I smiled.
Waved.
Answered the questions like i rehearsed them in my sleep.
"Cassandra, how does it feel to be back?"
"It feels right," I said, voice steady, gaze soft. "I missed performing. I missed the stage."
Lies.
Half-lies.
Because what i really missed was this strange feeling i get after everything, when the cameras shut off, the applause fades, and I slip away from Cassandra of NOVA5…
…and become Cass.
Just Cass.
Cass who waits for a text after every show.
Cass who checks the hallway for a hoodie and a familiar scent.
Cass who runs to him the second she sees his car parked by the back exit.
The door clicked behind me. I didn't even wait.
"Hi," I whispered breathlessly, pulling the hoodie over my head.
He didn't speak.
Just opened the passenger door for me like he always does.
As if it was routine.
As if hiding me away was the most natural thing in the world.
We didn't even plan where to go.
We never did.
Sometimes it's a 24-hour ramen place.
Other times it's the parking rooftop of an abandoned mall, where the wind is loud enough to drown our voices.
Tonight, it was a gas station convenience store.
He bought iced coffee for me, banana milk for him, and we just sat there in silence, in comfort, in something too fragile to name.
"I saw your interview kanina," Ken said eventually, his fingers tapping his drink lightly. "You looked calm."
I scoffed, "I was sweating through my entire innerwear. Not calm. Just trained."
He chuckled. That deep, low kind of laugh that always made me feel like I was home.
"Pero ang galing mo," he added. "You made it look easy."
I looked at him.
Really looked.
Ken Villafuerte, who the world saw as this confident, funny, charismatic performer.
But here, under flickering fluorescent lights, he was just a boy holding banana milk and looking at me like i was the whole damn sky.
"Do you ever think about it?" he asked softly, still staring out the windshield.
"Think about what?"
He glanced at me, eyes unreadable. "What it would be like... if we didn't have to hide?"
I froze.
My fingers tightened around my drink.
"Like," he continued, "if in some other universe... we could just be us. Me and you. Holding hands in public. No disguises. No ducking behind car seats. Just… happy."
That word.
Happy.
It stuck in my throat.
"Do you think we'd be better there?" I asked quietly.
He didn't answer right away.
"I think," he said eventually, "we'd be louder there."
I turned to him.
"Louder?"
He nodded. "Louder with love. Louder with laughter. Louder with who we are."
My heart cracked.
Because i wanted that version of us, too.
The one that didn't have to flinch at every camera flash. The one that didn't have to memorize back exits. The one where i could hold his hand while waiting for coffee and not worry if someone was filming.
"Do you think she's happier, that Cass?" I asked.
"The one in the other universe?"
I nodded.
He leaned back on his seat, eyes on the ceiling now.
"I think she wakes up next to me. I think she eats breakfast with me. I think she gets to say 'I love you' without whispering."
I covered my mouth, trying not to cry.
"I want to meet her," I said, voice shaking.
"She's probably looking at you right now," he smiled, "wishing she was you."
That night, we didn't kiss.
We didn't touch.
But we shared something softer.
A moment between versions of ourselves that only we could imagine.
A moment where maybe, in another timeline, we were already living the dream.
But for now… we drove back in silence.
He dropped me off two blocks away from the dorms, as always.
And before i left, he reached over, not to hold me, but to brush my hair behind my ear.
Like he was memorizing me.
"Good night, Cass," he said.
And for the first time in days…
…I believed that i could still have him,
Even if only in the quiet.
Even if only in the spaces no one else sees.
Even if only in every universe but this one.