Chapter Text
PROLOGUE :
“No matter how many other people I meet, and no matter how many I love you’s I tell them… I will always come back to you.” Ian looked into his lover’s eyes, and slowly opened his mouth to talk. “Promise?” Silence filled the room, and a voice eventually spoke out, “I promise.”
Silence.
Ian’s mouth quivered, with the memory still vividly clear. It’s been playing the exact same conversation, every single night ever since they parted ways. Leaving Ian in thought, leaving him to wonder, “Did he really mean what he said to me?” He stood there, vision becoming blurry. He blinked once, and at that moment, all the tears he’s been holding since the day they fought, came out. He tried to stop it, but instead, he cried harder. He cried harder knowing that the love of his life, Louis Bautista, is right in front of him, and he didn’t even bother to help him.
BACK HOME:
“So… Umiyak ka nung nakita mo siya ulit?” She asked, despite knowing the answer. “I mean, di naman talaga naging kami but… Yea.” He replied slowly. “Oh my DAYS you’re such a loser, I’m gonna cry.” Ian squinted his eyes, “Bro, Juliet, I’m seeking for advice ?..” A sigh heard coming from the phone right after. “Ian.. I’m going to be a neurologist," Ian raised a brow and muttered out, "Ha? Di ko gets.." earning a groan from Juliet, as she became even more frustrated. Juliet then slowly spoke again, "I don’t know shit about love or feelings bro." Ian widened his eyes and was quick to speak, realizing his small mistake.
“…Oh”
“Yeah, Oh.”
He was talking to a girl who had never paid romance or the thought of love attention, how would she understand what he's going through? But then again, she did give good advice in general.
“So.. Ano na gagawin ko? Huahahaha...."
“..Text him, kausapin mo siya and ask him for the reassurance you need.”
“Pero di nga naging kami!–“
“Ian, wala talaga akong pake kung naging kayo ba o ano, I think he needs it too anyway..”
”What do you mean by he needs it too?”
”OOPS! Okay uhm, I gotta go!!”
The call ends.
BACK TO PRESENT DAY : August 8, 2001
Ian’s POV:
The sounds of rustling leaves outside, video game characters talking in an inaudible tone, and a sudden shout coming from downstairs, “Ian, gising na!” As he heard footsteps walking towards the door to his room, he widened his eyes and quickly pulled the blankets over his head, to make it seem like he was still asleep. His mother opened the door and went in, walking to her son’s bed. “ Hoy, gising! Ayokong ma-late ka sa first day mo.” She shouted as she shook her son trying to wake him up, and as for Ian, he tried his best to pretend he just woke up, as if he didn’t spend an all nighter trying to beat a level in the game he was playing. He groaned and turned a few times to make it believable, but unfortunately for him, he forgot to turn his phone’s volume down.
As the sound of his character dying played, his mom immediately furrowed her eyebrows and screamed at him. “Oh, gising ka na pala kanina pa eh! Nagkunwari ka pang tulog.” His mother said, clearly annoyed. She paused in between her sentences and sighed loudly after, “Tumayo ka na nga!”
Before she could continue, Ian groaned out of frustration and closed his eyes once more, which made his eye bags more visible, and which his mom immediately noticed. “Nagpupuyat ka kagabi noh!?” She spoke out, but before she could say more, Ian tried to interfere. “Opo na nay, maliligo na ko mamaya.. Alam mo naman po na kakagising ko lang talaga ngayon, sumisigaw ka na po agad…” Ian rested his arms onto his eyes, which he had closed since earlier.
After that, his mother then muttered something else as she stood at the foot of his bed which he couldn’t hear, and eventually she went back to the kitchen to continue preparing breakfast.
Minutes passed and that was enough time for Ian to finally remove his arms from his eyes and open them, only to be greeted by the light coming from the sun. He let out an annoyed groan once more and closed his eyes while he got up from his bed, only opening them again once he was in the bathroom. “Dalian mo na, Ian! Naghahabol tayo ng oras!" His mother shouted again from downstairs. He eventually grew tired of all his mother’s complaints and slowly undressed to get into the shower.
Once he was finished, he got into his uniform, which then led him to sighing out of nervousness as the fact that he’s a transferee, at a new school only hit him now.
In the “ Kittycats 22 ” groupchat:
Ian : Guys gising pa ba kayo hauushashaswj……
Sophie : Bakit?
