KEIFER POV
By the time I reached home, Section E was already there.
It was honestly a wonder to see how much we had grown over the last seven years. The rowdy, problematic boys of HVIS had turned into men, building lives out of the chaos we used to thrive in.
Denzel and Grace were there, chasing after little Grazel Jay. They had named their daughter after her, a living tribute to the girl who was the sole reason they had even ended up together. Mica and Calix had been married for two years now, their bickering finally replaced by a steady, quiet kind of love. Even Ci-N had grown up, finally working up the courage to propose to Rakki. And then there were Mayo and Kit—those two finally made it official and had tied the knot just last month.
The room was filled with the low hum of conversation and the occasional laughter of a child, but the moment I stepped into the light, the atmosphere shifted. They knew. They saw it in the way I carried myself, in the frantic, burning light in my eyes that hadn't been there for nearly a decade.
"Keifer, what's going on?" Calix asked, standing up as I approached. "Edrix said it was urgent. He said you found something."
I didn't say a word. I just pulled out my phone and connected it to the large screen in the living room. Every eye in the room tracked my movements, the air growing thick with a tension that felt like a physical weight.
"Seven years," I began, my voice raspy and low. "Seven years of looking at an empty seat. Seven years of blaming ourselves for a girl who vanished into the pavement."
I hit the play button on the file Edrix had just sent me—a grainy security feed from the hospital lobby and a high-resolution photo of a woman in lab scrubs
"Jay-jay is alive," I said, my voice echoing in the sudden, suffocating silence of the room.
The air seemed to leave the lungs of everyone present. Yuri was the first to find his voice, though it was strained and skeptical. "Keifer... are you sure? Are you absolutely sure it's her? It's been seven years."
I nodded, my gaze never wavering from the screen. "It's definitely her. I saw her with my own eyes. I spoke to her. I even... I held her."
The room erupted. Ci-N was already on his feet, his eyes bright with a frantic, joyous energy. "Then what are we waiting for?! Let's go! Let's go and meet her right now! We have to tell the others—we have to bring her back!"
"Not so fast," I barked, my tone cutting through his excitement like a blade.
Ci-N froze, his expression crumbling into confusion. "Why? Keifer, she's right there! We found her!"
I looked around at the faces of my brothers—the sixteen boys who had once been her protectors, her family, and her downfall. "She doesn't remember who we are," I said, the words feeling like lead in my mouth. "She's not Jasper Jean anymore. To the world, she's Dr. Luna Jay Val. She has a new life, a new name, and a past that starts seven years ago in a hospital bed. To her, we're just strangers."
The joy in the room vanished, replaced by a cold, sobering reality.
"She doesn't remember... anything?" Mayo whispered
"Nothing," I confirmed. "And she has a 'brother' named Luan Val who has been playing the hero in her life while we were mourning a ghost. If we just barge in there, we're the villains of her story. We have to be careful. We have to win her back piece by piece."
I looked at the photo one last time—the fierce, beautiful woman who didn't know she was our Mutya.
"But make no mistake," I added, my voice dropping into that dark, possessive vibration. "I'm not letting her stay a stranger for long. Section E is going back to school, gentlemen. Only this time, the world is our classroom, and the lesson is reminding Jay-jay exactly where she belongs."
"Keifer," Felix said, his voice breaking the heavy silence that had settled over the room.
"What?" I asked, my gaze still fixed on the photo of the woman who didn't know she was ours.
"Do we tell her family?" Felix asked, his expression torn. "I mean... her real family. Angelo, Aries, and the rest? They've spent seven years thinking they failed her too."
I nodded slowly. The weight of the secret was too much for even me to carry alone, and they deserved to know. "Tell Percy," I commanded. "That loudmouth will tell everyone within five minutes of hearing the news. It'll save us the trouble of calling them ourselves."
I turned back to the group, the flickering light of the screen casting long, sharp shadows across my face. I needed them to understand the stakes.
"But listen to me," I warned, my tone dropping into a low, dangerous vibration that made even Calix stiffen. "We have to win her back, but not by force. She isn't a trophy to be reclaimed or a piece of property to be seized. To her, we are complete strangers—perhaps even scary ones, given how we look now."
I looked at Ci-N, whose excitement was still warring with his shock.
"If we scare her off, if we try to force memories into a head that isn't ready for them, we'll lose her for real this time," I continued. "We play this cool. We find ways to be in her life without suffocating her. We let her fall in love with Section E all over again, on her own terms."
