She had no choice, but to wait for the concert to end. Even when she didn't want to admit to herself, she was truly enjoying being there and listening to the voice of Clyde's twin.
The last song that they performed was dedicated to a girl whose name wasn't disclosed. The song wasn't the same as the usual kind of songs that they performed throughout the night. It made everyone go silent, attention fixed at the band performing in front, and just absorbing the last song of the night.
I don't know
What you're doing to me
Your sweet smile is what
I'd like to see
Be with me, girl
Be my darling baby...
I wish you will be forever mine.
I know right from the start you are the love of my life.
She stared at the guy as he was singing, remembering that it was the same song that he sang years back when he was at the veranda of their house. It was the song that he said he composed by himself.
Natasha noticed that his eyes were scanning the crowd, it seemed like he was looking for something, something—she didn't know for certain. She could feel his emotions as he sang the song as he really meant it, as if he wanted that girl to hear.
She couldn't help but feel sad the more she listened to the song. The guy's facial expression was stern, and his eyes screamed sadness, probably because he failed to find whatever or whoever he was looking for.
After the concert, Shirley grabbed hold of her arm in a flash before telling her about her plan to sneak inside backstage to take pictures of the band once again. She saw that there were a lot of people who went up, and it looked like they also had the same plan in mind.
She was only able to sigh in relief the moment they stepped out of the vicinity.
"You're such a killjoy," Shirley said with a creased forehead and slightly pouting lips.
"You already have plenty of pictures with them," she answered.
"Eh, you were the only one who got to take pictures beside my crush! I'm very mad at you," she complained.
Natasha chose not to answer. She called her grandmother to tell her that she'd be spending the night at Shirley's house because the night was already deep, and Shirley's parents would be going back home the next day anyway.
Her grandmother then agreed as it was already dark, and she'd only have a hard time going back home.
"I'll just go to the bathroom," said Shirley the moment she dropped the call. She didn't wait for her to answer as the girl quickly walked away from her.
She knew that her friend really wasn't going to the bathroom. Her decision to go backstage was already set so there was barely anything that Natasha could do to stop her friend so she just let her be.
She decided to walk at the back of the vicinity, near a tree, as she decided to wait for her there. There were still a lot of people around, probably a lot of them were still hoping that they could get a picture or at least a last glimpse of the band before they left.
Natasha stopped walking when she heard a voice coming from a distance not so far from where she was.
"I have been looking for you since a while ago. I thought you wouldn't come here with me." It was Kyle's voice that she heard.
She saw the guy standing in front of a gorgeous woman. The area was quite dim, but she could still see how fair the girl's skin was.
Was she an actress?
"Kyle, I thought I made it clear to you. You know that I do support you with all the things that you want to do in life, but I just hope that you'd know what to prioritize. Please know what's most important." The girl sighed after saying that.
"This is important for me, Claire. I also have good news. Our big concert is finally happening! I wanted to tell that to you before we set out on our journey here, but you weren't answering my calls." He was gently holding her shoulders as he said that.
"Kyle, you don't have to do that. I know that what you earn from those concerts is just pennies. You have companies to manage. Why don't you follow Clyde instead—"
"It's Clyde again this time. Why do you always compare me to my brother? I know that he's the favorite grandson. Really, Claire? Even you? I thought you're the one who could understand me." The pain lingered in his voice when he said that.
Natasha didn't know why she chose to stay there and continued listening to both of them talking. She knew that she shouldn't stick her nose to other people's businesses and that it wasn't exactly right to eavesdrop on a conversation, but she couldn't move a muscle and just continued standing there.
"Kyle, I love you and if you love me too, you would do what is right," she said softly before grabbing his hands.
Kyle looked at her with a sad expression in his eyes.
"Tell me, what's the right thing to do, Claire? To follow Clyde's footsteps and lose my identity in the process?"
The expression on the girl's face changed. Her eyebrows furrowed before she let go of his hands and stepped away for a few steps.
"Why are you like that? You're very paranoid whenever your twin comes into the picture. You're the only one who keeps pushing your family away. You know what? I don't think this will work. I guess this is goodbye, Kyle." Her voice was sad.
