The novel entitled “Here and Now” written by Sir Lloyd Cabañog was a well-rounded romantic

story. I am not quite knowledgeable of the types and methods used in the literary world though it
was emphasized by the author that it was not a sci-fi, I was so amazed how he was able to
introduce some sort of a non-fiction or academe into a romance genre. He included so much that
there were mentions of music, mathematics and even physics. Though I read books, it does not
really interest me to read romantic or chick flick novels as I seen them as cliché, common and
nothing that much intriguing. I usually read suspense or mystery books as they are much more
mind boggling and it is a type to make me flip another page to read more of what is next. On the
other hand, we are given the task to read this novel without any know-how what genre this is in
order to comply for the school requirements. Reading its first few pages, I said, oh, a hopeless
romantic love story. Yes, as it continued, the idea indeed goes on as well. There was a mention
of belief and religion, but nothing more technical in particular and I scrolled down as my usual
reading pace. However, when the protagonist approached Dr. Uy, there was the introduction of
the world of music and how it is so complex and connected to human emotions as well. There,
my reading pace slowed down as I needed to absorb each thought word for word because terms
felt unfamiliar to me. Though they were explained profoundly in layman’s terms, I found it a
little hard to process its connection between the music world and the reality as I had to grasp first
the basics. When I finally understood it, I was amazed of how much it is related to reality. It was
not just music sheets or genres of music as plain as it is but there were also underlying meaning
embedded in it as well just like how jazz is some sort of freedom and classical music is more of
the discipline. With these terms being mentioned, it did not at once left the flow of the story but
instead it made it make sense more. Then, in its continuation, the deeper the story goes as the
protagonist faced dilemmas between his beliefs and what was at present. He started to get
confused of what and where he should be, should he be with Kate which is his present or should
he be with his soulmate whom he waited and is still waiting for all his life to come. Then his
supposed soulmate’s perspective was introduced wherein she as well had the same mindset as
him that finding the one is not supposed to be searched, but is all laid upon fate. She and her best
friend then had a discourse from her response of laying it all to fate seemed lazy. Then, the
mathematics world became involved. It talked about statistics and probability that no matter what
type of measurement you use, there will never be an absolute value and then she related it to her
decision relying on fate that no matter who she will choose, if it is not what has been laid for her,
it will never be it. Signals or signs given by the universe as they both say were also evidential in
their situations. There were a lot of times where they both should have met but they just couldn’t.
Even though the universe has given them a lot of ways for them to meet their decisions seemed
to hinder them from meeting each other. Though the protagonist wanted to avoid that at all cost,
he seemed to have done that all the time though he was unconsciously aware. Towards the
ending, where I thought Alyssa and Kurt, the destined soulmates would finally meet, in the
presence of his already broken relationship with Kate, the story brought back to their banquet
where Kurt met his professor during his undergraduate and talked about his love life. There,
mathematics and metaphysics were used as an association to his love of forever. About infinity,
essence, and the difference of lifetime and forever. There, I thought, finally, they will find each
other, Kurt and Alyssa. But then, Kurt decided to come back to Kate and choose her in that
lifetime he had. It was kind of a close call and annoying, as a reader’s perspective, but his
decision made sense. His decision though made emotionally, was just quite right with the
situation. Indeed, he can’t miss what he never had and that for me made the story flabbergasting.