Catch up: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3

Jay sees Ernie holding Gigi’s hand while declaring he had a crush on her back in high school. He pulls out his phone to make a call.

The speechless Gigi stares at Ernie, his declaration yet another unexpected occurrence much as his appearance.

Her phone rings and she picks up seeing as it’s Jay, the General Manager. He needs her help with the group’s advertising budget right at that moment at the Winston Hotel, it’s important.

Jay says this with a straight face as he looks at Gigi and Ernie across the street. She’ll be there in half an hour.

Ernie asks for her number, and Gigi gives it to him. He waves excitedly goodbye as she hails a taxi, but his smile slowly disappears as he notices Jay.

He reminds her she’s talented and good despite what others have made her believe

Meanwhile, Gigi wonders why Jay called her out on a weekend, it never happened before in her past life.

As it turns out, Jay’s already there. He needs to redirect the marketing efforts of U&K and would like Gigi to support his proposal.

The high executive who’s going to listen to their pitch is one with a bad reputation who Gigi recalls getting caught a few years later once a video leaks of him abusing an employee.

Jay doesn’t seem to like the other man much either for as soon as Mr. Abusive goes in to shake Gigi’s hand, he steps in.

Ah, Jay knows a pretty girl is the way to make work easier Mr. Abusive issues in response to him stepping in for the handshake. Jay would like to punch the guy.

While showcasing a product, Gigi steps in to explain to Mr. Abusive a specific aspect of the new algorithm they’re implementing on the site. Mr. Abusive isn’t too keen on that, isn’t her job there just to smile like a flower? She should know her place and cut the chatter.

“She’s Gigi not ‘hey’,” Jay comments stepping slightly in front of Gigi. “I called this promising employee today to hear her opinion,” he continues, seriously staring down the other man daring him to say anything.

• ◘ •

Much later, as Gigi and Jay stand waiting for the car to arrive, Gigi turns to thank him for his kind words earlier. He assures her he wouldn’t have said so if it wasn’t for the fact that Gigi is a kind and talented person.

His words come from genuine respect and Gigi smiles in true appreciation.

His car is finally there, Jay holds the door open for her to get inside.

“You didn’t have to work and hear all that nonsense. I think I should treat you to a meal”.

Gigi doesn’t turn him down. In all honesty, she can’t believe he feels that bad for something like this. Some people were terrible to her and yet aren’t sorry at all.

“Don’t get into a habit of conforming to others,” Jay advises.

“Yes. I learned I don’t have to be good to the people who treat me badly. I’ll use that energy to be nicer to good people,” she informs him.

That’s a good idea. All she needs now is to recognize the good ones.

Hold up, how did he know she was a terrible judge of character? She thought for a long time that she was a good judge of character but she actually wasn’t at all.

“What about me?” Jay asks.

“A good person,” Gigi replies.

She’s not that bad after all. He teases her about one of her responses earlier during the presentation until Gigi’s phone rings—it’s Sue.

Then another message comes through from Ernie who confesses to being excited seeing her after all this time. Gigi smiles while reading it.

“Someone must’ve said something funny,” Jay comments seeing that smile.

“A friend”.

“Who?”

“A friend from school. I went to a high school reunion today, it’s been a long time so we exchanged numbers,” Gigi explains, not knowing Jay’s behind-the-scenes roll into any of the events of the past few hours.

“It’s momentarily nice to see an old friend. Even if it’s in the past,” he consents.

“I used to like him a lot. He was my first love,” Gigi confesses.

“You could be reminded of old feelings when seeing him again but it’s dangerous. So you should let go of your old feelings”. His gut had told him there was more to Ernie though Jay isn’t too happy hearing he’s correct.

It’s not like that, she has a boyfriend. Said boyfriend is calling but she hangs up.

Suddenly, as they approach the street where she lives, they come across Mino’s figure walking in front of them. With a gasp, Gigi reclines the car seat back, lying down.

As they pass Mino, Jay comments “It’s hard to see inside the car”.

What? No, she…that’s not the reason!

“I thought you were trying to hide,” Jay says expressionless.

“No, why would I?” Gigi attempts to play it off coming back up only to quickly duck flat once again after passing yet another figure a short distance down the street—it’s Sue.

Great, now Jay saw her acting strange, how does she explain her behavior?

