The Untold Chronicle: Fire and Rain

Chapter 6

"Good morning, sunshine!"

I woke up because of that loud shout, obviously from Zoelle. I didn’t open my eyes and looked for a pillow to cover my face when she started to pull the curtains in her room. She became silent for a minute, so I thought that she had already left, but the next thing that happened was that she jumped on the bed.

 "Wake up, sleepyhead! We’ll still clean!" I groaned when she started jumping on the bed.

 This time I opened my eyes and looked at her with annoyance. Instead of being scared, she just laughed at me. I yawned and scratched my eyes as soon as I sat on the bed.

 "What time is it?" I asked her. She looked at her wristwatch.

 "8:00" She sweetly smiled.

 I stood up sluggishly, and she jumped onto me, wrapping her arms around me. I looked at her with an irritating face. Why is this girl too clingy? If we were not this close, I would be able to slap her face. Hahaha! I glared at her when she pushed me to the bathroom and I almost tripped.

 "I’m sorry!" She playfully said after I closed the door.

 I immediately went to the sink to clean my face. I got a few goosebumps when I felt the coldness of the water. I looked for a towel to wipe my wet face before I decided to step out of the bathroom. I approached Zoelle as she was preparing our breakfast and gave her a light punch on the arms.

 "Aww!" she winced,

 I playfully rolled my eyes. It’s not that painful though. I watched as she walked over to the coffee station and began brewing some coffee seeds for us. I lowered my eyes to the table to see what she had prepared.

 I saw a plate of fried rice and eggs with bacon. I started to get a scoop of rice and placed it on my plate. I hadn’t taken a bite yet until she finished preparing our coffee. She smiled at me before placing the coffee beside my plate.

"Thank you" I just said.

She nodded before getting some rice and eggs too. She was so energetic this morning, so I guess she has no fever already. She was talking while we were eating and just telling me some things she did while she had a fever.

We instantly finished our breakfast in just 30 minutes, so we still had more time to clean her storage room. I also helped her wash the dishes to save more time. After doing some house chores, we decided to change our shirts into sandos because it was going to be so hot in the storage room.

She also advised me to wear a mask because it seemed to be dusty in that room. Is she that lazy to clean? Or does it just get dirty too quickly? After we got dressed, she took me to the bedroom. One is the one she sleeps in and then the other one is her office, while the last one looks like she made for a pile of things.

"Get ready," she smirked. We were wearing a mask, like what she advised.

She counted on to three until she opened the door and even though I had a mask on, I could still smell the dust as we entered. I hit her shoulder while we were coughing together.

"Seriously? Didn’t you clean this for years?" I exclaimed and she laughed out loud.

"I haven’t entered this for almost a year." She scratched her neck as she said that, so I rolled my eyes at her.

My jaw dropped as she opened the light. There were so many spider webs, and the boxes were filled with dust! Even the one cabinet inside was almost a dark color because of too much dirt. I pulled some of Zoelle’s hair.

"This is unbelievable, Zoelle!" I hissed and she just laughed.

To annoy me more, she used the broom to remove some dust from the cabinet and I almost went blind when they came in my direction.

"Zoelle Bermejo!" I shouted while scratching my eyes, I heard her laugh beside me.

I took the broom for her so she could not do that again. I told her to take care of the spiderwebs first, and I'd take care of the dust in the boxes and cabinets.

"What are your plans here?" I asked

The room was too big, and it would be nice if she used it as a guest room or something. Not like this. It is so annoying to store a lot of things, and you’re too lazy to clean them.

"I’m planning to make this into a guest room," she said, so I nodded.

"That’s good. I’ll start to remove the things in every box, then set aside the things that you want to keep." I just said and she agreed with me.

I started to put out all the things on the box and most of them were books that she used when she was still in college. She started to sort them and most of what she kept was the thickest one because it was too pricey.

I lent her a piece of cloth so she could wipe the book while I put back the books she wanted to throw back into the box. It would be better if we donated it instead of throwing it away. I know that she agreed with my decision, so I don’t need to argue with her.

"Just tell me if you want to take them home. You can read them too, "she said, which I agreed with.

I grabbed the other boxes and put out all the books in them. They were documentary books, magazines, and newspapers. She started to sort them out again and set those magazines and newspapers aside.

"Let’s just give them to the junk shop," I suggested.

"Sure," she replied and went back to sorting again.

After sorting through the five boxes of books, three of them were going to be donated to a reading center or schools, while the remaining boxes she was going to keep because those were bought by her parents, and it would be upsetting if she gave them to others.

The next thing we cleaned was the cabinet. It had 2 bags of clothes inside, so we set that aside first, so we could clean the cabinet.

"This was my cabinet when I was still in our old house, but I moved here. My dad told me to bring this. I am in Manila and all the things here are modern. That cabinet was too old. It wouldn’t look good in my room, so I just put it here. " She explained.

It is still in good shape with no wrecks. Since she’ll make this room into a guest room, the guest can still put his or her things here. After removing the dust and dirt, we pushed it into the other side of the room.

There was a window behind it, so I told Zoelle to open it since the room was suffocating because of the smell of dusk.

"Oh, it was raining," she said, so I looked out the window.

"It is sunny yet there is rain. "Two werehorses were getting married," she joked as she continued to open the window.

I became quiet because of what she just said, remembering the book I had read the other night. Come one, why do I keep on receiving a lot of signs of those giants and werehorses? Huh! The first one is I almost got harassed, and the second one is this.

"Hey, you, okay?" She asked because of my sudden silence.

"Yeah, let’s continue," I said, and she nodded.

We had finished cleaning the room by midnight, and it was very satisfying to see that it was already clean. Since we were starving already, we decided to ask for a delivery. I just told her that I’d take a bath first while waiting for the delivery.

While having a bath, I had this thought about the signs I have been receiving since yesterday and earlier. Should I look for that giant and help him? How can we fight those werehorses if he’s the only one left?

I should help him; I can’t just stand these thoughts if I haven’t been by his side. I’ll probably do some research about them to find out where they live.

After a few minutes, I went out of the bathroom, and it looked like the delivery had come. Zoelle told me that she’d just take a bath too, so even though I’m already starving, I should wait for her.

While waiting for her, I put my phone out to check some updates, and I received a lot of messages from my co-workers asking for my state. I ignored most of them since I’ll be meeting with them tomorrow, so I’ll just answer them tomorrow.

After a half-hour, Zoelle finally came out of the bathroom, and I sent her my dagger looks. My stomach kept on boiling. She laughed at me.

"You should’ve eaten first. Why did you even wait for me." I looked at her with disbelief.

I waited for her, yet she asked me why I even waited for her? It would be so rude if the guest ate first rather than the owner of the house. I didn’t give any response to her and started to eat. Silence filled the whole dining area since we were too busy finishing the food.

 We just relaxed and rested a bit before I decided to go home. I stood up and Zoelle looked at me.

I informed her, "I'll go home."

She also stood and told me to wait. I furrowed my brows as I watched her go to her room. Seconds after, she went out with the keys.

"I’ll send you home. I know you can’t take a taxi or a jeepney." She said and I smiled because of her concern.

As for what she said, she sent me home and we found that there were few reporters in front of the apartment, so I just kissed Zoelle’s cheeks before getting out of the car.

"Take care, don’t go out without me. I’ll be fetching you too tomorrow, "she said before I even closed the door. I wanted to hesitate, but I knew it would be a good offer from her.

"Thank you, Zoelle", I sincerely thanked her, and she just smiled at me.

"I casually walked inside the apartment and even passed by the landlady, and thank God, she didn’t notice me. I sighed in relief as I entered my apartment.