Juday & Ryan: You know it’s really love when...

You know it’s love, not only when you hold hands, but when you refuse to turn your relationship into a circus, with yourselves as subjects of close scrutiny.

Judy Ann Santos and Ryan Agoncillo were not only holding hands throughout the group interview after the presscon of ABS-CBN’s Komiks (premieres tonight at 6). Their lips were sealed on a lot of things.

Where and how will you spend Valentine’s Day? What’s your gift to each other?

Silence. On Judy Ann’s part, all she managed to reveal was, "That’s strictly between the two of us."

You can feel their raging fight for privacy with each prying question thrown at them.

"I am more careful when it comes to our working together," Ryan says. By "our," he is, of course, referring to him and Judy Ann. "I don’t want to turn the whole thing into something commercial. It must be the right project, something that will not degrade the relationship."

That right project, for him, has come in Pablo S. Gomez’s classic comedy Inday Bote, the Komiks pilot episode where he stars with Judy Ann and Rafael Rosell.

It’s easy why the young sweethearts said yes to the project. It’s as wholesome as non-fat milk. Judy Ann follows in the footsteps of Maricel Soriano who in the mid-’80s played the title role, that of a bote-dyaryo faced with the prospect of dealing with a bottle full of dwarves.

Inday Bote exudes that same light feeling Judy Ann and Ryan have when they’re enjoying each other’s company. They shoot the breeze at the mall, where they spend the whole day watching a movie, shopping or just hanging out.

Contrary to common beliefs about gender differences in shopping, Ryan lingers longer in clothes stores, where he fits garments one by one. Judy Ann doesn’t, so she makes her purchases faster.

But they are, in other respects, similar. Both are adventurous, with martial arts (Muay Thai for Judy Ann; Jujitsu for Ryan) high on their list of hobbies. Cooking is a shared passion, with Judy Ann marinating Ryan’s favorite dish, and the latter preparing breakfast food for his inamorata.

They also get along with each other’s respective families. Ryan’s mom is one of the very few who can convince the vegetarian Judy Ann to eat pork. Ryan, on the other hand, is welcome in the Santos household, even if he knocks on the door in the morning and beholds a Judy Ann without makeup and in pajamas.

"She’s so beautiful in the morning," our Romeo gushes.

It must be her eyes – lambent and expressive, especially by candlelight or even the harsh glare of the klieg lights.

"Iba tumanggap ng ilaw ang mata niya," Ryan observes. "I see those eyes during downtime on the set. They speak volumes. Those eyes have depth. No wonder she’s a big star."

Flattered, Judy Ann shifts into a teasing mode.

"That’s exactly why I positioned my eyes near the light. It’s for Ryan to see," she laughs, while sidling up to her boyfriend.

Ryan has ended a nine-year drought when it comes to a special someone in Judy Ann’s life. Many of the guys she encountered during that prolonged period left her with so many hanging questions. Then they disappeared like soap bubbles from her sight.

"I was looking for a solid foundation," Judy Ann reasons out.

Ryan admits he expected rough sailing ahead when he finally decided to court her. He just ended a relationship with a non-showbiz girl. To top it all, Ryan realized it was not any other ordinary girl he was falling for, but the star of the show no less. And so he thought long and hard about it.

Judy Ann and Ryan can’t tell the precise date when they decided to become sweethearts after they felt drawn to each other on the set of Krystala. It just happened, like a spark of electricity, they chorus.

Yet, no matter how much they sidle up to each other and hold each other’s hands, Ryan admits it’s still too early to tell what lies ahead for their young romance.

"We will still go through a lot," he predicts.

But Ryan is sure that like all relationships he’s been through, he’s into this one for the long haul. The fact that they also lead separate lives – with Ryan planning on coming up with a book soon – adds spice to the relationship.

Meanwhile, Judy Ann and Ryan will continue proclaiming their love to the world by literally wearing their hearts on their wrists and fingers, with identical watches and rings to show for it.

Who knows, they might just come up with identical earrings next time?