Romance of the Four Juans

Track 09

One month, that is how long An-An moped around in his designated room at Dante’s house. In that period, the youngest of the four sons looked more like a zombie than a human. His already dark undereyes had gotten even darker, and he looked bony because he hadn’t been eating well. Treading with light footsteps, he would sometimes startle people with his dark presence. He still cries, sometimes in silence, letting the tears streak down his face, and sometimes he sobs like there is no tomorrow. In those moments, Huan would go and stay with him until he fell asleep.

Kiko, who had enough of the youngest child’s moping, decided to do something to bring An-An out of this dark hole he created for himself.

“You got him a dog?” Huan asks, plopping on the space next to Kiko in the living room. They watch An-An feeding a pure white fur baby he’s calling Cookie, not too far from them. The power of the miniature shi tzu is tremendous, as An-An can already be seen smiling and putting all of his attention on the creature. “Ay. So, you’re a giver, huh?”

“I’m not. I just…” Kiko trails off. He sighs and looks up at the leaves of the mango tree that shades them. “He reminded me of my little sister. Mira had always wanted a dog but was never permitted to have one.”

“You have a sister?”

“I have a pair of twin sisters. Lucille and Mirabella. But we only have Lucille now. Mira passed away three years ago because of a broken heart.”

Huan opened his mouth, but he couldn’t dare ask about the details of Mira’s death or joke that it couldn’t be that serious because it was evident in Kiko’s face, the fear of losing another sibling. “Is that why you got An-An some animal therapy? You’re afraid…”

“Yes. This is something Kuya Narra always does for HB. Whenever she gets terribly ill, he gives her a pet. The pet seems to absorb whatever disease she has. The pet becomes sick and dies while she recovers. The only pet that has survived thus far is a black cat called Nine, possibly because cats have nine lives. These days, we treat Nine like a familiar. HB even wrote a story with the cat standing as the protagonist. It’s titled Nine Lives and it will be our first project as a director and scriptwriter tandem.”

“Now, I want to read that.”

“I’ll get you a copy.”

Huan sighs. Kiko’s friend has quickly become a part of their household more than anyone could imagine.

It’s not all bad.

Whenever HB comes to hang out, they see this new side to Kiko, who becomes caring, attentive, overprotective, and mushy. And whenever they shoo the girl away, needing some time to have men-only conversations, she doesn’t take offense and naturally goes out seeking the company of the older people, watching them play mahjong in the backyard or just quietly listening to their recollection of times long past.

That is one of the reasons why Dante likes having the girl around. HB is a good listener. He favors the girl so much, he takes her with him to his appointments or just to have fun. Even now, this late at night, they’re all waiting for their father and the girl to come home from a mini concert they attended in the capital.

But Dante arrives alone, which makes Kiko panic. “Something is wrong. She’s avoiding me, which means she must have done something stupid or is planning to do something stupid. I need to see her now.”

The three brothers arrived at HB’s floor and found her door ajar. Kiko storms in and is relieved to see HB standing in front of the door, overseeing a drunk woman and an exhausted man sitting on the floor trying to catch his breath.

“Hey! Ah. This is my neighbor, Georgie and…”

“Beibei!” Huan drops to his knees right next to the drunk girl. He taps her face, trying to rouse her from her deep slumber. “What the hell, Beibei? Have you been drinking like a fish again?”

“She was. She broke up with her boyfriend. Lynel was it?”

“What else is new?” Huan grumbles.

“Hoy!” Kiko points at Jigo, who stood at the living room looking as if he just woke up from a deep sleep. “Since when did you arrive? Why are you here instead of home?”

“I found him in the street.”

“Ah! Who’s yelling?” A disgruntled voice boomed from inside the house. Out came a new character, a lanky girl with long, straight hair, glaring at the people at the front door for daring to disturb her beauty sleep. But seeing the overbearing presence of her older brother in the mix, she begins to shy away.

“Lucille?” Jigo asks, fully awake now. “Why are you coming out of there?”

“Agh!” Kiko groans. He removed his shoes, ready to throw them at his naughty sister, who retreated behind Jigo. “Guys, that is my sister Lucille, say hi.” Then, he was back to being angry at his sister again. “Why are you back, Lucille? We had a deal! While I’m here, you stay with your parents in Italy!”

“Ahy, kuya. I realized I don’t want to be an only child.”

“What about school? You promised.”

Lucille couldn’t answer the question, her mind is already distracted by the tall presence of An-An who retreated behind Kiko and Huan’s shadow, seemingly comfortable just watching what was going on and delighting over the fact that he can enjoy the chaos, being unattached to the rest of the people around them. That changed the moment the naughty Lucille noticed him. She didn’t just march up to him, she ran that distance, shoving several men out of the way and made him catch her. “I found you.”

Everything paused.

People gaped at how Lucille so easily jumped into An-An’s arms and how he caught her despite himself. It’s like a scene out of a movie.

“What drama is this?!” Kiko raised his voice once more. He takes Lucille’s arms and forces her away from her hold on An-An. “Get down!”

Lucille’s hold on An-An wounded tighter. “I don’t want to. I like him.”

An-An, wide-eyed, tried to get a good look at this crazy woman who latched onto him. He can’t even decide whether to throw her down or prevent her from slipping. He just raises his hands, hoping not to offend anyone.

“Kuya, I don’t know her. I swear! This is the first time that I’m seeing her.” An-An tried to remove her hands from his neck and her legs from his waist but Lucille only held on to him tighter and closer, which made him look at her with confusion and exasperation, which Lucille met with a bright smile.

“It’s been a month. I’ve been waiting for you to call, you know.”

“I don’t know you.” An-An lightly patted her shoulders and calmly pleaded for her to “Get down already. You’re slipping…” did Lucille fall to her feet and release him.

Kiko looks at his best friend. “You have a lot of explaining to do, woman.”

“I’ll do it tomorrow.”

“Yes. Do it tomorrow.” The eldest of the brothers finally decides for everyone. “This has blown way out of proportion.”

“Right. Everyone who doesn’t live in this building should leave now.”

Kiko took a deep breath. He raises his hand in surrender. All because he knows how nasty HB can get when she’s challenged. He took another deep breath before going forward to embrace her. He gets punched in the chest for even daring to come close. Still, he held her in his arms until she stopped protesting. “Happy birthday, Honey.” He released her with one last pat on the head and went away to cool his head.

HB sighs as everyone filed out of her place. Then she turned to find one more figure in the middle of the living room. Jigo hasn’t left. He looked imposing with his hands in his pockets. “It’s your birthday?”

“Yesterday.”

“I should give you a gift.”

HB shakes her head. “We’re good. We shared a meal together and that is the essence of birthdays. So…”

Jigo starts picking his things from the floor, as he groans, part in disbelief and in part due to the pain in his back. “Ow! This is a small world. I can’t believe I’d have another connection to Kuya Kiko through Lucille. And what’s up with her and An-An? Kuya Huan too, with… who is that even?”

HB laughs and shrugs. She sees him out of the door until the elevator.

Jigo smiled and waved at her until the elevator door closed, then he dropped the pretense, lost all the humor in his eyes.