“Midterms?”

Emily asked as I did my work.

“Yep. Took you quite some time to notice.”

“You wanted me to notice earlier?”

“Not necessarily, but I assumed you didn’t care.”

“It’s hard to not when that’s all I’ve seen you doing.”

Unlike other majors, film had most of its midterms in the form of take-home exams, with only the occasional one or two lessons that had offline tests. I loved these kinds of exams. You get the questions uploaded onto the university’s site one week in advance, and depending on the lesson you may get a two-week time limit. If you were unlucky, at the very least, you would get a one-week time period to do your task.

I intended on finishing most of the exams by the end of the first week, with one or two lessons during the second week. It wasn’t like I had anything else to do anyway, since I was stuck with Emily.

“Sure is nice having take-homes.”

“Want to change majors?”

“No thanks.”

Emily folded her hands and shook her head. She leaned onto the wall beside my table and continued watching me as I did my work. I felt weird having her stare at me like that. I glanced at her. She noticed my gaze and smirked.

“What? Don’t want me watching?”

“No. But what’s so interesting about me doing this?”

“I don’t know.”

She lifted her shoulders but continued watching. I was doing a drawing task. We were required to do our midterms on A3 paper. The exam asked us to draw a building with the use of perspective.

Emily watched as my hand made wide lines across the white paper. I didn’t know if all the professors had the same rule, but mine banned the use of rulers. Drawing long lines became a pain without them. I myself didn’t hate drawings, but I couldn’t really call myself a fan either.

“What do you think?”

I held the half-finished drawing up toward Emily.

“It’s… You do know I can’t see a thing, right?”

“I was testing whether you’re honest or not.”

I jokingly said as I returned the piece of paper to my table. Of course, I knew that Emily couldn’t see the thing I drew, I just thought she would say it was good out of reflex. Emily approached me and looked over my shoulder.

“Send it.”

She said while tapping on my shoulders.

“Send what?”

She pointed toward the piece of paper. I had moved my hands' placement after returning the paper to my table, and they weren’t aligned with the edges of the paper. It was a bit off to the right, resulting in Emily’s hand, which pointed toward the center of the space between my hands, to be pointing toward the right section of the picture.

I still knew that she meant the picture, however.

“You know what. You can’t tease me like that and not show it.”

“What if I don’t want- Ow Ow Oww!”

Emily’s hand gripped at my shoulders with all her might, sending pain down my nerves. I reacted by twisting my body in a desperate attempt to free myself.

“Fine, fine! I’ll send it to you.”

Emily heard my words and finally let go.

“That took quite a while.”

I let out a sigh and took my phone. I adjusted so that my shadows didn’t hit the picture. Turning on the flashlight made the lighting look weird, so that wasn’t an option. After making sure everything was right, I took a shot and sent it toward her. Emily received the notification and checked her phone. I could see her hand moving into her pocket and taking something out.

“It’s nice, but I think you can improve here.”

Emily looked around her room and started moving. She kneeled down and took something out of another thing. She stood back up and headed for an invisible table. She sat down. I couldn’t see what exactly she was doing, but I could predict that she put something down on her table and started doing something.

I watched as her hand made movements across a flat dimension.

“You’re drawing?”

“Modify your drawing a bit.”

“Using?”

“A tablet.”

“I never knew you had one.”

I never saw her using something like that either. Tablets were much bigger when compared to smartphones, so I doubt I mistook her using a tablet for a phone.

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“Early birthday present.”

“Oh yeah…”

It was roughly a month from now. I thought about preparing something, but despite living with her for so long, I didn’t know what her hobbies were. I could use my middle school knowledge. Back then, Emily loved playing chess. She was a member of the chess club and had won several competitions. I felt unsure that the hobby would remain after three long years, though.

As I thought of a way to ask her, Emily tapped on my palm. I can feel something soft at the end of it. It looked like she used a pen of some kind to touch me.

“Done.”

She said, She then sent a file to my Fine account. I opened up the picture she sent, full of notes on how I could improve my drawing.

“Thanks a lot. This is helpful.”

I said. Emily looked pleased and returned to whatever she was doing before. I paid great attention to the notes she sent me, scanning from one side to the other. The most noticeable difference came from the shadows that she drew. There were a lot of smaller details as well, especially in the grass and trees surrounding the building.

After studying her design, I went on and fixed mine.

“I don’t know you can draw.”

I commented as I applied the things I had just learned to my own drawing.

“A high school friend introduced me to it.”

“So you’ve only learned it recently?”

Emily’s words confirmed my previous thoughts. In the three years we were apart, she had changed.

“Do you still play chess?”

I asked out of curiosity.

“Why now? Ah, you want to buy me a chessboard?”

I didn’t know why she would assume I wanted to buy her a chessboard. If she wanted to guess, why didn’t she guess about me wanting to buy her a birthday present? Regardless, it worked to my advantage, so I nodded. She seemed to notice something. She gave me a sharp glare, her eyes scanning me.

