I always do

"Did I just dream of sitting across from you today in a coffee shop and trying to connect the dots after unresolved fights?

Did you just walk me to the bus stop and tell me "It's good to see each other after a fight."? Where I know in myself that it did not change any of my thoughts because I still feel this void in my chest.

Did you just leave me sitting on the bus with a puzzled heart? Coz you rushed to leave and forgot to kiss me or tell me good night or even goodbye. Without knowing, maybe that would be the last time you see me before you leave the town. 

Did I just pray to feel that you still cherish the moments  I am with you? Prayed that you still feel excited to see me. Prayed that I would only and still listen to the moments you consistently say it — that you love me even though you stopped saying it. Yes, I did.

I bet you are still awake thinking about where we went wrong again. Browsing games you could play to forget us somehow. 

I bet I will have to go back to the reason why I made this love to live in reality again. Because you're simply fading the words you used to tell me. And I am the one who only and always restores it. I bet it will take time for me to used to it.

I bet in the end, I will still love you. Because I always do. Always."

—Jhunamae Moja (Smnllyl, I always do)

Journal Date: 01.29.24

Next to you

"How I wish I wake up next to you today, 'coz I love the thought of waking up and I can feel your arms around me. Those little kisses over my body. Tickles when you touch me. And missing you when I remember how you made love with me."

—Jhunamae Moja(Smnllyl, next to you)
Journal Date: 01.05.2023

Fragile

"I no longer want to be called your ex-girlfriend, your past woman, potentially interesting, also potentially uninteresting. Now, I was a girl who had been permanently cherished and damaged by life. I want to be someone to be handled carefully only by you."

–Jhunamae Moja(Smnllyl, Only by you)

Journal Date: 12.30.23 

Can you go wherever I go?

"Today, I woke up at 2 AM, pushed to sleep again, and wished that you were here to hold me."

—Jhunamae Moja(Smnllyl, can you go wherever I go?)
Journal Date: 12.27.2023

First Christmas!

"We both know that Christmas this year is way more different from what we have experienced before. We long that it's not about having hugs and kisses from our families. Not about taking pictures of your lovely mom as she poses for memories. Not about my sleeping habit under the warm Christmas tree. 

Because it's about cuddling around, watching a movie, watching me play with the game you used to explore. It's about wishing for time to stop as we realize that we will be spending the next Christmas with each other's warmth. It's about wrapping each other with our warm hugs and feeling our arms because that's exactly where we belong."

—Jhunamae Moja(Smnllyl, First Christmas!)

Journal Date: 12.25.2023

Under the same sheet

"How I wish I always sit with you as I forget the outside world still goes round. Get crazy with you even if we're just in the four-cornered room. Chuckle with our jokes through our dirty language. Do my work as you play behind me. Sing at the top of our lungs while dancing until our body needs to cling to each other. 

How I wish we always cuddle under the same sheet, loving each other's heartbeat, and hearing your voice as you say you love me."

—Jhunamae Moja (Smnllyl, under the same sheet)
Journal Date: 12.20.2023

Princess

"I will always miss your hug when I get your home from work. Your warm hands that always want to intertwine mine. The wrap of your arms all the way around my shoulders, press your face into my hair while my body curves over yours. Your arms became a set of parentheses bracing the sweetest and dirtiest phrase I could ever tell. Your care makes me shiver as you lay me on your bed, caressing all my worries and sadness in this world. Where it feels like we are disappearing from this world as you carry me like a princess you could ever hold."

—Jhunamae Moja(Smnllyl, Princess)
Journal Date: 12.20.2023

You

"You know what my thoughts are at this very moment? I share this love with three people— my best friend, my soulmate, and my future husband. It's funny 'coz they're all you."

—Jhunamae Moja(Smnllyl, you)
Journal Date: 12.19.23 '5:45 AM'

Coffee

"I know that coffee is all well but I look forward to having kisses from your lips every morning." (12.04.23)

(This entry came true!)

—Jhunamae Moja(Smnllyl, coffee)

Journal Date: 12.16.23

WFH hugs

"Even if we are underneath the same blanket, cuddling while I brush your soft hair— I still miss you in a quite desperate way."

—Jhunamae Moja (Smnllyl,WFH hugs)

Journal Date: 12.15.23

Bbtm!

From
"Seems I must always write you letters that I can never send".

To
 "I could kiss you whenever I can".

—Jhunamae Moja(Smnllyl,bbtm 🎓)
Journal Date: 12.12.2023

All of me

"Please be clingy with me. Get worried if I don't text you back in 10 minutes. Just send me a message whenever you miss me and can't hold it anymore. Better hold my hand tight and kiss me whenever you want, wherever we go. Tell me you miss me and you love me all the time. But also, I want you to trust me. Because if I am dating you, that means I bet everything on you. As I mean it, as I long to be with you again, I will keep on finding you from crowds of nobody because I am all yours. You are mine. End of story. "

-Jhunamae Moja (Smnllyl, all of me)

Journal Date: 12.06.2023

Hope

"I've been in cloudy thoughts seven days straight now and you are my sun— even if it's 6 PM."

—Jhunamae Moja(Smnllyl, Sunshine)
Journal Date: 12.04.23

You're back!

"It's the same feeling of not seeing you for 7 years of fallout and not seeing you for 7 days being out of town. I miss you. No difference." 

—Jhunamae Moja (Smnllyl, three best kisses)
Journal Date: 12.04.2023

Happiness to craziness

"You're my kind of crazy."

—Jhunamae Moja(Smnllyl,blue)

JD: 12.02.2023

Definitive

"As time goes by, the more you teach me your own language, the more I find words that no one could understand the definition of my love for you, not even you."

—Jhunamae Moja (Smnllyl, definitive)

Journal Date: 11.29.23

Thirsty

"I miss you that it feels like I thirst for you. 

So please, don't walk away from me. 

Tell me everything, even if you have to hurt me a little. Because we always have little lies and little unspoken truths. That we have to ache and accept. That we have to play with our thoughts and grow. 

