Three weeks had passed since Andre walked out into the rain, but for Rose, it felt like a lifetime. The small apartment they'd shared parts of for nearly a year now felt hollow – his coffee mug still sat on the shelf above the sink, his worn-out basketball jersey hung in the closet, and the faint scent of his cologne still lingered on the couch cushions.
She'd tried calling him a dozen times in the first few days, but each call went straight to voicemail. Text messages went unanswered, and when she'd gone to his small rented room near the university, his landlord had told her he'd moved out without leaving a forwarding address.
"Rose, honey, you can't keep doing this to yourself." Her mother, Elena, set a warm bowl of arroz caldo on the kitchen table – Rose's favorite comfort food, though she'd barely touched anything since Andre left. "You need to eat something."
"I just keep thinking… what if he's right?" Rose whispered, staring at the steam rising from the bowl. "What if I really am safer without him?"
"Nonsense." Her mother sat beside her, reaching for her hand. "That car crash wasn't his fault – the police said the other driver was three times over the limit. And that investment scam? Half the neighborhood got tricked by those people. As for the river… well, accidents happen to everyone, not just because someone's around."
Rose nodded, but she couldn't shake the image of Andre's face that night – full of guilt and fear. She'd spent hours replaying their conversation in her head, trying to find something she could have said differently, something that would have made him stay.
Across town, in a cramped room above a small carinderia near the public market, Andre stared at his phone screen. He'd saved every single one of Rose's messages, reading them over and over again when the loneliness became too much to bear.
"Please come back. We can figure this out together."
"I saw that hot chocolate you like at the store today… I bought two."
"I love you, Andre. Nothing will ever change that."
He'd taken a job at a construction site on the outskirts of Cabanatuan to keep himself busy, working long hours under the harsh sun until his muscles ached and he could barely keep his eyes open. It was better than thinking about what he'd left behind.
"Hey, Andre!" Mang Berting, the site foreman, clapped him on the shoulder as they packed up for the day. "You've been working like a man with something to run from. Everything okay?"
Andre forced a smile. "Yeah, just trying to save up some money. Plan to go back to school maybe."
Mang Berting looked at him closely, then nodded slowly. "Money's important, son, but don't let it take away the things that matter more. I learned that the hard way."
That evening, as Andre washed up in the tiny bathroom, he noticed a crumpled photo tucked behind the mirror – a picture of him and Rose taken at the city park last Christmas, laughing as they held up a bibingka they'd made together. He'd forgotten he'd put it there.
His resolve, which had felt so strong that rainy night, began to crack. He'd thought leaving would keep Rose safe, but what if he was only making things worse? What if she was hurting as much as he was?
Back at her apartment, Rose had finally decided to take action. She'd spent the day going through old boxes, looking for something – anything – that might help her find Andre. As she pulled out a stack of their photos from a shoebox under her bed, a small piece of paper fell out. It was a receipt from a repair shop in Gapan City – the place where Andre had taken his motorcycle to be fixed months ago.
She grabbed her bag without a second thought, heading out into the cool evening air. Her mother called after her, but she didn't stop. She had to find him. She had to make him understand that love meant facing the bad times together, not running away from them.
As she drove toward Gapan, the stars began to appear in the dark sky above Central Luzon – the same stars she and Andre used to watch from the roof of her apartment, dreaming about their future. She just hoped it wasn't too late to make those dreams come true.