Simula (Completed)

Chapter 70

NICHOLAS

"Why are you here, Hannah?" I asked her as she spun her head in slow motion to where I was standing.

I registered the shock on Manang Rosa's face as she recognized the name I uttered by the corner of my eyes.

But I did not leave my gaze on the young woman in front of me.

She stood there, eyes wet, cheek tear-stained and nose red, not talking, just staring blankly at me.

She opened her mouth, I guess to explain, but I was faster.

I would not be swayed by those doe-like eyes again, never again.

I stopped her with my steel voice and my hardened heart.

"Get out of here." I gritted between my teeth.

"You should not be here. You should be back in Canada." I hissed intensely.

I can feel the baking flour that I dropped in a jolt of finding her here in my home art studio which was supposed to be my very own sanctuary, between my toes.

The flour grains were soft and fluffy and started to stick on my wet foot.

"Get out of here!" I said louder this time.

I saw her crestfallen face.

She wiped her tears with her left arm and started walking out of the room.

I thought she would continue walking out of the front door when she suddenly halted right in front of me.

She faced me with her dewy tear streaked face.

She must not have looked that appealing to anyone with her blotchy red face and drenched clothes, however, for me, at that very moment, she never looked more beautiful.

"I have something to say." She began.

"We already said what we have wanted to say last night." I started to cut her off.

I cannot look at her in eye-level for I know I will fall in her trap again.

So I looked where every coward looks, the ground.

Am I waiting for it to swallow me whole?

"You're wrong." She said firmly as I kept on looking at my flour-covered feet.

"You have said your piece last night but I never got to say what I wanted to say." She said.

"I don't want to hear..." I was about to finish my last say when she overtook me.

"I love you." She said as she straightforwardly looked at me. "I love you more than my privacy."

That stopped my track of mind.

What was I saying?

With a befuddled mind, I bravely lifted my head and found her gazing at me intensely.

"I was foolish enough to think of you as my rival." Hannah's eyes were sparkling with tears waiting to fall out one after the other one leaves, and another, and another.

"But the truth is I have been in love with you all these years and yet I kept on denying it." She said seriously.

"Some might say they call it pride." She continued as tears cannot be held back anymore.

"I call it my biggest mistake." She finished.

She looked at me intently, as her eyes pleaded me to believe what she was saying.

She looked at me as if expecting and waiting for me to answer back.

When I did not, she just smiled sweetly.

"I guessed you might say you have won this battle, I lost, it's your victory...you really made me cry in front of you." She said in salutation, almost jokingly as she kept on wiping off her tears.

At this point, my mind was still blank. I was still registering what she was saying...

"I really wish you all the best, Nicholas." She said.

"And please believe me when I say that I am so proud of you, my hermit." , was the last thing I heard her say.

And with that she left my studio, my house, and my life.

The only marks she left behind for me to follow were wet trails of her dripping coat from the rain...

...or were those her tears?

I stood on the same spot for a minute reflecting, possibly from fear, mostly from shock of her declaration of love.

Waiting...

Can my brain function any faster?!

And as if an electric shock transferred to me, my thoughts returned.

Wait a minute!

She loves me.

That's right!

She loves me.

It was not yet too late.

I am finding my destiny and fighting for it!

I walked towards my front door and hurriedly put on my soaking wet sneakers.

I did not even need to hear any of the words of encouragement from Manang Rosa because I already know what I wanted, what I needed.

I need her.

All I need is her.

I ran and saw her walking down the block with her umbrella clutched tightly as the wind tried to flipped it backwards.

"Hannah!" I shouted in desperation.