Between Stares and Shots

PROLOGUE: My Favorite Hello, My Hardest Goodbye

People say love comes unexpectedly.
Minsan daw, darating na lang ito sa buhay mo nang hindi mo namamalayan. No warnings. No signs. Wala. Bigla mo na lang mararamdaman. Ako? Hindi ako naniwala roon.

At least... not until I met him. Yance Abcde Dizon. Cane.

The mysterious architecture student everyone seemed to admire from afar. The guy with cold eyes, unreadable expressions, and a silence so heavy it could make anyone nervous.

At ang lalaking tuluyang gumulo sa tahimik kong mundo. Kung may magtatanong sa akin noon kung anong klaseng lalaki ang hinding-hindi ko magugustuhan, siguro siya ang eksaktong ilalarawan ko. Cold. Quiet. Hard to read. Intimidating.

The type of man who makes you feel like one wrong move could push him farther away. At ako? I was the opposite. Madaldal kapag komportable. Makulit kapag kasama ang mga kaibigan. At minsan, sobrang daldal ng utak.

I overthink. I feel too much. I love too deeply. Siguro kaya ganoon na lang din ang impact niya sa akin.

He was everything I wasn't. And somehow... That made me want to know him more. I still remember the first time he looked at me. Inside a coffee shop. Simple lang ang araw na 'yon. Ordinary. Nothing special. At least iyon ang akala ko. Pero isang tingin niya lang-Nagbago ang lahat. That stare. Calm. Intense. Dangerous. Parang sa isang tingin lang, kaya na niyang basahin lahat ng tinatago ko. And maybe... He did. Nakakatawa nga eh.

Because if someone had told me back then that would someday cry because of him-Tatawanan ko lang sila. Because how could someone so distant get this close? How could someone I barely knew become someone I couldn't live without? Funny.

Everything started with one stare. One coffee shop. One stolen glance. And one dangerous man. He entered my life quietly. No grand entrance. No dramatic confession. Just silent stares... Short replies... And the kind of attention that slowly makes its way under your skin. Unti-unti. Hanggang hindi mo namamalayang hinahanap mo na siya. Hinahanap mo na ang mga tingin niya. Mga simpleng messages niya. Mga malamig niyang sagot na ewan ko ba kung bakit kinikilig ako.

He became part of my routine. Part of my thoughts. Part of me. And that scared me. Because the more I knew Cane...The more I realized something. He wasn't just mysterious. He was hiding something. Something heavy. Something painful. Something that could either bring us closer-Or destroy everything we had. Pero syempre...Hindi ko 'yon nakita agad. Ang nakita ko lang-Ang lalaking unti-unting pinaparamdam sa akin kung paano ulit magmahal. At ang lalaking unti-unti ring nagturo sa akin kung paano masaktan.
Because if there's one thing life taught me-It's this: Not every beautiful beginning leads to a beautiful ending. Minsan, ang pinaka-masarap na pakiramdam... Siya rin ang magiging pinaka-masakit mong alaala. And Cane? He became both. My favorite hello. And eventually...My hardest goodbye. This is the story of how I met Cane. The story of how I loved him. And maybe...
The story of how he broke me.