like always, stell's day went by in a haste and before he knew it, the clock strikes 5 and it was already dismissal time.

everyone laughed at his last statement.

kyla stated, earning positive responses from her blockmates.

bryan said, joining in the sentimental moment as well.

stell joked and the students disagreed jokingly as well.

upon hearing justin's name, stell felt his heart ache again.

the whole class went silent. everyone was looking at stell, anticipating his answer. a few of them knew about his relationship with justin but most of the class did not have any idea of the connection that occurred between one of their blockmates and their professor.

stell sighed, putting his hands inside his pockets and clearing his throat before answering the question that was shot to him.

some just nodded their heads and some whispered something to one another.

stell clasped his hands infront of him.

everyone stood up to personally thank stell and soon enough, they all left to go home and enjoy the rest of the night.

stell was about to go home as well when he received a message from paulo.

----

as i made my way towards the gymnasium, i couldn't help but think of ken. ever since justin left, i avoided ken and josh as well because they lied to me too.

of course, they probably knew that justin was leaving with vincent and they did not even tell me anything.

when i entered, all the players were scattered around the court, running around and passing the ball to one another. they're probably doing a mock game trial. fortunately, UST was able to reach up until the finals of this UAAP season so they're still having trainings.

i watched as paulo commanded every single one of the players inside the court, directing them on what they should do.

i chuckled. gan'to pala kasungit si paulo as a coach? no wonder takot sa kanya yung mga players kapag nasa court.

i took the bottled water inside my bag which i bought earlier and carefully approached paulo. i didn't want to surprise him because he might shout at me instead. i sat by the benches near where he stood and waited for them to finish their mock game.

after 20 more minutes of paulo not noticing that i'm already here, the game ended and he gave them some final announcements before dismissing them. while they were having a short meeting, i would catch ken glancing at me. this is the closest that i got to him after three months.

paulo finally said and the players bid him goodbye before proceeding to the shower area to clean themselves.

he turned around and walked towards me but his eyes were fixated on the board that he was holding, probably reviewing what he told to his players.

i called but he didn't look at me.

i tried again but he was still busy looking at his board.

finally, he looked up at me and waved his hand. i threw the bottled water at him which he catched easily.

i teased while walking towards him. when i was in his reach, he threw a punch on my arm.

i said and was about to punch him as well but we heard someone call paulo so we stopped bickering.

it was ken... with josh.

paulo said and all i did was avoid their gaze the whole time.

parang hindi ako makahinga sa presence nitong dalawa.

i looked at josh after he said that and saw that he wasn't even smiling when he spoke. that was so insincere.

i just gave him a nod instead and they walked away.

paulo asked when the other two were gone. i scoffed and started to exit the gymnasium as well with paulo tailing me from behind.

i stopped talking until we reached the parking lot where dusty was. i was about to reach for paulo's extra helmet at the back of his motorcycle but he already took it before I could.

he swatted my hand away when I tried to take it from him. at last, i stopped and just let him put on my helmet for me.

i was looking at him straight in the eyes while he fixes my helmet.

i called.

paulo sighed and gently took both of my hands.

i shrugged and gave him a sad smile.

he gently pulled me and hugged me, tapping my back for comfort.

paulo pulled away from the hug and ruffled my hair before guiding me to sit on his motorcycle so we can finally go home.

that night, i stayed in his condo because the loneliness in my place makes it even harder for me to let go of jah and my love for him.