Tell me about the you I love, the one who's brave at night. The one who's weak-hearted during the day. Let yourself run through me. Share with me your happiness and sadness. Because every time you smile and feel sad, I understand more one of the reasons why I was born. I will love you until I run dry."

—Jhunamae Moja (Smnllyl, thirst)

Journal Date: 11.27.2023

Drunk

"I am here sitting and typing all my flooding regrets of forgetting you from the past. But I hope you know my reason, I tried to save myself from drowning in the pain of not being loved back by you, from aching of not having you. 

Here I am filming another scene at the back of my head of being left again by you. How I wish it would not happen. How I wish regretting is enough. How I wish I didn't have to start from zero and prove myself again for another decade. But I don't mind starting over again. 

Here I am reminiscing that I had a couple of strong shots of whiskey yesterday but I only got drunk with your kisses. I was drunk with your laugh and warm hugs as I answered you twice if I wanted more kisses from you. I got drunk with your sincerity. I got drunk with your overflowing love. And I don't mind being drunk every day if it is because of you. 

Here I am hyped-up with the sugar you fed me last night—opening them with regrets of not seeing you today. 

Here I am missing you more. 

Here I am dying dead to go back from the past and make everything in the right place."

—Jhunamae Moja (Smnllyl, drunk)
Journal Date: 11.25.23

Sweetest!

"Oh, how sweet! To receive a cup of my favorite coffee from my lover on the 20th day of November."

—Jhunamae Moja(Smnllyl, Sweetest!)

JD: 11.22.23

Always

"And after the long loss, here I am, still loving you more and more. That deep in my heart,  I will no longer ache to love somebody else to forget you. 

Because now and again, I will be remembering every moment that I will be with you.

Because it's always been you. Always."

-Jhunamae Moja (Smnllyl, always)

Journal Date: 11.17.23

This love is ours

"I'm not expecting our relationship to be full of I love yous and I miss you and stories of our frustrations throughout the day. 

I'm not expecting it to be just about how sorry you are for not replying after we fought and how much you wanted to embrace me again.

I'm not expecting it to be just impulsively liking each other's preferences, hobbies, and taste of foods not to cause a fight.

I'm not expecting it to be just about teenage romance, meeting or talking to each other all the time and getting by with trending ways of showing affection. 

I'm not expecting it to be just about us.

I also want it to be about how much we want to seek our happiness, how much we call ourselves a mess but still try to be better each day, and how much criticism we receive but still believe that we can do it.

I also want it to be about the days without pressuring each other where we both want to hang out with friends, rest, and have time for ourselves.

In the long run, I also want it to be about how we forgive each other's faults, how we discover and manage our hidden attitudes, how we accept each other's weaknesses, how we tap each other's back on failing, how we celebrate our little victories, and how we accept our differences.

I also want it to be about the thank yous for how we choose each other over our pride, for how we looked beyond our flaws, and for allowing ourselves to make missteps and mistakes.

I also want it to be about the sorrys for all times we forget we're in love because of busy schedules, anger, or misunderstanding. For all the nights we choose to just hide what we are mad about, and for all the words we express out of anger.

I also want it to be about our growth—as partners, and as ourselves. 

Because today, I don't want to spend another painful day of regret of not keeping you right.

I don't want to write about another painful story of goodbye anymore."

—Jhunamae Moja(Smnllyl, This love is ours)

JD. 11.06.23

 

Tomorrow Tonight

"I'm not so much for a petty, dangling, and long talk. But tonight that becoming our tomorrow, I tried my very best to uphold, stay on the edge of my used-to-be-self, and toss and turn to keep awake as I cloak up this feeling so you don't see me weakly withering on the inside. I am sure, I'm not the best at most things in life but I'm trying to keep up the cloak that I'm doing just fine. As you know now, I am such an outliner. Did I just overshare? I think I overshare about something I am not well-known. Why do I feel these? Candy-assed. Blue. Afraid. I guess I became more afraid now to be left behind, by you. More afraid that I shared my weight-in-gold thoughts 'cause you meant everything to me. Afraid of the cut you'll inevitably leave once you walk away time and again.

Now, I'm experiencing another loss. And within the breaks of overthinking, I found myself aching to make you more of a permanent part of me."

—Jhunamae Moja (Smnllyl, Tomorrow Tonight)

Journal Date: 10.20.23

Until when?

"Here I am to tell you, until when will I write? 

Here I am as the same person you asked and never answered, "When I'm gone, will you still write about me the same?" — sitting here, typing this message to you at nine in the morning. 

For sure, until I draw my last breath.

Because...

There isn't a day that ends when you're not visiting my thoughts.

The thought that keeps me awake at night. 

And the reason I don't want to get out of bed in the morning.

For sure, until the world is out of paper.

I will write till angels are flooded with letters and ask me to stop.

Till heaven became an ocean of my letters. 

Hoping to reach you wherever you are. 

Flying around, knowing in your heart that you were loved by every inch of my being.

For sure, at that moment, I froze in time. 

Because...

That's the only thing you will anchor me, my thoughts of you — your memories.

My longing for you will be ceaseless. Incurable. Haunting. 

For sure, through my words I commit to a pyramid of papers, we will continue to exist."

-Jhunamae Moja (Smnllyl, until when?)

JD: 10.15.23

Thoughts

"Years ago,

it's just the moon, stars, and rain that sit with me in between my thoughts of you. 

It's just about when talking to you again would be something like I could plant myself outside your place, join you on a game, or ask you to go anywhere in the world.

But today, 

It's just about feeling irrational envy of my thoughts.

Where I just hope there's a day in a week when I can just sit around and indulge my every thought of you. 

When you just live from the corner of my phone, occupies a little in the world— but a thought of a man I bring to bed.

It's just about you, that I forget everything I need throughout the day, that I might forget the world still works, and I hate how you're becoming my angular momentum. 

And today,

It's just about riding a train going home and wishing you good night upon passing your street.

It's just about slipping everything into the beauty of nowhere.

This time,

It's just about swearing I'll love you right with unsure words in between the tip of my fingers."

