Buried Yet Still Breathes

She was the villain in everyone's story back in their province. Ask anyone what she was like, and they would answer with the same three words: mataray, matapobre, at mapaghiganti. What spared her from everyone's hatred was the wealth she had worn since childhood and the beauty she flaunted so effortlessly.

No one ever dared confess to her. She was far too untouchable for that.

She dreamed of leaving that province behind, of reaching heights her parents themselves would never touch. She wanted more power, influence, and a life so grand that no one from that tiny town could ever look down on her. She wanted the world at her feet.

Then there was him. A quiet, awkward boy from the slums. The type people overlooked too easily. The only one foolish enough to believe he stood a chance with her. So he confessed.

And just like that, he was rejected. He was dismissed. He was reduced to nothing beneath the sharp edge of her pride. Oo nga naman, why would someone like her settle for a poor, insignificant nerd when her ambitions stretched far beyond the province they came from? Ang tingin niya pa nga rito ay mangkukulam. Mapakay. Lahat ng galaw, planado. Kaya para sa kanya, isang langaw lang ang binata na kailangan tabuyin.

But what if the tables turned?

What if the boy from the slums became rich? What if he reached every dream that was supposed to belong to her? What if fate chose him instead and handed him the very world she had spent her entire life chasing?

And what if karma returned in cruel ripples, forcing her to stand before the same boy she once looked down on?

Would she finally confess the truth she buried for years, a truth that still breathes to this day: that she had loved him long before the world ever did, but her pride had always been greater than her courage?