Ian : ??? Bat ka pa gising
Ian: Anyways, what if I trip up the stairs.
Juliet : Boi baliw ka ba, siguro naman may railings yung staircase nila unlike yung saamin ….
Ian : Yea but what if I make a fool of myself and they bully me the rest of the school year
Aria : Alam mo, puro ka nalang what if, what if sinampal kita?
Ian : Ay
Sophie : Kaya mo yan!! Don’t think about the negative possibilities and think about the good things that could happen 😙
Juliet : Yea like what if you find some SUPER handsome, nonchalant, and smart moreno that falls in love with you at first sight 💞
Aria : HELPP??
Ian reacted 😆 to Juliet’s message.
Sophia: Or maybe he'll be the one to fall inlove at first sight? 🤔
Juliet: I could see it now ..
Ian scoffed and switched his phone off, laying it next to him. His mouth quivering into a slight smile, then turning away from his phone, finally deciding to go downstairs to eat breakfast.
Ian carefully walked down in a rush and walked to the kitchen, asking his mother what’s for breakfast. His mom hummed in reply and gave way to let Ian take a peek at what she's been cooking since earlier. Ian smiled after knowing it was his favorite.
He quickly walked over to the living room, turning the TV on to pass by the time. His mother then eventually had called out. “Ian! Kumuha ka na ng pagkain dito, tapos na ako magluto.” Ian turned his head to where his mother was standing, and walked back over to the kitchen, grabbing a plate and filling it with food. He placed the plate on the dining table, and grabbed another plate for his mom, placing it next to his. He went to the cupboards to grab a glass cup and a mug, he poured water into the glass cup and placed it next to his plate, then prepared tea using the mug, placing it next to his mother’s plate right after.
After that, Ian went back to the dining table and sat down smiling as he was absolutely famished. While his mother chuckled before starting a small and short conversation, "Mag-focus ka na sa pag-aaral mo, ha?" Which led to Ian turning his head to his mom's direction. Only nodding in reply, his mother spared a glance at him once more before speaking again, "Di na kita matuturuan pag may lesson kang di mo naintindihan, wala na din papa mo eh, kaya maging independent ka na ha?" She smiled softly, Ian had stared at his food for a minute as he listened to his mother talk, before going back to eating while keeping what she had said in mind.
They eventually finished eating after a few minutes later, and Ian immediately stood up to take the plates to the sink until his mom gestured her hand in front of him, telling him to sit down. “Ako na diyan, diba 7 o’ clock mag-sstart yung klase mo ngayon? Mauna ka na.” She calmly said, while grabbing the plates from Ian’s hands. “Ah, sige po.” Ian nodded and picked up his bag from the living room sofa, running to get out of the front door right after. He grabbed his phone from his bag and opened it to his lock screen, looking at the time as he waited for the school bus.
Not even two minutes later, the bus arrived and Ian nervously walked in, only to be greeted by faces he’s not familiar with. He walked through the aisle as he looked for a place to sit, but all of them seemed to either put their bags beside them or call out for a friend that was quite literally sitting somewhere else, to sit next to them. He tried sitting down next to one of the girls who didn’t seem to put their belongings in the seat next to them, but was instead pushed by the said girl, “What the hell? Ang kapal naman ng face mo.. Hindi mo ba ako kilala?” She said angrily, and with the way she pronounced each Tagalog word, it made Ian question whether it was the bus moving which made him dizzy or her accent that made her sound conyo, despite being a conyo too himself. “Uhm, no…?” Ian forced a small smile as he held onto the seat’s support as he felt like throwing up from how much of a headache he was having, and this girl was clearly not helping. “Ugh, kaya pala. The name’s Brooklyn Sanchez, don’t you dare forget..” Ian raised one of his eyebrows, “Sanchez..?” he thought. He wondered if there was a chance his friend, Sophie, knew her. Brooklyn rolled her eyes, with a clear expression of disgust shown on her face, “Whatever, basta… Don’t ever disrespect me again, I would have such a bad reputation kung makita nila ako with such a newbie.” She then stared Ian up and down before speaking again, “Newbie as in, ikaw.” Before Ian could talk back, he was called over by a guy who was seated at the foremost back of the bus.