 
—Jhunamae Moja(smnllyl, thoughts)
JD: 09.20.23

The human eggs

"As a numbersmith, I forecasted how we will spend our days together— late morning with lunch of cereals and pancakes for dinner. End of the day."

—Jhunamae Moja (Smnllyl, the human eggs)

Journal Date: 9.13.23

I don't know

"Looking back is one of the terrible things that we could ever talk about, or I may dig up. But this feeling might haunt me to my deepest sleep later at night. I don't know. I'm talking to you with a bridge in between but it feels like I'm still stepping into the air. I don't know."

Jhunamae Moja(Smnllyl, snap)

Journal Date: 10.11.23

Weird

"I'm  writing the ending of this imagination that used to cry in every page between my doubts of bringing it to life. I do this all the time, hardly knowing the results ahead of time as a way to shield my heart. 

But now, with this, I want to see how beautiful it is to remain open. To see the strings again, knot it again from our ends, and look for the beauty of risks if we ever cross the line again. And how I hope one day we could finally write on the same book, same page—with same thoughts."

–Jhunamae Moja (Smnllyl, weird)

Journal Date: 09.10.23

Smnllyl

"Once again, I'm on the shore and watch as the water hugs the sand over and over again. I thought I heard you call my name, but it was the ocean breeze telling me you gave up being a sailor and I am just a broken sea shell here on the shore.

I'm seeing the waves shaped like my tears at night. The last time of night I will sit here quietly with flooded cheeks as I listen to the sound of waves, waves of hurt.

To see an ocean makes me feel flooded with words to write about later at night. Because to see an ocean reminds me of you. It reminds me of how perfect waves should be if we ever loved harder—tried harder.

Once more, I'm on the shore and drowning a bottle full of letters. Sorry, nature! I will let them sail beyond the horizon of love you never want to see. But I became a poet who writes everything she feels. I became a writer who has to let everything go—even this little hope that sits with me now on the shore. Let them be a food with the little fish. What!? Sorry, nature! 'Cause they belong to the sea—never in reality.

One last little more, everything should be written no more."

–Jhunamae Moja (Smnllyl, Once More No More)
Journal Date: 08.28.23

That's not how it works

"I've been waiting for this day, for another dramatic poem to write and I know that's how you'll see this. Dramatic. It's been my tradition every year. But I ended up airheaded these days. And I know it sounds stupid, but I do— I don't feel sorry for doing this. 

For this year, maybe I will just have an earworm discussion. Have you heard Charlie Puth's song about how unsure people should know about love? And I've been listening to it for months, the "That's Not How It Works".

For years, I'd never imagined that that's how you see love works. You could hurt someone to get someone then if they hurt you, you'll come back to someone you hurt as if nothing happened. But that's not how it works.

For years, I've been waiting to hear your apology and ask me if we can make it again. Then you came back with your fleet of lovely storms for me. You were prepared with your bombarding stories. Knowing "SHE hurt you when you hurt me, and you came back the time I already have someone I was sailing with for months". I always knew that it would hurt if you mess with me again. I knew I would never let you ruin me again. But you made it the other way around. You ruined me through your words to him. You ruined me by describing how I've been crazy about you for the past years. You ruined me believing that you will never ruin me the same trick around. You made it. 

For years, we both know that we wrecked each other. Because the way you see love works is tragic. You never loved me. And you probably know your lesson now. That's not how it works."

–Jhunamae Moja(Smnllyl, TNHIW)

Journal Date: 08.27.23 HBD 

Just letters

 "I will no longer dig the letters I buried in between my heartaches and high-hopes of being with you again. I know that they already mourn and give justice for all the tears I shed while I was writing them about you. I wish the words also gone in my head as the inks of my journal fades. 

I will no longer haunt my letters I wrote only for you that meant to be unsent in counting of years. I know you'll never need to read them. Let me just keep it for you until they turn into dust as I keep them in my drawer.

I will no longer put them in this book of my love, regrets, longing, and faith for you. 

Because they are all meant to be just letters."

—Jhunamae Moja(smnllyl, just letters)

Journal Date: 08.24.23

Just sleep!

"Before I sleep at night, I roleplay the scene of the moment I see you again. En route to my flight, in a bookstore, or train station between our homes—I imagine you there, in the places where I perfectly film you. They're about crying in front of you, running into your arms, and running away to hide from you—the scene depends on how my day went. 

I fall asleep at night hugging my pillow of what-ifs. Thinking of 'What if you were never my favorite almost?', 'What if I don't always have to prove how much you mean to me?', or 'What if it's always been me?'.

I fall asleep at night when my dreams float before me. Because I know that everything would not just be a dream if we chose the next option—choosing each other over and over again. 

I fall asleep at night accepting that there are three of us in this relationship: you, me, and my imagination of this relationship.

And I wake up in the morning trying to unlove you, but I don't recognize myself when I try. Because I still recognize the version of myself the last time you held me. It is still me. The person you loved. The person who loves you until her imagination makes her fall asleep."

—Jhunamae Moja(Smnllyl,Just sleep!)

Journal Date: 08.23.2023

Back in time

"If I could go back in time, I would just love you a little less for the flaws I see in you. I wish I loved you a pinch when you loved me so much. I wish it's not too late to unlove you for hurting me effortlessly which hurts so much invisibly."

–Jhunamae Moja(smnllyl,back in time)

Journal Date: August 1, 2023

Tacenda V2

 "I had hope that this new day would be the one that would set me free. That I would make it through without having to endure the pain of being chained from the night that I never imagine seeing you the last time. That it would forever separate us.

It took me almost a decade to wish for this day, to end everything I thought that'd be something. That I still read you even though this story bleeds in every chapter. I just re-reading all my letters for you until snail mail no longer exist. That I believe they are better left unsaid.

Whilst, you know that I still loved you secretly, softly, and patiently; and after all that, I allowed you to stop loving me, unfair to miss you, and sacred to forget you. We both know if we look back, everything just hurts. 

