After The Credits

Chapter 10 You Remember it All Karl's POV

Karl was sitting on the couch in Tito Santi's apartment, typing away at his laptop. He was making final edits to an article he was writing when he heard a knock on the door. He set his laptop down and walked to the door.

"Sino 'yan?" He asked.

"Sino pa ba?" Vlad's voice answered from the otherside of the door.

Karl opened the door, greeting the older boy with a smile and led him inside. Vlad walked into the unit and made his way to his usual spot on the couch and Karl sat next to him.

"Ano, ready?" Vlad asked.

"May tatapusin lang ako saglit lang." Karl replied, opening his laptop to finish the article.

"Ah, oo nga pala, Vlad, bumili ako ng snacks kanina. Baka gusto mong kumain. Gagabihin kasi tayo, eh." Karl said, still typing.

Vlad got up and grabbed a bag of chips on the kitchen counter. He made his way back to the couch, opened the bag, and offered the chips to Karl.

"A-ah sa-salamat, Vlad." Karl smiled, taking some chips from the bag.

Karl hoped he wasn't blushing, but wouldn't have been surprised if he was.

Shuta... kinikilig ba ako?

"Anyway..." Karl said, saving and closing the file on his laptop.

"Magsimula na tayo."

"Sige. Ano ulit yung instructions sa task na 'to?" Vlad asked.

"Teka, send ko sa'yo yung file." Karl said.

He opened the file sent by one of his ASF seniors and sent them to Vlad.

"Hmm... ok so tungkol ang assignment na 'to sa paggamit ng musika sa film." Vlad said, reading the instructions.

"Oo, pipili tayo ng pelikula tapos gagawa tayo ng analysis ng soundtrack." Karl continued.

"So, ano'ng gusto mong panoorin?" Vlad asked.

"Gusto ko sana ng musical para bagay sa theme ng assignment." Karl answered.

"Oooh I think I know a good one." Vlad said, turning on the TV.

Karl took this as the signal to connect his laptop to the TV. Once he was done, he passed the laptop to Vlad, so he could play the movie he wanted to watch. It didn't take long before Vlad found the film he was looking for and pressed play.

"Uy, La La Land! Maganda raw 'to!" Karl said excitedly.

"'Di mo pa 'to napanood? It's one of my favorites. Tara, let's watch."

They watched the film over its 2 hour runtime, laughing and crying through its ups and downs. Karl was enchanted by the elaborate musical performances and the characters' love story. Every now and then, however, he'd get distracted by Vlad playing with his hair.

"Hoy, Vlad, buhok ko! Pwede ba, manood ka na lang?" He complained.

Vlad just laughed at Karl's protesting.

After a while, the film ended and Karl found himself in tears. Perhaps a happy couple not ending up together in the end hit a little too close to home for him.

Vlad put his hand on Karl's shoulder, comforting him.

Karl wiped his tears and composed himself.

"Ang ganda ng soundtrack, ah..." He said, trying to talk about something, anything really, to distract from the fact that he was just crying to the movie's ending.