Remember That Day

Chapter 15

It was not long before Damek had convinced Jayda to go in the kitchen to eat the food he prepared for her. It was almost midnight and Jayda knew that the noodles she had eaten 8 hours ago wouldn’t be enough.

Sitting in front of a small table across Damek, Jayda look over the newly heated porridge and egg rolls then smelled it.

“You cooked this?” she asked.

“I did.”

“Without asking for my permission?”

“What?” Damek looked at Jayda. “Ah, I’m sorry if I touched your kitchen cabinet and the fridge as well. I just thought it’s better if you have something to eat when you wakes up.”

Jayda ignored her.

“Is this edible or are you planning to kill me—”

“Hey!” Damek yelled, obviously lost his temper. His face was just like a crumpled paper of some kind. “If I were planning to kill you, I should’ve not called a doctor to look after you when you passed out! I should’ve just pressed a pillow on your face until you ran out of breath and die!”

It surprised Jayda.

“You got a temper, huh? Did you just shout at me, you annoying guy?” she snarled and the scared Damek just shut his mouth. It was as if there was an electricity in her eyes that could actually hit him anytime.

“You should eat,” Damek said softly. “I can leave your room already if you want—”

“No.” It was a quick respond from Jayda. “I still have some question to ask. I told you, you’re not off the hook yet.”

“When would you stop interrogating me?” Damek scratched his head.

“Why? Are you planning to run away?”

“Of course not!” Damek replied and pouted. “You’re scaring me, please calm down. I told you, I didn’t do anything.”

Jayda grabbed a fork, got an egg roll to her plate, sliced it, and slowly put it inside her mouth. She was chewing it when she said, “October 29.”

“It was yesterday. We ran to each other at mall, right?”

“Yes, but I’m talking about during the night.”

“Night?” Damek asked until he remembered something.

Parking his car in front of the building made him noticed a familiar face of a girl entering the place. Although he was uncertain, the quick sight of her bothered him.

“Is that Jayda?”

As much as he wanted to catch up with the woman, he wasn’t able to do it because she also quickly disappeared from his sight.

Damek stepped out from his car, grabbed the keys, and almost ran inside the building. A few glance from his left to right, he could tell that he lost her.

As he let out a sigh, he whispered, “Is this a side effect of being in love? Hallucinations? Am I really that hooked with her to think that she could also be probably here?”

But no matter how he tried to calm himself, he ended up facing a front desk agent to ask for a girl named Jayda, although he knew, of course, that it was confidential.

“For the tenth time, I’m saying sorry, Sir. We cannot give out names of our guests. We have to keep the information confidential for safety,” an agent said, giving her most beautiful smile to Damek who seemed very upset.

“Just this once, please? I won’t do anything. I’m not a bad guy! I just really have to know if she’s the one I saw before I arrived here,” he pleaded, but he received a big fat no again.

He inched towards the couch at the lobby looking very upset and rested there for a while. He shut his eyes and heaved a deep breath. What just happened made him doze off for a short time. He was awoken after by the loud laughter of girls just sitting not too far from him.

Finally surrendered, he walked towards the elevator devastated as if he was a child who didn’t get what he wanted.

“But it’s confirmed. You really live here.” Damek smiled, but it faded when Jayda wagged her head.

“I wasn’t really tired last night, so I decided to go at the lobby. But before I could reach the elevator I heard you again...”

Even though she was on her pajamas, she went out and decided to just stay in the lobby. Maybe she could feel more tired and fall sleep fast once she take a walk around again.

Walking in the hallway, Jayda saw the signage pasted on the door at the 8th unit she never thought of giving any attention. It was read do not disturb which made her realize something.

“He’s hiding something,” she whispered.

Jayda was aware of saying no to a hotel housekeeper, so putting a signage like that would help—a great help not to get caught by anyone.

Not anxious that she was already holding the doorknob, she snapped back to reality with the thought of she couldn’t sneek inside however she would try.

“What’s with the sudden call?” the man’s voice asked. It was Jayda’s third time to hear him on call with someone.

She took a step closer to hear the conversation and she was caught off guard with what she heard next.

“What?” The voice boomed in shock and anger. “Should I kill her as well?”

Jayda got goosebumps. As she pressed her palm against her mouth, she slowly step backwards away from the door when she noticed that the man’s voice seemed to be coming to her. 

She started to panic. Her hands were sweating and her heart was pounding hard.

“She leave me no choice.”

Almost tripped, she still managed to run as fast as she could to the elevator.

