What if aside from being worlds apart, one acts on impulse and believe in signs and the other depends on logic? This is an alternate universe (AU) where it's Maine who's the celebrity and Richard is a private citizen and not a fan. In fact he doesn'...
(A/N:Fast forward na lang tayo a few days later in one of those Greenbelt buildings sa Makati...basta isa doon, yung may mga sosyal na kainan. Sa mga nakapunta na doon, alam n'yo na yon. Sa mga hindi pa, Google it!
photo credit: Greenbelt)
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RJ
"Tapos na po doctor's appointment n'yo?......Yes, Lola, nasa Greenbelt po ako. No, wala po akong ka-date. Maaga po natapos meeting ko kay Commissioner. As promised, intayin ko kayo dito nila Ate. Kain lang po then pasyal natin si Anna dito. Aalis na po ako sa Sunday, diba?."
"Ganon ba, apo? Tapos na ako sa check-up ko pero tinatapos lang ni Anna itong palabas ni Chef Elize."
"Ano po? Nakikinood pa kayo diyan sa clinic? O sige po tapusin n'yo muna panoorin si Chef Elize. Basta I'll wait for you here. Text n'yo na lang po ako pag malapit na kayo"
"Mabuti pa apo, magreserve ka na......"
"Yes lola, I know. Magrereserve na po ako sa favorite mong restaurant. Ingat po, see you later!"
RJ scratched his head while looking at his phone after he ends the call.
Interesting! He's now competing for his family's time with a fictional chef. Correction, a chef princess. Hindi yata lilipas ang araw na hindi mababanggit sa usapan. Great! Just great!
After making the reservation at the restaurant, he sat down in one of the benches at the central area of the mall to do one of the things he likes best -
Watching the crowd. People.
People, yes people, regardless of where they live, whether in the mountains or here in the city, people have always fascinated him. That's the reason why he enjoys his work as a sociologist. It gives him the license to take a step back and treat life as a stage, and the people as the actors.
RJ once enjoyed being a part of this jungle of people in the city. Going about and around like there's more than 24 hrs in a day - mingling with friends, co-workers, classmates, and with people in general. But the impact of his parents' death was so great that he started isolating himself by putting on an invisible shield, an invisible wall around him. An emotional shield that prevented him from forming lasting relationships with others, outside of his family, unless necessary.
He only shows a semblance of his old self and natural side to his immediate family and of course with Kuya Jose and Kuya Wally. He even isolated himself from his old friends without explanation. They used to bug him asking why he suddenly grew cold. After a while, they stopped, finally getting the message.
Since then, his dealings with the outside world have been superficial at best. Although the concern is there, behavior and social issues are his fields of specialization after all. To him, they are merely case studies that he can analyze and his insights explained, or locked away for future use in his line of work.
This is also probably the reason why at the age of 25, even though born with good genes and good looks, he's still unattached. He had his fair share of short relationships in the past - but no more. Sure, his good looks and tall build always merit a second look from the female species or cause their boyfriends to glare at their partners for smiling or looking at him, but that's about it.
Even if he occasionally goes out on dates with women he meets in the course of his work, he always end up making an excuse to take his leave early when he finds himself analyzing the behavior of his dates like a case study instead of personally being interested in them.
For him love now should be based on logical decision, any future relationship should meet the proven laws of attraction, and he has not made that decision yet. But if he is to be honest with himself, deep down, given the choice, of course he wants the kind of relationship that he thought his parents had until he learned ... 'Don't go there RJ' he thought to himself, 'You've been through this before. Move on!'
His attention was caught by the sudden collected movement from the crowd as if looking for someone. Hmmm... RJ wondered what the commotion is all about and realized that it's probably just a celebrity. It's not unusual to have celebrity sightings here in Greenbelt.
But whoever it is, he or she must be pretty famous for people here to be suddenly on alert mode. He knows that people around this area are so used to seeing celebrities that they simply don't bother anymore.
But this is different. You can see people excitedly checking their phones or readying their camera phones for something. RJ would have loved watching as this 'sosyal' crowd turn themselves into fans waiting for a glimpse of a celebrity except that he got a message from his sister. 'Uy, parating na sila, better proceed to the restaurant'.
He made his way to the elevator going to the 2/f and was busy replying to the message while going out that he bumped (literally) into a woman rushing to come in. He wasn't able to react immediately and apologize because she was soon flanked by a group of what presumably are her friends as the elevator door started closing.
It was her perfume that lingered long after the elevator had already closed - a light musk the smell of spring flowers that made RJ looked back. He had a glimpse of her long hair tied in a ponytail, but too bad he can't see her face because she's wearing a cap and she's already looking down.
Putting two and two together, she must be the celebrity of the commotion earlier and the people who closed in on her must be her entourage. For a second, he had the urge to ask one the guards to find out who she is but fought against it.
Someday soon, he hopes to study the lives of celebrities in the digital age. That will be interesting. It will be one hell of a different type of jungle and species altogether.
Huwag lang si Chef Elize or kung sino man siya.
(A/N: Wait, saan galing yung hugot na yon? Nagseselos ka sa isang fictional character on TV? Diyos ko, may pinagdadaanan yata talaga itong batang 'to, mukhang ang bigat ng emotional baggage! Hindi ko magawang singitan ng comic relief. But wait, who's the mysterious girl? Hindi kaya?)
