I stepped back inside Valerie's house once I had finally calmed down. The air felt cooler against my skin, carrying the faint scent of brewed coffee and something buttery from the kitchen. The house seemed bigger than it had earlier, as if the walls had stretched while I was outside. I took smaller steps on purpose, delaying the moment I would reach the living room. My heart had steadied, but not completely.
My groupmates were already there. I could hear Tita Kim's voice from the laptop, bright and animated.
"And did you actually go to Heidelberg, Tita?" Val asked, leaning forward with interest.
She was holding my pen and notebook. Fresh ink filled the pages in neat, careful lines. New interview notes. They were managing just fine without me.
"Hey, Jane. You feeling better now?" Nigel called out without looking away from his phone. He and Jacob were seated on the floor, holding their phones horizontally, thumbs tapping rapidly. The faint sound of game effects leaked from their speakers. Valerie was too focused on the interview to scold them.
I simply nodded at him in response.
Not wanting to interrupt, I quietly made my way to Lily. I bent slightly toward her and whispered an apology. She only gave me a soft smile and shook her head.
"It's okay," she murmured. "I didn't take it the wrong way."
Relief loosened something tight in my chest. I sat beside them on the sofa, pressing my lips into a thin line as I tried to compose myself.
Out of habit, I looked at Valerie.
My heart skipped.
She was already looking at me.
"Tita is asking for you," she said gently.
I stood up at once and walked toward the laptop. I pulled a stool beside the coffee table and sat down carefully, adjusting myself before speaking.
"Hello, Tita. I'm sorry about earlier," I said once I felt steady enough.
"It's all right, hija." Her face was closer to the screen than before, slightly pixelated. The background behind her shifted, as though she was walking somewhere with the tablet in hand.
"I have to go soon," she continued. "And as far as I know, it's getting late there. It might be best to end the interview soon."
While she spoke, I glanced at Valerie's notebook. Her handwriting was clean and structured, each point organized under small headings. I couldn't help but smile. Mine was the complete opposite. When I flipped to the page where I last wrote, I almost laughed.
It looked like runes from a fantasy novel. Strange loops and slanted strokes, crowded together like secret symbols from another world. Magical, perhaps. But definitely unreadable. Even I struggled to decipher some of it.
"Will this be where it ends, Tita?" I asked, finally lifting my eyes from the chaotic page.
On the screen, colors blurred as she moved again, much like Tito Anton during our previous call when he refused to stay in one place.
"Tita?" I called softly.
"Hold on."
She set the tablet down somewhere stable. The camera adjusted, revealing her entire living room. It was spacious, warmly lit by tall lamps, the walls decorated with framed photos I couldn't quite make out. It looked too large for one person. Maybe she wasn't living alone. I wasn't sure.
Then she disappeared from the frame.
We waited.
Valerie took advantage of the pause. She gathered us closer and began assigning tasks in a calm, efficient tone. The faint hum of the electric fan filled the silence between her instructions.
"We'll divide the parts now," she said. "Biography, layout, proofreading, presentation."
I was assigned as one of the writers and the main proofreader. Val would write with me. Lily became the cover designer and layout artist, with Nigel assisting her. Bernadette and Jacob were tasked with creating the PowerPoint and writing the presentation script. The remaining details were distributed quickly, each of us nodding in agreement.
Everything was set.
We only needed a few final words from our interviewee.
After several minutes, we relocated to the dining room to continue planning, leaving the laptop behind in the living room. The dining area was dimmer, the overhead light casting long shadows on the polished floor. Valerie's house felt enormous at night. Even with the lights on, the hallways seemed to stretch endlessly.
Walking back to the living room alone sent a shiver down my spine. The quiet felt heavier. I half expected something to move in the corner of my vision.
Some ghosts must be living here rent free, I thought.
"Tita?" I called softly as I picked up the laptop from the coffee table. The surface was slightly warm beneath my fingers. I moved the cursor to check the call. It was still ongoing.
"Hi, Jane," she greeted with a playful smile. "I thought you and your group left me."
"No, no," I said quickly, adjusting the laptop in my arms. "We were just planning the biography in the dining room. We forgot to bring the laptop when you stepped away."
I walked briskly back toward the dining room. The cool tiles pressed against my bare feet as I moved.
"I don't have much time today," she explained. "I can continue, but I won't be able to go into full detail."
I noticed she had changed clothes. She now wore something more formal, something you would wear before heading out for a long evening. That realization made me quicken my steps.
"Oh, that's okay, Tita. No problem at all."
"Good thinking, Jane. We need the laptop," Nigel said when he saw me approaching.
But I went straight to Valerie. When our eyes met, she understood immediately. Without a word, she grabbed my notebook and a ballpen from the cluttered table and handed them to me as I set the laptop down.
I pulled out a chair and sat. Val mirrored me.
Tita Kim was already speaking, and she spoke fast. The words tumbled out of her with energy. If storytelling were a sport, she would be sprinting.
"I believe I told Valerie that I considered going to Heidelberg. And that I made up my mind."
"Yes, Tita," Val responded smoothly. "You also mentioned that you spent about a year learning German and studying for the qualifying exam for Heidelberg University."
Tita Kim hummed in approval. She looked impressed.
Of course she remembered. That was our Valerie. Sharp and precise.
Meanwhile, I sometimes struggled to remember what happened five minutes ago.
"It was near the end of the year when I boarded a plane to Berlin," Tita Kim continued. Her voice softened slightly. "My parents didn't know. James handled the paperwork. Ed and I just had to pass the exam. Failure was not an option. If we failed, we would have to return to the Philippines immediately."
The weight of her words settled over us. Even Nigel had stopped tapping on his phone.
She described the process in detail. The paperwork. The language exams. The interviews. The competition for scholarships. Every step sounded strict, almost suffocating. They were foreigners fighting for a place in a system that did not bend easily.
Apparently, she lost several kilograms during that time. She laughed as she said she looked like "skin and bones" by the time she was officially enrolled in a program in Heidelberg. Maybe she was exaggerating, but I could picture it. The late nights. The hunger from stress. The relentless pressure.
Even through the screen, I could see how much that chapter had cost her.
And yet, there was pride in her eyes when she spoke of it.