Chapter 3

   I woke up as I felt the sunlight hitting my skin. Today, waking up feels like a huge responsibility but at the same time, I felt relaxed compared to the past few days I had to drag myself out of sleep. Time check, 9:53 AM. Pretty early.

I stood up, prepared myself some nice breakfast, worked out for good thirty minutes, listened to some good lofi music, relaxed in a warm bath, did the ten step skin care routine, watched some cat videos, meditated, ordered things, and went online to surf the internet. For the first time in this week, I felt productive. And it felt really nice. That gave me a smile on my face. I feel like I'm ready to go out and converse with my friends without having to tear up everytime he is brought into the conversation. It's been three weeks since the confrontation happened. And today, it's finally my flight. I did all things to clear my head and so far, so good. 

Since it's my flight, I decided to dress up prettily. I even dyed my hair blue and it complements my skin great. I threw some styled polo, tucked it in my black jeans, and now I'm ready to go. Even though it looks simple, I can say that I look stunning. And complimenting myself is so gratifying. Self love is indeed the best love. 

Now that I'm learning how to love myself, nothing is so bad anymore. There would be times that I'd think about him, but those times would be really short, and it wouldn't feel so heavy unlike before. I don't cry over his name anymore. And my friends told me how blooming I look. I deserve this, don't I? After all the hardships that I went through, loving myself would be the greatest reward. 

Right now, I'm just waiting for my flight. I'm glad that I'm not late though, or else everything would go back to square one and I'll be back blaming myself. That's how minor inconvenience breaks me. I'm still fragile, but at least I know how to handle emotions pretty well now. It's now 12:03 PM, just twenty more minutes and I'm ready to go.

While sipping my americano, an advertisement caught my attention. It's a site called Luvsite. A dating website, to be specific. With curiosity, I clicked on it. There are two options, a website or the application itself. Of course, to make everything easier, I decided to install the application. While it's downloading, I scrolled through the reviews and most are good.

Person 1: This is a good app! Would rate it ten stars if I could.

Person 2: Everything is free and it already feels like the premium version. For that, I'd give this five stars.

Person 3: I was so committed into moving on so I installed this application for a good time. I didn't expect for me to meet the love of my life here. We dated for couple of months and met in real life. Now we are getting married!

I awed. That's really a good review. I'm happy for whoever this couple is, they deserve this kind of love and happiness. And I think they just inspired me to have some good time as well. It's just harmless flirting anyway, I think I could go on with that. No commitments, no strings attached, will never have feelings for anyone in this place. 

I filled up every basic information needed and placed five good pictures of mine. In the gallery, I put most of my photographs. I really like photography. During highschool, I worked as a part-time photographer. Aside from it's my hobby, I had a good time working. It was fun. But kicking that aside, I'm now wondering what should I put in my description. 

Should I be honest? Or should I put a quote that would reflect my personality instead? That would be crummy and dissatisfactory. Sighing in defeat, I just put a bunny and sun emoji. And ta-da! Now, it's complete. 

"Oh, shit!" I yelled-whispered at myself, flinching, when I heard my flight's number. Momentarily, I forgot that I'm here at the airport. I had fun filling those up and reading the reviews. Well, now, here it comes. No backing out.

See you, Philippines.

     ON the other hand, Jake leaned to his swivel chair, massaging his forehead. It's been thirty minutes since his last meeting ended and he is scheduled to have a private conference later. When he said he wanted to be a writer, a full packed calendar is not what he meant. He just wanted to freely write and publish his works, gather even a little audience to hear their feedbacks but what he didn't expect was to receive a lot of support, for his stories to be liked by millions of people. 

He grunted, feeling the massive headache once again. He is due to write yet another novel and he can't think of a solid story plot. No characters, no opening lines, just nothing. He is frustrated as the publishing company he's working under in had been asking for him an outline, and they want him to write over 400K words. Jake can easily do that, only if not for the new rules applied. 

What was he thinking when he accepted the offer anyway? He could've declined, but he's in need of finance right now as well. Not that he's actually going bankrupt, but he just wants to feel successful without the help of his own father for the first time. He wants to receive the money he's been working hard for all by himself. For once, he wants to be selfish. All throughout his journey, his father stood by his side. When the latter knew his son's dream, he did everything to get him inside a successful company. And Jake was grateful, but he was also hated because of that.

No one befriended him inside. Not even the boss. If not for the influence of his dad, he would be an outcast. They treated him well though. They followed all of his orders and they gave him such special treatment. Again, all because of his father. And Jake hated that. He wants some real friends, he wants to have some fun, he wants to be able to write without thinking of anything else, he wants to be able to breathe. And how can he do that if he's feared, if he's hated? If the image that they've given him is very much the opposite of him?

He pressed his lips into a thin line, scrolling through Twitter and reading online articles that aren't about him. He does this most of the time to relax. Knowing that he's not the only one suffering in the industry makes him feel less stressed. That sounds bad but it's the truth, it makes him feel less worse. Then, one article caught his attention. 

