Chapter 36 – Apart, Not Alone
The first morning without Sheik felt strange.
Andrea woke up to silence. No buzzing phone with his sleepy voice note. No half-hearted good morning memes. Just Mochi snoring at the foot of her bed, blissfully unaware that something had changed.
She reached for her phone out of habit. Nothing yet.
He's probably at training, she told herself.
Across the city, Sheik was already on the field. Manila felt bigger than he expected. Louder. Faster. Everyone was in a rush — especially on campus. His dorm room was small and plain, and his teammates were friendly enough, but it all still felt… temporary. Like a life waiting to be filled in.
Still, he threw himself into training. Sprint drills. Ball control. Scrimmage after scrimmage. The coaches liked him. One even pulled him aside after practice to say, "You've got a good head. Don't lose it."
But by the end of the day, all he really wanted was to talk to Andrea.
Back in her apartment, Andrea stared at a half-finished sketch. Her professor had complimented her technique earlier, but it hadn't landed. Her mind was somewhere else. She wanted to ask Sheik how his drills went. If he made any new friends. If he missed her yet.
Then, finally, a message.
Sheik: "First day: sweaty, loud, and confusing. But I didn't fall. So that's a win, right?"
Andrea smiled. Then replied:
Andrea: "Not falling is definitely a win. Also, Mochi chewed through another sock. So some things haven't changed."
That night, they video-called in the quiet of their separate rooms. No filters. Just tired faces and honest words.
"Today was weird," Andrea said, pulling her blanket up to her chin.
"I kept looking for you on the sidelines," Sheik admitted.
They didn't need to pretend. The distance was hard. It hurt, even.
But they laughed, too — about Sheik's roommate snoring like a freight train, about Andrea accidentally showing up to class with paint on her nose.
"I miss you," she said before they hung up.
"I miss you more," he said, then paused. "But this… us… we're still good, right?"
"We're still us," she said, smiling softly.
And that was enough.
The days that followed weren't perfect. Sometimes one of them would be too tired to talk. Sometimes the time zones made them miss each other completely. But they learned to leave voice notes. To send photos. To write things down in that little notebook Andrea gave him.
They learned that love didn't fade just because the other person wasn't next to you.
It simply stretched.
And if you were brave enough — if you believed in it enough — it would hold.