❦ . ❦ . ❦

It might not be paranoia, after all.

Or maybe it really was.

Following Isaac's revelations about observing him, Laurence figured the feeling of being watched in the past had not been groundless. The discovery should have put him at ease a bit, assured him not to worry that someone had malicious intent toward him.

Sure, it was frustrating to know that his cute little underclassman had turned into a smartass rascal who'd played him to confirm his suspicion that Florence Villena was no longer the same person.

But that should be it: frustrating. Nothing else.

Despite Isaac's warning about the chase, Laurence trusted that the man would never put him in harm's way. Not on purpose, at least. So a sense of foreboding should not have any place within him. Yet, he could not get rid of the dread that someone might be lying in wait for him.

Through the car's window, Laurence gazed at the vehicles on the highway. His brows creased in contemplation. He'd been telling himself that what Isaac had suggested about the actual cause of his death must have made him overthink.

Even if the murder was true, I live as someone else now. There ain't no reason the bastard who wanted me dead would go after Florence too. A ridiculous idea crossed his mind and drew a breath of disbelief from his lips. No way they'd also found out I'm Laurence. Not everyone's so sly like that punk.

"Won't it be better if you just live with me, Rence? That way, you won't have to deal with our father anymore."

Laurence turned his attention to the woman in the driver's seat. This morning, Jade had dropped by the Villena Residence because she'd learned that her younger brother had begun taking a public commute to keep his distance from Ralph Villena. And she must have offered to give Rence a ride today, so she could discuss this issue with him.

As he picked out the earnestness in the woman's words, Laurence attempted to give her a reassuring smile. But all he managed was a pale one. "Thank you, Sis. I appreciate the offer, but I don't want to impose." His eyes drifted ahead, and he noted they had entered Sampaguita Street. "I'm considering moving out somewhere near the office though, so I wouldn't have to trouble you with something like this again."

"I've never considered you a trouble, Rence," Jade said, almost as if a sigh. She pulled over in front of the ND Corporation's main gate. "Will you really be fine living on your own now?"

"I survived before."

The tightening of the woman's delicate hands around the steering wheel and the strain on the corner of her mouth brought Laurence to a halt. The root of Florence's hospitalization, the truth which the guy's family thought they'd kept away from him, hit Laurence like the shriek of an alarm clock waking him up from a dreamy slumber.

It made sense that the talk of survival would trigger off an unpleasant memory from Jade when her dear brother had once decided he was done with holding on to life.

"You know, I've been thinking there must be a reason I came around from that long period of being in a coma, even when it seemed like all hopes were lost. Maybe the universe still has an important role for me to play. Or maybe it wants me to witness something amazing that has yet to happen, and I won't have the pleasure of experiencing it if I'm not here anymore." Laurence gripped the strap of his sling bag while he stared at the space with a wistful smile.

Those were his genuine beliefs as Laurence. That he must have possessed someone else's body because the world still needed him to live.

But he hoped that by letting out the same sentiments through Florence's tongue, he could at least provide the Villena family a little peace they so deserved.

The curve of his mouth grew into a short, inaudible chuckle. This huge lie would have guaranteed him a spot in the lake of fire.

It didn't matter; he'd been living his own hell on Earth for years, anyway. For a long time, he'd prepared himself for fate to keep screwing him up, even in the afterlife.

"And just for that, wouldn't it be a shame if I don't get to see it through the end?" His smile undid the tension on the woman's face.

Though faint, a light had reached Jade's eyes.

"I'll survive," Laurence said, affirmation screaming over his whispered words.

He opened the car's door, and the instant he rested one foot on the stepping board signaled the next couple of seconds to flash like a movie at 4x playback speed.

The frantic "watch out!" of the street vendors propelled Laurence back on the passenger side. He slammed the door close.

And had a narrow escape as a vehicle whizzed past the window.

His heart raced. His temples pounded as thoughts clamored inside his head.

What the hell? Did he just almost die? Again? And in another accident with a car?

And was that a black pickup truck? Had he seen it before?

Laurence wheezed as random episodes from his recent memories joined his inner turmoil.

His last day in the Black Crystal Builders. The pot of calathea in the trunk. Kian's helpless apology. Pain and blood. The boring hospital. Villena family. ND Corporation. Warren and his bitchy tongue. Isaac Ruiz. Renascence Café. Mr. Frias. Florence's journals. The young boss's unforgiving words about the alleged murder of his high school senior. Odessa's strange behavior. Violet and her possible feelings for Isaac.

"Are you okay, Rence?" The anxious voice and the hands touching his face, arms, and waist jerked Laurence out of the stupor. "You're not hurt, are you?" Jade asked, sounding like she was about to cry.

"I'm..." Laurence looked at her with wide eyes. He shook his head. "No, yeah. I'm okay. Yes, I'm... I'm okay. Don't worry."

A shadow fell upon the woman's expression, and Laurence could not determine whether it was her overprotectiveness or something else.

After a couple of minutes of letting his shock settle down, Laurence alighted from the car and went on with his normal day in the ND Corporation.

❦ . ❦ . ❦

He'd been through so many misfortunes in his life that, at one point, he'd learned to just roll and quickly get over all of them. Because chewing over the smallest of bad luck would change nothing in the end.

The monotonous buzz of the photocopier induced a yawn out of Laurence while he stood, watching the machine spit out duplicate documents. Outside the glass panel of the printing and resource area, other employees bustled.

This was the reality of the world. A near-death experience—no, even an actual death—of a single being would not pause the rest of humanity's routine. People would just continue working to pay for their existence as if nothing had happened.

