Kopimatcha Chapter 3 — A HINT OF FEELING

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The campus expo brought together a lot of people who usually only knew each other by name or face.

Including Raga and Hana.

They were on the same committee. Not in the same division where they had to work side by side every day, but they crossed paths often enough and occasionally had to discuss things for the event.

Then, one day, they were assigned to make a poster for the expo.

Raga was in charge of the design.

Hana helped with the concept and some of the details that needed to go into the poster.

They sat across from each other, a laptop open on the table between them.

Raga pulled up the design he had been working on.

“What do you think?”

Hana studied the screen for a few seconds.

“It’s good.”

Raga waited.

“That’s it?”

Hana nodded.

“Yeah.”

“Just ‘good’?”

Hana looked at him.

“What else am I supposed to say?”

Raga chuckled.

“I don’t know. Give me something.”

Hana looked back at the screen.

“I think the character needs a name.”

Raga glanced at the character he had drawn.

“Does it really need one?”

“Of course.”

“Why?”

“So we don’t have to keep calling it ‘the character on the poster.’”

Raga laughed softly.

“Okay, then. What should we call it?”

“I don’t know. You drew it.”

“Then you name it.”

Hana looked at him.

“Why me?”

“Because you’re the one who said it needs a name.”

Hana fell silent for a moment, then turned her attention back to the screen.

“Fine.”

She started thinking of a few names.

Meanwhile, Raga went back to adjusting the design.

Every now and then, Hana would point something out.

“Don’t make that one too big.”

“Why?”

“It’ll cover the text.”

Raga moved the image slightly.

“Like this?”

“Yeah. That’s better.”

A few minutes later, Hana finally came up with a name she thought suited the character.

She told Raga.

His hand stopped on the mouse.

“Hmm.”

“What?”

“Not bad.”

Hana immediately turned to him.

“Not bad?”

Raga smiled.

“I mean, it’s good.”

“There’s a difference.”

“Fine. It’s good.”

Hana turned back to the laptop.

“Much better.”

Raga continued working on the design.

They didn’t talk much after that.

They simply focused on the task.

Raga worked on the drawing.

Hana thought about the name and a few other details.

Sometimes they asked each other for opinions.

Sometimes they disagreed.

Sometimes one of them changed something the other had already worked on.

Nothing special.

Just little things.

But somehow, that simple assignment gave them more reasons to talk.

Hana began to realize that Raga was actually pretty serious when he was working on something he enjoyed.

Raga, meanwhile, started to realize that Hana wasn’t as quiet as he had initially thought.

Once she had an opinion, she could be surprisingly stubborn about it.

And, for some reason, he found that a little amusing.

Especially when they disagreed again.

“I still like the previous one better.”

“The previous one was too crowded.”

“It’s an expo, not a wedding invitation.”

Hana tried not to smile.

“So?”

“So don’t make it too plain.”

“As long as it’s clear.”

Raga shook his head, smiling.

“You’re pretty stubborn, huh?”

“Why?”

“We disagree on almost everything.”

Hana simply shrugged.

“That doesn’t mean we have to agree all the time.”

Raga didn’t answer.

He just looked back at the screen.

Maybe Hana had a point.

They didn’t have to agree on everything.

Besides, they had never been that similar in the first place.

But that day, for the first time, their differences didn’t feel like a problem.

If anything, they made an otherwise ordinary task a little more fun.

Eventually, the poster was finished.

Raga’s character now had the name Hana had chosen.

And without either of them realizing it, something had quietly changed between them.

Nothing big.

Just a little more ease when they talked.

A little more curiosity than before.

And the presence of someone who was becoming a little harder to ignore.

It wasn’t a feeling they could put a name to yet.

Not yet.

Just something small.

Something neither of them quite understood.

Something that made them a little more curious about each other.

Just a little feeling.