"The famous superstar, Penelope Fennimore, and the popular football player, Garrick Glinson, is reportedly to have a divorce." With slow tone, he read it. Confusion went through his whole system. He is a huge fan of Miss Penelope even during her rising star days. And his eyes can't believe what he's seeing. After almost a decade of marriage, they are suddenly having a divorce? That can't be real.

Jake felt like his whole system dropped. As if his whole life had been stomped by a giant and was crumpled into a piece of paper. When he said he is an avid fan, he meant he is an avid fan and this news just broke his heart. They were a dream couple, their marriage was full of rainbows and sparkles. But of course, what's a relationship without storms and thunders anyway? 

That was the most unexpected news of his life. After reading the whole article, he still understood nothing. His heart is breaking for them. He was about to sigh when something written on the article caught his eyes. Then, a little gasp went out of his mouth. 

"They have a hidden son? What?"

If he was confused earlier, he is now astonished and not in a good way. His mind is blown. As a fan, of course, he is questioning himself how could he miss that. Is that why Penelope took a break as a celebrity? Not because she was really sick, but because she's pregnant? It makes sense if that's the case. Jake clicked another article leading to the speculations and theories of the said son. 

The fans had gathered a lot of information that they say it is valid to speculate that the dream couple of 1997 until now has been hiding their son behind the cameras. It is reported that the boy was born in 2001 and likes photography. It was also reported that he was born in China, where his father was born and raised and then migrated to Berlin. Despite having a lot of information, there is only a few to no information about the said lad. The fans only know that he is now aged 20 and is living in Germany.

Jake was stunned, to say the least. He's been minding the time gaps and just a little push, he would start to believe these articles despite being handwritten by fans. His thoughts was suddenly interrupted by a loud knock. Deciding that it's not the best time to slack off and think about his favorite celebrity's personal life, he stood up and opened the door only to be greeted by the happy face of his annoying best of friend.

"What are you doing here?" He asked with a frown, in which the latter responded with a bright smile and a hand gesture telling him to get out of the way which he unconsciously did. Realizing that, his annoyance grew larger. "Okay, go pretend I didn't ask."

"Come on now!" His friend giggled, throwing himself at the couch and making himself feel at home despite them being inside an office. "What are you so grumpy for? It's not like I came here to give you another idea about crime novels." He immediately added, rolling his eyes.

In return, Jake only gave him a deadpan look and sat on his seat once again. He couldn't deny that he needed somebody's presence to relax. Staring at the pile of folders in the table and crumpled pieces of paper on the floor would make him go mad. His work is heavy. And he thought being a writer would mean he'll just write, but a lot of things could happen along the way. Like a writer's block, like what's happening to him right now. He can't even think of one word to start his novel. Not even one word despite having million of words in the dictionary. Something just doesn't feel right. Literally no ideas. Zero. None.

"What's with the boo boo face, baby boy?" Glen asked, cooing.

"The publishing company want me to write a new novel. I mean, that's fine with me since there are a lot of plots in my mind waiting to be written but they want me to write a tragedy. A freaking tragedy!" He yelled the last words with exasperation, groaning loudly. Tragedy has never been his forte. He wants his novels to always have happy endings. 

As cringey as it may sound, happy endings has always been Jake's thing. He believes in those Disney endings. And hell, he would like to experience those do. He wants to reach that level of happiness, that kind of romance where nothing else matters but their relationship. But sadly, this is reality. Instead of going home with someone waiting for him in the kitchen, kissing his forehead sweetly and someone who prepared a nice meal for him to decrease his tiredness, he goes home with pile of workload on his shoulder. He goes home with nobody in his house but silence. Overwhelming silence. 

So, in return, he writes what he feels. He writes what he wants to achieve in his novels. He write those cliche plots, those expected endings, just those little things every hopeless romantic would like to have. The butterflies in the stomach, someone falling head over heels, an enemy x enemy trope, or high school love story. Just those typical stories online. Everything is so ordinary, and yet he still have fun writing them and he thinks that's what matters. He wants to be independent, but to do that, he needs to step out of his comfort zone.

Glen snickered at his friend's current state, "Why don't you take a break first?" As if that was the most ridiculous thing Jake have ever heard, he sarcastically smiled at the former, frustratedly resting his forehead at the table with his two arms limply resting on his side. That made Glen chuckle. "Not really a vacation break, but a break to you know, inspire you?"

"I don't get it."

"I know you don't but here's the deal. Go somewhere. Somewhere where your mind would be at peace. Somewhere where you can actually relax. Just somewhere that will give you enough motivation to write. Somewhere new, perhaps?" Glen stated, biting his lower lip to think more. "You see, when I told you to take a break, I just meant you should. Because genuine question, how can you work… here? In a place that stresses you out?"

And as much as Jake hates to admit it, Glen has a point. He cannot really work hard if he's in a place that's depressing him. He needs to go out. And he needs that now. With final verdict, he looked at Glen with all seriousness, "Hey."

"Yes?"

"Book me a flight to Philippines."