Novels by Cielo Yap

After I got out of the car, I ran to the building and waved to Dan before turning to where the entrance was. My clothes were still wet but they weren’t sticking to me anymore and my hair was half dry already. I got to the elevator and pressed the buttons, before waiting for the doors to open. The doors opened for a while and I got in. Before the doors close, a hand stops it. Brye gets into my view, a heaving mess. His hand forced the doors to be open and both of us were surprised to see each other. “Lim!” the familiar voice of Michael echoes across the lobby. I frowned and I was pushed inside as Brye hurriedly pressed the buttons. Just in time, the doors closed before Michael caught up. He seemed to be with the others, Nathan and Katherine.I looked at Brye in surprise. He glances at me, placing his hand on my shoulder while trying to catch his breath. “Okay ka lang?” I mutter to him. I see him frown while looking at my shoulder, his gaze shifting to me. I raised both my brows at him.

The café near the campus, the one we always go to, was packed with people due to the schedule of the mid-term exam week. Weeks after the ‘episode’, Ally has been sticking with me, Brye has been taking extra notice of everything and Luke, well, he’s the same. It wasn’t the first time that he saw me like that. It took me a ton of convincing to get Ally inside Mika’s car so both of them could go home while I waited for Brye. Speaking of Brye, he won’t be able to pick me as well. I told him off because, for the last few days, Michael messaged me that he’s been ditching their meetings, so I gave him a good nag and assurance that he needed. Luke and Karlos were also supposed to pick me up and send me home but Luke just sent me a message earlier. Well, let’s not talk about that message.Dan enters the café. I catch his gaze and smile at him. “Hi, sorry, matagal ba?” he greets me with a hug, in which, I was pretty surprised. Nevertheless, I hugged him back and pulled away with a smile. “No, o

Brye comes back into his room, locking the door after. He goes back to his bed and sits down at the edge. He takes a good look at her. She was staring at the ceiling with a frown on her face, looking so dazed. Brye lets out a sigh. “Lili,” he gets closer to her, tucking her hair behind her ears. “It’s just me, okay? I’m here” he adds, taking her hand and started treating her. Despite that Brye wanted to rest, he couldn’t sit still knowing that she was hurt. While treating her wounds, a deep frown was set on her face. It took him hours to treat her wounds from her hands to her legs. Upon reaching her feet, his breath hitched, stuck in his throat. Brye bit his lip and started to treat her carefully. “Tell me if it hurts, okay?” he tells her despite that she has been quiet since he started tending to her injuries. She didn’t speak or flinch when he tried to dab medicine on her wound, and that concerned Brye.“I’m sorry if I’m bothering you, Brye” she mutters out of the blue while Brye is

It was already the dead of night. The only light source I had was my night light from the other side of the room and my study lamp. When I got home earlier, I took out my reviewers and notes, along with my problem sets. It has been hours. I don’t know how long I have been sitting down here nor how long I have been answering these sets. I’ve lost track of time since the time I started this. My head was almost empty while I was answering these but at least it made me feel distracted. I let out a sigh before stopping scribbling answers on my papers. Beneath me was a pile of crumpled papers of the problems that I failed to answer. I slumped down my chair, leaning my head upwards, gazing at the ceiling. “I’m so fucked” I mutter to myself.Aside from my many problems regarding my family, my personal problems also seemed to pile up. Earlier, I got a message from Dan. He wanted to have dinner with me tomorrow. ‘I guess Brye would be busy tomorrow night, right? Since madami silang ginagawa’. M

My phone lights up.Riri: I’m here na. I perked up and wiped my nose, making myself presentable. The door opens, catching my attention. Brye found my eyes and he smiled. “Let’s go? We have to get dinner pa” he said before carrying my bag. I nodded and stood from my seat and went out with him. We got to his car in silence. On the way there, the window of the back seat was open, revealing Michael, Nathan, and Katherine. My brows went up and looked up at Brye after greeting Michael. “Oh, yeah, fuck I forgot, they’re crashing at my unit mamaya, we have something to do all night, I’m nearest sa university, so my unit was chosen,” he tells me. I nodded. “Gosh, can we go na? Andami pang deadlines na need habulin” Katherine mutters and Brye rolls his eyes. “It’s not that many, Kath, kakain pa nga tayo” Michael retorts. “Don’t mind them, mag-didinner pa talaga kami before going to my unit” Brye assured me before opening the door for me and I got in. He eventually got in as well.“Hi, Celi” Mi

“So, how’s the weekend?” Ally creeps beside me. Miraculously, we got to school together. Mika just dropped her and so as Brye with me. Her eyes were glued to us as Brye suddenly placed a kiss on my forehead. I rolled my eyes at him and hit him lightly before I waved him goodbye. When I saw Ally, she already saw everything. That’s why her grin has been creeping me up. “Parang andaming nangyari sa weekend mo ah” she chuckles while clinging onto me. I sigh, “walang nangyari, Luke just wanted to hang, kaya lumabas kami” I shrug, trying to cut it short. “Wait, sino si Luke?” Ally asks, “Oh right, Luke is my best friend,” I tell her with a smile. She nods and types on her phone, “anong user name niya?” she asks and I tell her despite I was confused why. “Ito ba? He’s gay ‘no?” she holds her phone close to my face and I nod with a laugh.She goes back to her phone and scrolls. We were walking to our first class today and the corridors were bustling with students. Suddenly, Ally gasps, “OMG!”

