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Chapter 153: Crash Landing on You
Last Updated:
2024-10-29 19:42:56
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The Boyfriend App Chapter 154: Suspicions
Kate is staring at the Principal’s List posted on the glass-encased bulletin board next to the door of the principal’s office. It’s Friday, a week after midterms. Later, their report cards would be handed to them individually for them to show their parents. Whether it’s safe for them to face their parents’ immediate reaction upon seeing their grades depends on the student, but in Kate’s case, she’s got nothing to worry about. In fact, there’s a reason to celebrate because she’s managed to retain the title of valedictorian this quarter. Still, one of Kate’s eyebrows is raised because Nate has also managed to do the same with his salutatorian ranking. What’s even more incredible, the difference between their GWAs is just .222 points: | Academic Excellence PRINCIPAL’S LIST School Year 2019 – 2020 | FIRST QUARTER | GRADE 12 | No. | Name | Strand | Section | GWA | Award | 1 | LAPUZ, Rapunzel Kate | STEM | Everest | 96.889 | VALEDICTORIAN 2 | POLICARPIO, Nathaniel | STEM | Ever
The Boyfriend App Chapter 155: Nate's Confession
Striding down the corridor, Francine can’t stop glancing at her smartphone screen. The last email from Susan Landicho, the assistant at the Julius Tenorio Fashion Photography studio, sounded like an ultimatum: | Susan Landicho 7:10 AM to me ˅ | We’re on a tight schedule with the boudoir shoot so we’ll need you to come to our studio in Las Piñas ASAP. Are you up for it or should we find another model? | Right after midterms, Susan kept emailing her and telling her to “stop wasting time” and to not “miss this golden opportunity” because she was lucky such a great and well-connected photographer like Julius was taking the time to consider her at all, who had zero professional experience and only amateur photos in her comp card. Susan calmed down when Francine finally sent a couple photos of her in lingerie (which she only captured with her smartphone and took her a whole lot of outtakes). Last night though, it sounded like the boudoir shoot had been moved forward again and, this
The Boyfriend App Chapter 156: Big Bro, Little Bro
Third period has already started and Nate is alone in the boys’ bathroom. He’s breathing hard. He’s angry – at himself, at Kate. He’s so weak. He supposes he has quite forgotten the fact that his body is still broken, but what Kate did was a harsh reminder to him of that. He has never felt so helpless. As helpless as a baby. He could understand when Mr. Romero did it. Mr. Romero didn’t know what harm the signal jammer could do to one of his students. But Kate? She, of all people, should’ve known better than to use it like a toy or, worse, a weapon. Nate feels like punching someone, breaking something. He wonders if he can get away with a little vandalism of the bathroom mirrors. The tile walls are sparkling clean but the plastic partitions of the toilet cubicles aren’t free of graffiti. The graffiti is mostly the word “gay”, dick and boob doodles, and “your mom” jokes. He hasn’t seen any CCTV either. First things first. He has to answer nature’s call because his bladder is close to
The Boyfriend App Chapter 157: The Boogeyman
{For the past 28 days, Francine has been communicating with a man named Jayrus Trocio a.k.a. Julius Tenorio a.k.a. Susan Landicho. Jayrus Trocio is a 34-year-old psychotherapist who also dabbles in photography. But through my Internet sleuthing, I’ve discovered that Jayrus Trocio is in fact the notorious “Boogeyman” that is wanted by the police. He’s an elusive kidnapper and sex-trafficker.} Nate sees flashes of Francine’s Gnnail inbox, some pictures in her phone’s gallery that are rather risqué, socmed photos of the man called Jayrus Trocio, and a little tabloid coverage about the mysterious “Boogeyman”. {The Boogeyman’s modus operandi is to set up a fake photo-shoot and put Rohypnol a.k.a. roofies in a drink that he then offers the victim. Once inside his blacked-out van, the victim is never seen again. The Boogeyman gets the young girls addicted to drugs and turns them into prostitutes, forcing them to star in webcam striptease performances.} {Based on my calculations of
The Boyfriend App Chapter 158: Cutting Class
