A Close Second

Fifty-Sixth

I hope everyone's doing well.
I'm still alive, thank God.
Here's 56
---

"Nagbigay ng karangalan sa bayan ang isang pinay na bagong endorser ng isang international na brand ng pabango. Si Beatrice Singson, 19 na taong gulang ay isa sa mga bagong modelo ng sikat na pabangong Senteur na mula pa sa Paris, France—"

I turned off the TV, sighing.

I didn't think that being a brand ambassador of an international perfume was going to be in the news. I just realized that however insignificant it was, once they know you're a Filipino in the international scene it's all big news.

I thought trending on Twitter and Facebook was the biggest thing I had to worry about, but apparently that was nothing.

"I should say congratulations on making the news, but I can see that you're not too happy about it."

Naupo sa tabi ko si Matt, who gave me a cup of coffee, which I accepted gingerly. We were at the XEI Advertising Headquarters, which was just a building away from the Business Administration Building.

Ang bilis ng mga nangyari totoo lang. True to their word, after nga ng party ko, the Marketing for Senteur really did contact me to set up a meeting and had invited me to be the face of their brand. It turns out, XEI really did have a lot of connections worldwide.

That was just the beginning.

It seemed like the trending thing was the start of it all. It helped especially that I was a new South East Asian face to a French brand. That opened doors for me to be reached out by agencies for modelling, and I had been through a couple of go-sees already.

Right now, I agreed to be managed by Ahensya Likha, an agency which Matt and Via had come up with and started after winning their campaign, with Matt being my manager and all. I didn't want to pick an agency yet, since I wasn't sure if modelling was a career I want to really pursue.

I guess I got scrambled with my decisions again, causing a domino effect once more that I haven't seen coming.

"Hindi ko naman inaakala na ganito ang mangyayari." I told him. "Honestly, I was caught up with everything we had done and you guys winning."

"To be fair, we hadn't imagined that this will happen too." Sabi ni Matt sa akin. "Wala namang makakaisip na ganito ka successful ang lahat."

I gave him a small smile. "Sinungaling." Pang asar ko. "Hindi mo naisip na ganito ang mangyayari?"

"Aaminin ko, I did hope it would end like this, but I thought it was a long-shot. That campaign was supposed to be child's play. Alam naman naming mananalo kami, pero sinong mag aakalang sobrang magugustuhan nila at gagamitin talaga nila?"

I smirked. It was a little conceited, but he did have a point.

It just goes to show how much you don't expect things to happen.

"Is this a good thing though?" Tanong ko, sipping my coffee.

He looks at me before sipping his own cup.

"I'd say it is. Bakit naman hindi?"

I shrugged. "I'm not sure. Maybe it will be, maybe it won't be. I don't know." I tell him truthfully. "Time will tell, I guess"

---

"8 Things you should know about Beatrice Singson."

I sat down on my sofa, a hand on a glass of milk while I looked at the iPad. The AK team had just forwarded me this link of one of the famous online publications. The crazy thing was, this hasn't been the only publication that had been interested in who I was.