Nora changed. It’s a struggle to undo such feelings but Julia’s message keeps on questioning her decision to pursue a romance, unfortunately.

‘There’s a great place we can go to! After eating Korean, hehe. It’s really close and the alcohol is cheap as well, my friends wanted me to go there but I have you… so wanna go there afterwards?’

She had already disappointed herself but she digs her grave deeper when she agreed to meet Julia’s friends. A grimace displayed on her face, sadness rotting her optimism and all she could do was stare at the feign happiness she radiates in her message.

“Maybe there’s a reason,” she mutters.

Julia was doing her thesis after all. So, there’s a chance her friends wanted to celebrate after sending it to their advisers for revision. The timing was simply coincidental and any other reason was brushed away from what little hope Nora could muster.

She reclines on the backrest of the bench. Drifting away from reality, losing touch with the breeze brushing against her skin and the people occupying the park with her. Time passed easily when she’s in a dissociative state, entertaining the scenario she always dreams of with a girlfriend.

A wife would be nice too.

Giggles, it resonates along with her thoughts and Nora was sent back to the real world. To face the same couple, she had met a while ago. In the same situation they were all in as well. The couple passes by, all lovey-dovey and shit and Nora was suffering even more as she was forced to look at their affections for each other.

Fortunately, her phone vibrates and, without a look, accepts the call.

“Hello?” Nora greets first.

“I should be angry that you didn’t call me.” Oh, it was her mom.

She refrains from groaning but her mom’s disappointed was understandable.

“We chat though,” she argues back.

“Yes, chat but that’s the only thing we do,” her mom replies back, “it’s different when I hear your voice.”

Trying to uplift the conversation, Nora deviates the topic with another, “How are you, mom?”

“Better since I finally got to hear you. I was sure that I was slowly forgetting how you sound like,” her mom answers, not exactly moved on.

“And what do I sound like?” Nora mutters.

“Rough, like you were shouting all night and lost your voice the morning after – so the usual but it’s your voice since the day you were born.”

“I’m sure I was a chain smoker in my past life.” Nora wonders.

“Do it and you’ll end up like your aunt; dead.” Nora gulps, reassuring her mother of her disgust on smoking.

“Anyways, come home after exams or else I’ll chase you down in your campus,” her mom continues with a warning.

“Yes mother,” Nora mutters.

“Good, bring someone home with you,” her mom orders, “your brother is preoccupied with his work and games that I’m sure my wish for a grandchild will wither faster than I am in my grave.”

“Mom!” Nora whines, listening to her mom clicking their tongue and knows that the conversation ends there. So did the call.

She placed her phone back in her bag and stood up from the bench. Fully sunbathed and annoyed, Nora walks away. The words she whispered under her breath were intangible at best but it helps release the troubles out of her system.

Even if it meant getting stared at by a group of first year HRM students passing by.