Damek shut his eyes. He said, “I couldn’t blame you for thinking bad about me. I’m sorry if you heard that.”

“So what’s with the do not disturb signage at your door and why did you say that?”

“I had put it very early in the morning before I went to the mall. Nothing really serious. I just don’t feel like to let a housekeeper touch my stuffs or clean my room for me,” he answered.

But Jayda’s face was telling him that she was not really convinced. She was so serious that she already stopped from eating, just suspiciously staring at him, fingers knocking the table one by one.

“I promise you, it’s just that!” He raised his right hand as a gesture of making a promise. “And about what you heard...”

When Damek got to his room, a call on his phone was waiting for him to get answered. As he sat in front of his table with crumpled papers and piles of comic books, he finally pressed the green button moving up and down on his screen.

“What’s with the sudden call?” he asked to his co-Webtoon artist, Thomas he had recently collaborated with.

“Do you remember Taylor?”

“Taylor?”

“Your fan, your stalker—”

“Ah, yes. I remember. What about her?”

“She is spreading a rumor on her social media account that D’Ivanov is dating her... ah no. D’Ivanov is marrying her soon and they’re having their first baby—”

“What?” his voice boomed in shock and anger.

Thomas chuckled. “You should’ve not agreed to use her name on your work. She perhaps used it to do what she did already.”

“Are you sure she did that?”

“It’s all over the internet. Your fans are fighting.”

“What the hell? I thought it would be enough. I thought she would stop bothering me if I granted her wish to be one of my Webtoon characters!”

“She’s crazy, you know.”

“Should I kill her as well? Right. I should just kill her in the story. She leave me no choice.”

“Goodluck then. I’m sure she’ll go wild if she discovered it.”

“That’s it. Well, the issue she made subside already, thanks to the higher-ups. But earlier at the fan signing event, although she wasn’t there, the emcee and the fans were still curious about it and I couldn’t do anything,” Damek explained.

Jayda raised her eyebrow. She wasn’t aware that she almost ate all the egg rolls on the table.

“You’re quite popular...” Jayda commented.

“And you’re quite hungry,” Damek respond and eventually smiled.

Her eyes got widened, looked at her plate then to Damek, and finally avoiding his gaze. Composing herself to conceal the feeling of embarrassment, she cleared her throat and dropped the fork. She said, “It’s edible... anyway...” 

“Is that a compliment?” Damek said teasingly.

“You’re not off the hook yet. Stop assuming that I’ll be smiling or laughing with you!”

A second of silence between them followed when Jayda stood up and pointed the fork towards Damek. The guy was a little surprised, so he raised both of his hands as if he was surrendering.

“Fine. I’m sorry, ” he said, stuttering.

“Was that you?” Jayda asked.

Pointing his index to himself, Damek returned the question, “Me?”

“Okay, listen. I was holding my pen and my notes when I got scared because of you and your phone conversation with Thomas. I ran and went down to the lobby and told the securities that you’re the killer, but for the second time, they didn’t believe me. Then I realized, I was only holding my pen, my notes wasn’t with me anymore. I quickly took the lift again to get my notes that I guess I dropped in front of your room, but it was no longer there. Have you seen it? Did you take my notes?” Jayda said without any pause.

“Your notes you say?” Damek asked, eyes squinting. “No. I didn’t leave my room again after the phone conversation with Thomas.”

“Are you sure?”

“Dead serious, Jayda.”

“Then who the hell took my notes that fast? I’m sure hotel housekeepers wouldn’t be around that late in the evening,” Jayda exclaimed, almost frustrated. Her shoulders dropped as she sat back to her chair. Damek crossed his arms.

“Is it important?”

“Of course. I wouldn’t frustrate myself over a notebook if it is just nothing,” she said, moving her fingers on both her temples in circular motion. “I had written there some of the details I saw and I remembered when I got a glimpsed the woman’s dead body.”

“I wonder how traumatizing it could be for you,” Damek said softly.

“It’s killing me. I think I’m really going crazy if I couldn’t find that culprit!”

“Well, you have actually accused two person at the same time for being the murderer. One is me, which is obviously not the murderer that you’re talking about, and the other one is the person you have to know who,” said Damek, looking straight to Jayda. “It’s the person who perhaps left the body accidentally in your room, probably the one you saw the night after the murder incident in hood with Air Jordan shoes and stinky smell, and the one who took your notes.”

Both of them looked straight into each other eyes, both wondering and asking who could be the killer?