LOVE CAREFULLY PLACED the shells she picked up in the sandcastle. She was happy because she found a lot of shells with Kulas earlier. The kids of the fishermen living nearby the Eron’s rest house were nice enough to give her some shells. 
She felt like a kid again. It’s been a long time since she had the luxury of time to relax. It even seemed like a distant dream for her to be able to take some time off from work and have a little vacation. It was more important for her to work to pay off her father's debt. She would just think of all the things she needed to pay after her vacation. And hopefully, she would be able to find another, and better, job. She really didn’t want to take the real blind people’s jobs anymore. 
If his father found a good job in Guimaras, she might go with him and just work there as well. She knows a lot of jobs anyway. She could work there without needing to pretend to be blind. 
She wanted to end this masquerade as well.
"Can I help you make a sandcastle?"
She was startled when she heard Eron’s voice behind her. "W-where's Kulas?" 
She and her cousin had agreed that he would stay with her and warn her when people were coming. What if Eron noticed that she could see just fine? 
“Kulas went to the bathroom. So I told him I’ll stay with you until he returns.”
That cousin of hers! Eron probably just smiled at him and he immediately forgot about her. She would deal with that Kulas later.
“I’m sorry my cousin bothered you. Don’t worry about me, I'm just making a sandcastle here.”
He squatted in front of her. "Let me help as well," he said and added more sand on the base of the castle. "I'll add more here, okay?"
Lovellia closed her eyes and blindly looked for the shell next to her. He was such a great temptation. When he was around, she would forget to pretend that she could not see. She preferred to have her eyes wide open and feast on his looks.  
Why does a man as handsome as this one have to pretend to be Mitos?
She tried diverting her eyes from him. But that only made her even more aware of his moves and the way he looks at her. She tried to concentrate on what she was doing but her mind kept coming back to him. It suddenly became complicated building a simple sandcastle. 
She was startled when he grabbed her hand holding the shell. “That clam has some damage on it. Let’s put something else there. You might get hurt with that damaged shell.”
"T-thank you."  
He replaced the clam in her hand. "That's better." But he didn't let go of her hand and even helped her put the shell in the sandcastle. "There, that side is done. Now here’s the other side that needed some shells on it too.”
He was still holding her hand. And when she bent down in her new position, their bodies were now close to each other. He smells so good. Her nose felt like it was being teased by his scent. She had to resist with all her might just so she would not lean against his chest. 
He was such an irresistible temptation.
She cleared her throat when he still didn’t let go of her hand. “Ahm…I can put the shells on my own. Thank you. ”
"I said I'll help, didn't I?"
"My hand…" She didn’t know what were the right words to say. "I can't do much if you’re still holding my hand."
He still didn’t let her go. "It’s not like I never held your hands before."
She laughed dryly. “You were too conservative. You said you didn't want us to show too much affection in front of other people. Even if there’s no one around, you’re still worried that someone might see us.”
“I just don't want other people to say anything bad about you. Besides, we’re still too young back then. I don’t want your parents to think something weird about us.”
"But you didn't think of other people when you forgot about me and found another woman."
He scrunched his face. "It's not…like that…" He was now scrambling for the right words to explain himself.
"I am sorry," she suddenly uttered. "I should not have opened that up anymore."
She didn’t have to throw at him everything Mitos had done that hurt her. This was Eron. He was just pretending to be Mitos. If he had been a playboy, he had nothing to explain to her. It was Mitos she should be questioning, not Eron.
“No. I understand. It’s natural for women to get jealous.”
"I'm not jealous," she protested right away. “I mean, it's only natural that you don't like me. We have always been together since we were kids. You never liked any other girls besides me when I was your girlfriend. I can’t blame you if there were more beautiful women in other countries.” She smiled. “But we were friends before you became my boyfriend. We can still save our friendship, right?”
"F-friend?" he muttered in surprise. "Do you want us to be friends?"
She nodded. "Of course. You’re not thinking of fixing our relationship, are you? Because that’s kinda impossible now. So let’s just be friends again.”
That's right. It’s better that they would just be friends. So she didn’t have to lust over him anymore. So she would not be interested in him. 
He shook her hand. “Okay. Friends again.”
Her smile faded away when he let go of her hand and turned his attention to building another tower for the sandcastle. It felt like her offered friendship was not meant for this man but for the real Mitos. 
Why does she want more than friendship with the Mitos’ impostor?