“Yana, let’s go home.” I gently rubbed her shoulder to wake her up. She didn’t stir so I moved closer for her to hear me, our faces almost touching.
It reminded me of that day when we first went home together. It was the first time we got to talk longer too. I looked at her face, scanning every inch of it: from her eyebrows, to her lashes, to the bridge of her nose, to her cheeks, to her lips… I don’t know why but I had a feeling of wanting to touch them.
But of course I didn’t… I couldn’t. She was sleeping and my hands were dirty and I could hear footsteps approaching.
Thankfully, Yana woke up just in time before one of the guys proceeded to carry her (as if it was necessary). She was surprised to see our work finished and the area cleaned up which made me happy, of course.
I got our bags from the corner while some of the members talked to Yana. Somehow, I felt something was off with my bag’s zipper but I didn’t pay much attention to it. Finally, Yana was clear and we called it a day.
We were walking on the campus grounds and I could see she was content, although still sleepy. I told her to sleep early that night.
“Those guys are pretty generous to let me off, don’t you think?” Yana said, stifling a yawn.
I was about to respond that maybe they had a crush on her but I was sure Yana wouldn’t like to hear she was given special treatment just because of that. She was too proud and stubborn, after all.
“You’ve done more than expected of you, you know. And they’re almost finished with the booth anyway. Let’s leave the finishing touches to the experts,” I said, convincingly.
Somehow I couldn’t tell Yana that I was the one who asked the club members to let her off the hook for the rest of the prep week. I told them she wasn’t feeling well lately and she’d already finished her tasks for the day, anyway.
Of course, it was quite easy to get sympathy from most of the guys when it comes to the campus crush.
“Here, something to commemorate the day for a job well done,” I said, holding out the handkerchief I had used earlier. I dabbed it up a little so it would look like more of a painting than mere smudges.
Yana took it and spread out the cloth in the air. “Wow, it’s beautiful. I love butterflies.” She then looked at me and smiled. “Thank you, Rin. For making this, and for helping me today.”
“You’re welcome. Make sure to sleep early, okay?”
We arrived at the waiting shed and Yana got a ride first. I was next to board a jeep and once settled inside, I opened my bag to get my coin purse when I spotted something inserted in my textbook. I pulled it out and was surprised to see a handmade bookmark with a drawing of a spider web and an inscription below it.
In a semi-cursive font, it says:
Little by little
The spider pulls a thread
Round and round it goes
Not knowing how big
It gets in the end.
I was dumbstruck after reading it.
The only person I could think who could have done this was Yana, of course. I tried to recall every circumstance that day and on how she could’ve pulled it off without me knowing. But then again, I couldn’t be so sure; the handwriting was different, and it wasn’t Yana’s style to do poems, as far as I know.
Maybe she intended it to surprise me? In any case I decided to keep the bookmark and let her bring up the subject first. I bet it would be a fun and interesting topic.
But what struck me the most was the message.
What could it possibly mean?