Being effortless in making me used to not having you around. When all your absence from my feats and defeats made me realize— it's time for me to finally end our story.

Though, as being effortless, another quilt for a letter will grow tomorrow. I will write again, for sure."

—Jhunamae Moja(smnllyl,tacenda v2)

Journal Date: 07.16.23

I hope it's okay

"It's been a couple of years since the last time we talked.

Would it be OK to admit that I still write about you? Would you feel moved if you read these tattooed letters I inked for you? 

After agreeing to each our own, I hope it's still okay to say Hello. Get to know where have you been these years. 

I hope it's still okay to be someone as your almost-a-friend. Even from the past years, we've been almost-a-lover at night and almost-a-strangers by morning.

I hope it's still okay to miss the hug you gave me after you got me a toy from a claw machine. I still have it. 

I hope it's still valid to have reasons why I run from something I never did. To haunt back the things I left along the way of saving the piece of love I carried for you.

I hope it's still okay to step on your doorway,  say Hi, and I promise to walk-out right away. Even in this letter, I admit I would stand on your doorway under the rain until my shoes filled with water— under the sun until I sweat an ocean.

I hope it's still okay to just say Hi."

—Jhunamae Moja (smnllyl,hi)

Journal Date: 07.13.23

Back to December

"I always wanted to go back from the night I met you on the last days of December, got a chance to hold your hands on January, and each us own by February."

—Jhunamae Moja (smnllyl,back to december)

Journal Date: 07.07.23

Sailor

"Tonight will be the night.

The night when the saddest lines will be written. Because I've been stranded in the middle of the ocean of regrets and don't know how to swim— I'll write this line in my letters for you over and over again. 

I've been trying to survive the nights I kept on measuring different depths of the sea to find where you left the broken piece of me. The piece that makes us...Us. Your love for me. 

When not sure enough where you abandoned it. But one thing is for sure, you could fill it in. Because you've been the sailor of my heart since then and the one that could save me from drowning.  

When not sure if you still have it in. In your heart. Because I still have them– I still remember the best pieces of you that I always treasure. Your memories in me.

But the saddest part of it all, I'm drowning with words for you. I am just a woman with a pen that writes about war in her heart, but not well-equipped to fight the war to win you back."

–Jhunamae Moja (smnllyl, sailor)

Journal Date: 07.05.23

Wishful thinking

"It's making me sad writing so much about you even though I don’t ever want you to see it. Because I know it’s not your fault to plot every word that comes out every time I think of you. Because you deserve more, more than words written on paper. I know my words are exaggerations. They are mostly scenarios I filmed in my head about you with the wishful thinking of seeing you again— even years have passed and none of it came true."

—Jhunamae Moja(Smnllyl, wishful thinking)
Journal Date: June 26, 2023

  

When I meet you again

"The moment I meet you again, maybe on the train station, bus going home, or in the mall where you broke me to dust. 

The moment I meet you again, I won't look at you with the eyes of pain. I won't try to look deeper in your eyes finding what I loved about you. I won't try to run for something I never did. I won't make you see all the written poems I made for you through my eyes. I won't give you a clue where I glued my broken heart for you to break it again. I won't be the same. 

I won't let you know that you made me a home and left me being flooded with regrets. I won't let you know that I thought we'd be more. 

The moment I meet you again, I'm am ready to see someone I don't want to talk about."

—Jhunamae Moja, smnllyl(when I meet you again)

Journal Date: June 14, 2023

Regrets at a later date

"As we take different time zone in our lives, I still wonder about things we never had in each other's arms. The curiosity in me that has never been answered when you have a lover. It seemed like we both end the story and I solely lose the war. It seemed like you left me in a hurry or dropped me off in the middle of a busy intersection and sped away.

I still wonder if it is OK to call you after a long time and ask you if we can make it again. If an apology can have you back. Are you gone forever? because all you left me is an ounce of questions.

I still wonder if we can be a good team with the time I should have spent with you. If it will be worthy of loving you every second of my life even if we are missing meaningful conversations. How does it feel to be loved more by you? Because by this moment, I regret the best things I should have seen with you.

I still hope not to regret it a little more when I get old. I still hope not to regret that I should have not left you in the mall, chased you down your street, stood on your gateway, and let people crucify me for driving up your wall. And regret every second I did not make myself enough for you in this lifetime.

I still hope that this love will stay because I believe, this is real."

— Jhunamae Moja (regrets at a later date, smnllyl)
Journal Date: 05.29.23

Tacenda

"Once more, here I am waking up against the nightmares about you. Crawling to find a paper to ink a story down, I could write us one better. Even though we never kissed and told our confusions right in each other's eyes. If it is just about how storms of us collided with us and wavered over us. 

A little more, here I am drowning as I sleep each night in an ocean of regrets— I should've held you tighter. I should've loved you a little more or a little less. I should've kept your baby picture in the box of your memories in me. I should've had strings left with someone I always loved. I should have you— whom I asked from above.

A little more, here I am drafting letters I know that will never be sent. With thousands of future emails that I sent you yesterday and cancelled it right away. With bookmarked lines that I highlighted for you. With lines of the song where I remember you. With crumpled papers I kept in my drawer where I write passages where we went wrong. With all my prose and poems — I let them sail through my hesitations to steam them all to you. I let them be my true blue. I let them growl every night and then. I let them be my good trauma between us even it became louder than my love for you.

And once more, I let myself ache with dreams tonight with wounds that hurts the most."

— Jhunamae Moja (tacenda, smnllyl)

Journal Date: 05.29.23

The Show

"Here I am for the nth time around, sitting in a show where its curtains are already closed.

Here are my fingers as I touch you through images with prose and poems that are no longer part of reality. Asking again if you will be in the picture with me again soon— If you will stay there and won't be cropped out later.

Here I am as I read your last online post, telling the world that no one loves you. Here I am aching for not letting you know all of the love I kept only for you. 

Here I am telling myself that these are the results of what I did and what I said in the past. Filtered memories we once shared become my physical pain. Wishing these are all just memories in the back of my head but instead, they turned into an ocean of regrets. Wishing I will wake up in the morning and you're gone in my head.