She turned her back before walking towards the car that was parked nearby. Kyle didn't move an inch, and just let the girl be. When he was about to look in Natasha's direction, she quickly ran away, afraid that he'd find out that she was listening to their conversation.
She even almost bumped against Shirley.
"Oh, who's chasing you?" she asked with a confused expression on her face.
"N-No one. Let's go. Were you successful with your backstage-venture attempt?" she quickly asked her to divert the topic into something else.
Her smile didn't reach her eyes. "How did you know that I was going there?" She scratched her head.
She rolled her eyes at her friend. "I know you more than you can imagine, Shirley. You can never keep something from me," she replied to her question before holding her arm to lead her back home.
"I really went backstage, but Kyle wasn't even there," she said with a sad expression.
Natasha didn't bother telling her friend about what she just witnessed a moment ago. She chose to keep silent on their way back to her friend's house.
The memory of Kyle's face was still running in her mind. She couldn't stop thinking about the sadness that lingered there when that gorgeous girl walked away.
Did he dedicate that song to that girl?
She stared at the album that she was holding. Her plan was to give it to Shirley, but she decided not to even when she really didn't like that cocky guy.
'Why would I include the album just because I was annoyed by him?' she thought to herself.
Before they finally hit the sack, she asked Shirley to send her copies of the pictures that she took back at the concert.
'For what?' her mind asked.
She didn't mind the question.
Shirley even tried to convince her that she should give her the things that she won from that concert, but Natasha declined and told her she'd keep them as souvenirs. Instead, she promised she'd treat her the next day. The girl agreed, fortunately.
Shirley had been long asleep, but she, on the other hand, barely felt the need to go to sleep. She was holding her phone and was searching for details about Kyle's band. There were only a few pictures available on the internet because the band was just formed a year ago.
She saw a picture of Kyle together with a girl. She thought that it was the same girl that she saw a while ago.
Claire Samaniego. The girl's clan was known, and luxury was quite evident from her countenance.
They were both smiling in the picture, and one could really see that they were happy.
Why didn't Kyle ask her not to leave? Did they really break up? It was very unfortunate as they looked like they were meant to be.
'Well, serve him right. His cockiness must've been the reason why she broke up with him,' she thought to herself, but deep inside her, she couldn't help but empathize with him as well.
She finally chose to put her phone down as she'd only have more trouble sleeping. She no longer wanted to think about them. It wasn't her problem in the first place. The one that she should be thinking about was Clyde.
She immediately smiled at the thought of him, hugging her pillow as she closed her eyes.
Clyde, my love...
She was finally able to graduate with her degree in Education. Her grandmother wanted her to review so she could finally be an educator, but Natasha didn’t really have plans on teaching. What she wanted to do was to apply for work just so she could save up some money that would take her to Manila, closer to Clyde. After all those years, after everything that had happened, she still hadn’t let go of her dream of becoming Mrs. del Espania even when she hadn’t really seen the guy again. Meanwhile, the twins’ grandmother rarely went back there as the old woman became even busier because of the ever-growing success of their modeling agency that was popularly known as Dynasty Agency. She would see her on the television a lot of times, including Clyde, which was the reason why her feelings towards the guy never really went away. She also found out the career of his twin brother, Kyle, has been a growing success. She wasn’t able to go to the concert of his band as she gave t
Even when her aunt was confused with her sudden resignation, she still agreed for her to do so when she said that she would already be working in Manila. She was surprised but had no choice but to be happy for her.When the night came, she talked to her grandmother. They just finished eating by then, and they were currently sitting, watching a show on the TV. It was because the old woman no longer accepts customers beyond five in the afternoon.“Grandma?" she started."Hmmm?" the old woman answered, her eyes were still fixed on the TV. She seemed passionate about watching as the show that was airing was her favorite telenovela.Natasha swallowed the lump on her throat before opening her mouth to say something again.“I-I’ll be going to Manila this Monday.”"Will you stroll with Shirley there?” she asked with no hesitation as her eyes never left the TV.It was almost a five-hour trip from their place to Ma
