Chapter Text
Four years ago
Room 314, Dormitory C
August
It started with a suitcase that wouldn't roll properly and a girl who looked one minor inconvenience away from crying.
Moon was already inside the dorm room, unpacking her things in calm, methodical ways. Folded socks. Toothbrush. Pinned polaroids. Everything is well-placed in her designated room.
Then she heard the main door creaked open. Moon immediately come out to the Living Area, and in came Juno Requiza — grumpy, slightly damp from the drizzle, and clearly not used to carrying her own bags.
mukha syang basang chicken little. Lalo na with her big eye glasses
“Oh my god,” the girl muttered. “This bag is cursed.”
Moon looked up, blinked, then grinned. “Hi.”
Juno froze. Then awkwardly bowed her head like she’d just entered a shrine. “Uh—hi po. Sorry.”
Moon laughed softly. “No need for ‘po.’ Hindi naman nagkakalayo ang edad natin.”
Juno stood there, still clutching her cursed suitcase, cheeks starting to flush.
Moon took a few steps forward and gently took the bag from her. “I’m Moon, by the way. Moon Ravien. This must be your first time dorming?”
Juno nodded, a little too fast. “I’m Juno. Requiza. Uh, yes. First time. Ever.”
“Cool,” Moon said, already dragging the suitcase in like it weighed nothing. “Then you’re in luck. I am an excellent roommate-slash-life coach.”
Juno smiled, just barely. She was already starting to look like a kid who had no idea what to do with her hands.
The first few weeks passed like soft static.
Juno was quiet, a little shy, but not rude. She liked reading by the window, underlining random words in her textbooks like kinetic and displacement even when they weren’t important.
Moon, on the other hand, filled the space — with late-night kwento, post-it reminders on the fridge, and random trivia about how you shouldn’t refrigerate tomatoes. She buzzed around like a multitasking worrywart.
But she saw Juno — in her awkward silences, her stiff attempts at folding laundry, the way she’d wait for Moon to start eating before taking her first bite.
So, one Sunday, Moon said casually:
“Hey. Do you want me to teach you how to cook?”
Juno blinked. “Like... from scratch?”
Moon grinned. “From point to scratch, from scratch to wound, and from wound to scar, yes.”
That afternoon, Juno peeled vegetables slowly, sliced tomatoes like they were glass, while Moon squinted at the kangkong bald out of leaves due to the younger's doing.
"Oks lang 'yan, tangkay lang naman gusto ko sa kangkong" she consoles Juno.
Moon stood beside her, pointing and correcting her hands, lightly guiding her grip on the knife as they cut the radish, garlic, and onion.
“‘Wag ka matakot sa sibuyas,” Moon said. “You’re stronger than tears.”
Juno sniffed and occasionally wipes the tears behind her glasses— a continuous sniffing sound that Moon felt somewhere in her ribs.
Later, when all is prepared. Moon left her for a while to tend to her forgotten tasks. Juno knocked once and called for her.
"Ate Moon, pwede mo tikman kung okay na?"
She came with a small bowl of the dish's soup and a few veggies.
Moon takes it. Juno watch in anticipation.
"Hmm. Ang sarappp, I love it"
"Hindi ba sobrang Asim?"
"Hindi, tama lang sya for me"
When they finally sat down to eat, Juno took one spoonful and gasped. “Wait. Ang sarap nga. I didn’t know I could make this, Ate!”
“You didn’t,” Moon teased. “I supervised your greatness.”
Juno beamed, rice on her cheek.
That was the first time she called Moon “Ate.”
The thing is, Moon hadn’t meant to get attached.
Not like this.
She liked helping people. She liked being needed. She liked being the older one. So of course she offered to do Juno’s laundry the first time she messed it up. Of course she gave her painkillers during her first college-period cramp apocalypse. Of course she hugged her after that awful math test.
But somewhere between year one and two, something shifted.
Moon noticed the way Juno chewed her straw when she was stressed. The way she’d leave sticky notes with weird doodles on Moon’s laptop when she left early. The way she’d say, “Ate Moon, tingnan mo, ang ganda ng clouds today,” like Moon was supposed to be the second one to see what she found pretty.
There was nothing explosive about it. No dramatic moment of realization.
Just quiet afternoons.
Just folded laundry that smelled like both of them.
Just a feeling in Moon’s chest that didn’t feel sisterly.
I want to protect her
turned into
I want her to want to stay.
Moon never said anything. Of course not.
How could she? Juno saw her as safe. As home. As 'Ate.'
So she played the part well.
She cooked. She helped. She smiled.
She watched Juno grow up — awkward edges softening, brightness blooming — and pretended she was fine being just a witness to it.
Even now, four years later, they still shared the same space.
Same dorm. Same inside jokes. Same Sunday sinigang.
Same ache.
Present day
Still Room 314
Sunday night
Their dorm was quieter at night. That kind of quiet that didn’t hum with peace, but with things left unsaid.
Moon stirred the leftover sinigang like it was a love letter despite the kitchen looking like it went through storm. Juno sat cross-legged on the floor by the low dining table, hunched over her bowl with the eagerness of a student who hadn’t eaten since 2 p.m. (She hadn’t.)
