Not a Coincidence

Chapter 5: Was it a date?

I was in the cafeteria, eating my lunch, when my phone lit up, and it took me less than a second to reach for it. Clarisse was nowhere to be seen. 

She said she's going to buy herself something to eat bukod sa lunch meal ng university. Hindi siya mahilig sa heavy meal tuwing lunch dahil daw mabilis siyang tumaba roon. Kaya naman tuwing lunch break minsan ay nauuna na akong kumakain habang siya naman ay lumalabas pa sa P.Noval.

Habang binabasa ang huling message ni Clarisse, may biglang lumabas sa notification panel ko. 

Juan Gomez de Liaño sent you a direct message.

I quickly put down my spoon and fork to open his message...from Twitter.

He was asking for my number for two straight weeks but I didn't give it to him, of course. It was more like a personal space for me. Kung ibibigay ko man ang number ko ay dapat may mahalagang rason para rito. Kaya naman hindi ko mabigay-bigay kay Juan. 

Since that night, Clarisse and Lea apologized to me multiple times when I informed them of the accident. Sabi nila ay hindi na kami pupunta kahit kailan para sa clubbing dahil ayaw na nilang maulit iyon. Good thing Juan was really there to save me. 

And being the good friends that they were, the teasing got intensified and they wanted to make me believe that Juan was my knight in shining armor. Kahit na pang-aasar lang ito, hindi ko rin mai-de-deny na talagang niligtas niya ako. 

Ever since I followed him back on twitter and since the incident, Juan literally had nothing to do but to annoy me until he says he's laughing from where he is, out of breath. Napadalas na rin ang usapan namin pero sa twitter iyon dahil hindi ko binibigay ang number ko.

He likes to update me on everything he's doing when he is late for practice, when he is going home late...and feeding his dogs. To top it all, ang random lang niya sa pagku-kwento.

But I didn't mind. I kind of liked the way Juan blabbered about almost everything. It didn't sound boring to me at least. Natutuwa rin naman ako sa mga nalalaman ko tungkol sa araw niya. 

Juan Gomez de Liaño:
Not a basketball fan, are you?

I took a deep breath and let out a sigh.

He has been inviting me to watch UAAP so that he could show me what I've been missing out on my whole life, but I was declining his offers. Hindi kasi ako palanood ng sports o ng kahit anong laro. I don't even watch games of UST.

Pero kahit na ganoon, alam kong tama siya na masaya nga ata ang UAAP. I've heard of it a couple of times from home because my Tatay watches it on TV. But I just didn't care about it because it wasn't my interest. 

But since Juan came around, being the convincing guy that he is, I admit, nagsisimula na rin akong maging curious tungkol dito. 

Belle Isandrina Lacasandile:
Not a fan, persistent guy.

Two weeks na rin ng huli kaming magkita ni Juan dahil may mga trainings siya at busy din ako sa pag-aaral. After that night at Katipunan, I thanked him through Twitter dahil 'yun lang ang tanging paraan na meron ako para makapagpasalamat ulit. And, unexpectedly, that was how our conversation started.

And that was how the whole 'annoying me every single day started until I asked him why.

He said he wanted to be friends. I contemplated it very hard because being friends with a Juan GDL wasn't regular nor casual. It could be very complicated, given that he's famous and almost any girl had a crush on him – that could put me in a complex standing.