He slowly walked over to him, as the guy gestured for him to sit down, he began to talk. “I wouldn’t talk to her if I were you.” He said, pointing to Brooklyn, “You’re lucky that you’re just a transferee, she wouldn’t have let you off if she knew you weren’t.” He lightly chuckled, looking directly into Ian’s eyes after. “Nicholas, Nicholas Espiritu. How about you?” He introduced himself, lending a hand to Ian, who was on the verge of throwing up. “I-Ian, Ian Mendoza. Uhm, teka lang.. Nahihilo ako.” He stuttered, shutting his eyes closed after. “Ha.. Marunong ka pala mag tagalog.” He laughed as he talked, waiting for Ian to open his eyes again. “Ganyan ba silang lahat.?” Ian slowly whispered, still talking about the girl from earlier. “I dunno, I'm just a transferee like you.” He smiled, he put his arm around Ian’s shoulder and Ian let it be and hummed in response. They then kept to themselves the whole ride until they got to school.
Once the bus had arrived at school, they both quickly went to get off as neither of them could spend another second in there with the other students. As they got off, they accidentally bumped into another student, who dropped her books, and seemed to be lost. “Uhm sorry..” she bent down to pick the books that had just fallen, Ian and Nicholas bending down to help her. “Thanks…” She muttered. He reached his hand out once they had all properly stood up, and introduced himself, the girl introducing herself after, “Aurora Aquino, nice to meet you guys.” She smiled. They talked as they walked through the halls, patiently waiting for their classes to start, until a basketball was then thrown at Ian’s head, which definitely caught all three of their attention.
Louis’ POV:
The sound of an alarm played, and rang for a few minutes until someone eventually shut it off. “Ugh…” Louis groaned, he scratched his chest before forcing himself to get up from his bed, eyes still closed and his face expression really showing that he had no interest in going to school today. He stood up and yawned, stretching before he eventually opened his eyes. As he had just stood up, his mom comes in to tell him that she won’t be at home after his classes. Louis simply nodded and replied a quick “Mhm..” since he knew his mom wouldn’t leave until he actually said something. He walked over to his bathroom and took a shower, fixed his hair, and grabbed his bag, not even bothering to check whatever’s inside. He went downstairs and greeted his mom and brought his food upstairs into his room, since he didn’t like seeing his dad’s face , eating with his family. Louis brought his phone out and started scrolling on whatever social media he decided to check.
He finished his food and went back downstairs to place his bag on the sofa before putting his plate in the sink, then went to greet his mom a goodbye hug before heading to school, but his dad called out to him. “Oh, di ka mag g-goodbye hug sakin?” He stopped him by grabbing his wrist, and he knew he couldn’t do anything about it since his dad’s grip tightened the more he resisted, which made Louis a bit uncomfortable. Louis muttered a quick and quiet “Bye.” Before pulling his arm back, which luckily he was able to get out of his dad’s grip. He could sense his dad’s face turn into a bittersweet expression and gritting his teeth, so he quickly grabbed his bag from the sofa and walked out of the door, paying no attention to whatever his parents said after, putting his headphones on, and waited for the school bus to arrive. And when it did, he quickly got in and chose a seat next to the window, putting his bag on the seat next to him, to prevent others from sitting beside him.
Time passed and someone with a new face seemed to enter the bus. Louis eyed him and watched as he tried to find a seat, knowing this school bus was filled with nothing but popular, dramatic, and rude students. Louis then grabbed his bag and tried to signal the transferee to sit next to him, since he started to feel bad for the other. Although, he seemed to ignore Louis and walk all the way to the back, fixating Louis’ gaze onto wherever the guy went, causing him to scoff as he realized that he’s found another fellow transferee that sat all the way at the back of the bus. Louis put on a somewhat forced smile and decided to let it go, placing his bag next to him again, and listened to music as he waited. He sensed that he’ll have a hard time forgetting that guy’s face, but he isn’t sure why.
When he got off the bus and made his way to his classroom, Louis was then stopped by his class adviser. His adviser asked him if he could look for any of the transferees for this school year’s grade 8 class, and tour them around a bit, just to make sure they don’t get lost. He wasn’t the type to say yes to these types of things, since he usually didn’t care about the transferees, but he figured he could “recruit” more guys into his friend group.
After that, Louis nodded and walked to his classroom to put his bag onto his chair, and asked some of his friends if any of them could help, and fortunately, two of them agreed to help and came with him. They roamed around the hallways, waiting for any new faces to walk by, and when they were getting tired of standing, their luck just seemed to incline, as they finally found some faces they're not familiar with. They were walking side by side, and they seemed to fit the descriptions his adviser had said. Although, instead of approaching them normally like any other decent human should, Louis acted without thinking and threw a basketball at the one in the middle while trying to aim for the one on his right-- the two guys seemed to be the ones from the bus.