“I still can’t believe Gal and Sam are dating,” Moon said, grinning as she handed over a new serving of rice. “You saw it coming, right?”
Juno looked up mid-bite, eyes wide like she’d been caught stealing candy.
“I mean, yeah,” she said. “But also no. Sam said she wasn’t into Gal. Like, three months ago. Remember during that org sleepover? She told me she was ‘too lanky to trust’.”
Moon laughed, loud and open, like a hiccup wrapped in sunshine. “Maybe she meant emotionally lanky.”
Juno blinked. “Is that a thing?”
“It is if the shoe fits,” Moon shrugged, settling into the seat across from her. She rested her chin on her palm and watched Juno shovel fried rice into her mouth like it owed her something. “Do you believe in people growing into their feelings?”
Juno squinted. “You mean like fungus?”
Moon snorted. “Sure. Emotional mushrooms.”
Juno grinned, proud of herself for derailing whatever philosophical point Moon was trying to make.
“Honestly,” Juno continued between bites, “good for them. I think I’d be too tired to fall in love.”
“Mm,” Moon hummed. “You say that like someone who has at least five crushes.”
“Dalawa lang, ‘no,” Juno corrected, raising two fingers solemnly like it was a vow. “Promise. And one of them is barely a crush. Like... Just a happy-crush.”
Moon raised an eyebrow. “happy-crush? Anong ibig sabihin n’un? Crush kapag happy ka, pag sad ka, hindi mo na sya crush?”
“Basta,” Juno grinned. “Okay, the first one—si Ally from Chem department. She always smells like vanilla kapag dumadaan siya sa may third floor corridor. Tapos consistent pageant girl. Like, literal Miss Engineering Week last sem.”
Moon rolled her eyes. “Ah, beauty and brains. Gusto mo yata ma-intimidate.”
“Hindi naman,” Juno shrugged. “More like… nakaka-fascinate. She walks like she owns the whole floor, tapos bigla siya mag-say ng ‘Excuse me po’ na sobrang lambing. I don’t get it.”
Moon tilted her head. “And the other?”
“Sera,” Juno said with a soft smile, as if the name itself was a nice memory. “From VisComm org. She’s very… malambing looking. Laging naka-ribbon. Mismatched socks lagi, on purpose. One time may sushi sa isang paa, tapos cassette tape sa kabila.”
Moon raised both brows. “Wow. Gusto mo ng contrast.”
“Oh, and she’s the student recruitment model of the university. Like, ‘yung mga tarpaulin sa gym? That’s her.”
Moon’s spoon paused halfway to her mouth.
“Ah,” she said, too lightly. “So you’re aiming for the pageant queen and the kikay model of the brochure. Ang taas ng standard, Requiza.”
Juno beamed. “You told me to be bold.”
Moon chuckled again, but softer this time. The silence between them stretched out, casual but a little tight around the edges.
Then Juno said it. Like a tossed stone she didn’t know would hit glass.
“Bakit ikaw, Ate Moon... wala akong naririnig na crush or ligaw story mo?”
Moon paused.
“What do you mean?”
“I mean,” Juno frowned, “you’re you. You’re all…” She gestured vaguely. “Cool and nurturing and gorgeous with weird fashion style hehe. But you’ve never—like, ever—talked about someone you're interested in. Ever.”
Moon stared at her for a beat too long.
Juno, oblivious, kept going. “Not even in high school? You didn’t have a boyfriend or girlfriend or like… a heartbreak playlist?”
Moon laughed — too loud, a little choked. “I do have a heartbreak playlist, thank you very much.”
“Oh? For who?”
Moon smiled. “That’s a secret.”
“Come on,” Juno pouted. “I told you about my crush”
“Yeah, and that’s hardly a crush. That’s a sock fetish.”
“Ateee!.”
“Juno.”
They locked eyes. Moon’s gaze softened.
“It’s not that I’ve never liked anyone,” she said carefully. “I just... never liked someone who could like me back. Not in the way I wanted.”
Juno tilted her head. “Anong ibig mong sabihin?”
Moon looked at her for a long, slow moment — the kind that wrapped itself around your lungs. Then she smiled, the way people smile when they decide to keep something just for themselves.
“Ibig sabihin, magaling ako magtago.”
Juno rolled her eyes, groaning. “Ugh. Lame. Masyado ka naman pa-mysterious, ate.” she added, "Kung ganiyan ang situation noon, what about now?..you haven't seen someone you like yet?"
Pause. Moon looked Juno straight in the eyes and finally answers, "I'm looking at one right now"
Pause again.
Juno tilt her head in confusion.
"Wrong grammar ata, ate. 'I'm looking for one right now' ba ang ibig mong sabihin"
Moon just gave her a shy smile. And Juno seemed satisfied with it. Not overanalyzing the potential meaning behind the older's words.
She then stood, collected their empty bowls, and turned toward the sink. She let the sound of running water fill the space. Her back to Juno. Her heart lodged somewhere behind her ribs like a knot.
She could feel Juno’s eyes on her, confused but not questioning. Still safe in her sister’s shadow.
Still not seeing it.