Here I am wishing this story will be the last thing I write about you."

—Jhunamae Moja (the show, smnllyl)

Journal Date: 05.08.23

Fixer

"It was the story of giving my heart to you in the morning, you'll break it in the afternoon, I'll pick it up in  te evening, and will give it to you again the next morning. It became a routine."

— Jhunamae Moja (fixer, smnllyl)

Journal Date:

Another Denouement

"I abandoned our conversation with the words I am proud of and stand to say. Though, I am always brave with the words I let you hear from me because they all beautifully came from a few pieces of me that you still own. And I don't want to be like you —someone who's been fearful of his words.

I knew it, It will be an episode of our denouement.

I knew it, I will end up being looked like a fool. As always.

But it's OK, like what I have mentioned above —I knew it"

—Jhunamae Moja (another denouement, smnllyl)

Journal Date:

Eight

"For the past eight years, but who's counting anyway? I wish I met you later than those years. I wish you still have them, the reasons why I admired you.

I'll just laugh if I see you again and I no longer see them."

–Jhunamae Moja (8, smnllyl)

Journal Date: 

Hex #f9bec0

"Half of the stories in here is about us,

the other half is my favorite shade of pink you invented."

—Jhunamae Moja (HEX #f9BEC0, smnllyl)

Journal Date: 

Hometown

"Whoever imagined that we were childhood townmate, we did not know each other for years, but we played the same fun that passed from the previous gen. We were singing the same trending songs that surely you screamed at the top of your lungs too. We were filled with the same lessons that our schools taught us. It was fun living in a town where all your happiness started from. I dreamed of living in that town until my bones get rusty. And I want to share all my memories in that town with my juniors and grandchildren. And I met you, a boy that was just a heartbeat away from home. It became a place under you. Your resemblance became your soldiers. Your thoughts served as your committee. Your footprints came to be your agendas. It seems like you injected that burg with your history wherein wherever I go, it voted your name in every intersection of that town. I never dreamed of living in a big city. But now, I am living in a crowded place with busy streets and unstoppable noise around me. And I would choose to be in this city forever while you are my hometown. I will not go back."

—Jhunamae Moja(Smnllyl, Hometown)

Journal Date: April 2021 
NB. Bare. Starry Night Journal.

You Became My Sadness

I hate to write 
About how this pain stayed after old happiness
I hate to admit  that in this world, 
You became my sadness 

I hate to remember
Sitting beside you, you were looking at me
Without wearing an expression that mirrors my feelings 

I hate to think that I always write 
About our moments on the bus going home
Seemed you were en route to your destination
Taking the best part of my heart
And turning the rest into dust 

I hate to let you hear this
When I admit this was written for you.

—Jhunamae Moja(Smnllyl,you became my sadness)
Journal Date: 02.14.2023

Waiting

For the past eight years, waiting has been my game. It was a game of hoping for you to miss me and disappoint me at the same time. It was the game of waiting for you to find another love around your circle and wanting you back at the same time. It was the game of waiting for another rejection. It was the game of loving another soul while waiting for you to ghost me again. Because I became your game. Waiting for you is the game I can not lose. Waiting is love.

—Jhunamae Moja (Smnllyl, waiting)

Journal Date:

Poor

This love is poor in every way. We can not see it in our purses of lucky coins. It shows no match even in the cheapest stone in the world. Someone will just toss it back into the ocean like a broken shell. Ended up planting what-ifs instead of plans. We can not grow this love because this is poor —that we can not afford even just friendship.

—Jhunamae Moja (Smnllyl, poor)

Journal Date:

Spilled Ink

I sometimes took note of every word you told me that made me live, confused, and sad. When I should've written everything. When every time I talked to you, I have nothing to shield myself from loving you more continuously and somehow secretly.

Those written words seemed spilled ink that glows after the fallout. It glows on the nights I grieve. I feel weak for needing to grieve since no one has died. And it doesn’t make sense that I grieve so much for someone who was no longer mine. 

And I am now spending my 8th year of mourning and erasing the stain you left me. 

—Jhunamae Moja (Smnllyl,spilled ink)

Journal Date:

Maybe Not

And then, the butterflies in my stomach will turn into anxiety of not having you. That I will still willing to give the gigantic part of me in exchange for the smallest broken part of you. 

—Jhunamae Moja(Smnllyl, maybe not)

Journal Date:

Maybe Now

And now, I long for the night to hear how your day went. To laugh at them through our giddy comments. I long for the night I write everything you can tell me. To cherish them now that even a word can not exist in our inboxes. I long for that six days I have freely hugged you. Because now, I just cuddle with the pain. 

–Jhunamae Moja (Smnllyl, maybe now)

Journal Date:

Maybe Someday

And someday, I will write not because of pain and foolishness but because it's my talent and I have good reason to start a page.

–Jhunamae Moja (Smnllyl, maybe someday)

Journal Date: 

Your love knocked me down

"I want to feel it again. To be someone's favorite human alive. The thirst and stomach ache I felt when you forgot to give me drinks on your birthday. To run your name in my chest with all possible meanings for the nth time around. Your jokes knocked me down to my bed and couldn't find the air to sustain the laugh. The scare we both felt the night I told you something talking from the ceiling and you called it Olaf.

I want to feel it again. Your love. But you loved me once and you think that was enough."

—Jhunamae Moja, Smnllyl(your love knocked me down)
Journal Date: 

Art of the game

Will you ever understand the damage you've made?

I learned the art of self-medicating

Through tears and poetries

Like a playing doctor

Because these are all a game to you

I always end up puzzling over this weakest spot 

And you memorized its cracks where I glued it

Hurting in your sudden absence 

You caused it.

Will you ever condone being the cure to all the faults? 

I learned the art of having what-ifs

Through our memories and stained souls

Like a playing doctor

Because these are all a game to you 

I know my heart is broken 

Because I am the doctor and you are the cure

But you leave, you always leave

It will forever be sick.