I clenched my fist, the phantom sensation of her warm hand in mine still lingering on my skin.
"Do you have an idea of how to get us into her life?" David asked, his brow furrowing as he looked at the high-end hospital layout on the screen.
I nodded instinctively, but the truth was, my mind was a chaotic mess of possessiveness and desperation. I had nothing.
"What is it?" Drew prodded, leaning forward.
"Wait, Keifer! I have an idea!" Ci-N shouted, literally jumping in place.
"What is it?" I asked, grateful for the distraction from my own blank thoughts.
"Easy! We go to her every day," Ci-N said, his eyes gleaming with that old, mischievous spark. "You know, we just come up with a reason to be there."
"Every day, one of us goes to her as her patient," Felix continued, picking up the thread. "We take turns. Minor injuries, 'stomach aches,' whatever it takes to get five minutes of her time."
Yuri let out a sharp, skeptical breath, crossing his arms over his chest. "She's a surgeon, not a general practitioner. And she's smart. She's going to know something is wrong if sixteen guys who look like they've been in a street fight start showing up at her office one by one."
"She won't," David interjected, his voice quiet but full of a strange certainty.
"How do you know that?" Eman asked, looking between them.
"Because she is our Jay," David said, a ghost of a smile touching his lips. "Even if she doesn't remember us, her heart hasn't changed. She was always the one who couldn't turn away from a mess. If she sees us hurting, she won't be able to stay away. That's the Jay-jay we knew."
"So we just go to her hospital every day and come up with a new disease?" Rory asked, looking a bit skeptical but mostly hopeful.
I nodded slowly, the absurdity of the plan finally settling in. "I guess so."
"What if she figures out the truth?" Drew joked, a mischievous glint in his eyes. "She'd probably find an excuse to perform surgery on us just to get even. We'd go in for a headache and wake up missing a kidney."
A wave of genuine laughter rippled through the room, the first real one we'd shared as a group in years. It felt like a piece of the old Section E was finally snapping back into place.
"I can join as an intern!" Ci-N announced, puffing out his chest with sudden confidence.
"Gago, you're a pilot," Denzel deadpanned, looking at him like he'd lost his mind in mid-air.
"Yeah, but I finished med school first, remember?" Ci-N shot back, grinning. "I have the degree. I can be an intern for Jay-jay for a little while. I'll be her shadow. I'll make sure no other 'hot doctors' get too close to our Mutya."
I looked at Ci-N, then back at the photo on the screen. It was a crazy, reckless, and completely Section E plan. It was perfect.
"Fine," I said, a dark smirk tugging at my lips. "Ci-N, get your scrubs ready. The rest of you, start thinking of convincing symptoms. We're going back to the one person who ever stood her ground against us. And this time, we aren't letting her go."
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JAY JAY POV
"What the hell?" I muttered, staring down at my phone in disbelief.
"What happened now?" Mia asked, her voice muffled by a mouthful of cake leftovers. She was sprawled out on my couch, and we were supposed to be discussing Keigan's case, but my screen was telling a different story.
I turned the phone toward her so she could see the absurdity for herself.
"Sixteen new patients?" Mia read aloud, her eyebrows shooting up. "When are the appointments?"
"They're spread across the week," I said, huffing as I flopped down beside her. "But Mia, I'm a surgeon, not a general practitioner. I shouldn't be doing basic consultations for whatever minor aches these guys have."
Mia shrugged, reaching for a bag of chips. "Jay, you know the drill. If there are no scheduled surgeries, surgeons have to act like regular docs. You've got to check kids, adults, whoever walks through that door. It's hospital protocol."
I rolled my eyes, leaning my head back against the cushion. "And that's not even the best part. I have a new intern too."
"What's the name?" Mia asked, crunching loudly on a chip.
"Cinco Neith Peralta," I answered, reading the digital file.
Mia froze, the chip halfway to her mouth. "Peralta?"
I nodded.
"I heard the Peraltas are some of the most well-known doctors in the Philippines," Mia said, her brow furrowing in confusion. "Why would a member of that family join a residency outside of their own medical empire?"
"There's always that one," I said, a small, tired smile playing on my lips. "The one who wants to stand up for themselves, or you know... be different. Maybe he just didn't want to live in his family's shadow."
I looked out the window at the Manila skyline, the strange feeling of being watched returning for a split second.
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