"BROKEN PIECES"

Erik smiled as he looked at the picture of the woman who owned the F******k profile he was browsing. None other than Nadine.

He quietly assessed himself.

Is he still hurting?

He smiled again and then turned off his laptop.

He was content now, and he was genuinely happy for Nadine, just as he was for Keira. And from what he could see, Nadine was doing well. It seemed that eventually, she also learned to love the man her father had preferred for his ex-girlfriend.

He had been single for a year now. As he mentioned before, he wanted to focus on his career first, and that's exactly what he did. It was Saturday, so he didn't have to work.

He woke up late, and that was just how he was. Rest was something he needed too. Erik went to the kitchen to prepare something to eat.

But he wasn't in the mood to cook, so he decided to leave the house to buy something to eat. His feet led him to an eatery. His favorite dish there was Sinigang na Bangus, so that's what he ordered.

After he finished eating, he walked home again.

That's how he lived every day. Sometimes he went out and had fun with his colleagues, but that was the extent of it. As he mentioned earlier, his career was his priority now.

He was about to enter the gate when he noticed Mrs. Ramos' store, a place he often frequented. He remembered that he asked her to help him find someone who could do laundry and house cleaning for him. It wouldn't be a live-in job, so ideally, he wanted someone who lived in their village.

"Good evening, Mrs. Ramos," he greeted the woman as he ordered a cup of hot coffee.

"It's good that you dropped by. I have found someone I can recommend to you," she told him with a smile.

Erik smiled in response. It seemed that she already knew the reason for his visit.

"Really? Thank you so much," he said as he paid for the coffee, which he ordered in a paper cup.

Mrs. Ramos nodded. "I don't know if you still remember her, but I know she was your classmate since elementary school," she added.

Erik furrowed his brows and lit a cigarette.

"Who is she?" he asked.

"Mia. That beautiful but shy girl who Ms. Sanchez used to take care of," she said.

Erik recalled what the woman had mentioned earlier. He smiled as he remembered who she was referring to.

He remembered that she was crowned Queen of the Night at their high school prom in their final year, while he was crowned King of the Night.

How could he forget the shy but incredibly beautiful and intelligent Mia?

She was their Class Valedictorian, and their teachers often paired them together because he was consistently second in the class.

Smart, kind, and beautiful—everything a man could want in a woman could be found in Mia.

It's not that he didn't notice her at the time. The truth was that his heart and mind were occupied by Keira during those days, so maybe he didn't pay much attention to others. He had had many girlfriends, but they usually initiated the relationships.

"The fate of that young girl is so unfortunate," Mrs. Ramos said, interrupting Erik's thoughts.

"Why? What happened to her?"

*****

ONE WEEK AGO

Mia's heart raced as she heard the consecutive ringing of her phone.

She was on a bus out of Manila, trying to escape the nightmarish life with her demon of a partner.

Bernie.

The number appeared on her screen, so she chose not to answer. She was done with him, and she couldn't endure him anymore. When her phone finally stopped ringing, she turned it off.

She wouldn't use the phone again until she could buy a new SIM card. Mia quickly wiped away her impending tears as she remembered all the cruelty she had experienced from her ex-partner. Maybe he never truly loved her.

That was contrary to what he often told her since they were in high school and he was still courting her. Mia decided to retrieve her wallet from her baInside was a photo that brought tears to her eyes. It was a photo of her with her Nana Rosita. The elderly woman who had taken care of her since childhood.

Since she was abandoned by many people who adopted her. But they weren't able to withstand the challenges of taking care of her. So eventually, they gave up and gave her away.

Maybe if the old woman hadn't passed away, her life wouldn't have taken such a bitter turn. Perhaps she would be happy now, with her, and maybe Bernie wouldn't have been the one she ended up with. At the last thought, Mia couldn't hold back her sobs.

She didn't know if she still had a chance to get up after everything she had been through. Especially now that she knew and was sure that it wouldn't be easy because her ex-partner would find her. But she was tired.

She was tired of believing all his lies. She was tired of forgiving him over and over again. And she was tired of loving him.

Indeed, in the end, she also learned to love her partner. But it wasn't the same as the love she had for someone she had known before. A person whom she knew would never see her, so she found contentment in just looking at him.

Her first love.

Erik.

Then Mia smiled bitterly.

Not even once. Even though Erik hadn't noticed her before, even though a long time had passed, he had never left her heart and mind.

And during their final prom in high school, where she was crowned Queen of the Night and he was King of the Night, she replayed in her mind more than once how close they had been to holding hands. And how they had danced together.

But that was in the past. She knew it was a beautiful memory she could revisit in her mind, and that's all it was. Because if Erik hadn't seen her when they were young.

Even more so now that she was like a broken plate that, even if she tried to restore it to its former state, was no longer possible. Some parts of her had turned to dust due to her fall.