“Ow!” His friends laughed while the person he hit seemed to actually be hurt, Louis muttered a quiet “Oh” when he realized that his throw seemed to be stronger than he anticipated. The other guy next to the person he hit seemed to be quite worried, since he said “Hala okay ka lang ba??” And other words that Louis just rolled his eyes at, while the girl seemed to look at Louis and his friends, then nudged the two next to her, and pointed at them. This seemed to be a signal for the three guys to approach them, so they did.
“Why’d you do that?” Louis seemed to dismiss the guy’s question and just stared at him, and he was only then snapped back to reality when his friend called out for his name, “Louis? Tinitingnan mo ata masyado yung nasa gitna… Crush mo?” He whispered into Louis’ ear. Louis then furrowed his eyebrows and cleared his throat, before talking. “Transferees kayo diba? Follow me.” Louis straightforwardly said, but one of the three interfered. “Huh? Bakit? Who even are you?” Before Louis could talk again, his friend whispered into his ear again, but this time, loud enough for others to hear. “Di mo pa sinasagot tanong ko, isn’t he your type? He looks like someone you’d like.” Which made Louis roll his eyes, before introducing himself to the three.
“Louis R. Bautista, I’m quite well-known around here. And I was the one tasked to show the three of you around.” And his friends smiled. “Now, follow me.”
Louis led them to different parts of the school, and they eventually realized it was almost time for the bell to ring. “Let’s get to our classrooms,” Louis muttered, “The bell’s about to ring.” Ian nodded and so did the rest, following Louis and his friends to their respective classroom. Ian and Aurora were fortunately in the same section– both being students from St. Basil– and were unfortunately in the same section Louis and his friends are in, although Nicholas was in St. Barbara. As they walked in, the class was still loud and lively. They sat on random chairs, and talked for a while before a teacher walked in. “Goodmorning class, I’m Rosaline V. Maestro, you can call me Ma’am Maestro. I will be your section’s advisor for this school year.”
The class started smoothly until came the seating arrangement. “Mendoza,” Ian walked to his assigned seat, which was near the window. He admired the scenery before their teacher eventually checked the seating arrangement list once again. “Bautista” Ian wondered why that last name seemed familiar, cocking an eyebrow up as he turned to face in the guy’s way. “Ah.” he mouthed out as he saw Louis’ face. “Bakit?” Louis said, Ian shrugged in response. Unfortunately for Ian, Louis decided to take this opportunity as a way to “get to know him more” since he wanted to apologize for hitting him with a basketball earlier.
“Ian.” Louis called out, leaning into his chair. “What?” Ian muttered, trying to maintain his composure while listening to what their teacher’s saying. “Sorry for hitting you earlier,” He started, “Di ko sinasadya.” Ian sighed and ignored him, continuing to write things into his notebook. “Bruh, nag-sorry na nga, di pa rin pinapansin.” Louis huffed and rolled his eyes, shaking his leg up and down. “Pwede ba? Nahihilo ako.” Ian muttered, gesturing to his leg. “Sungit mo na nga, demanding pa." Receiving no reply from Ian in return.
Prologue: Part 2
Louis POV:
He stood there motionless. He stared at him, as if he was waiting for someone else to do it for him. “Take a step Louis, help him” the voices in his head told him, yet nothing . He didn’t know what to do, really, he didn’t know if he should say something or just run away. Worse yet? His body physically waited for Ian to run away until he was finally able to move; it might sound like over exaggerating, but the day Ian left him, it took him years to eventually move on— or at least he thought he did. His mouth parted for a moment, like he had thought of saying something but he was too late.
“What the fuck? You’ve waited for years, and you were still too much of a coward. Ano ba gusto mong mangyari Louis?” The other line spoke, almost shouting at him. “I just didn’t know what to say, okay? I didn’t fucking practice how this was going to happen, y’know?” He pinched his forehead as he walked back and forth across his living room, Louis sighed, “Ano na gagawin ko?” He groaned in annoyance. Lincoln huffed, “Ewan ko sayo, it’s really not my place to tell you what you should do.” “What the hell man you’re so useless.” The call ended.