“SELEN!” a familiar voice called her name.
She pulled over her bicycle on the side of the street. Lana, one of her classmates way back in high school, approached her.
“Why do you have to be so fast?” Lana propped her hands on her knees, catching her breath.
“You know my grandmas, they would definitely scold me if I come home late,” she told her friend. “Why did you run after me, anyway?”
Lana straightened her back and slapped her arm.
“Don’t you remember?” Lana fished something from her pocket, a flash drive. “Last time you asked me to give you a copy of Sage Avelino’s drama, the one that ended recently.”
Selen’s eyes widened instantly upon hearing the actor’s name. She grabbed the flash drive from Lana and safely put it inside her bag. She and Lana had been fangirling over Sage Avelino since he debuted as an actor three years ago. Selen remembered quite well the first time she saw Sage on television. He was playing a minor role in a drama, but he had already caught her attention. And now, after three years, Sage was already one of the most-sought actors of her generation.
“Hmm… You’re too fast when it comes to Sage,” Lana teased her.
“Of course.” She laughed shortly. “Ah, I am going to binge-watch this when I get home.”
“Happy watching.” Lana waved a hand, bidding her goodbye.
“Thank you!” She waved back.
Selen was grinning from ear to ear on her way back home. At last, she will see Sage again.
SELEN locked herself inside her room when she got home. She started watching as early as six o’clock in the morning. Now, at twelve o’clock, she was on the sixth episode of the drama. But she was unsatisfied.
“Why do they make him a second male lead in this drama?” She scratched her head in frustration. “I ship him with the female lead. They have chemistry. Argh! Why do the writers make his character so perfect when he was just a second lead? Why? Why is it like that?” Selen snarled in front of her laptop’s screen.
Then, her bedroom door swung open. Nana Cora, with a knotted forehead, came in.
“What is happening here?” Nana Cora sauntered towards the bed.
“Nothing, Nana. It’s just that I’m feeling frustrated.” She grabbed the pillow beside her and hugged it tightly.
“Why?” Her grandma’s expression softened. “What made you feel that way. Tell me, honey.” Nana Cora sat at the edge of the bed.
Selen pouted her lips and pointed to her laptop’s screen.
“They made my Sage a second male lead!” She started crying. “After all the hardships that his character had been through, he still deserves a happy ending even if it’s not with the female lead.”
She stopped crying and pressed her lips together when she saw how Nana Cora’s facial expression changed from soft to annoyed. Her grandma grabbed the bolster pillow and hit her with that.
“I am worried about you!” Nana Cora hit her again. “I thought something happened. And now, you’re telling me it’s all about that damn drama!”
“Nana, stop already!” Selen used her arms as a shield to her grandma’s beatings.
“Why waste your time watching a drama that makes you frustrated? You should have used your time wisely. Like practicing witchcraft, or finding yourself a husband.” Nana Cora breathed exasperatedly. “You’re already twenty-one. You should be mature enough by now.”
She pouted her lips.
“I don’t call this wasting my time. I’m watching Sage.” Selen clasped her hands above her chest and sighed dreamily. “He is the man of my dreams…”
Nana Cora hit her head with the bolster pillow.
“Man of my dreams, my foot! Do you think that actor would marry you?” Her grandma threw the pillow to the bed. “From the scale of zero to ten, you have zero chance of meeting him in real life!”
“Ouch, Nana…” Selen palmed her chest. “Your words cut like a knife.”
“You better pull yourself together. Your illusions won’t get you anywhere.”
“But what if we meet, Nana?” She crawled to the end of the bed and held her grandma’s hands. “Will you allow us to get married?”
“I told you to stop—”
“I said what if, Nana. It’s a hypothetical question. There’s no harm if you tell me your answer.”
“As long as you are compatible with each other, I don’t have any problem with that.” Nana Cora pulled her hands away.
“Really?”
Her grandma sighed. “You better get out of here and join us for lunch. You’ve been here since six o’clock watching that. Don’t you feel dizzy staring at that small screen?”
Nana Cora stormed out of her bedroom.
Selen grabbed the bolster pillow and hugged it. Then, she rolled on her bed back and forth, giggling like a teenager. Nana Cora was in favor of Sage. Now, her only wish is for their stars to align so that they could meet. And if ever they meet, she hoped they would have those spark like of those characters in his dramas.
She stopped rolling and stared at the ceiling.
In a few days, Selen and her grandmas will be going to the metro city to start a new journey. And based on her research, Sage lives somewhere in the metro. Her chance to meet him will be higher than zero now. With that thought, Selen squealed.
“WILL she join us for lunch?” Violy looked at her sister, who just came from Selen’s bedroom.
“I don’t know. I told her to join us, but she stayed in her room and squealed.” Cora sat on the host’s seat across Violy.
“What is she doing there?”
Cora let out a long and deep sigh.
“Fantasizing over that actor Wade? Jade? Ah, whatever his name.”
“You mean Sage?” Violy laughed.
“You know him too?” Cora’s forehead creased.
“Well… Selen introduced him to me a long time ago. Ah, when was that?” Violy propped her hand on her chin. “I think that was two or three years ago.”
“Did she ask you if she could marry him?” Cora filled her glass with wine.
“Hmm…”
“What did you say?”
“I told her that if their paths would cross and they fall in love—”
“Violy…” Cora’s lips pressed into a grim line.
“Yes, Ate?”
“You know that it was never the case.”
Violy shushed her sister when she heard footsteps approaching.