She’s been conforming to others her whole life, she doesn’t even know who she is

He approaches with a warm coffee, the two having stopped by the river with a nice view of the city’s night lights across the bank.

“Since Mino and I are an office couple, I’m sure you’re also curious. However, it’s my personal life so I don’t want to explain,” Gigi thought it would be easier not to have an elephant in the room. But she can’t divulge the details of her reaction in the car earlier.

“Sure. I’m curious but you don’t have to explain it to me as long as you’re making a good decision for yourself, that’s enough for me,” he responds.

She’s sure of what she’s doing since she figured out something lately.

“I’ve been conforming to others my whole life so I didn’t know who I was,” Gigi begins. She’s still learning things about herself.

Taking a breath, Gigi decides to disclose working on a meal-kit proposal (the one she teamed up with Mrs. Y to do). Jay wants her to show it to him displaying genuine interest, he’s looking forward to it and the sooner he gets to see it the better.

What else does she want to do?

“Well, I want…I want to do interior design. Also, I want to learn self-defense”. For some reason, it’s not hard talking to the General Manager, Gigi feels at ease telling him things she barely acknowledged herself.

Self-defense? Should he teach her?

Gigi bursts out laughing, trying and failing to control her face. Self-defense from him?

What’s with the reaction? Jay’s confused.

“I just didn’t picture you as the type,” Gigi attempts to explain. She looks at the kind yet distant man in front of her dressed in a full suit with glasses. He exudes office life, not mat life.

Hey, he used to be an athlete!

“I did judo, hapkido, special martial arts, taekwondo, Muay Thai, kickboxing…” Jay stops noticing Gigi once more trying to hide another laugh.

He shakes his head at this disbelief with a small laugh of his own, taking off his glasses real quick in mini frustration.

“I’ve had this thought for a while,” Gigi starts as he’s about to put them on again. “Have you considered wearing contacts?”

Huh? I mean no but the heck he’s considering right now.

• ◘ •

At last, pulling up in front of Gigi’s apartment, Jay asks if he should walk her to the door. At Gigi’s questioning face, he lets it go.

“Gigi, I think we need to meet as many people as possible before getting married,” he looks seriously at her.

“You’re more free-spirited than I thought,” Gigi replies trying to make sense of where this is going. This entire encounter with the General Manager is beyond her at this point.

“I wasn’t, but now I won’t be. Anyway, I don’t think marriage is a must,” Jay says. He’s really not doing a great job here.

So…he doesn’t want to get married?

“No, I’m going to get married. What I wanted to say was…I mean…Well…I swear,” seeing him fumble like this makes Gigi issue a small laugh.

She tells him it’s nice to see him smile. Jay smiles even more at that.

• ◘ •

Ready for bed after the trying day she’s had, Gigi doesn’t bother much with messages from Mino and Sue. The latter finds a “need” to explain herself for what happened while the former needs Gigi to be more understanding towards Sue because Sue’s feelings are hurt.

What a pair.

Her phone rings, it’s Ernie. Surprised but not displeased, Gigi picks up.

“I’m not the type to be clingy but I couldn’t help calling you,” Ernie admits.

He was feeling impatient which is okay but Gigi confesses it’s weird talking to him on the phone.

“In the past, you told me not to speak to you again,” Gigi kindly reminds him. It was because of that they never spoke on the phone like this.

Hey! That’s not how it went. Ernie recalls confronting Gigi at school, asking her what he did that warranted the behavior she’d be displaying towards him. He’d been visibly upset, demanding she never speak to him again.

Gigi had been perplexed by the encounter. Sue, who’d been next to her, had divulged that she’d told Ernie her friend had feelings for him. Hearing that, Gigi felt terrible, does knowing she has feelings for him make him feel that awful?

Present Ernie informs Gigi he’d been upset back then because she’d rejected him.

“I rejected you?” a confused Gigi asks.

“I still have that letter, your reply. I wanted to throw it away but I couldn’t,” he admits.

So he asked her out through a letter and she replied?

Did she forget? Ernie remembers working hard to write that letter, he’d stayed up all night. Oh, well.

With a sinking feeling, Gigi has an idea of what happened. She asks Ernie to meet and if he can bring her reply letter.