It was only three in the morning, but she was already up to start preparing for the day. There was an uncontrollable feeling in her chest that she couldn’t stop feeling even when she told herself to. Manila was still a five-hour ride away, and that was already the day that she had been looking forward to.Natasha jerked awake, and immediately went to the bathroom to take a shower. She didn’t mind even when the water was utterly cold. After showering, she changed into the clothes that she prepared for herself. She wore a yellow blouse that had a pair of long sleeves. It was also her first time wearing a skirt that didn’t go beyond her knees, making her decide to wear black stockings as she didn’t feel that comfortable with the length of her skirt as if it was too short for her own liking. She just wasn’t used to it. Her shoes, on the other hand, were flat and were red in color. She also put her long, curly hair into a bun to keep herself from look
She quickly followed the guy, the cup of coffee was still in her hands. She even burnt herself in the process as she really did just follow him without really giving it a second thought. Even before the elevator door closed, she was able to stop it from closing.“Oops! Sorry about that.” The guy quickly pressed the button of the elevator in order to stop it from closing, but it was already too late as she was already in between the two closing doors of the elevator itself.She was quick to get inside before fixing her bag on her shoulders, and the cup of coffee that she was still holding."T-thank you," she muttered before smiling at him when she finally stepped inside the elevator.They were the only ones inside the elevator that really made Natasha’s heart beat hard against her chest."What floor?" the guy asked."H-huh?" She couldn’t help but be confused about the question that he just asked."Which fl
Her smile still hadn’t faded away even when she was already inside the elevator, and was already heading down. She finished every last droplet of the coffee from the paper cup and even kissed the cup itself. She had no plans on throwing the cup in the trash bin. Why would she? The ghost of Clyde’s lips was still there.She could no longer count how many times she kissed the paper cup before the elevator door opened. When the door opened, she was face to face with a man who probably saw her kissing the cup as confusion was evident in his countenance. Two of his companions even stared at her as well. The timing wasn’t really on her side as when the door opened, she was still kissing the cup, and who knew how strange she could’ve looked for doing so even when she was quick to stop what she was doing. She was already on the ground floor.Shit! It was Clyde who saw her doing that strange thing!Wait!But Clyde was upstairs, right? Why w
Just as her grandmother told her, she slept in the house of their relative who was living in Manila before she went back home the morning after. The moment she stepped inside the house, she immediately told her grandmother about the good news. The old woman was happy, but she still couldn’t help but be worried as it would be the first time that she’d be far from her for a long time, but she chose to strengthen her guts because she was already adamant with her decision. She also told Shirley that she was accepted in Clyde’s company. Her friend was also happy for her.Her work would start on Monday already. Luckily, there was a room that she could rent that Joy had found for her since it would be too troublesome if she’d stay in her relative’s house as it was far from where she would be working.She was even having a hard time picking out clothes in the thrift store that she could wear in the office.She knew that it wouldn’t be
It had already been an hour since she started staring absentmindedly at her phone because he couldn’t find the address of the company’s owner. It wasn’t mentioned in the interviews, of course. She had been scratching her head because of the frustration that she was feeling that only made her curly hair even messier.She got her phone, hoping that the address of the house of Clyde’s grandmother would miraculously appear on a search engine, but of course, it wasn’t online. When she searched on her social media account, looking for her name, the only thing that she saw was the page of the company, and what was the company all about.She was already feeling the strong urge to call her boss, Zara, but she was afraid that she’d scold her more. She didn’t even bother searching for Clyde because she knew that the guy didn’t have any social media accounts. She had already tried searching for him before.How about Kyle?
The next day, she woke up at four in the morning. It was her first day at work so she was adamant to do things well. She was wearing green polka dots and a pair of pink slacks. Meanwhile, she put her thick hair into a bun, making it look as if she was carrying a big ball of hair in her head again. She also put on her big glasses to complete the look.She only drank a cup of coffee because she still didn’t feel like eating as it was still very early. Before the clock struck five, she had already left the boarding house. There were already a number of people outside the apartment as there were stores lined up nearby. She was only walking, reading the address that was sent to her. She didn’t want to hail a cab because it would only cost her more money.As she was standing beside the road, waiting for a jeepney, she asked people for directions, and she was told to ride a jeepney twice before she could finally reach her destination. Even when it was still early,