ASYMPTOTES

Chapter 8

October 24, 2105

Tamang Panahon, Philippine Arena

She was onstage, her back to the crowd of 55,000 people. The music was loud, the audience voices even louder but strangely, her heart beats the loudest. After months of splitscreen interaction, she was finally going to meet him. Today. Now.

Maine was lost in her thoughts. To this day, people are still asking her why she broke character last July 16. The answer is not as melodramatic as everyone would expect. Hers was a normal surprised reaction, nothing more than that.

A gazillion thoughts were swimming through her head, but then she heard the audience scream- not that they were not screaming already, but they screamed even louder. That brought her back to her senses. She turned and saw him. Alden Richards was walking ever so slowly toward her.

He was smiling; she smiled back. It was too easy to get lost in his presence but she managed to rein herself in.

They did what they practiced hard for. The couple danced, he sang, exchanged a few lines for conversation. He held her hand for the first time, in the most gentle way; they had their first embrace, and did it with all they had. They may have rehearsed their numbers, but their emotions were real.

For the next days, weeks, or months, what transpired today will fill the pages of magazines and newspapers. People will talk about what happened, remembering everything with perfect clarity, and then soon, they will move on.

But not for Maine.

Because unlike today's event where the audience's screams alerted her of his arrival, Alden came into her life without warning.

And there is no moving on from a surprise as beautiful as he.