He can’t stop looking at her even if he makes a fool of himself

To say Gigi made an impact with her new look in office on Monday would be an understatement. She killed it, heck she looked like a celebrity! Is it a special day, her colleagues wonder.

Mrs. Y smiles at her with genuine appreciation. Helen smiles in pride, her new friend looks phenomenal.

Meanwhile, Mino suddenly runs up, “Babe…are you really my girlfriend? You look so different,” he exclaims in excited disbelief.

“I wanted to surprise you,” Gigi says with a smile. These fake smiles are scarily getting easier to pull in front of this guy.

“You did surprise me, babe…” Mino makes a move towards her causing Gigi to slightly back away from his handy grasp. “You look like someone else without your glasses. So pretty,” he continues unperturbed.

“You talk as if you’ve never seen her without her glasses,” Helen interjects. Damn, but she doesn’t like Mino though she can’t quite say why.

While Mino excitedly fawns over his newfound pretty girlfriend, Jay walks into the office. His attention is heavy on the big smile lighting up Gigi’s face as she looks at the shenanigans of that fool Mino.

Jay’s so taken by that smile (a rare sight especially in the office), he stumbles knocking over a bunch of supplies. He apologizes only to turn and smack straight into a man walking right behind him.

What an entrance.

With a straight face if a little fazed, he walks up to Gigi who’s partly concerned and partly amused by whatever the serious man is doing today. “Your outfit doesn’t seem suitable for work today,” he tells her.

Helen slowly interjects. Gigi’s outfit is very suitable for work, why’s he criticizing her?

“I must’ve felt that way because I haven’t seen her without her glasses. Excuse me,” he makes to leave.

“You saw it yesterday,” Gigi replies, not ready to let him escape. What in the world is up with this man today?

Silence ensues after that revelation. Even Mino scrunches his face, how did his mousy girlfriend meet with their General Manager?

“That was the weekend, and it’s the first time at work,” Jay responds as if that explains everything.

Gigi notices he’s wearing contacts. Now this comment brings on too much attention, Jay finally escapes without a word. There’s so much a man can take, especially on a Monday morning.

Are other guys now trying to pursue his mousy girlfriend?

But their interaction that morning didn’t escape Mino. Confused as he was, there was still some sense in him to pick up the odd bits like why his girlfriend was on a Sunday night with their manager. It made no sense considering the said girlfriend was no other than Gigi for pity’s sake!

He requests Gigi join him for coffee later that day. Gigi reluctantly agrees though she has no idea what Mino is fishing for.

“By the way, how did you meet Jay yesterday?” he finally cuts to the chase, sidling closer to her on the table.

Trying to come up with something that doesn’t mix up Jay too much with her plans (for she feels bad using him), she aims for part truth. Something urgent came up and he called her out.

“What a jerk! How can he do that? I think Jay likes you,” a frustrated Mino says accusingly.

Gigi brushes off his juvenile suspicions but Mino insists he knows males. No matter how urgent, why would he call her? Just this morning he went on about her outfit being unsuitable, it’s bound to be because she’s so pretty it made him go crazy. What a jerk.

Listening with a huge desire to punch Mino’s face especially when he reaches out to grab her hand, Gigi aims for drastic measures once he starts caressing her cheek. She “accidentally” knocks over the coffee on his pants.

Oh no, oh no what to do! He should hurry to the restroom.

Mino makes a run for it since the liquid is apparently seeping through his underwear. Gigi sighs at yet another narrow escape from that vile touch.

Of course, it can’t be that easy, as soon as one goes the other comes. Right there is Sue and Gigi simply can’t avoid her any longer, she’ll have to hear the fake apology.

As Sue plays the deep remorse card with some skill, Gigi wonders how she could not trust her. The other woman looks so sad and innocent. If she hadn’t seen the end, it would’ve been impossible for her not to trust Sue.

“I could’ve made a mistake, but you know I get confused easily,” Sue says yet again. She might be making some progress with the all of a sudden stubborn Gigi.

“Yeah, I was mad yesterday, but it did seem strange. There was no reason for you to lie about dating Ernie and say I told you to dump him. Unless you wanted to make me look like a bad person. But…” Gigi continues while Sue goes still for a second, “Only a crazy person would do that”.

That’s right, she wouldn’t do that. Gigi informs her they’re not in high school anymore, she won’t let their bullying slide. She’s meeting Ernie to figure out exactly what went on.