–Jhunamae Moja, Smnllyl(art of the game)

Journal Date:

So Different

Our lives are so different, yet here we are, sitting in the same city on different roads. Attempting not to cross our eyes again. Attempting to forget we were once known as lovers or friends. While were proving how many worlds apart we are. And we’re so many worlds apart —not even in the same universe.

Our thoughts are so different, yet here we are, sitting in the same city on different buses to take. You were busy getting your life better. You were happily crawling to your games. While I am now fitting all my frustration and disappointment in this too damn small city.

Our futures are so different, yet here we are, sitting in the same city with different thoughts about our dreams. You were sure about being a man of the sea. You were loving the sound of the ocean by now. While I am now confused with the sound of negativity in my head.

—Jhunamae Moja (Smnllyl, so different)

Journal Date: 11.06.2022

If we make it

"Maybe, if we make it,

I swim to your ocean to light where you are blue. My playlist is filled with love songs about you. Your words are what will keep me awake every night and what wakes me up in the morning. Your hello never sounds like goodbye but everything.

The monochrome rainbow inside my head is pink in all layers. Your favorites are well-listed in my mind. We have popcorn and soda over movies or games. Coffee and cookies over nice books. We can have a refrigerator-light dance with spins and bends. 

Maybe if we make it,

this is not the only way I let my love language be well-spoken. Because you are always well-written to every corner of my senses.

I wrote this, so that even just through these words, this way we can make it."

–Jhunamae Moja (If we make it, smnllyl)

Journal Date:

Treasure

"In the next years of this lifetime, our memories will be in a jar —kept on shelves of my feats. 

To remember that I once became a home by a man of the sea. A home between flying ships and sinking planes, never been wanted, never been haunted, and not wanting this kind of love again." 

–Jhunamae Moja (treasure, smnllyl)

Journal Date: 

The last time I saw you

"I walked out through the backdoor of the mall. I ran dumbfoundedly. I wondered if the world looked different to you that night because it certainly looked different to me."

— Jhunamae Moja (the last time I saw you, smnllyl)

Journal Date: 11.12.22

You Always Own It

"Here's the part for you, always been the same
Never been whole, never been claimed
You always own it
You always deny it

Always been shouting your name
Sneaking on its window pane
There were days it crawls back
To where it always belongs from
This bear in me calms when I say so
Think of you only to shut its claws

It roars at dusk
Memorized my hands on your lap
Your jacket smelled of chocolate perfume
The day we breathe in the same room

Here's the part for you, since I was sixteen
Never been haunted, never been needed
You always own it
You always deny it

Always searching for a second chance
When you have already gone
Or searching for closure
As a turmoil without any cure
Whatever is not meant for me
When there's nothing any
Turned like a void in my chest 
From the broken road between our fate

Will it be permanent?
Wanted to cross without looking back when I can't
A night with tears made scattered lights to the city
Felt like spinning and don’t find my center of gravity

Here's the part for you, haunted by your ghost
Left long-lasting footprints on my roads
You always own it
You always deny it

Always owned by you
Started with pink that turned into blue 
A gem that rests in the first corner of my heart
The faults on it turned into poems and arts
Not only when things go south
Because this is so much to talk about

This part of me to where I buried
The memories of you that ended their limit
You always own it.
Even if you never wanted it."

—Jhunamae Moja (you always own it, smnllyl)

Journal Date: 10.21.22

Soulmate

"I still believe that you are my soulmate. I just lost my soul for half and year. I never regret that I missed the train to come home to you. Maybe because I didn't see you lightning and waiting for me at the end of my tunnel. I took a bus driving the long way where they played nice music until I forgot that "Ours" is my favorite to remember you. I learned to carry my luggage alone.

I still believe that you are my soulmate. I just missed reminding you that I was there for years waiting after I walked out that night. Years of waiting became our fallouts.

I still believe that you are my soulmate. Even if we only have chances to talk when it is convenient for you. If it is not, it subsides. All chances never offered us to light another one, it always rains. 

I still believe that you are my soulmate. Where in this world, soulmates are meant to cross along happiness but with different roads to take after the stoplight. 

I just believe that you are my soulmate and my heart can't deny it."

—Jhunamae Moja (soulmate,smnllyl)

Journal Date: 08.27.2022

26th

"It's funny how mornings of this date in December take my first breath.

Funny. In every way of December 26th(s).

I still feel the night when I felt a little lost and no one ran after me. To go back to where I belonged. Not there. Not to every place you have been and will be. To go back to where I am alone with my thoughts of you —a perfect place where you are mine, always mine. 

I still feel the night when I can not make my feet worthy enough to walk on the same ground you walk upon. Nothing I can do would ever make my heart worthy enough to share the love with yours. That night, nothing in my wallet could afford your love.

I still feel the night when I felt walking on a tightrope of being unwanted as I finally walked out. That night, your ghost started to walk up into my sleeves. That night, I realized were not on the same page and had never been in the same book.

I still feel the night when I wanted to go back —even to just look back. Even it will anchor me again to you. Even it will make my feelings swirl again. But I never did. Because I never thought we will end that way —never thought I will see you the last time in that way.

I still feel the night when lights inside the mall were scattered all over my eyes. I stopped them all. I wiped them all. I gathered them all. I saved all the tears for my pillow.

I still feel like that night.

I always will.

It's funny because it is the same as my birthdate.

Or should I say "sad" in every way?

It's sad how nights of this date in December will take my last breath before meeting my 27th."

–Jhunamae Moja, Smnllyl(26th)

Journal Date: 12.26.21

What do I always write about?

"Every word I write is either about you or about us. 
Though it is not my way of hoping or holding on, this is me letting go.
This book is a draft of my happy ending without you.
This is me reminiscing my story, writing about this puppy love from being a kid inside me.
Yes, a puppy love. 
That left a stain on my soul.
And I know that I don't write about the love we shared but about the pain after it. 
From the pain, I sail away but still not getting anywhere. 
And I'm not yet satisfied with the drafts I brought in over the nights about my happy ending.