“Why a chessboard?”

I didn’t expect her to push forward the notion, so I hastily searched for an answer.

“Why not?”

So much for an answer.

Emily let out a sigh.

“I appreciate the notion, but I have more than enough chess boards.”

Emily walked to the side of the room and picked up something. She showed it to me, albeit I couldn’t see it, and shook it in front of me, albeit I couldn’t hear anything. I could only stand still as I saw her hands shaking in the air. She noticed my empty gaze and looked down at the chessboard that she supposedly held.

“You get the idea.”

She said as she returned the board back to wherever it came from.

“You still play?”

“Wanna do it now?”

I looked at my drawing. I still had some time before the deadline, so I took Emily on her offer. It had been a while since I last battled her in chess, and the last time I played, it had been a one-sided battle. I hadn’t played much, but I should still retain some of my skills. I was still guaranteed to lose, but I wonder if her skills had changed as well.

She did have a chessboard, so maybe she had someone playing with her. Emily sent me a link to an online chess game, which I downloaded. After a short wait, I opened up the app and added Emily. As if to add to the immersion, we put our phones at the center of the bed, and sat on both ends of it.

At the end of it all, I lost three to zero. Emily threw her back onto the bed, stretching her limbs.

“I’m still better than you.”

She said with glee.

“Not like I actually trained or anything.”

I replied. I never expected to defeat her in the first place, I just didn’t expect to be utterly destroyed like that. The matches didn’t even last that long. Only a couple of moves then it was all over. I decided against challenging her to something like that anymore and thought of a way to get back at her. I lie on my bed. My mind searched for an area where I can defeat her but at the same time not look too petty.

I mean, if I challenged her to something related to film, for example, I would obviously win. I had been studying it, after all, so in that case it would be obvious that my sole reasoning for challenging her was to get a victory. Thus, I needed something where I could absolutely win, but not too far. As my mind wandered the open seas, I was reminded of why this conversation started in the first place.

“By the way, you’re staying in Surabaya for your birthday?”

I still need to find something to give her, after all. If she stayed there for the special day, I would need to send something one day in advance but using the one-day service that some shipping services offered, so that it could arrive at the right time. Before thinking about that, I needed to think about the present first, but my mind couldn’t bring anything up.

Maybe I should ask Tina about it?

The birthday itself was still a month away, so I had more than enough time to think about it. The issue was that if things got busy, I ran the risk of forgetting about it. Time would pass in the blink of an eye, and by the time the date came, it would be too late.

“No, I’m going back for Christmas.”

“Yeah, you’re just here not too long ago.”

“Why? Want to meet me?”

She teased. I thought about jokingly replying back, saying something like

‘no, of course not. Why should I?’

But I needed a reply that would throw her off, a reply that could cover all my tracks. I hadn’t celebrated her birthday for three whole years, after all, so I wanted this one to be special. Unlike before, I would also get to see her live reaction, so I wanted to make sure everything goes well.

She noticed my lack of reply and smirked. She slowly crawled to me. I didn’t notice her sudden movements and was startled. Within a few seconds, our faces were just a few centimeters from each other.

Isn’t this a bit close…?

I asked in my mind. No reply came, but a sly grin appeared on her face.

“What? Couldn’t reply? You really do want to meet me, don’t you?”

She brought her fingers up to my face and started poking my nose. I decided to go with the mood, believing it to be the best course of action, and nodded.

“Yes.”

A simple answer, but enough to pierce through her walls. Her face went red and she slowly pulled herself away. She kneeled on the bed, looking down at her intertwined fingers.

“Well, if you say so…”

Knowing her, she would actually find a way to travel all the way back here. I shook my head.

“But you’re going to be back for Christmas, right? I can wait until then.”

That should throw her farther off.

“Okay…”

She replied with a whisper. I wouldn’t mind spending Christmas with her, but my goal, for now, was to get her as far off my trail as possible. About where we were going, when, or whether it was just the two of us or family included, all those details would be discussed later. I still had more than two months up till that point.

I let out a victory roar in my heart, knowing that I successfully dodged the bullet. My mission wasn’t over just yet, though. I hadn’t found the gift itself. I thought about asking her what she wanted for Christmas, but realized that it would build up her anticipation, not exactly ideal when I wanted to give the gift a month early.

I thought of alternatives, but seeing Emily acting all shy and timid, I decided that it may not be the best of times. I still had a whole month for it. As long as I can remember it, I should be fine. I repeated those thoughts to myself, but in the end, I couldn’t really get my mind off it.

Emily, noticing my silence, stepped away and returned to whatever she was doing before. I decided that I should stop thinking about it, like actually stop, or else I wouldn’t get my tasks done. I put the issue on the shelf and returned my attention to my drawing.