“Don’t worry my other half, this time I won’t let it slide,” Gigi assures the suddenly hesitant Sue.

“Won’t Mino not like you meeting another man?” Sue pushes on.

Mino isn’t like that, he wants to make her feel at ease Gigi assures her. Also, his stocks went through the roof and earned him a lot of money.

Sue’s eyes widen at that last info, his stocks did that well?

Casting the net a little wider, Gigi discloses he said he’s looking forward to their newlywed house.

Lucky her, Sue forces out a smile. Her face is about to crack.

I dressed up like this because it makes me feel good

They’re about to leave work waiting for the elevator. Sue stands next to Gigi trying to get her and Mrs. Y who’s next to her to have dinner together. She completely ignores Helen who’s the only one actually wanting to get fried chicken (even though company-wise she could do without Sue).

As the elevator fills with people with Gigi pushed to the back, a man stops the doors from closing. Jay realizes the elevator is packed and steps backward to let the doors close when his eyes rest on Gigi.

He stops the doors from closing yet again. This time, he excuses himself inside.

Finally moving, Mrs. Y who’s next to Gigi smiles at her and tells her that her hair is pretty with the new cut. She and Mino make a great couple.

Disembarking, Jay calls her for a private word as everyone else leaves.

“Why did you dress like that for work?” he asks once more.

“Do I look that strange today?” Gigi asks honestly curious.

“No, it’s not that. Never mind, I shouldn’t have said that” Jay starts leaving but stops. “I wore my contacts today after what you said,” he admits. So he wondered if she dressed like this because of, or for, someone.

“It makes me feel good. I dressed up for the first time like this, and it felt good. People started treating me differently because I dressed like this”.

“Wouldn’t it be wrong for others to treat you differently over how you dress?”

“You’re right, but there are people who do that. I think this is the right way to deal with those types of people. From now on, I won’t just foolishly stick to formalities anymore. For my sake,” Gigi adds the last part in afterthought.

“For your sake?”

Yeah. That makes Jay smile.

“I swear, you look different when you smile,” Gigi says with a smile of her own. She can’t help it, she hopes he smiles more often.

“Also, I’m not an expert on this either, but I think it would be better if you change your style a little,” Gigi dares to offer gently.

She leaves Jay looking down at his suit very much agreeing with the sentiment that foolishly sticking to formalities is indeed bad.

How could she forget that he has another woman by his side?

It doesn’t take long for Gigi to wrap up that evening’s meeting. She’s waiting at the bus stop when she notices a young woman exclaiming in excitement on the street. She’s holding what looks like a shopping bag as she carries on with a small dance.

Gigi squints, is that Helen? She laughs at the antics and is about to call out when she sees Jay emerge from the same store carrying additional bags.

“What are you doing?” he incredulously asks Helen. Gigi easily overhears in the short distance between them.

Okay, he gets the young woman is happy but she should please stop!

Gigi’s earlier smile disappears as she continues watching the two interact. She overhears Helen saying she won’t forget Jay’s kindness in buying her the limited edition bag.

Jay pulls her into a bear hug of shorts to pull the exuberant woman in the other direction.

Gigi looks on as they walk away feeling oddly off. Right! She recalls there was a scandal about the two of them in her past life.

Helen was transferred after a short bout at their office. Mr. K had said she and the General Manager had an inappropriate relationship.

Unbelievable, no wonder she kept bumping into Jay now that she’s friends with Helen. No wonder, it suddenly makes sense.

Gosh. She collapses onto the bed suddenly exhausted. That could’ve been bad. Mino, that stupid jerk, had boasted about his male’s antenna and intuition thinking Jay had a crush on Gigi when Jay and Helen were simply dating.

It’s unrealistic to feel this tinge of disappointment but Gigi can’t help but do so.

• ◘ •

Meanwhile, Jay is sitting on a couch with Helen. The latter is still excited but she can’t help commenting how the successor of U&K gets treated so differently.

“I always had to wait in line, but he went straight to the VIP room,” she tells the chairman, Jay’s grandfather, who’s seated on the couch across from them. The old man is smiling affectionately at Helen as she recounts their outing.

What do you want? Jay had asked her.

Give her everything she wants, he’d instructed the salespeople.

