“D
o you know you’ve been making that face every time you look at me?” Fi asked Gabriel, who kept cringing at the sight of the long scratch across her left cheekbone. “I feel like I’ve turned into a hideous witch or something.”
“No. I’m sorry. When I see that scratch on your face I start getting irrationally angry.”
It was past midnight, four hours since EG Project landed in Manila and found Gabriel at the airport waiting for them. Fi was surprised to see him there, barking orders at the male members of the band’s entourage. The most logical explanation, she thought, was that Amethyst gave him the green light to call the shots.
It wasn’t unheard of. Gabriel’s department was in charge of making sure the band stayed the pretty package they’re sold as, and the trio did need a little debriefing after the incident at Suvarnabhumi.
As did she.
“It’s only a scratch.”
“Steven said you fell on the floor. You were unconscious for a bit. We should get your head checked to—”
“—see how stupid I’ve been? I think we both know the answer to that.”
“I’m not kidding, Fi.”
She narrowed her eyes at the man, gauging his current mood. Gabriel usually found humor in things that should be regarded seriously, but today seemed like an exception. She was about to tell him to chill, but the sight of her mother approaching the dining table effectively stole her words. Fi was still unable to wrap her head around the fact that she was home. Growing up, she had never been away from home longer than three days, and yet somehow she managed to survive five years in South Korea on her own.
“I hope you take instant coffee, Gabriel.”
“Oh, of course.” Gabriel smiled at Fi’s mother, Diana Legaspi, who placed a cup of coffee on the table in front of him. “This cup is so much bigger than vendo cups, so that’s just great.”
Diana smiled back at him and lingered by the table to ruffle her daughter’s hair. Fi, in turn, was quick to wrap her arms around her mother’s waist.
Gabriel enjoyed a sip of his coffee and watched mother and daughter dote on each other for the next ten seconds. He apologized for crashing in for the night—“For the next couple of nights,” Fi corrected—and Diana simply dismissed him with a wave of her hand.
“You kids stay here while I prepare your beds,” Diana said. Fi offered to help, but her mother insisted she stay with their guest. There was a mischievous glint in her mother’s eyes that Fi instantly recognized; she’d seen this before whenever her high school friend Carlos would visit their house for school-related activities. “I won’t take long. I’m sure you’ve had a long day...”
Fi shook her head once her mother turned away, only then noticing how Gabriel was staring at her with an amused look on his face.
“You guys are cute,” he said, the smile on his face still there. “Actually, everything in this house is.” He raised the cup in which Diana served him coffee. It was one of those magic mugs, designed to reveal pictures on the surface when hot water got poured into it. Gabriel’s cup had Shinhwa Eric’s face plastered on it.
“Oh god, of all the things!” Fi exclaimed at the sight, hand flying to her mouth as she laughed.
“Never pegged you as a Shinhwa fan.”
“That’s my ate’s.”
“Hm?”
“Big sister.”
“Right.”
Gabriel didn’t seem to believe her, and she was ready to prove him wrong, but her phone hummed against the wooden table. It was a message from Yihwan.
Are you home? Settled in for the night?
Fi left the message unanswered, wanting Yihwan to believe that they had, indeed, retired for the night. She refused to engage in a conversation—albeit in short messaging format—with the band leader just then, especially after the heated argument they all had regarding her living arrangements while EG Project was in Manila.
Through Gabriel, the band and Fi were informed that Amethyst wanted Fi to stay in a different hotel to prevent further speculation about the woman in the blind item. But while the band thought the decree unfair to their road manager, Fi was perfectly fine with it, saying she knew exactly where she wanted to stay. She had a home here, after all, and no hotel room would ever be as comforting as her own.
Fi never expected the boys to react so violently over the matter. Of course it was touching to see them stand up for her, but she decided she didn’t need any more stress after the Suvarnabhumi incident. She didn’t even argue with Gabriel when he declared he’d be staying with her to make sure she was safe. The day already felt like it had gone on forever. She really just wanted to go home.
And now that she was here, she felt compelled to shut the entire universe out of her system for at least a few hours.
She switched her phone off.
* * *
With a groan, Yihwan tossed and turned in his bed. In the last half hour, he’d sent Fi five messages, but she hadn’t replied to any of them. He wondered out loud if the local SIM cards they were provided with earlier actually worked.
“Hyung, she’s probably already asleep,” Minchan said.
“I just feel so bad about what happened,” Yihwan replied, raising his voice slightly so he could be heard over Steven’s snoring. “I wish I could have done something to protect her. I wanted to keep her close, but Gabriel...”
“Gabriel hyung had a point, y’know. If the fans see her around here, they’ll put two and two together, and who knows what’s going to happen next?”
The band leader buried his head against a pillow and groaned. Why was nothing going his way lately?
“What really happened back there, anyway?” Minchan asked. None of them questioned Fi’s presence in the paparazzi photos because they knew why she took Yihwan back to the hotel that night. But Fi was wearing Yihwan’s clothes when she left the suite, and that was a critical detail. “Did you and Fi noona... you know... ?”
“Are you insane?” Yihwan snapped, in a manner that could perhaps be misconstrued as defensive.
“That’s what the blind items are saying. I’m just clearing it up.”