A vibration from the pocket of his pants yanked Laurence out of his musing. He fished out his phone and frowned at the unknown number in his inbox. As he opened the message, the lines on his forehead deepened.

Are you going to attend the homecoming?

Laurence gripped his phone in apprehension. He remembered that his former high school organized an alumni homecoming every February of the year, but he'd never found a good reason to attend even once. It was not like those who always put in an appearance actually wanted to hang out with each other during reunions. More often than not, these kinds of events turned into a pride contest where people only compared their achievements with each other, checked if their classmates had made it better in life than them or not.

Besides, he had nothing to come back to in that place. He'd lost the few people whom he'd thought were his friends. And he never graduated from high school, to begin with, so he wasn't sure if he still qualified to be part of it.

No, that's not what's important right now.

The fact that the text was sent to a new number registered under Florence's name made the message suspicious. Only the Villena family and a selected few in the job knew about this updated contact detail. As far as Laurence was aware, none of those people had attended NISP with Florence, so he wondered if someone had been secretly keeping tabs on the guy.

With stiff fingers, Laurence composed a curt reply.

You:

who r u?

It took a minute for the answer to come.

Unknown number:

First of all, as an employee of the ND Corporation, shouldn't you have your boss's contact number?

Laurence groaned. So not a stalker. But the reality didn't make it any better. Before he could type and tell Isaac to fuck off in the most polite way, his phone vibrated with another incoming message.

Secondly, this is an interesting texting style you have here, Rence. Since you have resolved to keep pretending you're Florence Villena, shouldn't you have at least covered up this basic detail about him? A quick backread in our office team chat will tell you that Florence was one of the few employees who never used text shortcuts. At all.

Or are you going to use the same excuse again and tell me you've forgotten about it because of amnesia, so you have adapted a whole different style?

Laurence glared at the text. If only the death gaze could pass through screens too.

He began typing 'why do u,' and then paused for a second. He hit the backspace button. Spelled out the 'you.' Reconsidered. Another pause. He scowled. After a short deliberation in his head, he decided he might be taking another of Isaac's bait if he changed his typing style now that the cheeky boss had pointed it out.

You:

why do u have my # sir? not to be disrespectful but r u sure you arent stalking me?

and it's like what u said, i lost my memories of the past me, the stuff i like or the way i do things and i adapted this text style cos this was what I often saw in social media. And b4 u ask, my sister taught me about the stuff

Laurence added a few more sentences, his fingers tapping the phone hard. Annoyance muddled his judgment for a moment. It was only when he pressed 'send' and reread what he'd last typed that he realized his error.

And y do u even know these details about the old me? Sure u never had a thing for me before? maybe the stupid rumors weren't just rumors after all

"Shit." He fumbled to search for the 'unsend' feature, but the tiny words 'seen' on the bottom corner and the three flickering dots in a small bubble were quicker to appear.

Unknown Number:

Like what I said before, that's rather a heavy accusation you're throwing at me. I'm your boss, aren't I? It's only natural I'll have access to Human Resources and can find important information about all my employees.

Of course, let's just think it like that. Whatever helps you feel better about this whole act, Rence.

Laurence imagined Isaac having a smug smirk right now. The mental picture was enough to piss him off more, but it was the following short question that took the cake.

Are you jealous?

Deep inside, he understood that the best thing he could do was stop letting the young CEO provoke him by no longer giving him a response. But his former-underclassman-turned-smartass-boss had been outplaying him in this head game way too much that his ego could not allow Isaac to have the last word again.

You:

just stating possibilities. we're talking about my old self? so why'd i be jealous? i dont know about u sir but my brain isn't cooked from overworking. arent you tired of insisting this crazy fantasy? and with all due respect, not all people r into hotshots like you.

Unknown Number:

Wouldn't you want the answer to your question? If I've ever been interested in "you" before?

For Florence? I'm fairly certain I mentioned this before, but I never felt anything for him other than respect. He was one of the ND Corporation's most competent employees, and he reminded me of my past self. What? Do you honestly think I never paid attention to my own people?

For Laurence? I trust you're not that slow to have not figured that out yet.

A knot, which Laurence had not noticed squeezing his chest and stomach until now, unraveled. However, he refused to acknowledge the reaction. He didn't want to place a name on his current feeling. And the one before that.

Unknown number:

So are you going to attend the homecoming?

You:

i'm not that Laurence person you keep talking about so why should i?

The drone of the photocopier faded away, and Laurence decided that was enough humoring Isaac too. He saved the younger man's number under the contact name 'smartass punk boss' and locked his phone. Just as he was about to slide the device back into his pocket, it vibrated one more time.

He managed to ignore the first notification, but the immediate second one grated on his nerves. Before he realized it, he was checking his phone again.

smartass punk boss:

I'm asking if you're going as Florence Villena. Did you also perhaps neglect to do the research about what high school Florence had attended? He's an alumnus of NISP too.

smartass punk boss:

Tell me if you're going to attend, so I can drive you there.

You:

im not going sir, so pls drop the idea.

smartass punk boss:

It's still more than a week from now, and a lot of things can happen. I'm hoping you'll change your mind before that.

Laurence concentrated on the three dots until they stopped dancing, and a group of words replaced them in the bubble.

smartass punk boss:

Also, go back to work, Rence. You shouldn't be fooling around with your phone during office hours, especially if it's not related to work. This must be why you're making careless mistakes in the reports.

Incredulous, Laurence gaped. "This rascal. Don't make it sound like I made a couple more mistakes after that one time." He sneered at the message. "And ain't you the one who texted me first?"