So I write. 
I always write."

–Jhunamae Moja, Smnllyl(what do I always write about?)
Journal Date: 12.25.21

Vow

"I always want you to remember in a good way. Because we always vow our goodbyes. And maybe in the next days, weeks, or months, we mess up again and choose to go our separate ways again— always remember that on the other days, weeks, or months, I will be there again, saying Hi. Because I will always be your girl who will keep on coming back to you, to watch over you, and to mess up again with you."

—Jhunamae Moja(Smnllyl, Vow)

Journal Date: April 2021 
NB. Notes from February. Pink Journal. 

Home

"I was so sure that our home door will close one day

I watched you leave with the key as my access to it

I wish I'm tapping your back when you're drunk by your negativity.

But we all have our own little excuses and our own little unspoken truths

I wished to be the back of your hand when you cry

But I messed up once again. Once more.

You left.

And I should be okay with it, I should let you off

I should stay, and don't chase you anymore.

Letting you sail away hurts, it badly hurts

And I think that the deepest wound that you left me is when I became a poet

Because I wished I found myself first before I found it in your eyes

And I always seek home since I saw a home in you, but home seems so far away now.

Your life seems measured waves, aligned shore, and toned splashes—it is perfectly made

And dewdrops in my hair at night, being jealous with things that make up your day, being blamed, and being lost will be okay. 

I deserve it. 

But please, open the door for me when it's right and when it's not right, it's okay.

One day, that door won't bother me anymore —not even pushing different keys for it because I knew it won't work. 

Someday, when you give that key away and I see it in another warm hand, it will be okay."

—Jhunamae Moja (home,smnllyl)

Journal Date: 

Nothing

 

"You don't have to fight for me— not with the word "anymore" because you never did. You don't have to fight for me— when in the first place your rival was just your ego. You don't have to fight for me because I knew you as someone who feels upset when your friends just tease you. I knew you as someone with a resting love on your hands only for your mom. I knew you as someone with your heart anchored in the ocean. I knew you as someone with superhero-like responsibilities. I knew you as someone who never protects my name. I knew you as someone who made me think that I am not enough. I knew you as someone who comes back without saying "hello" and disappears without saying "goodbye". I knew you as someone with shallow happiness about us. I knew you as cowardly as your weakest bone enveloped by 3 AM's wind blows. 

More of that, you don't have to fight for me, I just wish you know that you are still someone I look up to. You are still my source of silly jokes. You are still someone I highly respect even if you want to feel like a baby boy of your mom forever. You are still the bravest sailor I have ever known. You are still my favorite person who calls my real name. You are still enough in return. You are still the reason for me to leave my shoes on the seaside for you to know where I last stepped while waiting for you. You are still the happiest reason for me to wake up even though we don't see each other in the morning. You are still the best coward man I think of at 3 AM. 

You are still that brand even though I knew you like someone telling himself not to fight anymore when he only risk nothing. "

—Jhunamae Moja (nothing, smnllyl)

Journal Date: 04.09.2021

Is it a happy place to be?

"I understand that you were done
In all of these dramas,
Like what I always catalyze you
From that day you admitted that
There are colder shoulders than I used to feel on
I understand
If I have your eyes
I will do the same
I will consistently tell this person, I'm done

I will be there too
Speak without thinking twice
Consider what I feel is always valid
Inhale this own breath again
To tell our story without crying
Have a coffee without seeing you stirring around
Unintentionally forget the headdress you put on me
And not wanting everything to be written

I will be there too."

–Jhunamae Moja (Is it a happy place to be?, smnllyl)

Journal Date: 02.24.2021

All my fault

 

"Maybe, my fault as I laid my happiness on your hands. It was my fault to let half of my mornings be wasted by thinking of you. It was my fault that I still read you while you were the naked book behind the vintage shelf in my gigantic library. It was my fault when I still opened the door while you brought your suitcase of insecurities. It was my fault for having sleepless nights writing about you until my morning alarm clock rang. It was my fault when I said another hello while you were treating me as a broken bone that years to heal. It was my fault for saying goodbye when I know that I never leave. It was my fault that I don't know how to leave. It was all my fault."

 —Jhunamae Moja (all my fault, smnllyl)

Journal Date: 02.14.2021

Less than what I used to

"If I could just love you less, I would."

—Jhunamae Moja(smnllyl,less)

Journal Date: 04.18.20

Boundaries

 

"I want to define how I moved on, the way I stopped waiting for your calls, the way I passed on an empty grocery aisle to buy my favorite perfume and don't want it anymore, the way I looked at the moon without waiting for it to be whole again, the way I dreamed of the sun as if it was a guide back from the depth of despair you caused me, the way I put back the broken heart like lego parts I fell clumsily, the way I muted you in real life and called boundaries, the way I deleted the photos I once pasted in an album I gave you— deleted up to the backup files I kept until I shivered from the coldest kiss-off you showed me and the way I rushed in a castle to dance with another man without leaning from my balcony of realization to your shallow and damp lake of fondness."

—Jhunamae Moja (boundaries, smnllyl)

Journal Date: 03.20.2020

I stayed

"I stayed for days giving this love reasons to stay. I stayed for weeks realizing what I did wrong why you left it. I stayed for months to accept that it was all my fault. I stayed for half-year assuming that you will come back. I stayed for a year longing for justice why this love ended easily. I stayed for a couple of years and still waiting for you. When I stayed a little longer, I realized that maybe this love was just a piece of baggage that hasn't been claimed by someone who's not coming back. Maybe, he no longer needs it. Maybe, he thinks that it was rotten over time. Maybe, he thinks that it was claimed by others. I kept it to myself before knowing that it was just garbage for you. "

—Jhunamae Moja (I stayed,smnllyl)

Journal Date: 02.26.2020

Happiness

"With the gaps in our conversation, you chose to forget me while I was still longing for you to miss me. For you, it was easier to just move on like you never met me than to cross my life again. For you, it will always be.

