“WHAT? You wanted to look for a roommate?” Ismael asked when he treated her to lunch in a restaurant nearby. “Why so sudden? I thought you wanted to be alone for a while?”
Sarah yawned before she scooped on her chicken salad. “I changed my mind,” she said casually. “I’m jobless now, and I don’t have enough money to pay for my rent, so the only solution that came in my mind is to have a roommate that could share the bills with me.”
Ismael narrowed his eyes at her. “You told me last time that you have paid the three months for your rent. I think it is just enough for you to find a new job before you have to pay the rent again.”
“My savings are on the verge of being empty. If they’re just having their own lives, they’re probably complaining because it’s been a month since I deposited to them,” she said and heaved a sigh. “I’m starting to lose hope that the hospital would still accept me. I have to find a new job before my savings bid goodbye.”
Ismael looked cynical in her decision. He leaned on his seat and crossed his arms on his chest. “Why don’t you move into my house?”
Sarah choked on the food. She looked at Ismael and glared at him. “Why would I move in your house?”
The man arched his brow at him. “Because we’re friends?”
“Friends that are opposite sex don’t live together,” she said and suddenly paused. She doesn’t know if what she said was right because Jino, who was still a stranger to her, will move into her house as soon as her landlady says yes. “Well, if they claimed that they’re friends, they shouldn’t live together in the same house. That’s not right.”
“And why?” Ismael asked. He was looking at her intensely, and she was starting to get uncomfortable with the way he looked.
Sarah thought of reasons that she could use to justify what she said. “Ah… Because something might happen that could destroy their friendship.”
“Like what?”
“Like… Starting to feel something towards the other?” she asked awkwardly. “Of course, they’re boy and girl. Boys are attracted to girls and vice versa. They might fall for each other and lose their friendship!”
“Is it bad?” Ismael asked, then grinned at her. “If the two persons fall in love with each other, then it’s a happy ending for both of them. It’s a happy ending for us.”
Sarah shook her head. “But I don’t wanna fall for you,” she said without even having second thoughts.
Ismael paused. The smile on his face slowly vanished. “Why? You don’t like me?”
“I like you,” Sarah said quickly. “I love you so much that I wanted to keep you forever,” she explained and looked straight into his eyes. “If we choose relationship over friendship, we might lose them both. Because if we hurt each other while in a relationship, we might part ways and will never come back as friends.”
“What if it won’t happen?” Ismael insisted.
Sarah heaved a sigh. “Ismael, I value our friendship. And I don’t want to destroy it just because of having temporary feelings.”
Ismael smirked. “Temporary…” She scooped on his chicken salad and put it in his mouth. “So when will you start to accept a roommate? It should be a girl, I won’t allow you to have a male roommate.”
Sarah swallowed hard on what he said about the gender of her roommate. “I already found a roommate, and he’ll move in later this day.”
“Really? Have you checked her background?”
Sarah nodded. She hated to lie to Ismael, but she didn’t have a choice. “He’s a student—”
“Wait for a second, did you just say ‘he’?” Ismael’s brows furrowed. He looked at her as if she’d done a crime. “You accepted a male roommate?”
Sarah pressed her lips together. “Well… he’s a gay. He’s not attracted to women—”
“Jesus, Sarah! He’s still a man!” Ismael caught his head and glared at her. “I can’t believe you actually made this decision, Sarah.”
_____________
“WHY are you packing your things? You’ll go back to China?” Jino’s landlady asked him when she saw him busy on putting his clothes in the luggage bag. “I thought you planned to stay here for three days?"
Jino looked at the kind landlady. “A friend asked me to move into her house tonight,” he said and took something from his bag. “Use this so you’ll ditch bad luck everywhere you go.”
The middle-aged woman’s eyes widened in surprise. “Are you sure you’re giving me this? I thought you were selling these charmed bracelets for three hundred fifty pesos?”
“I have a two-hundred peso balance in my deposit yesterday, right?” he asked and laughed. “That will be the payment.”
The woman slapped his shoulders jokingly. “So where will you move in? Is that a woman? You should be careful with anyone that you meet here in Manila. Foreigners like you are prone to scammers. They’re just good to you in the beginning, but when they have finally earned your trust, their evil plans on you will start.”
A smile formed on Jino’s lips. “But there’s still people that have a good heart for others, just like you, Mrs. Aguilar.”
Jino didn’t expect that in the short period of time that he was here in the old lady’s transient bed, he’d developed a motherly figure towards her. Mr. Aguilar must be nosy sometimes, but she always made sure that her tenants were eating on time by distributing sandwiches to them every meal hour of the day. According to her, all her tenants are working students, and she knew that most of them forgot to eat on time because of their hectic schedules. So she decided to help them by doing simple things.
“Well then, if that’s what you really want. But don’t hesitate to come back here if you start to feel odd towards your new friend, okay?” The old lady gave him a warm hug of goodbye. “It was my first time to have a tenant that looked like a K-pop idol, but just for a short time.” She shook her head. “I won’t be surprised if the girl's tenants downstairs start to leave if they notice that you’re not here anymore.”
Jino laughed. “I’ll visit you often to check your charm status,” he said and waved goodbye at her.
The boarding house where Jino stayed is just a few blocks away from Sarah’s apartment. Since Sarah closed the deal to him as her shaman, Jino found the nearest boarding house to her home so that if she called him, she’d be just a couple of minutes away. , Jino also expected that Sarah would ask him to move into her house.
Jino smiled when he remembered that their lips touched for seconds, and the woman didn’t notice it because she was too occupied with the strange things that happened inside her house. Jino kissed her on purpose because he wanted to replace the bad thoughts in her mind, but it didn’t take effect.
Sarah’s presence of mind is critically weak. That explained the bad things that happened to her in the past few weeks. She can be easily distracted by certain bad vibes, just like on the day that he saw her at the seaside.
And, since that day, Jino has decided to be with her and help her change her life.
***