The moment I saw Jake, my eyes brimmed with tears.He stood outside, drenched from head to toe. He looked at me with his distinctive eyes, like a wet puppy that had been abandoned.His voice was soft. "Miss Johnson, I miss you so much."At that instant, all sense and reasons left my body completely.Something was tugging on my heart torturously.I did not think twice before I darted towards him and threw my hands around him.He gently pushed me away. "Miss Johnson, I'm drenched. You will get a cold."My arms around him grew tighter.
When we got back into the house, I had Jake take a shower and handed him a pair of fleece pajamas since he did not have a change of clothes.The pajamas were pastel pink with a pair of rabbit ears attached to its hoodie.I held in my laughter from the moment he walked out of the bathroom. I even snuck a few photos when he was not looking.Feeling shy, he scurried to the far corner of the sofa and hid his head deep into the collar of the shirt, with only a pair of eyes visible.The fuzzy pajamas made him look like a large breed dog. It was so amusing that I could not help but laugh.He shut his eyes and took a long, deep breath. "It smells just like you, Miss Johnson."I almost choked on my saliva."I'm so blessed," Jake added.The word 'blessed' seemed to have shifted the air in the room as the temperature raised slowly.I scrambled to change the subject. "H-How are things at home?"Jake paused shortly before he poked his head out of the collar. "Miss Johnson, I haven't been
The next day, Jake decided to bring me elsewhere.He pointed at a newly-built retail store by the corner lot. "Miss Johson, do you remember this place?""Isn't this a… new store? I don't think I've been here before," I responded bewilderedly. He paused and looked at me. "I wasn't referring to the new one. Same place, eight years ago."I looked at the surrounding streets, and memories came flashing like a lightning bolt."I think this used to be the fast food restaurant where I worked part-time when I was still in college.""That's right, Miss Johnson. I was only fourteen years old at the time. I went to the restaurant every day to do my school assignments. Do you remember?" Jake laughed lightly.I could see a glimpse of my distant memories. I was the only staff member at the time as the restaurant's business had always been bad, especially during nighttime. However, I vaguely remembered a chubby boy coming into the store every night after school.Initially, I thought he had
Dating Jake was so blissful.He had nothing but love and affection for me, and he understood me without exchanging words. It was such a wonderful and odd feeling. Before I met Jake, I did not know that it was possible to find someone who understood me as much as he did.We watched movies and went to theme parks and music festivals. It was as if we were doing everything I missed from my past relationships.Jake would do random things that made my heart flutter. He would peck my cheek while we held hands and whispered in my ear.'You smell delicious.'When I got home from work, he would be seen wearing an apron with a table of mouth-watering food, waiting patiently for me to come home.He was such a perfect boyfriend to the point where there were times I thought I was trapped in some sort of euphoric dream.The joy and contentment had me forget that humans could not possibly be that perfect and that they were bound to have some flaws.
I discovered Jake's secret purely by accident.There was a period when he would frequent his father's company. He said there were things he had to sort out for his father.One time, I went with him and waited for his meeting to end in the guest room.Perhaps it was rare to have guests in the guest room. Two employees started chatting just outside the room by the door. They started talking about what happened within the Young family as they were chatting.One person even directly mentioned Jake Young."Young Junior has always been a smart kid. He pretended to run away from home in order for Missus Young to put her guard down. He even stood low to pursue a regular woman, fooling people around him that he was just a simple-minded man who thought of nothing but women.""Is that so? Jakey looked like a harmless dove. Turns out he's quite the cunning fox after all!""Right? I guess kids with that sort of background had to be clever one way or another."As their voice grew further,
Jake brought me back to his house.It was raining, and we did not have an umbrella with us. We were drenched from head to toe, and it was a dire and embarrassing sight.In his spacious room, he dug out a heaping amount of photo albums, diaries, and a medical diagnosis."Miss Johnson, these are all my secrets over the years. If you're willing to learn, I'm willing to show you my insides—bare and raw."However, if you decide to leave me after you're finished, please don't tell me. I'm afraid of the extent I'd go to make you stay…"His head hung low the whole time, avoiding my eyes. The corner of his mouth and eyes trembled, holding back his tears. I did not know what to feel when I reached out to the things in front of me.I read the first page of the medical diagnosis.Jake Young, fourteen years old.Diagnosed with erotomania. I braced myself for what I was about to find out. The photo albums were filled with photos of me. Every single page.In that instant, I felt a chil
I rarely opened up to anyone about myself.I have kept a diary since I was six years old because my mother passed away the very same year.It was a day of heavy rainfall in the summer. The wind murmured unforgivingly as myriads of cicadas buzzed harmoniously.I woke up from a nap, and an unearthly sound filled the air.Bolts of flashes lit up the darkened sky as a wall of rain drummed on the ground. The mansion was vast and pitch-black, and its silence was deafening.I called out for my 'momma', but there was no response.I followed the whirring sound of thunder up the stairs, passing the long hallway. Step by step, approaching nothing but the worst nightmare of my entire life.There she laid as a single strike of lightning lit up the dark room, illuminating her face.She looked at peace—sound asleep.Later, the mansion was swarmed with people, filling the air with heavy and muffled sobs. I stood behind the adults, crisscrossing through the crowd. In front of me was Jerome You
At that time, I thought she would wake up.It was after the countless nights spent in bed alone when my untold amount of 'momma' was met with silence as I wept myself to sleep. Only then did I realize that she was not coming back and that I would never see her ever again.I started keeping a diary. Word by word, I recorded my feelings toward the world around me.Not long after my mother's burial, Jerome Young brought back a younger woman he said was my new mother.I would never call her that. Never.I had found my late mother's diagnosis papers. She was diagnosed with major depressive disorder.Along with it was a letter she wrote for me.She apologized to me over and over again in the letter.Father's betrayal and pressure from her own parents were too overwhelming for a girl who was brought up in a wealthy family and was given everything she had ever wanted.On that thunderous rainy day, she decided to take her own life under the impression that I was still in my piano class