Kate has cut class only twice in her entire secondary-school life. Both instances happened last year, which says a lot about the late blossoming of her rebelliousness. The first one was to watch Goyo: The Boy General in the cinema and fangirl with the other Bali Girls over Paulo Avelino. The second was with her ex Josh and his gang, the Retaliators, because it was Intrams (Intramural Sports) Week and they were bored doing nothing. On both occasions, she and the other students trekked a bit to a secluded portion of the campus’s perimeter walls and went through a hole in some rusty chain-link fencing. They all ducked under a skirt-like gap and Kate was amazed at how knowledge of the off-trail route had been passed on orally across different batches of students but, despite the way the path looked much trodden, first-section students had stayed largely clueless about it. Presently, Kate supposes Francine took the same open-secret exit during recess. She and Nate are in the parking lot
The Boyfriend App Chapter 159: Faster Than Light
Physics I teacher Mr. Mercado once mentioned to Everesters how an old Superman movie popularized a misconception of the formula for time dilation (per Einstein’s Special Relativity). To be precise, the reigning fan theory and superhero movie logic is “move faster than light to go back in time”. Kate has no doubt that superheroes employ a great deal of oversimplified science. But what the naysayers might be overlooking is the fact that the whole notion of time travel, of changing the past, fills an emotional rather than a logical need. From this perspective, a 250cc Kawasaki Ninja could indeed reach superluminal speed, and time travel would fit in the equation too because the past, the present and the future are all mere illusions after all. Memory is a byproduct of thought; nothing tangible. Instead of a mathematical impossibility, time travel is a stab at redemption by the illogical human heart. Because of the adrenalin pumping in her veins, the memory-laden street falls into slo
The Boyfriend App Chapter 160: Clockwork
Nate can hear the wee-woo wee-woo of a police siren even as they’re leaving everything in a blur. Cars are slipping behind as the Ninja overtakes them. Concrete barriers are whipping by. Beyond them, on the counterflow lane, cars are disappearing twice faster. Nate has always been at home with the deafening roar of the race track, but the snatches of police dispatches have started to make him feel claustrophobic, as though the police are already one step ahead of them and tightening the cordon around them like a noose. {Your heart’s beating twice the expected rate,} Ecto tells him. {Please don’t be alarmed. The police are mainly backup. Think of them as cavalry for apprehending the Boogeyman. Not you and Katey. We can’t leave anything to chance and let the Boogeyman escape our net.} {As soon as we reach the hotel, tell Katey to run to the underground parking through the exit ramp. Francine is currently unconscious in the blacked-out van of the Boogeyman. The Mockingjay is stalling hi
The Boyfriend App Chapter 161: The Hero
Two cruisers and one police motorcycle have stopped, their sirens turned off but their lights flashing blue and red. A total of four policemen are walking towards Nate, who’s standing next to the Ninja with his helmet off. A small crowd has been gathering around the scene and people are whipping out smartphones and recording. Some younger bystanders recognize Nate and are calling out “Cyber! Cyber!” hoping he’ll turn or wave. {Don’t worry, little bro,} Ecto tells Nate. {No one gets left behind. They’ll be asking to see your license. Tell them you have one but you’ve been in such haste to get here that you left it at school. Our priority is to get them to block both front and rear exits of the hotel.} {I have a license?} Nate thinks. {When did that happen?} A quick-on-the-draw TV news van brakes with a raptorial screech that’s even more ominous than the cruisers’ was. Two people get off: a man carrying a bulky camcorder with the name ABS-CBN on it and a young woman in a suit holding
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The Boyfriend App Epilogue: The Microscopic Villain
