seats from her, on the opposite side… she couldn’t look at him now, that would be too obvious… she couldn’t tell if he’s looking at her or not… but she knew that he knew that it was such a coincidence that they are again, on the same vehicle…

the jeepney strode like a chariot through the streets… there were other people in the jeep, but she feels like it’s just the two of them…

he pays, he told the driver where he’ll get off… she’ll get off farther than him…. is this the end or it all, she thought to herself.. then she shrugs off the idea altogether… seize the moment, she thought… she still sees him, without looking him, at the corner of her left eye…

she then, for some reason, suddenly notices someone opposite her… his bag, on his lap… he gives his fare, people helped for it to make it to the driver. both of them have the same stop… then, the jeepney passed by the church… the two of them maked the sign of the cross, at the very same time, with the very same movement: putting their fingers on their chins as their sign of amen.. not all catholics do that, she thought… the jeepney stops, she moved backward so as not to fall off her seat; he did so too, at the very same time… it gave her an awkward yet mysterious feel…

then, the mp3-player-listening, chuck taylor-wearing, long-haired young man, pulled the string to stop. the jeepney went to a hault… he got up from his seat and walked towards the end of the jeepney to get off.. once again, their bodies are closer… she could almost smell his scent…

she’s thinking of NOT looking at his face. don’t ruin the mystery, she tells herself… don’t do it… but she did… as the jeepney drove off, and he walked, she looks at him, this time, an intent stare… she sees his face… the magic was broken… the mystery was gone…

she looks away, asking herself why she broke the spell… oh well, that’s life, she said to herself.. almost aloud that she paused for a while to think whether she did say it out loud or not…

her stop was very near, the jeepney stopped to pick up some passengers, the cross-signing, butt-lifting guy, went down; our stop was a few steps away… she was thinking if she’ll go down too, with him… she thought otherwise…. i’m tired, she told herself… i’ll wait for the jeep to crawl a few more meters before i go down, im not in the mood to walk, she thought..

the jeepney moved a few meters, she pulled the string, now this is my stop, she said to herself…

she got down, walked forward, towards a familiar face, someone who was waiting for her arrival.. the cross-signing butt-lifting guy, on the other hand, moved towards her… as she walked south, he moved east… towards the same point… they were walking closer and closer to each other… their pace normal… then, like it was choreographed, their paths made a perfect T… his left side was inches from her front side that if she stretched out her had even a few degrees forward, or if she increased her pace even just a little, she could have touched him, and he could have touched her…

that was almost funny, she thought to herself…