That’s what he said! Helen starts laughing making the old man laugh as well. Is she really that happy?

She hasn’t been this happy in ages! And there he acted as though he wasn’t into luxurious brands, it was so cool. Grandfather.

Helen called the old man very familiarly “Grandfather”.

When they depart from Grandfather’s place, he walks the two of them out.

“Take care of yourself. I’ll visit soon,” Helen tells him. Okay, she should come by whenever. He looks at the silent Jay, he too should come by.

“Jay, you’ll give me a ride, right?” Helen beseeches him.

“It’s the opposite direction,” he replies without a blink.

“What are you saying? Take her home, it’s late, will you make her go alone?” a concerned Grandfather leaves no room for argument. He watches Helen get into Jay’s car waving excitedly as he pulls out.

“Did you look into that woman?” Grandfather asks his right-hand person. The report is in his study ready for him to review.

He’s more than what he seems in ways she doesn’t even know

The chicken delivery guy who seems to know Jay and did him the favor last time that got rid of Mino from Gigi’s apartment gets a call.

Jay asks him out late that night for a match. If he wants to teach a woman self-defense, judo would be best, right?

Meanwhile, the poor chicken delivery guy is on the floor trying to recover. All this because he wants to teach a woman self-defense skills?

The poor guy rolls on the floor, this is painful.

Seemingly decided, Jay thanks him without a backward look and leaves the practice studio. How cold-hearted.

Back at his house, he pops in for a shower. As he turns the water off and grabs a nearby towel, he looks into the mirror.

Right on his left chest, a little below his collarbone, there’s a small black heart.

Gigi’s words ring into his ears, how whenever her dad would give her an allowance he’d draw a heart on it.

She’d shown him the heart on the bill; the heart on his chest was identical.

Jay has a pet cat on which he unveils his thoughts. He’d no idea it’d be this hard. It’s even more difficult since he can’t explain things, overcomplicating matters.

What should he do? Should he just tell Gigi? That Mino will cheat on her with Sue and hurt her.

No, if he says that, he can’t avoid telling her that he’s living his second life.

Jay takes a swing from the drink in his hand, the cat rolling around in front of him.

She won’t believe him, even he can’t believe this situation. He looks down at the heart in his chest once more.

He hasn’t figured out everything yet.

In this past life, he’d attended Gigi’s memorial service. Mino had been standing there looking as morose as he could pretend to be. At least, until the police had shown up arresting him on suspicion of murdering Gigi.

Sue, sitting at one of the tables with the bullies (who Gigi had never stood up to) was also arrested.

Mino had physically resisted while Sue had argued. What’s going on? Why are they doing this?

Silently, Jay watched as the police arrested the two. He walked up to Mino who’d been tackled on the floor as they handcuffed him. In a panic, the man started yelling no one was murdered.

It was an accident! It was culpable homicide! She was going to die anyway.

Sue was arrested as an accomplice. But no, she didn’t do it!

Jay had watched, right there in the memorial service hall, as Sue and Mino were dragged away.

“What’s going on?” one of the women at the table Sue had been sitting asked.

“So, Sue was having an affair with Gigi’s husband?”

“That’s unbelievable!”

“If that’s true, where did she get the nerve to suddenly ask us to come here?”

“Honestly, I came because I felt bad. Was it ten years ago? We had a reunion and we ganged up on her, I felt bad about it”.

“You’re right. Do you really think Gigi told Ernie to dump Sue?”

“I don’t know…”

Jay listened as their voices drifted where he stood in front of Gigi’s memorial picture.

Ernie had shown up. Gigi did what? What did they just say?

As the women briefed him on the chaos he missed, how his “ex”, Sue, conspired with Gigi’s husband, Ernie interrupted.

Hold up, he never dated Sue.

Is that true, he never dated her? The women look surprised realizing they’ve been duped.

Jay kept on listening seated at a lone table some distance away.

There wasn’t much to say about what he heard of Gigi’s life. After that, he’d regretted everything like crazy.

But then, driving home, a cat had suddenly crossed the road making him swerve to the other lane. To avoid the oncoming truck, Jay had tried swerving once more only to flip the car over.

That would be his end. Or was it?

He’d awoken from what had seemed like a nightmare with a tragic end, a black heart on his chest, given another chance.