Lights, Camera and Alden Richards ➣ AlDub/MaiChard

six

JUNE 2016

Maine didn't want to leave her apartment.

It was already a week after that awkward (and tense) lunch meeting with Alden and his manager, but Maine could still feel the daggers that the star threw at him from across the table. She could still hear his voice saying how he didn't even want to be seen in the same room for ten seconds with her and that ten months is indeed too long. 

After Jen and Kim had prompted them about how things will work, Alden demanded that they should leave if they wanted to be at their next appointment on time. Maine knew that it was Alden's way of leaving the place as early as he could. Alden did not even bid them goodbye nor smiled the whole time. But like what Jen had told her on the first two minutes of their meeting, she should get used to it.

The day after that, Alden had followed her back on Twitter and Instagram, but Maine doubts it was even him who was in charge of his account. Exactly what Jen had instructed, he liked some of her Instagram posts and tweets, making the social media wonder who the hell was mainedcm. It was not even ten minutes after Alden had liked her recent Instagram post and she had already reached more than 30,000 followers (which was a lot compared to her more than 2,000 followers). It was not even twenty-four hours when "SINO SI MAINE" started trending worldwide, and yes, it was on all caps. Soon enough, Maine was already the talk of social media. Within three days, she already had more than 140,000 followers on Instagram, 160,000 on Twitter and a whooping 50,000 subscribers on her Youtube channel.

Not even five days after that, Maine was already in the headlines of popular news and celebrity update shows around the nation. People had already named their "love team" (MaiDen) and had created over a hundred photo manips of the two of them.

On the sadder note, Maine had received a lot of hate comments. Her youtube channel, that was once filled with only a few but great comments, was already bombarded with negative feedback. A lot of people had tweeted her, telling her that she shouldn't be in between YvEn, which was apparently Yvette Cojuango and Alden's love team. The comments on her Instagram was just as bad; people left comments about how she didn't deserve to be with the Alden Richards because she looked average.

Alden was right after all. 

If he was seen out with her, even for only a couple of minutes, she'd gain enough popularity. Alden did not even leave comments nor tweeted her; he just merely followed her and liked her posts. 

To say that Maine was overwhelmed was completely an understatement.

She was baffled, discombobulated, astounded and scared. 

But even if she was feeling all of the above and perhaps even more, that didn't stop Jen and Kim from being so excited about their first date.

Which was today.

In a couple of hours.

At her favorite café.

"Hey, Jacob," Faye called on Maine's best friend, with two different dresses on her hands. "Which color does suit Maine best? Beige or this blue one?"

Jacob, who was busy pretending he was reading, looked up from the magazine. "I don't know. Kahit ano."

"You're not being helpful, Jacob," Maine sighed. "Pumili ka na lang, please."

"Why do you need to ask me?" Jacob asked. "You'll figure it out."

Faye rolled her eyes, knowing exactly why Jacob was acting like this. Maine, on the other hand, had no idea why Jacob was being, for a lack of a better term, an asshole.