We Meet Again

Chapter- 5 Rivalry

In the hallways of Alcasid Medical, the tension was thick enough to suffocate. Nicko Alcasid, despite his injuries, was a lion—protective, regal, and possessive. Jullian Veloso was a wolf—street-smart, desperate, and willing to bite to keep what he thought was his.

​Elena was caught in the middle: the girl who was the prize in a game she never asked to play.

The VIP room had become a battlefield. Nicko was standing now, his hand gripping the IV pole for support, his eyes burning with a cold, aristocratic rage. Jullian stood by the door, the blue notebook gripped in his white-knuckled hand, mocking them with a smirk.

​"Ibigay mo sa kanya ang notebook, Jullian," I said, my voice shaking. "You're not yourself. This isn't the Jullian I know."

​"The Jullian you know was a fool, Elena!" Jullian barked, his eyes darting to Nicko. "The Jullian you know stood by while you cried over bills, while this... this rich kid was playing God with your life from a distance!"

​Nicko took a painful step forward, his voice a low, vibrating growl. "You think you know her because you saw her struggle? I spent ten years making sure she survived so she could have a future. I didn't just watch her, Veloso. I built a world where she could finally breathe."

​"You built a cage!" Jullian countered, throwing the notebook onto the floor between them. "You bought her school, you bought her Lola, and now you want to buy her heart. But guess what? I’m the one she calls when she’s scared. Not you."

​The monitor in the room began to beep frantically. Nicko’s heart rate was climbing.

​"Nicko, please, humiga ka muna—" I tried to reach for him, but he gently pushed my hand away, his eyes fixed on Jullian.

​"You swallowed the last page of the song, Jullian. You think that makes the music yours?" Nicko let out a cold, dark laugh. "The music isn't on the paper. It’s in her. And no matter how many pages you rip, you will always be a background character in a story that started before you even knew her name."

​Jullian’s face contorted with hate. He lunged forward, grabbing Nicko by the hospital gown. "Background character? I'm the one who stayed! While you were in your mansion, I was the one walking her to the bus stop in the rain! I earned her, Alcasid!"

​"Nobody earns a person, Jullian!" I screamed, stepping between them and pushing them apart with all my strength.

​I looked at Jullian, the boy who had been my anchor for three years. "You were my best friend, Jullian. But the moment you used my Lola and my past to hurt me... you became a stranger."

​Jullian froze. The realization hit him harder than a punch. He looked at the notebook on the floor, then at my tear-filled eyes.

​"Elena... I did it for us."

​"There is no 'us,' Jullian. Not like this."

​Nicko leaned back against the bed, breathing heavily, but a victorious glint remained in his eyes. He reached down, picked up the notebook, and handed it to me.

​"Finish it, Elena," Nicko whispered. "With or without the last page. Write the ending you want. Not the one he stole, and not the one I planned. Yours."

​Jullian backed away, his gaze shifting between the two of us. "This isn't over. You think he's a saint? Ask him about the 'Red File' in his father's office, Elena. Ask him why your father really disappeared in 2008."

​With one last look of pure venom, Jullian turned and disappeared into the rainy night.

​The Red File? I looked at Nicko. His face had gone pale—paler than when he was in the car crash.

​"Nicko? What is he talking about?"

The air in the room didn’t just turn cold; it turned suffocating.

​Jullian wasn't just a classmate. He was the boy who held Elena’s hand when her father first went missing. He was the one she gave her "firsts" to—her first date, her first dance, her first heartbreak. They broke up a year ago because Jullian’s love had turned into a cage, a suffocating grip that Elena had to break just to breathe.

​Now, seeing him standing there, realizing he had been hiding in the "friend zone" just to get back into her life, Elena felt a different kind of shiver.

Ex?"

​The word came out of Nicko’s mouth like a curse. He looked at Jullian, then back at me, his eyes searching for a denial that I couldn't give.

​"Elena... is it true?" Nicko’s voice was low, laced with a hurt that went deeper than his physical wounds. "Siya ba yung... 'J' na binabanggit mo sa diary nung college?"

​I couldn't look him in the eye. "Nicko, that was a long time ago. It was a mistake."

​"A mistake?" Jullian laughed, a harsh, jagged sound. "Is that what you call two years of your life, Elena? I was the one who picked up the pieces after you realized your 'Prince' was never coming back for you. I was the one you loved when you thought he was dead!"

​Jullian took a step toward me, ignoring the security guard hovering by the door.

​"Tell him, Elena. Tell him how you used to cry on my shoulder because you couldn't even remember the face of the boy from the park. Tell him that I was the one who actually existed while he was just a ghost in a notebook!"

​"Enough, Jullian!" I screamed. "Yes, we were together. And yes, I loved you then. But you chose to leave when things got hard! You chose to walk away when Lola got worse!"

​"I walked away to find a way to save you!" Jullian reached into his pocket and pulled out a keycard—a black one with the Alcasid Medical logo. "And look what I found. I found out that the reason your father disappeared isn't because he left you. It's because of his father."

​He pointed a shaking finger at Nicko.

​"The Red File, Elena. It's in the Chairman’s private safe. Your father didn't run away. He was a whistleblower for the Alcasids' illegal medical trials in 2008. And Nicko’s father... he made sure your father was never heard from again."

​The room went deathly silent. The only sound was the rain lashing against the window, mocking us.

​"That's a lie," Nicko breathed, but his face told a different story. He looked at the black keycard in Jullian’s hand. "How did you get that?"

​"I've been planning this since the day we broke up, Elena," Jullian whispered, his gaze softening into something terrifyingly devoted. "I didn't steal the notebook to hurt you. I stole it to show you that your 'Prince' is the son of the man who destroyed your family."

​Jullian tossed the black keycard onto the bed, right next to Nicko’s hand.

​"Go ahead. Open the safe. See if your 'Childhood Friend' is still the hero of your story... or if he's the son of a murderer."

​Jullian turned to leave, but stopped at the threshold.

​"I'll be waiting at the Narra tree, Elena. Just like we used to. When you realize the truth, you know where the real 'home' is."