A quiet, unpaved road greeted his eyes. This was the path leading to Sitio Tanglaw, their home. Just like before, nothing had changed in their place. Gael roughly wiped his sweaty forehead. 
"Why is it always like this? Will there ever be any change here? It's been almost seven years since I left," he muttered to himself, feeling the frustration build up. He was trying his luck waiting for a habal-habal driver to take him to Sitio Tanglaw, but he had been standing there for twenty minutes, and with each passing second, his annoyance grew.
"Our house isn't in the town center or near the barangay," he grumbled. The distance was almost fifteen kilometers from Barangay Roxas to Sitio Tanglaw, and the thought of walking under the scorching sun annoyed him even more. He shook his head, already feeling the heat intensify.
"Just one day without this intense heat, is that too much to ask?" Gael sighed, looking around for any sign of a driver. 
Nevertheless, he didn’t have any choice left. "If I don't leave now, I'll be stuck here until nightfall," he said, knowing he couldn't wait any longer. Taking a deep breath, he prepared himself for the long walk ahead. "That's it, Gael. You really have to start walking now," he added, continuing to talk to himself.
He had hoped for change in their place, but somehow, he was disappointed. The place he knew seven years ago was the same place that met his eyes now. "It's frustrating, like nothing has changed," he murmured to himself. The surroundings were incredibly quiet, but the tree branches were drying out due to the intense heat. He breathed deeply and began walking.
Before he left Manila, his friends told him to call them when he arrived in the province. He forgot to inform them that there was no signal in his place. "If only they knew there's no signal here," he thought. His friends didn’t want him to go home, but he assured them that it wouldn’t take long since it was just a short vacation. Besides, he had a job waiting for him, so he couldn't stay long in Sitio Tanglaw. He only had thirty days of vacation leave. And since he left on July 1, 2023, he needed to return to Manila within the next twenty-eight days.
He had a lot on his mind. But all those thoughts disappeared when Matteo suddenly crossed his mind. He was excited to meet him again. He shook his head, trying to focus on his anticipation of meeting his best friend, with whom he had lost contact for seven years. "Are we still best friends, Matteo?" he wondered while walking with his head down, burdened by the weight of his bag filled with gifts and his belongings.
"What if Matteo has already changed? Maybe Matteo thinks I've forgotten about him," he thought, recalling how he had tried to find Matteo's social media accounts but found nothing under the name Matteo Sarmiento. "How about him? Did he try to find me?" A tightness gripped his chest as a part of his mind tried to convince him that he might no longer matter to Matteo.
One of the amusing memories Gael had from his school days was the recurring assumption among his classmates that he was gay. This misconception stemmed from his close bond with his best friend, Matteo. Gael often wondered why people were quick to assume that a strong friendship between two guys meant one of them had to be gay. 
It was funny to think back on how, whenever he and Matteo were seen together, they were frequently asked, "Are you two boyfriends?" The question never failed to make them laugh. They would exchange a knowing look and then burst into laughter, finding humor in the absurdity of the assumption.
Seven years had flown by, and Gael couldn't help but ponder what had become of Matteo since their college days. Had he graduated, found a job, and possibly tied the knot? Gael's imaginative reasoning led him to speculate that maybe Matteo's absence from social media was due to his formidable, dragon-like wife who kept a tight leash on his online presence. The absurdity of the thought amused Gael to no end—imagining poor Matteo in such a predicament was both hilarious and concerning.
But then again, Gael couldn't ignore the strange coincidence that there seemed to be no trace of Matteo whatsoever on any social platform. Was it because Matteo had indeed settled down, or was it simply because Sitio Tanglaw, despite its name meaning "light" in English, ironically had no signal at all? 
Gael chuckled to himself, finding the whole situation oddly iconic. After all, how could someone disappear from social media in this day and age unless they were either living off the grid or under the watchful eye of a mythical spouse?
His thoughts and steps halted when he heard the crack of twigs behind him. Calmly, he turned to see where the sound of the breaking dry branch came from, but he saw nothing. Gael shrugged. The area was full of trees, so he wasn’t surprised to feel a sudden chill. "Weird, why did it suddenly get cold?" he muttered, unsure if it was because he hadn’t felt such cold in seven years or if it was something else entirely. His skin seemed to sense something unusual around him, causing the hairs on the back of his neck to stand up and his heart to beat faster.