ALWAYS

TOGETHER

"This is getting out of hand." Nadine told me as she squirmed around my room unable to stay still.

She was getting frustrated at some of our fans' reaction about my clubbing last night. Actually, I didn't go out without her permission, we've discussed about it even before we landed back to Manila. I told her that I, Bret, Andre, and Yassi's sister will go out clubbing to unwind and to catch up a little. I even invited her to come with us but the good girl that she is, she declined and told me to have fun instead.

Of course, she gave me a warning look before she agreed. Honestly, it took a lot of sales talk from me before she said yes; such as I'll be good, I won't drink much, and I even included not touching any fans whenever they'll request for a picture ­– which I kept, I made a stern point to put my hands in my pocket or at my back when someone asked for a picture. She smiled at my last statement and gave me a little slap on my shoulder. It's not like she didn't want me to have fun, she's just worried about the drawbacks that come along with it. Basing on my past issues, I don't blame her feeling that way. Maybe some of it was true but it was all because I can't have her back then, leading me to compensate all my frustrations with liquor and my night life.

My sweet and lovely Naddie who always has a smile that can brighten the darkest of murk. I'm not dumb to let her go. I've never felt this way before not even with my past relationship, she always has this compelled feeling and aphrodisiac smell that never fails to lure me in. I can't imagine a day without her in my life, and often times I wondered if I'm not good enough for her since a few of our supporters couldn't actually see my love and care for her. It hurts reading some bashful comments coming from the people with the word "JADINE" tagged along their usernames; sometimes I toss on my bed and think about some ways to let them believe that I am goddamn serious about Nadine, and what I would do not to lose her.

There was this one time I told her to actually publicize our relationship, I thought it was easier that way, but she deliberately turned it down afterwards. I couldn't understand it then, I doubted her even and thought that she doesn't love me enough, but now I finally comprehend where she was coming from. We're not really together that long, it was Christmas Eve when she at long last decided to commit – to let her guards down and actually allow herself to be happy – happy with me. Nevertheless, she's still thorough about it. She had set some rules for our relationship to work, all pointing out to keep it private as much as we could. Remembering about her visage then, the way she wrinkled her nose and twitched her eyes with wrappers on her hands thinking about what-not-to-do, I couldn't suppress the grin forming on my lips.

"What are you smiling about, James? Aren't you upset? Look oh! They're bashing you again." She flopped beside me, thrusting her phone on my face. Irritation scrabbled around her body.

"This is why I don't want us to publicize our relationship. Tingnan mo ngayon, they don't even know that we're together but grabe sila makabash." She let out a sigh afterwards and leaned her head on the crook of my neck.

"James, we're not together that long but ganito na. How are we going to keep up?"

It's true; it's our first issue as an official couple. For me, it isn't really that much. She's from Frontrow that I accidentally bumped into last night. It turned out that she's a friend of my non-showbiz friend too. It was just a small chit-chat and I followed her on IG in the morning. I didn't really think there was a problem with that not until some of our fans gone haywire about the whole damn thing.

I tilted my head to kiss Nadine's hair hoping that it can somehow obliterate the stress that she's feeling as of the moment. And put my forefinger on her chin to lift her head and meet my gaze.