With the gaps, I was running around the circle —far from the radius of probability that you will long for me too. Running around wishing for you to catch me first. I got tired somehow. Also, from thereon, I just concluded that my absence was not your thing. For you, it will never be. 

Still, your happiness is my thing and will ever be. Even without me. Your smile shines up to where I sit now. Whilst maybe, my happiness will never be someone's thing too and will never be yours —that all about me is fated to be brewed and served only just for me.

For now, please allow me to sit here, from where I have the perfect view of you, from where I decided to pause, and from where I will be starting to let go.

From the gaps, I'm counting the blessings in between."

—Jhunamae Moja (happiness, Smnllyl) 

Journal Date: 01.20.20

It will take me a jar of courage

"The next moment I will be sitting against you over a coffee or other wonderful things, I wish it is not an episode of our denouement or just a memory to be kept — I want it to be part of our tomorrow and always."

—Jhunamae Moja(Smnllyl, Jar)
Journal Date: 2019 
NB. Note 3 

Enough

"Maybe, you do love me. 

But words are words and actions are actions. 

Because I've experienced and witnessed myself in enough brokenness - I didn't know why I hadn't discovered the difference between those words yet. And with all my heart, I can tell you that maybe you do love me — at some time in your life. Maybe, I became your favorite person once in this lifetime. Maybe, I made you happy in the moments you needed someone to. Maybe, I made you feel loved somehow through words I sent you — which will never be my loss because I have the purest intentions from my most sincere heart. 

And in return,

As my reward, 

Can I ask you these...

How many times you have made me feel confused?

How many times you have filled my heart with what-ifs and unrequited love?

With sorrow?

How many times I have felt the bitterness?

The emptiness?

The endless void that leads to nowhere?

How many times have I cried?

Enough tears to fill an ocean?

How many? 

A million. God, I don't want to count anymore."

—Jhunamae Moja (Smnllyl, enough)

Journal Date: 12.27.19

Bring It To The Sea!

A letter to a man of the sea.

Forget everything but not your strength and faith to be a seafarer. Pack your achievements or feats and scream it all in the middle of your voyage. Fold every anxiety and pressure growing in your heartbeats —hide it under your family pictures and hugs from your mom. Roll all of your visions of not being befriended by your mates and toss them aside. Load every single edge of you that you believe they would like about you.

Pile your ambitions and dreams aside from being a man of the sea and make sure you have it in. Gear up your anxiety weapons and pressure shields once it comes out when still on board. Tie all strands of your fear and decide if you would bring it in. Bring it all in your luggage of dreams and plans to navigate the story of your life.

Tuck your hopes in every pocket of it to be nurtured by the sea. Bring it all to the sea of reality.

Journal Date: 2019

NB. He made this title.

Excerpts from enveloped letters…

Dear Love, Have you seen them all? Those wonderful things around your ship, those fishes that turned out to be your TV, and the night sky full of stars that perfectly aligned. You have seen them all, for sure. Because I know you are now living in your dreams through reality. I am happy for you. You deserve to be where you are now, Jap. 

Journal Date: December 2019 NB. Envelope 1. 

════ ⋆★⋆ ════ 

Dear Love, Even though we ended up waking at different sunrise, I hope God will mean a time for us to meet again. I will never doubt if it's impossible by now. I will continue loving you from afar. Clapping for your success over the ocean. I will be happy sitting here on the shore. 

Journal Date: December 2019 NB. Envelope 4. 

════ ⋆★⋆ ════ 

Dear Love, It's another day of not finding appropriate words to puzzle and put into an awful story about us. I master this art in the back of my head but still, all I can be able to write is about my foolishness.

Journal Date: December 2019 NB. Envelope 6. 

════ ⋆★⋆ ════

—Jhunamae Moja(Smnllyl, excerpts)

Imagination

 

"How I remember the day you lent me your favorite jacket and you took me a photo while I was hiding in it, to sniff it — it breathes like you. I had it in my skinny body until we called it a day. At the same moment, I was afraid to let it go and return it to you because of the warmth that felt like home. 

It happened. You brought it with you when you left. My heart. I left it underneath the sleeves that melted me up to roads walking home.

Until it became just an imagination of home. It all became stand-alone. But way different from what I felt that day.

The door became locked with my keys, making me stand in the rain for hours. The ceiling that I looked up to became a battleground of my overthinking.  The floor when I walk felt like walking on a tightrope of being unwanted. The kitchen never served me freshly baked plans and brewed hopes for us. The window darkened with hesitation to clear the feelings between us. The roof that never protected my name towards the storm which you also navigated.

From your favorite jacket, I just imagine that I became your favorite too somehow.

Again, this home —was just an imagination.

That maybe in my imagination, we can still make it."

—Jhunamae Moja (imagination,Smnllyl)

Journal Date: 11.02.2019

Forced

"There were days I forced myself to write over the sentiments I once confessed, about the same rain I heard before, touching a twinge I once devoted to lyrics you poorly vocalize, subjecting the feeling when you carried me on your back under the same ceiling, the last phone call you hang up that left my eyes as soggy as a windshield glows and about how your eyes become galaxies I get lost in. I forced myself to narrate an unnecessary fiction when I wished to have a coffee on the window instead. To write something vague and uncertain future when I missed the window to watch the bluest sky. I forced a pen to give me better shades of our downcast-weaved story. I forced myself to scribble—all because you ran away without pulling one on the shelf of stories, I made for you. You handed me a pen instead of an umbrella under the unstoppable downpour. You let me hear the bridge alone that made me feel a little lost. You let me see the fate resting on your back that I once wished to be you. You hang the phone over a leading-off conversation when still giggling over a wine. And to write because I found my favorite constellation in your glimmering eyes of hope. It was all forced because I thought you were forcing it too—for us to be fated to each other. All the bluest skies just faded as fast as my coffee's meringue. All sheets wasted and inked by traceable erasures of the undesigned story of us. And all the things coming from force never been succeeded."

—Jhunamae Moja(Smnllyl, Forced)

Journal Date: 9.02.2019 
NB. Awarded with most exaggerated wordings.20th entry. Violet Journal.