MAINE

July 17, 2015: Today was so different from the past few days at work. Maine felt excited and worried at the same time. She messed up yesterday by smiling; she was out of character for almost the whole duration of her segment. Worse, she cried during sugod-bahay. She wondered what Ma'am Jenny would say. Ma'am Jenny was nice but she was intimidating, must be a throwback from her past career as a teacher. She approached Ma'am Jenny apprehensively.

"Ma'am Jenny...sorry po," She said hesitantly, expecting the worst.

"Ha? Sorry for what? Good thing andito ka na, sit down and let's talk." Ma'am Jenny motioned for her to sit on one of the monoblock chairs. The production team was already setting up the cameras; Direk Pat was barking instructions to the team.

"Good job yesterday. You picked up quickly on what needed to be done. I like that." She couldn't believe she was hearing this. Her mouth was agape till she realized she must look funny and closed it, trying to compose herself and listened to Ma'am Jenny.

"Maine, we got so many positive reviews from the audience. Here, take a look for yourself."

She glanced at the tablet in front of her, amazed. So many nice comments about her and Alden on Eat Bulaga's Facebook page, most of them wanting to see more of them together. Some even clamored for their love team to be established. Another fan already coined a loveteam name for them: ALDUB.

"Maine, stick tayo with what the fans want, ok? Let's see how this goes, gusto nila eh."

"Ma'am, pano po yung character ko? Suplada pa rin ba ako?"

"Hindi na, Maine. Unti-unti na natin baguhin yan. To be honest, may nakuha tayong a few negative comments about that. Mas type nila ito, gusto nila si Yaya Dub may love interest. Gusto nila kayo ni Alden."

"Sige po, noted po."

"Tuloy natin yung split screen setup. Dubsmash ka pa rin. Tignan lang natin how it will go the next few days, ok?"

Her heart was beating fast. She was being paired with THE Alden Richards. Her crush. The guy she once joked on Twitter as her future boyfriend. Pambansang Bae, pambansang dimples, cutiepie much. She hoped he was ok with the set-up as much as she was. What if he didn't like her? OMG, that would be embarrassing.

Yesterday, she was a bit offended and thought that the team played a practical joke on her by putting Alden on split screen. She thought her slip from character would cost her this job but it seemed the opposite. Ms. Jenny was pairing her with Alden for the next few days.

She gave a silent prayer of thanks.

By the time Juan for All started, Maine was ready. She took extra care that she looked good today, her hair parted at the side, her make-up accentuated by her berry-colored lips. As the split-screen romance went on air, she was at her element, almost as though she was born for this.

Alden also played along well with the setup. He smiled, flirted and dubsmashed with her, laughed at her antics. All throughout the segment, she wondered what he was thinking of her. Sure, it was part of her work to look funny, make people laugh and she should be the last person to care about what people thought. She did a lot more on her dubsmash videos, didn't she?

The whole sequence with Alden took a little more than 15 minutes but it felt like an hour. She was exhausted by the time she was off the air but happy. She knew that they worked well as a team. Strange, even without talking, they had rapport.

"Good job bunso," Wally said, pinching her cheek playfully. She smiled back.

"Kuya, sana tuloy-tuloy na no? Para di na ko paalisin."

"Paalisin? Itong batang to, grabe tumakbo isip mo. Konting tiwala sa sarili. Galing-galing mo eh."

She felt good with Wally's encouragement. Of the three guys, she liked Wally the most. He was such a kind soul and the first to welcome her warmly on her first day.

That night, she posted a new dubsmash video on her IG account, using the song "Bahala na," singing Nadine Lustre's first few lines.

She couldn't sleep although it was late, typical when she was all fired up about something. She opened her Twitter account to check her notifications and people she followed. More and more people were following her on Twitter, it was getting harder to answer all the tweets.

A friend sent her a cryptic direct message.

"Ayos ha, para kayong nag-usap, hahaha." Her message was followed by a link to Instagram. Curious, she opened the link and found it to be Alden's IG account. Apparently, Alden also posted a dubsmash video. Upon playing it, she nearly fell off the bed.

Alden posted a dubsmash video of the same song, singing James Reid's part.

Incredible, in the best way possible. It's like they were of the same mind, again, even without communicating.

She drifted off to sleep after that, the song Bahala Na playing in her head repeatedly.