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Cutthroat campus drama and politics with make-believe relationship mixed in!
Due to his serious attitude and intimidating aura, Priam Torres has become the most unpop...
A/N: This is the start of the team building arc! Threats will loom and things will get complicated.
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CASTIEL
IT HAD been three weeks since the Presidential Image Rehabilitation Operation or, as how I would like to call it, "Oplan First Lady" started. Everything was going smoothly so far. Patuloy pa rin ang pagkikita nina Priam at Fabienne kapag lunchtime at after class. The more they went out together, the more attention they got from the curious student body. Hanggang ngayo'y nagtataka pa rin ang mga estudyante kung nagde-date ba ang dalawa o sadyang friends lamang na sabay kumakain.
This was all for a show. We managed to hook and retain the attention of our audience by denying them the answer. The University Student Council had been mum on the status of the president's love life. Every college publication that got nothing better to report joined in the trend. Even The Herald, our most serious campus student publication, could not ignore the rumored First couple anymore. Kaliwa't kanan ang mga ipina-publish na article at ipino-post na stolen photo ng dalawa. It was the talk of the town.
That's how you control the media. You give them a fresh thin slice of meat, and they would all jump at it. But they would not be satisfied. They would crave for more. So you give them another thin slice of meat, and then another . . . until you tame them. The trick was to not give them the whole meat, just slices after slices.
"Hot from the press!" shouted a male student holding a copy of this week's The Herald issue. "Read all about it!"
I was on my way to the administration building when I stopped by their circulations booth. Tuwing Lunes, naglalagay sila ng mga mesa sa strategic positions sa campus kung saan maraming estudyanteng dumaraan. They gave away copies of their latest release to passersby. Students had already paid for them—thanks to the mandatory subscription fee of ₱125 every semester—so everyone was entitled to get a copy.
"Can I have one?"
"Sure!"
Binigyan nila ako ng isang tabloid-sized issue. Inilahad ko ang front page at hinanap ang pinakaimportanteng news para sa aming student council.
USC prexy's approval rating up by 7%
I smirked upon reading the headline. Inirolyo ko na ang buong diyaryo at inipit sa aking braso bago nagpatuloy sa paglalakad papasok ng admin building. There was no need to read the entire article. I was only concerned on whether or not the numbers went up or down. Only those two words mattered to me, as well as the percentage.
This meant one thing: The Oplan First Lady was working! Simula nang nakita si Priam na kasama si Fabienne, unti-unti nang nagbabago ang tingin ng ilang estudyante. Surely, he still looked like a strict and no fun student leader, but his moments with the First Lady started to make him appear more human. Nabawasan din ang focus sa kanyang kilos at ugali. Mas natuon sa kanyang love life ang atensyon ng mga estudyante—which was one of the aims of this operation.
