The Presses

S06 E03: Mikha Lim

Isabella stopped in her tracks when she heard the familiar voice of someone she hadn't heard and seen in person for a year. "Mikhs?"

"Missed me?"

Standing in front of her was one of the most important people in her life. The redhead stood there with a smirk before Izzy basically jumped up and pounced her, making the both of them stumble back. Mikha immediately put her hand on the younger girl's waist to help them balance up. Isabella looked up sheepishly and smiled at her.

"I'm sorry," she mumbled, digging her head in between the neck of the woman in front of her. "I just missed you so much."

Mikha chuckled and pulled the younger girl closer, returning her tight hug. "I missed you more."

...

Isabella and Mikha sat in front of the camera, the younger girl basically bouncing on her seat as she introduced the person beside her. "Everyone, this is my soulmate, Mikha. Ga, meet everyone. Mikha is my bestest friend in the whole world."

Mikha looked at Izzy with amusement before giving the camera a shy smile and a small wave. "Hi everyone, I'm Mikhaela Janna Jimenea Lim, but I go by Mikha."

"We grew up together, our parents have known each other ever since they were teens, and Mom is her Godmother, or Ninang, as what we like to call it in the Philippines."

.

Isabella sat alone on the chair and gave the camera a grin. "Mikha is my person. She's been the only constant in my life ever since we were younger. I always have her back and she always has mine. Aside from my Moms, Mikha is always one of the first people I tell everything to."

"Why are we just meeting her now?"

"She's always been here," Izzy mumbled. "The beauty of the show is that we get to kind of show how our life is but there is so much privacy that we could still have. But the last time I saw Mikhs in person was about a year ago when they visited here as a family but we make sure we Facetime at least once a week and text every day."

Harold, who was behind the camera, nodded his head and asked another question for more context (more so for the viewers). "Was it intentional to keep her a secret?"

"She was never really a secret, but it was a conscious decision- more from my end- to kind of not bring it up."

"Why?"

"To protect her," Isabella paused for a little bit to try to collect her thoughts and articulate them in a way that would be able to really explain everything. "When you are connected to our family, especially in the past few years, everyone's eyes will be on you. And not just their eyes, but it somehow makes everyone open to criticize and just target you, even when you are doing nothing wrong."

"I don't talk about this a lot, but that also played a huge part when I was with Paige. The bullying she had to go through just because she was linked to me was disgusting. And I guess Ga is just too important to me to put her under all of that, you know."

"And Ga is part of this PPop girl group in the Philippines and I guess I didn't want to ruin that for her," Iz mumbled under her breath. "I keep ruining things and relationships because of who I am. I don't want to ruin something that she worked so hard for."

...

Once pulled away, Isabella looked at the woman in front of her, still in disbelief. "Oh my God, is this really you, are you really here?"

She shook her head and laughed. "Yes, you're OA na ah. Look, we almost fell tuloy." 

Isabella slightly pulled away from the tight hug, taking in the woman in front of her. Like really taking her in. The usually bright red hair she had looked brighter, her eyes as piercing as ever, but even the make-up she wore did not stop Isabella from noticing the dark bags under her eyes. Unconsciously, her hand went up and cupped the Filipina's face as she studied the dark circles, squinting when she noticed the older girl just gave her a sheepish smile.