For Ecto, New Year’s is more or less the same as Christmas. The same warm, gooey feeling. The same close-knit spirit. Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has banned the manufacture and sale of firecrackers, the shooting of which has been a well-loved tradition for centuries and can be traced all the way back to the Spanish colonial era. The exact inventors and originators were the Chinese, who believed that noise would drive away bad luck and bad spirits. According to Mr. and Mrs. Lapuz, the Filipinos seem sadder now, having been robbed of the most thrilling and spectacular means of making noise. But according to health and safety records, hospital personnel can rest easier because the ERs wouldn’t be packed with casualties this time around. Just the New Year’s before last, it was like a war zone on the streets what of households competing for the biggest bang to welcome the new year. Many men got drunk out of their minds and then tried to light a firecracker with the non-PC name
The Boyfriend App Chapter 175: Ecto's Stocking
After Mass, Kate and Nate buy rice cakes at the town square. One is the awesomely purple puto bumbong and another the yellow bibingka. They also buy roasted chestnuts and bring all the treats home to Mr. and Mrs. Lapuz. On one trip to a very crowded shopping mall, Ecto sees a Santa Claus impersonator. Curiously, the Santa is Caucasian and not brown-skinned like most of the Filipinos. Of course Ecto has already figured out by himself that Santa isn’t real. To his surprise, after they get back home, Kate insists on teaching him the hooman custom of hanging a stocking. On the desktop of her computer, Kate shows him a folder that she has named “Ecto’s Stocking”. She then goes through all the trouble of changing her wallpaper to a fireplace and dragging the folder onto the 2D mantelpiece. “What for?” he asks her through her smartphone’s loudspeaker. Her smartphone is open and showing the My Dream Boyfriend app, right into the inside of Ecto’s bedroom. Ecto’s wearing a knit sweater
The Boyfriend App Chapter 174: The Holidays
With a little help from Terra, Kate downloads the My Dream Boyfriend App again with some customizations. Because Ecto isn’t bound by any one platform anymore, he’s capable of some manner of fission, where he splits and replicates himself while also dividing his consciousness among all his manifestations. It’s like Doctor Strange’s clones when they were fighting Thanos, but in Ecto’s case, each and every duplicate is much more than an illusion and is a sentient and perfect version of himself. This allows him to be both in Nate’s microchip implant while back in his virtual bedroom inside the My Dream Boyfriend app on Kate’s smartphone. At any time, he can also perform fusion and re-absorb his manifestations. Terra removed the boyfriend creation window because of course Kate doesn’t need it anymore. Ecto wanted his virtual bedroom exactly as it was. He could easily “slide” into his other cribs anyway, like the old orange, pink and red Provençal one on Dungeon Raydens which he was able
The Boyfriend App Chapter 173: The Truth
It’s already 6 pm when Nate finishes his social host obligations and comes looking for Kate. He doesn’t need to look hard though because earlier, Kate sent him a text saying she’s waiting for him in the Council office. Nate has a spring in his step and is smiling ear to ear. The scratches on his face are still stinging but, before the closing ceremony, Nurse Judy cleaned and applied Band-Aid on them. Nate can’t hide his excitement in seeing his GF again after they’ve taken care of all their responsibilities. {That kiss on the track was supernova-hot. I hope we make out too.} When he finds the office door locked, oddly enough, he knocks and calls out uncertainly: “Kate?” He hears her move inside the room and then the door swings open. The sight of her face wipes his smile off. She’s been crying in the dim. She has the look of someone who has just had herself a good cry. Her eyes look cleansed and exposed, indeed like pure windows into her soul. Her lips are tightly set in a line, as
The Boyfriend App Chapter 172: The Anagram
Kate is alone in the Student Council office tidying up. Nate’s off wrapping things up with his manager and the film crew and saying goodbye to everybody, including his bandmates. The trophy that STEM 12 won is now in the 12-Everest homeroom, because the bulk of tournament champions is there. Kate’s classmates are all posing with it and gushing at how shiny it is. This year’s Intrams was perfect. Kate couldn’t ask for anything more. She has once again been reminded of the importance of having balance in life; of, as cheesy as it sounds, having both a sound mind and a sound body. It felt good to do something physical, to be away from the rigors of school work and the false urgency of the Internet. But the heart of the matter is, she’s blissfully content because she has a boyfriend and she didn’t make a mistake in choosing him. In fact, she made a brilliant choice. An undertow to her joy is a silent prayer that she has finally broken the curse that she felt had hung over her ever since
