SHOW ME YOUR LOVE: FIREBLADE'S QUEST57.89%

WHAT THE HELL DID YOU PUT IN THAT SINIGANG!?

D.J SERRANO’S POV

When D.J opened his eyes again, he found himself at the beach. There was a tent facing the ocean, and someone was cooking barbecue on a grill in front of it. Not just someone but his grandfather, his Lolo Juan.

“You’re awake, Danny Boy!” The old man smiled at him cheerfully, and something in D.J’s heart clenched painfully as tears swam in his eyes.

“Lolo!” He ran into his grandfather’s open arms, smiling tearfully as he felt the warmth of his embrace, smelt the comforting scent of the sea. Lolo Juansen was a fisherman, and he always smelt of the ocean. “Lolo, there’s so much I want to tell you.”

Daniel loved his grandfather, but he didn’t often think about him the way he thought of Lalanita or his mother. Or even Enrique. While he was here, Lolo Juan had lived a full life despite everything. He’d not had it easy – not one bit – but he was the happiest person D.J had ever known. Even when he’d passed away, Daniel had been broken but he’d known that his grandfather had not had any regrets; the old man had left a letter for every single family member, to ease the burden of his person. He’d been 12 when he’d received it, but now it all came crashing back in waves; how broken his mother had been, how much Lalanita had cried over the phone. How he’d hadn’t been allowed to come down to Cebu for the funeral because he was writing exams, and how he much he’d hated his parents for not letting him say that final goodbye.

Now, he was holding his sweet grandfather in his arms again, the man who’d been so easygoing and kind that even his father hadn’t been about to find any fault in him. Lolo Juansen’s death had shaken his father too. In more ways than he’d been comfortable with. At first, before they’d left Manila for Cebu, Enrique Serano Snr. had been sympathetic to his wife’s grief. But something about the outpour of love at Lolo Juansen’s funeral had rocked something in his core, and so, he’d pulled her and Rico out of the gathering early. As soon as his Lolo was buried, the hateful man muttered excuses for them and insisted they all had to return to Manila.

The next time he laid his hands on Mom – on them – Daniel figured out why. He could still hear the words. “You all would prefer it if I was like that loser, your Lolo Juansen, wouldn’t you?” He’d said drunkenly. “What was so special about him anyway that had you people crying at his grave? Was it because he was nice, and sweet? That’s just dumb!” he’d laughed manically while his wife wept, while his son bled. “Daniel, your grandfather was a loser. That man never made a million pesos in his life! Not like me, see!” He gestured to the grandeur of Casa Serrano, with bright open space and expensive furniture. “I’m rich! That’s why you guys are still with me. I feed you! Clothe you! I give you shelter! But you and your brother will never weep at my grave the way your mother cries for her father, and why not? Everything I’m doing is for you. All of this! For you. But I bet you’ll dance on my grave when I’m gone, wouldn’t you?”

His father had looked at him with something akin to hope in that moment, as if he was waiting for D.J to reassure him that he was loved, and he’d be missed. D.J didn’t say a word.

He was 12 years old at this time, and already, he’d felt so old. And so, so tired.

“Danny Boy, I’ve missed you so much,” his Lolo said seriously now, dragging him back to the impossible present. In this moment, by the sea, D.J didn’t even bother to wonder how this was possible, how his grandfather was even here (or was he the one that was ‘there’, wherever Lolo Juansen was?), he only knew that he missed his Lolo, and he needed this. He needed the simplicity of the man who’d raised his mother and spent decades with his Lalanita. He and his grandfather had always had a strong bond; no matter how many years had passed between each visit or how many secrets he’d kept to himself, Lolo Juansen had always been kind, and warm. Easy going and ready to listen, even when D.J never said anything at all. “I wish we had more time.”

“Me too.” D.J found himself whispering.

“Well, there’s no use crying over the matter. Come, let us eat some grilled fish. Let us talk. Tell me, boy, do you know why you are here?”

He shook his head, and found himself saying, “Must there be a reason why? I just…I just want to be with you, Lolo. I just want to enjoy this before I wake up from this dream.” Because it was a dream, it had to be a dream. This entire day was too ridiculous to be real. And if it was a dream, he’d embrace it with open arms, like the gift it was. Because even though it was a little scary to be seeing his grandfather and Chef Emilio, Emmy’s dad, on some level, he was relieved. ‘Why should he be afraid of these ghosts when lately, he spent so much time thinking about them anyway?’ Wasn’t there a belief in different cultures that when you keep thinking about people that have passed away, you somehow manage to drag their ghosts around with you? So, maybe it wasn’t all that surprising that he was finally seeing his ghosts face to face when he spent so much time dragging them around like a weight in his heart. But if this was true…there was one more ghost that he wanted so badly to see.

His mother.

So that he could tell her how angry he was at her for not leaving his father until it was too late. So that he could apologize for being alive in her place. He could have sword he’d heard her voice, felt her touch on his brows when he woke up earlier.

“You’re doing it again, Daniel,” his grandfather sighed, as if reading his mind. “You’re thinking too much about the past. You and Rico, that’s your problem. And you spend too much time wishing for the wrong things too. How do you think your mother would feel if she knew what you were thinking…wasting your life like this.” Lolo Juansen shook his head regrettably. “Life is a precious gift, don’t you know?”

“I think she deserved it more,” D.J finally confessed. “She was right on the edge of breaking free after everything she’d endured. She had plans, a whole new life of freedom from my father right ahead of her. She was finally going to leave, and that this happened-”

“What happened?” His grandfather asked, looking at him quietly. “What happened that day, Daniel?”

“The accident.” For two years, the memory of the bright headlights had haunted his dreams. But now, the new details he remembered clicked into place: the heavy-duty truck coming straight at his parents’ Rolls-Royce. “No wait.”

Their late driver, Jose Garcia, had dodged it the first time. But the truck had came back hard and fast, ramming them from behind. The screeching sounds of the tires, his mother’s screams, his father shouting at the poor man behind the wheels to drive faster right before the truck hit. Shattered glass everywhere. How the truck came back to crush them over and over again.

And later, the sound of someone’s approaching footsteps on the broken glass, as his mother bled and bled…

“Help. Please, help!” he’d moaned, but his voice had come out so quietly that he hadn’t even been able to hear himself. The sight of tanned brown leather with thick soles crushing glass, as the man wearing the distinctive shoes whistled cheerfully.

As if he’d just done a very good job.

“It wasn’t an accident,” he whispered as tears of understanding clouded his eyes.

“No, Danny Boy,” his grandfather placed a comforting hand on his shoulders as his own tears shimmered in his gentle gaze. “Your mother was murdered.”

EMMY MENDOZA’S POV

‘D.J’s brother is scary.’ That was the first thought Emmy had as soon as Enrique Serrano walked in. Although the two brothers looked alike, Enrique had none of his brother’s laid back demeanor. Even as he stood quietly over his brother, hands buried in his perfectly tailored suit pockets, he was awfully tense.

And very scary. Like he wanted to kill someone.

If only they were on more familiar terms, perhaps Enrique could have told her that the last time he was in this position, D.J’s ex-girlfriend and ex-best friend had been the target of his ire. But then, those cold eyes shifted to her.

“You said he ate your sinigang right before he ended up like this?” He asked with such controlled fury that Emmy stuttered as she replied.