The night was so quiet.
But for Yna it wasnt loneniless, it was comfort. Unlike the day where it was so chaotic and stressfull, like her classmates chattering in the hallways, the noisy jeepneys passing her university, and the people who seems busy everytime, a group with a purpose.
She maybe has two friends who understand her silences, but she still feels like she doesn't belong to the crowd.
But at night? She feels peace. On the rooftop of the small two story of her house belong only to her and the endless sky above.
As she sat on the cool concrete of the rooftop pressing against her legs, she set her chin on her knees.
It was late September air, she smelled the scent of rain from the afternoon storm. The sky was stretched wide and clear, as if it had been scrubbed free of clouds just for her.
As she look up, she saw it again, the brightest star in the nigth.
Always in the same place, steady and bright. It's like it has been placed there just for her eyes. Other stars twinkled faintly, scattered like a glitter over the black sky, but this one shimmer with a intensity that tugged at her chest.
"Hey," Yna whispered, "I'm here again."
She knew she looks silly, talking to the star. But she'd been doing it for years. For some people they use journals, some prayed. But for her, she talked to the sky.
"I wish I could be out there," she murmured, hugging her knees closer. "Not just... stuck here. With the same routine everyday, the same city, with the same face. I want to see what's really up there. The galaxies, the planets, and maybe, just maybe another form of life."
She smiled faintly at herself. Her friends would tease her none stop if the knew she said something like that. They'd call her dramatic, hopeless, or even crazy. But it was easier to confide in something that couldn't answer back.
Sometimes, as she watches the night, she felt like as if someone was really listening to her.
The star suddenly flicker faintly. Yna blinked, leaning forward.
"Strange..." she whispered. Stars didn't usually pulse like that.
It's light brightened more, then steadied again, as if nothing had happened.
Her phone buzzed beside her, startling her. She grabbed it and check the time.
11:59 PM.
Of course. Make a wish.
Yna closed her eyes and whispered, "I wish to know if there's really someone out there. Maybe someone watching back."
When she opened her eyes, the star seemed a little brighter again.
The next morning, as sunlight broke through her curtains far to early for her liking. Yna groaned, dragging herself of the bed.
Her alarm had gone off twice before she finally forced herself to move.
Her morning was ordinary. Wake up late, scramble to make it to class, drink overpriced coffee just to stay awake during lectures. Study through her phone, exchange few jokes with her small circle of friends. Then home again.
And as the night falls, she found herself in the rooftop, watching the night sky again.
It wasn't that she hated her life. She just couldn't shake the feeling of that somethings was missing.
"You're distracted again," Mira said during lunch break that day, poking her arms with a plastic fork. Mira was her closest friend, loud and funny while Yna was quiet, forever pulling her out of her head and back into the present.
"Don't tell me you were up all night again stargazing?"
Yna shrugged. "Meteorology says it was going to be clear skies. I couldn't help it."
"You and your sky," Mira sighed dramatically. "I don't get it. You could be binge watching dramas or at least texting that cute guy from our chemistry class like you. instead you sit on a roof whispering to a star."
"That's easier to talk to," Yna simply said, earning a snort from Mira.
Later that afternoon, Yna noticed something odd while scrolling through her phone. She'd taken a photo of the night sky the evening before, she just want to capture how clear it is. But when she zoomed it on the brightest star, the pixel suddenly distorted strangely, as if there was a faint of geometric patterns in the screen.
Her brows knit together. Probably just a camera glitch, she thought. But something in her chest whispered otherwise.
That night, Yna climbed back onto the rooftop, blanket wrapped around her shoulders. She set her phone on the ledge trying to focus the camera again. The star shimmered in the frame, it was bright and constant.
She waited.
But nothing unusual happened for a while. Just the quiet city noise, the breeze carrying faint music from a neighbour's radio and the comfortable chill of night air.
But then...
A pulse.
The star flared, three times in quick succession, then it become steady, then three more pulses again,
Yna's mouth went dry.
"Wa- was that..?" she whispered, heart racing.
It looked like a signal.
She run down to get her notebook, and ran back as write it down. Three pulses. Pause. Three pulses. Like... a heartbeat?
Her pulse quickened to match it.
For a long moment she sat frozen, the rooftop silent around her.
"Okay," she said softly, forcing a nervous laugh. "This is where I admit I've officially gone crazy."
But the star pulsed again - exactly as before.
Yna pressed her trembling hand to her lips. Her wish last night. Could it be...?
"No way," she whispered. "No way someone's actually out there."
Still, she couldn't bring herself to look away.
The passed few days, Yna began to notice more little things.
Her alarm would sometimes glitch, jumping forward into a few minutes. A streetlight flickered out as she passed by, only to flare back to life once she'd gone. The automatic door at her favorite cafe slid open a spit second before she even reached it, as though anticipating her.
Small coincidences. Strange but harmless. But all of it made her uneasy.
And every night, when she was back in the rooftop, the star was there. It's like waiting for her.
Sometimes it pulsed. Sometimes it didn't. But Yna always spoke to it. She told everything about her day, her worries, her hopes.
She told it about her feeling invisible in crowded classrooms, about her professors who mispronouced her name, about Mira's high energy. She told it about the book she loved, the dramas she watched, the dreams she dreams.
She knew she was just talking to empty sky. But it felt... different, somehow. Like her words weren't vanishing into to void. Like they were landing somewhere.
And sometimes, just sometimes, she swore she could feel someone listening.
A week later, Yna had her first strange dream.
There, she stood in a city an ligth, high towers rising above her, glowing faintly blue and silver. The air shimmered, alive with quiet hums and flowing energy, like the entire city itself was breathing.
She wandered the streets, her bare feet pressing against the smooth crystal ground. No people. Just silence.
Then she felt it, that same sensation from the rooftop, that invisible weight of being watched.
She turned.
She saw a silhouette stood at the far end of the street. Tall. Motionless.
She couldn't see his face, only the way the glove of the city bent faintly around him, like he didn't quite belong.
"Who are you?" she asked.
No he didn't answer.
When she blinked, he was gone.
Yna woke with a gasp, sweet cooling on her skin. The clock on her nightstand blink 3:17 AM. She could sworn that it had been 3:14 when she closed her eyes.
Her notebook lay open beside her, and her ped had rolled onto the floor.
But she hadn't remember leaving it there.
By the end of that week, Yna couldn't shake the feeling anymore.
Something was happening.
She sat on the rooftop one more time, the city was quiet below, the bright star was pulsing faintly above. Her blanket was warm around her shoulder, but her heartbeat faster than it should.
"I don't know if I'm going crazy," she whispered, her voice was barely steady. "But... if someone out there... watching... just-"
She swallowed. "Just don't disspaear, okay?"
The star flared once, brighter than she'd ever seen it.
And though her rooftop was empty, Yna felt it, the undeniable sense of another presence. Quiet. Patient. Listening.
For the first time, she whispered not a wish, but a promise.
"I'll kepp watching too."
And far beyond what her eyes could see, in the silent span of galaxies, someone smiled.
----
K