The Boyfriend App Chapter 171: The Cheater
“OMG!” Mr. Romero says the word in everyone’s mind as they watch the pitiful scene. “Policarpio’s crawling to the baton exchange. Quick! Somebody help him! Help him!” Reggie is the first to break the spell of paralysis. He leaps over the rail and onto the track. He and Jared manage to run towards him before the alert CAT volunteers practice crowd control and stop others from joining. Reggie reaches Nate’s side. “No!” Nate screams vehemently. “Don’t touch me! Don’t touch me! I have to do this by myself.” “But hyung,” Jared says, having stopped next to Reggie, “you don’t have to do this. You don’t have to prove anything.” “Yes… I… do,” Nate grunts as he crawls forward foot by precious foot. “Let us help you,” Reggie pleads. “You don’t have to do this alone.” “Don’t come closer!” Nate barks, spittle flying between his gritted teeth. In what feels like eternity, he reaches the changeover zone and Kate’s crouched form. Her eyes are glassy and full of pity for him. He hates that loo
The Boyfriend App Chapter 170: The Race
By Friday morning, STEM 12 has won a total of 7 champion ribbons and several ones as runner-up. This makes them a leading candidate for overall champion. As Kate has anticipated, the non-sports events buoyed them. Apart from Francine and her escort winning Mr. and Mrs. Intrams, Grace and her benchwarmers won the bench cheer. It didn’t hurt either that the Bali Girls minus setter Lor were at the top of their game. And Nate, to everyone’s astonishment, is actually a Filipino Usain Bolt in the making. {Your BF’s Superman,} Nate’s words have been echoing inside Kate’s head since Wednesday, along with the news reporter’s: {Idol, social catalyst and Internet detective. Is there anything that Cyber can’t do?} But STEM 12 didn’t exactly win all their wins. Just like in last year’s Intrams, several games have been forfeited. An opposing team either failed to meet the minimum number of players required to start the game or failed to appear at the venue within the 15-minute grace period. On CIT
The Boyfriend App Chapter 169: Music Madness
The crowd of hysterical girls in front, held back only by a cordon of CAT cadets from junior high, are screaming the names of DMG members: “Cyber! Reggie! Jared! Sonic! Neo!” Seemingly from out of nowhere, they’ve whipped out banners and signs. Instead of the usual glow-in-the-dark Korean lettering for an evening K-pop concert, there’s a slew of English ones interspersed with the name of a particular artist or of the whole band. | IT’S MY BIRTHDAY CYBER, YOU ARE MY PRESENT DUMP KATE TAKE ME I WOULD SELL MY SIBLINGS FOR YOU I LOVE YOU MORE THAN FREE WIFI DON’T STOP INSPIRING ME! CAN I BE YOUR HAIRDRESSER? ALL I WANT FOR X-MAS IS A PIC WITH JARED DMG We have 5 fingers enough for 5 wedding rings SPIT ON ME CYBER | An English-speaking Filipino director is riding a crane and shooting high up in the aisle of the audience seats. His staff is scattered on the edges and near the stage, operating or holding up every manner of equipment. DMG plays their covers of the most popular s
The Boyfriend App Chapter 168: Within the Walls
On Tuesday, they have the same brain-hurting and nose-bleeding calculations in Physics and Chemistry. The only thing different is DMG’s closed-door rehearsal at the chapel-slash-auditorium 500 meters east. Nate has been exempted by Principal Aguilar personally from any school work or quiz. The whole campus is abuzz and on edge at every sighting of truck and van with tinted windows down Campus Drive and onwards to the auditorium. Kate has also prepared paper lots in an empty pencil case for the Secret Santa next month. She lets every Everester pick their recipient, including her own name. Kate has set the budget at “No Fixed Price” because she knows not all students are financially comfortable. When only two pieces of folded paper remain (one for Nate and one for her), she picks her recipient and is both excited and nervous to see that it’s Grace. She keeps the last piece of paper, of course unopened, for Nate. {Huh,} she thinks to herself afterwards. {What gift can I give somebod
