*taps mic* Does this still work? Is anyone still here?

Soooo it’s been a while — and not just in this blog, but also on my Instagram (and even longer on Facebook). It’s not that I haven’t been around because if you follow me on Twitter, you’ll know that I am always there, and always talking about BTS. 😀 Life has been a whirlwind in the past months, and maybe I will write about it more in the next few days. Or if I don’t, some of it will probably find its way into the manuscripts I’m working on. That said, a summary: my brother got COVID and he quarantined in our house, my dog got sick and had to spend a week at the vet, we got vaccinated, I went to counseling, sent another dog to the vet, went back to journaling, trying to go back to writing again, experienced my second BTS comeback (stream Butter, friends!), and currently going through my first BTS Festa. Life has been good, but also not all the time, if that makes sense?

There’s not much news right now, and like I said I’ve been trying to go back to my manuscripts that are gathering dust in my hard drive, and maybe planning a new thing? I’m still trying to make sense of everything, but I trust it will all fall into place eventually. 🙂

So instead of rambling on and on, I thought — let’s share a story! Here’s a new/old story from my old fiction blog called Wordplay — I jumped out of the order of posting because I can, and because to be honest, I wasn’t very fond of the next one supposedly on the line. And since this is sort of a comeback (heh), I figured let’s go for a meet-cute story.

I wrote this before even knowing what meet-cute was, though! This story is about how Ruth and Ian (from Fake It Till We Make It in You Could Be the One) met in Street Team Events, in Ian’s POV. I’m not quite sure if I will keep this story in their canon just yet! I really dropped the school name and subjects here, although I edited out the full name of the professor. If you know, you know. 😉 Oh, but I am not in the same batch, haha.

Happy Monday and happy reading! (Don’t forget to stream Butter for an extra dose of joy today 😉 )

Introductions

“And this is our very talented and efficient Creatives Director, Ruth. Ruth, this is Ian, our new Logistics Director.”

My friends tell me I have an unusually sharp memory for a guy because I tend to remember names and dates and people better than the normal guy. I never thought it was weird, just responsible, I guess. On my first day as the new Logistics Director of Street Team Events, I wasn’t really expecting to meet an old acquaintance. The company was still small and just starting, and I didn’t really know anyone who was involved in events, but here she was, an old college acquaintance. Ruth.

“Hi, welcome to Street Team,” Ruth stood up and extended her hand to me, which I shook firmly.

“Hi, Ruth,” I said, smiling. I met Ruth almost a decade ago, back in college. We were part of the organizing team of a concert sponsored by our org, with her a part of the marketing team while I was a part of — what else? — logistics. We didn’t really spend a lot of time together, but I can remember her making those posters that we stuck around the campus.

She looked at me curiously, and then I realized that I still haven’t let go of the handshake. “Oh sorry,” I said, feeling slightly embarrassed.”It’s just…you’re familiar.” I finished lamely.

Ruth chuckled. “Really?”

“Were you from DLSU too?” I asked.

She nodded. “Yeah. Batch 2000. You?”

“Same here,” I said.

“Maybe we’ve seen each other around or something?” Ruth said. “I’m not really sure. Sorry, I’m bad with faces.”

“Yeah, maybe,” I wasn’t, and I can definitely remember her. I can remember her in two of my classes, too.

“Well, it’s nice that you two have common ground,” Lia interrupted in an amused tone. I gave a start, completely forgetting that our boss was still there. I gave her a glance and saw she was looking back and forth between me and Ruth. “But I’ve got to take Ian away from you now, Ruth. He still has a lot of people to meet.”

Ruth waved her hand. “Go, I don’t want to keep you.” She went back to her seat and focused back on her screen.

“I’ll see you around,” I said before turning to follow Lia.

“See you!”

* * *

It wasn’t until a couple of months till Ruth remembered all the things I remembered on the day I met her again at work.

“Oh my gosh, I finally remember something about you.”

We were at Cupcakes by Sonja for our weekly bonding with the rest of the Street Team directors, ordering our cupcakes sponsored by Lia. I was absentmindedly snapping my fingers while I was thinking of what to order. Ruth was standing beside me, waiting for me to make up my mind when she gave out that exclamation.

“What?” I asked, raising an eyebrow.

“You were my classmate!”

Well, that took her long enough, I thought before speaking, “Where?”

“I think it was…RELSTRI? Or FILIPI1? Both?”

I shrugged, pretending not to remember but inside, I was amused. “I don’t know.”

“Did you have Sir M for RELSTRI?” She continued, and I nodded. “Then it was you! You were with your friends in the middle row, and he always calls on you guys. I remember that snapping thing you do with your fingers when he called on you to talk about the nature of humanity!”

She looked genuinely excited that I couldn’t help but laugh. “Where were you in the classroom?”

“I was on the first row,” Ruth answered. “Unfortunately.” She added with a sarcastic chuckle.

“Yeah, I remember you,” I said, turning back to the cupcake shelves in front of us.

“I hated it when he called me Ruthina,” Ruth continued, still laughing. “And I can’t believe it took me this long. Honestly, did you know?”

I looked at her again and debated inside if I should tell her that I’ve known from the very start, or if I’d just say I only remembered now. If I told her I’ve known way back, she’d definitely ask why I didn’t tell her, and I don’t really know why I didn’t tell her. I guess I was waiting for her to remember all this time? And what would she think if she knew I remembered her from all these years?

So, I said, “No.”

Ruth turned back to the cupcakes again and smiled. “I’m glad that I remembered.”

I realized I was glad about it, too

Header Photo by Jacob Kapusnak from Rawpixel