All This Time

Courage, as in...courage?

It was nice to eat with an actual person for a change, instead of a movie or a TV show that usually accompanied Paul during his solo dinner time.

Even nicer that he was in Mika's company, whose face had turned a few shades of red.

"This is not mildly spicy! Lies!" she wailed after taking a gulp from her yogurt drink. When tears started to leak from the corners of her eyes, Paul couldn't help it—he burst out laughing.

"Paul, it's not funny!"

"I'm sorry," he said in between chuckles. He pushed the two containers of food across the table toward Mika. "Look, I have more than enough adobo here; use this lid as a plate. And I think rice might help combat the heat."

Mika swallowed another mouthful of yogurt drink, then accepted the food he had offered. Paul watched her pile food on the Tupperware lid, sniffling as he grumbled under her breath.

"Is it really that spicy?" he asked, curious.

"Go try it for yourself."

Paul hesitated for a bit, but Mika was now watching his every move. He scooped some soup from the bowl and took a cautious sip.

"Well?"

He pursed his lips thoughtfully as a bit of heat spread across his mouth, but it wasn't that hot. "It's...not so bad."

"You're kidding me, right."

Paul took another spoonful of soup and shook his head. "Yeah. That's mild."

"Does your tongue have an armor or something?" She took a defiant spoonful of adobo with rice.

"No, but my dad is from Bicol," he said with a grin. "So, I'm kind of used to this. The more you eat, the higher your tolerance gets."

"Ah, no wonder." Mika made a face as she sniffled again, but her face was considerably less red now than it was before. The power outage in their building lasted only for about five minutes, but news about Elevator 3 getting stuck traveled around quickly, making Paul and Mika hesitant to go back up just yet, in case they end up getting stuck, too. To be honest, though, he probably wouldn't mind getting stuck with her in the elevator, but...this was better.

Anything with Mika was better. Their morning chats at Ahjummart had quickly become his favorite thing every day. On weekends, he missed her—and even if Paul had gotten her number a few weeks back, texting her didn't feel the same as actually hearing her voice or seeing her smile. In fact, he enjoyed talking to her and seeing her so much that he adjusted his morning routine just so he could have some time to talk to her before they headed off for their day.

Making room for Mika hadn't been too hard because reading MJ's letters had also become a part of his routine. Every morning except on weekends, Paul would find a new note by his poster on the bulletin board, and he would eagerly open it right there to read. He felt like he had found another friend in these notes, even if he still had no idea who she was. In a way, Paul was kind of glad that MJ hadn't finished working on her next piece that would replace the poster on the board because that meant that they could keep on writing to each other. Her words were a comfort to him, but more than that, writing to MJ seemed to be helping him live up to his name.

He wouldn't have had the courage to invite Mika to eat with her if not for his daily practice of courage in writing to someone he didn't know.

Which reminded him that he had yet to reply to MJ's last letter.

"What's the spiciest food that you've ever had?" Mika asked as they continued to eat.

"Hmm," Paul said, chewing thoughtfully. "I nearly won the spicy noodle eating contest at work. That was painful, by the way—it's hard to eat something that hot, that fast. But the real kicker that my sisters and I haven't conquered is our dad's laing. Just thinking about it makes my mouth burn."

"You guys are brave," she said with a shudder. "Speaking of brave, what did your sister's boyfriend call you earlier? That thing about courage?"

He felt a tug somewhere inside him when she said his name, even if she wasn't really referring to his name. Yet. "Paul Courage. Courage is my second name."

With the way Mika's eyes brightened, it almost felt like he won a prize. "Seriously?" she said. "Courage as in courage?"

"Courage as in bravery, not being scared, fortitude, fearlessness, the Cowardly Dog, the child of love."

Mika paused to look at him, her spoon frozen in mid-air. "Where did you get 'the child of love'?"

"It's in that poster on the bulletin board. You know, the one beside the reminder for the association dues deadline? Have you seen that?"

A strange look passed over her eyes, but it was gone quickly before Paul could try to figure it out. "Yeah, I've seen it," she said. "I think having courage as your second name is cool."

"Not when you're a kid who has to explain it all the time."

"Well, yeah, that is true." Mika nodded. "But still, it's like having a personal reminder for yourself to always be courageous, even when you don't feel like it."

There was something about what she said that felt so familiar that Paul stopped chewing and look at Mika. Didn't he write it in one of his letters to MJ? It was hardly an original thought, but what a funny coincidence that Mika was saying the same thing to him now.

In that case, since they were already talking about courage.

"What are you doing this weekend?" he heard himself ask.

Mika's eyebrows lifted slightly before she pulled out her phone. "I'm planning to finish a project," she said as she tapped on the screen. "And I just remembered that I signed up for this watercolor workshop here this Sunday. Mrs. Han cornered me about it one time, and I said yes."

"Can I join you at the workshop?"

"Yeah, it's an open class. And I'm actually not sure if they got a lot of people to join. I can ask and then sign you up." Mika looked up at him. "I didn't know you were into water coloring!"

"It's a recent interest," he admitted—sort of. "And..." He paused, taking a deep breath. Courage. "I just want to hang out with you again. If it's okay with you."

"Oh." She blinked in surprise, then looked at him for what felt like a long time that Paul almost wanted to take it back. But he remembered his name and held onto it.

Finally, a smile tugged at Mika's lips. "Okay. I'd like that."