Player of the Game

Track 31: Perfect (Ed Sheeran)

11:00PM 

My darling Julia, 

I was with her today. Of course, she started the day with her usual arrogance. 

Pardon me though. There's just something about her that makes me want to abandon my coffee and start my night of musings right away. 

I like it when she smiles. For she does it in secret.

She knows it when I watch. 

Jia, I know she does. And she lets me.  

Yours forever,

Fel

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"When I saw you, you were there," Bea was pointing at some old building behind Oble. Students have gathered at the foot of the stairs, a lot of them bearing red cloth. 

Bakit ba tuwing pupunta ako sa mga campuses ng UP, saktong may rally going on. I just hope this one's a better day.

"...in your CALABARZON jersey. Hindi ko alam what was it that I saw in you pero I spent a valuable amount of time watching you."

"Ano'ng ginagawa mo dito? Participant ka ba?" I tried to drive away from the topic pero deep inside I was a whirlwind of emotions as I try to process Bea's disclosures on (a) meeting me earlier in our lifetimes without me knowing it and Fel and Maddie and everyone else otherwise did (b) me being her dream girl (c) can't and won't ever have the ability to fucking process (d) had it been a valid assumption.

Bea chuckled at my ignorance. "No silly. I was here because I was submitting my requirements for this high school entrance exam."

"High school? Dito sa Laguna?"

"It was my dream school. I didn't get in the first try. So the moment I heard they're going to conduct another set of tests for second years, I went for it immediately. Back in high school, I was ambitious. It was far from comfort zone. It was perfect." 

"Unbelievable."

"2 percent passing rate. I was 14 and wanted a challenge."

"Did she want you to go there?" My voice was almost breaking, too weak for my supposed shot. I tremble as I chew on my bottom lip and look around the elements of the surroundings. Students have started walking out of the buildings, talking among themselves animatedly. How I wished I could  go back to being like them, uninhabited and still fond of the events of everyday lives. 

Well, I'm still like them just not in the ways one would normally adhere, too. My ways have gone too depressing. 

"It was supposed to impress her." Her voice was quiet and constrained. Her nostalgia put splices on my lingering affection for the person that she presents in front of me.

"You just told me you wanted a challenge for yourself."

"That high school and Fel were the challenge. The two were everything that I wanted that time." 

"And then you saw me?"

"And then I saw you."

"How was everything pagkatapos mo ako makita?"