She’s Dating the Gangster 2014

Kenji delos Reyes delivers a pomp-filled toast at a wedding, only to watch his son, Kenneth, erupt in a scene that leaves him disappointed. Kenneth air-drops a long-buried grudge, confessing he would have preferred his mother’s death over the life he’s endured, a moment that casts a shadow on the father–son dynamic from the start.

The following morning brings a grim twist: the plane headed toward Bicol, the one Kenji once rode, has crashed. Kenneth hurries to the airport to scan the survivor list and meets Kelay, who claims Kenji is her father. Confounded, Kenneth insists he’s Kenji’s only child and that his father is married to Athena Abigail delos Reyes. In reply, Kelay reveals a faded photograph of a young Kenji with a girl who looks strikingly like herself, insisting that the girl is her aunt, Athena Dizon. The older story she’s about to unfold is meant to give Athena closure, and she urges that Kenji be found.

Despite doubt, Kenneth is unable to secure a bus ticket to Legazpi amid the Holy Week rush, and Kelay arranges tickets for both of them. On the road, she begins recounting the romance that once burned between Kenji and the woman she calls Athena’s “great love.” The tale slips back to the 1990s, when Kenji was feared as a school bully who carried a bruised heart for his ex-girlfriend Athena Abigail, known to many as Abi. In a bid to win Abi back, he manipulates a misdirected pager message, which lands on another student named Athena Dizon. After a chance encounter, Kenji unexpectedly kisses Athena and pressures her to pose as his girlfriend to incite Abi’s jealousy. Through threats and persistence, Athena initially resists but eventually agrees, driven by the fear of losing him. As the pretend relationship deepens, she becomes the target of jealous rivals, and Kenji shields her from harm, gradually transforming the arrangement into something genuine as they confess their growing feelings.

Back in the present, the tale unsettles Kenneth’s view of his father. He and Kelay grow closer as the past and present blur. They learn that the plane crash landed in Camarines Sur, and they press on to discover why Kenji and Athena never found their way back to each other. Kelay explains that it came down to “a big case of bad timing,” revealing that their romance ended after that fateful trip to the Bicol region.

During that trip, Kenji took Athena to the Mayon volcano and promised they would someday return to marry there. Athena, concealing a heart condition, half-jokingly tells him she’ll try not to die. Returning to Manila, her father rebukes her for leaving and urges her to end the relationship, while Athena pleads for Kenji to give her something to hold onto. Kenji then vanishes from school life, concerned friends and lovers worry about him, and the present-day journey to Legazpi carries the weight of those unresolved years.

On the drive, Lucas—the loyal friend who once stood by Kenji and Abi—explains how Kenji once asked him to bring Athena to the hospital, where Abi was found to be suffering from gastric cancer. Athena learns Abi ended things with Kenji to spare him the pain of Abi’s illness, and Lucas admits he pursued Abi in the past despite knowing she still cared for Kenji. Abi, waking, apologizes to Athena and asks her to look after Kenji, who had been told of Abi’s condition and urged by Abi’s mother to give her a reason to keep living. With Abi’s happiness at stake, Athena makes the painful choice to break up with Kenji, ultimately moving to the United States, while Kenji marries Abi and they conceive Kenneth.

Kelay and Kenneth are shaken by these revelations when Kelay receives news that Athena is in her final moments. After they part, Kenneth promises Kelay that Athena and Kenji will find a way to cross paths again. Kenneth eventually finds his father in a hospital, where an orderly returns Kenji’s belongings, including a letter explaining his late—yet honest—attempts to atone for his shortcomings toward Abi and Kenneth. When Kenji wakes, the siblings’ bond is rekindled, and reconciliation glows on the horizon.

A few days later, Kenneth brings Kenji to a house to reunite with old friends. To Kenji’s surprise, Athena is wheeled out by Kelay; now gravely ill, she tells him that his love gave her the strength to keep living and dies peacefully in his arms. Time moves forward, and Kelay learns that Kenneth’s flight—now her boyfriend—is missing. She rushes to the airport in distress, only to have Kenneth appear moments later, alive, alongside a relieved Kenji. The chaotic, long-awaited moment culminates in a quiet, hopeful wish: Kenneth asks Kelay if they can have a great love story too, one that might echo the enduring, if imperfect, romance of Kenji and Athena.