“Nothing happened. I was drunk, she took care of me, and I...” Yihwan winced at the memory. “I vomited all over her clothes.”
“Seriously? That’s disgusting.”
“Tell me about it.”
“You puked on noona’s clothes, and she gets cursed at by the entire fandom.” Minchan shook his head. “This must be your lucky year.”
* * *
The moment Fi opened the door to her sister’s bedroom, Gabriel let out a “Wow.” Three times. She let him take everything in before giving him a walkthrough.
It’s the walls he noticed first. They were wallpapered with posters of various KPop acts, most of them first-generation idols of the late 90s, like g.o.d., H.O.T., and Shinhwa. Albums were neatly stacked together on a two-tier bookshelf by the window, but somehow Gabriel felt like the room had not been lived in for a while.
“Where’s your sister?”
“Overseas, not sure exactly where at the moment.”
He looked at her, waited for her to say something more.
“She’s on a quest to save the world, one starving child at a time.”
His brows creased as he crossed the threshold and laid his coat on the bed. Fi shrugged. “Social work.”
“Oh. Wow, that’s great. You must be proud of her.”
“All the time,” she said. “I wish she’d call more often though.”
“Would you be able to answer if she did?”
A pause. “Touché. Anyway…I’m sorry about the sheets. I guess these are the most gender-neutral ones mom could find.”
“It’s perfectly fine. Purple’s totally my color, see?” Gabriel held a purple pillow to his cheek and batted his eyelashes. “Perfect for my skin tone.”
Fi let out an obnoxious cackle, but shut up a second later. It was the wee hours of the morning after all, and the neighbors were asleep. She then showed Gabriel where the light switch was, the electric fan, and the power outlets, and the hall that led to the second-floor bathroom before saying goodnight.
“Sleep well, Fi,” he said as she walked out the door.
“You too. We have a busy day ahead of us.”
* * *
The weather was as humid as Manila can get, but Fi woke up feeling like she just had the best sleep in years, even after she was jolted awake at 4:00 a.m. because the neighbor’s roosters were cock-a-doodle-dooing like nobody’s business. She missed that. She even missed the sound of tricycles roaring by.
She checked her phone for the time: 11:00 a.m. It was too late for breakfast, but there was no mistaking the smell of tocino being cooked downstairs. Still half-awake, she got out of bed and shuffled to the bathroom. But before she could twist the door knob, the door swung open, revealing Gabriel wearing only a towel around his waist.
“Hey, good morning.”
The sight confused her, and yet she couldn’t bring herself to look away.
What in the world is Gabe doing at my house in a—oh, right, he’s staying for... a couple of days. How is it possible that his chest looks like this?
She never imagined that the toned body existed underneath Gabriel’s usual office attire. To be more precise, she never imagined his body until…okay, well, that moment.
“Fi?”
She was wide awake now, thanks to the smell of his soap—or was that aftershave?—and she looked up at Gabriel when he called her name. Droplets of water at the tips of his long lashes distracted her from his smile for a second. “Yeah?”
He held her by the shoulders (“Hey, what are you doing?” she almost yelled, crossing her arms over her chest) and gently shoved her to the side so he can step out of the bathroom and into the corridor. Embarrassed by her train of thought, Fi cleared her throat and mumbled, “There’s br—er, lunch downstairs,” before rushing into the bathroom and shutting the door behind her loudly.
“Well, hurry downstairs then. Let’s have ‘br—er, lunch’ together.”
So strange, she thought, as she took in a deep breath and pressed a hand to her chest to calm her heart. Fi certainly wasn’t new to this kind of…display. AmEnt’s male models and trainees often sauntered from one rehearsal room to another in only their jeans. She had even seen all of EG Project shirtless and in their boxer shorts during backstage costume changes. Seeing Gabriel without a shirt on shouldn’t be so different.
So why did it feel like she’d just run a mile?
It took her a while to shake the glorious vision out of her head. And when she finally did, she somehow ended up fussing over how her hair should look. Or if she should change into something other than her floral pajamas and worn-out high school P.E. shirt.
Come on, Filipina. It’s just Gabriel, she told herself, and decided to tie her hair up in a neat ponytail. She didn’t bother changing into something else either and found herself silly for even considering it. She did wash her face and brush her teeth twice, though.
Coming down the stairs, Fi was surprised to see a familiar face in the living room. She squealed and tackle-hugged her friend, Carlos.
“‘Tang ina, na-miss kita, ah!” Carlos exclaimed after a long, drawn-out hug. They bickered all the way to the dining area where Gabriel was waiting, stopping only so that Fi can introduce them.
“Gabe, this is Carlos, a good friend of mine from high school.”
Carlos placed the bilao he brought on the table, wiped his hand against his jeans, and offered Gabriel a handshake.
“And this is Gabriel, our PR guy.”
They shook hands, and Fi invited Carlos to have lunch with them. Carlos clicked his tongue. “Sorry, I have to go back to school in a bit. You’re not the only one who has a job now, Fi.”
“Right! You’re a guidance counselor now!”
“Yep. I just came down here to bring you your favorite kutsinta because Tita said you were coming home.”
Touched, Fi smiled at her friend and stepped forward to hug him again. “Aww, mahal mo talaga ako,” she said.
“May bayad ‘yan.”