acads lang at Blue with the
girls, then i have org mtgs
after. why?
Anton: take a break. Cheesecake milk
tea? Dadaanan ko lang.
She grins.
yes pls :( ily thank u
When Anton lets her know he's downstairs, Jiya rides the elevator with Addie down to the lobby. She wags her eyebrows and says, "May thing ba kayo ni Anton? You guys were together din last Friday."
Jiya rolls her eyes. "Close lang kami."
"Sabi mo," Addie teases, skipping out to the lobby. "Hi, Anton!"
"Addie, hintay ka na ni Cas," Anton says, smiling, bringing with him her milk tea. To Jiya, he puts up his phone and grins. "O, kailan na samgyup ko?"
"This Friday, g?" She grabs the milk tea from him and smiles widely. "Thank you talaga."
He snaps a picture, ruffles her hair and steps back. "G na g. Don't forget to eat!"
"Thank you!" sigaw ulit ni Jiya, lining up sa elevator.
Before she can even reach Addie's unit, her Instagram lights up with a notification. 'Yong picture kanina ni Anton sa kanya.
@antonbuenca: happy valle
@jvalle
She grins and adds that to her own story before getting back to work.
*
Jiya slams her hand down on the table and cards her fingers through her hair, shutting her eyes.
Her parents are fighting again in their room. Jiya has learned to stop caring about what it is they're fighting about this time.
Minsan kasi, pera. Working late. The cars. Forgetting to buy an egg sa groceries. Mom's brother, Dad's mother. Mga kabit nila. Texts and calls left unanswered during work and the reason of, "Busy ako."
Gerard Valle is CEO and chairman of Valle Holdings, and Hillary Valle is a well-respected lawyer with an astounding success rate. Pareho silang busy palagi, parehong stressed, parehong ma-pride.
Jiya knows they're in talks of filing for annulment, pero hindi pa nila siya kinakausap about it. "Let her focus on school," her mom would say. "Baka ma-affect grades niya."
"This is Jiya we're talking about," her dad would scoff. "Nothing affects her grades."
"Ang selfish mo, Gerard. Pwede ba?"
It's been too long of the same fights over and over again. When they went to Korea during the summer as a family, she thought it was going to finally fix things between her parents. But she was so far from the truth—parang naging bakasyon ni Jiya mag-isa. Her mom left to meet with her friends, her dad worked and went to casinos, and they all only saw each other during dinner...if they bothered to show up. Nag-away rin sila. Hindi nag-uusap.
She swallows thickly and leans back against her desk chair, plugging in her Airpods and sifting through her playlist. If she doesn't hear anything, she's not going to break down about it. Wala rin siyang oras mag-break down about it, ang dami niyang acads and org deadlines.
Three songs pass while she works before her phone buzzes.
Pogi: hoy panget. kumain ka na ng
dinner? ramen tayo.
Right. Dinner. Ayaw niya rin magpakita sa parents niya.
She sighs and turns it off, fingers back on her keypad, but her phone buzzes again with another text from him.
YOU ARE READING
Champorado
RomanceWATTY'S SHORTLIST 2021 EDITOR'S PICK OCTOBER 2021 Jiya Valle learns too late that kissing her sworn enemy since high school Migo Salas doesn't come without repercussions. And to her, it's a secret she's going to bring with her down to her grave--but...
