I was at the LRT station waiting for the train to arrive. People as usual started moving closer to the door when the train drew nearer. The only difference: When I got inside the train, I noticed my left tsinelas was missing. I looked around to find it but when I found it, it might as well have been torn to shreds. Because I’d have a harder time walking in it, I decided to carry it instead, and got down at my destination with one foot bare, one foot with a tsinelas.

Everyone was staring at me as if I was some insane taong-grasa. I walked to the nearest convenience store just to buy superglue because there were no slippers that I could buy along the way.
Janjan Rufo, by email