A Far-fetched Love ✓

AFL 29 ✓

The words that slipped off Cedric's mouth weren't much for their quantity, but were too much for their quality. They dug deep in both my consciousness and unconsciousness, making me travel my mind back to what took place days and a year and a half ago. 

When Kael proposed to me, at first I thought his ex-boyfriend under the name of Mattias was just someone who possessed the same name as what my brother from another father has. But when Cedric mouthed the last word of his four words, almost Mr. Salazar-Zamora, then I knew it was my brother. And then I knew why Kael looked really familiar to me. And it was Cedric who thoroughly justified my familiarity with Kael, at the wedding that my grandmother and I attended a year ago.

Being a luxurious man who was to marry an equally affluent bachelor in the Philippines, the Alto Broadcast Media or ABMI, a mass media company where my demised grandmother worked before as a notably brave broadcast journalist, took cover of the wedding of the year. The wedding of the heirs of Matteo Giddeon Salazar Food Co. or MGS Food Co. and Zamora Law Firm or ZLF.

It wasn't actually a formal and solemn wedding, knowing that our country's constitution and Catholicism don't recognize same sex marriage. So the milepost was rather an exchange of grace between the two families before their sons' nuptials in Paris, but it was one hell of a watershed moment that's worthy to be covered by a number of mass media companies. 

I was there with my grandmother, for I was an intern of one of ABMI's Media Psychologists. As an intern, we were bestowed a chance to see their employees work on the field or in action for a better way of understanding humans not just in their daily normal lives, but also the influences of media on their behavior and in other aspects of their lives. 

Had I not been an intern and had lola possessed no affiliation to ABMI, we know we wouldn't be there for sure. Luckily we were. And the Zamoras had no choice but to bite our presence. 

The event was fruitful and gorgeous, just by settling my eyes on the set up on the The Peninsula Manila's The Conservatory venue, which is especially meant for couples eyeing for a perfect touch of both elegance and exoticism for the occurence of a life turning event in their mortality.

Number of their guests was limited to a hundred and twenty-five, already including both banquet sit-down and cocktails. The Guest list consists of men and women of great stature, politicians and businessmen to name a few, and of course, us, the media. 

Frequent flashing of lights and clicking sounds of cameras were the common auditories that lapped my ears, aside from the awes of the guests that didn't sound as genuine as how they usually do it with a normal wedding of a man and a woman. Obviously, they weren't aficionados of eccentric marriage ceremonies. 

Large speakers placed at the corners of the venue played Barry Manilow's Looks Like We Made It. Probably the theme song of the two, just suitable for their kind of magically indifferent love. 

There weren't flowers to be seen to add up to the venue's glamour and romance, but pleated black, gray, and white curtains were present in lieu of them, as well as beyond the number of expensive Chinese vases of Ming and Qing Dynasty and Christie Ming that were worth millions of peso. 

The black carpet laid at the center of the venue added to the tinge of sumptuousness of the black, gray, and white theme. None of the guests were wearing clothings of different color other than black, whereas the families of the stars of the event were clothed with gray fabrics. And the man standing in the middle front, with ice blonde hair, was sporting an all white suit and tie. He has a cunning resemblance of a prince charming in the fairytales that I never once abhorred to watch, but I loathed the person himself all my life though he's my brother from a half blood. He does own a great percentage of our mother's features just like me, making it impossible for people to not connote us as siblings. 

Mattias' watery eyes were fixed at the two-door entourage that slowly opened, revealing a more dashing man in white. Kael. He was a head turner, and I turned my head not even once but multiple times without getting jaded. 

Together with him on his left side was a sophisticated old woman seated on an electric wheelchair, she looked like those expensive, high class mothers from Korean dramas. Still beautiful hence the paleness of her milky white skin. His right side was empty, the side meant for his father. 

Initially, it was the speakers that brought music to the venue, but consequently, it was a high paid Filipino soul singer who sang Barry Manilow's Looks Like We Made It. The ambiance romanticized more in every lyric he threw, the two men grew teary in every step of the latter in the entourage, and the crowd went sealed with silence. 

The entourage was romantic, spine-chilling and elating. Much more when they stood together at the center, staring at each other like they owned the world and we weren't existing as they exchanged vows coated with sweetness and light. The vows were vehemently long, but their stanzas that remained memorable to me were their last. 

"From this day forward, I'm all yours until the end of my existence. My existence who's only means of subsistence is you. I love you till our lifetime ends, Mikael Gaddiel Salazar-Zamora."

"I was your possession then, I am your possession now and I will always be, for the constancy of my love is only mine to give and only yours to take, I loved you then and I love you always, Mattias Lucio Zamora."

Been beseeching for an answer of why I wasn't able to clearly remember Kael's face. Then I thought maybe because I wasn't really that good at remembering people, unless they bear a heavy weight by existing in my life. 

And if that wedding-like occurrence made me believe that a love could be imperishable, the news that we received concerning their wedding made me also believe that fate could befall anytime without choosing its victim.

The nuptial of Kael and my brother was to be held in Paris five months after our news coverage. Almost everyone expected them to be the protagonists of the broadcasting systems, journals, magazines, social media, and even the talk of the town.

For a day, people knew they'd become the subject of a kind of love that would make people believe that love isn't just between a man and a woman, it is rather between a love and a love. Not until the hearsays of Kael, cancelling their wedding at the last minute, went spreading like a wildfire. 

However, no news was produced regarding the real story behind it. It was absolutely the power of money that sealed the mouth of the media from uncovering the truth. All we knew was Mattias was left behind, like a man who doesn't deserve to be wed. A news that weighed nothing to me before, but weighed much to me now, for it was contradicting Kael's statement that Mattias was the one who left him. So I didn't hesitate to seek an explanation from him, nor did he think twice to tell me, barring his astonishment that his ex and I are genetically related.

I was scared at first to hear from him. I was afraid that I'd get hurt, I feared the what ifs that I had in mind. What if their story was still worth another shot? What if he's still into him and is on a rebound and I was just a perfect prospect? What if the reason why he left Mattias on their wedding day was just a way out from something worst that could happen, knowing that Mr. Matteo's against his son's homosexuality?

But when I heard his explanation to my latter query, I didn't know what to make out of it. Didn't either know that Mr. Matteo could be that evil, because he was the one who saved me from the mud.

"Mattias came from riches and gold, so Giddeon's despise for my homosexuality was dominated by the power and money that he could seize once my marriage with Mattias take place. He makes sure that the person we are to marry came from the heights, because money and power make his world go round."

And that bewildered me, because I came from the rags, yet his father wanted me to marry his son. 

I suddenly came at a loss for words, so he simply went on explaining why he left my brother and I didn't see it coming.

"But I cancelled the wedding," he went on. "Mattias had an illicit affair with my sister that's been going on for months yet I was clueless. Then I caught them in bed when I came home from my business trip in Hong Kong to attend my mother's funeral, days before our wedding."