The drive on the way to the library was the average distance. It wasn’t that far and it wasn’t that near either. Me and Xian passed by a lot of shops, we had few stops due to the traffic and had one drive-thru while enjoying the music that was softly playing in our background. Soon, we reached the place that Xian was talking about. There are only a few buildings and the place seemed peaceful and calm. Fitting for a café place. He turned and parked the car on the available space that he found before turning the engine off and let out a sigh and turned his head to me with a wide smile plastered on his face. “We might wanna wear this, for some precautions” I look at his hand and see a mask. I let out a small laugh, “talk about no one is going to see or even notice us” I mutter as I wear the mask. I look up at him and playfully roll his eyes at me, his eyes were turning half-circles, letting me know that he is smiling underneath the mask that hid half of his face. We got out of the car a

After praying for almost thirty minutes, the three of us got inside the temple to offer another short prayer as well and went out. Both my parents got inside the car but I excused myself to go to the site where we will get some documentation. It was a small European-themed museum, replicas of artworks and sculptures were showcased inside. I walked to the place since it was pretty near the temple. I got inside after paying the entrance fee. Different artworks were displayed when I got in and there were different rooms for different themes. Mainly, they focus on religious-themed paintings and sculptures. The paintings between the angels and the demons, and the humans. Every painting was dated back to the 17th century. I let my eyes roam, taking pictures of the artworks that could help. Certain artworks definitely can help us. A certain room caught my eye. The last time I was here it wasn’t here, most probably it was new. I went straight to it and there were only a few people who had ta

The three of us ate at the usual place that we go every time we can’t choose any new restaurants. It’s been hours and the night has come deep and the stars reappeared as we left the restaurant. “At last, weekend, I’m so glad that we don’t have schedules every weekend,” Ciara sighs in relief while we walk to the bus stop. “But we have tons to do because of a certain someone, how is that a happy thing?” James rebutt her and I roll my eyes. “But we aren’t going to campus to see certain people” I looked at James and raised a brow at him and he only shrugged, agreeing, nodding at what I said. The bus arrived and both of them got in. I told them earlier that I’ll take a taxi to go to my parents house. I waved them goodbye and waited for the bus to drive away until I couldn't see it anymore. I stood there for a couple of minutes until a car stopped in front of me and the driver got out. “Sorry I took too long, I got us drinks” Xian smiled at me as he opened the passenger seat door for me. “

It was noisy when I came inside. There are no professors present and it was the large hall designated for the last class. He must’ve been a very busy person to host a lot of students in just one class. I spotted James and Ciara waving at me, three rows near the front. I frowned a bit before going down to meet them. “Why the seat near the front?” I asked as soon as I reached them and placed my bag down.“We just want to take a clear look at the new professor, I heard that he is young, probably the same age as Mr. Lee, and a foreign” Ciara replied. “And where did you hear that?” I raised a brow at her before shifting my eyes to the silent James. He looks back at me with his arms up. “I only overheard from the other students he holds. Apparently, he has other classes with other majors, so I had a brief intro of him” he spouted, and I nodded slowly.I let out a small laugh, “so, what is he like?” I questioned, curious about the new professor. “Told me he’s the same age as Mr. Lee, tall, a

“We used one of the studies that studied both ethnology and ethnography, we found some pieces of evidence relating to religion, those, that are not included in their previous research but can be considered and proven, those all occurred in European countries,” I answered him briefly about the topic we chose. “That’s why you’re going to do it early” he asserted.“Well, yes, since it won’t be an easy task, proving that there is more to that study is harder than making another one, but seemed to be easy as well,” I told him. He nodded, pondering about the study we are proposing to him. “I know a library that can help you with this, you won’t mind if I accompany you, right?” he muttered, more silent this time.I frowned at him and took glances at other students who are on the second floor as well. “You know that teacher-student relationship is banned and we can be both expelled, well me, and you can lose your job, you accompanying me to that library is basically helping us as well in our

I met with James on the way to my room. We have three classes with the same time and professors, unlike Ciara, we only share two classes together. One is the historical subject that was newly added. “Didn’t sleep well enough?” I chimed, looking at them both, exhaust was clearly evident in his eyes. The dark circles didn’t really hide well enough. The concealer must’ve run out, or it wasn’t enough anymore.“Fuck off, why would you tell Mr. Lee that we are starting the proposal early? Now we have to finish it within this week” James grumbles at me. Of course, he had to stay awake through the night, maybe a lot more than I did. By the looks of the color of his coffee, he definitely ordered an extra shot.“I don’t know, it was the first thing that came to my mind when he asked. Why? You want me to tell him you don’t want to see him that’s why you let me take your syllabus?” I sipped on my coffee while chuckling slightly at him. James looks down at me and rolls his eyes. It definitely made