A few days later, the fever was entirely gone, which meant the worst side effect of all had officially returned: Jay Jay's boundless, dramatic energy. She was back to 100% health, completely bratty, and fully committed to making Keifer's life as chaotic as humanly possible.
Keifer's POV
The peaceful morning lasted exactly ten minutes before the villa turned into a psychological thriller.
I had gone downstairs to the kitchen to fetch a glass of juice. When I walked back up to the master bedroom, the door was wide open, and the room was empty. The giant white duvet was thrown across the floor. Jay Jay was gone.
"Jay?" I called out, setting the glass on the nightstand.
No answer.
I walked out into the corridor. "Jay Jay! This isn't funny. Where are you?"
Silence.
The villa felt entirely too big and completely dead. A heavy knot immediately tightened in my stomach. Memories of her 103.5-degree fever from a few nights ago flashed in my mind.
Was she dizzy? Did she wander out to the balcony? Did she pass out somewhere?
Panic kicked in. I started sprinting through the house. I checked the second-floor lounge, the guest rooms, and even tore down the stairs to check the kitchen and the living room.
Nothing.
"Jay! Answer me!" I yelled, my voice echoing off the marble walls. My heart was pounding against my ribs like a sledgehammer. By the time I raced back up the stairs and burst into the master bedroom for the second time, my palms were sweating. I was genuinely terrified that something horrible had happened to her.
I stood in the center of the bedroom, my chest heaving as I scanned the area. That's when my eyes caught the large, gold-framed floor mirror standing near the closet.
The mirror was tilted at a perfect downward angle, reflecting the gap between the floor and the bottom of the massive king-sized bed.
There she was.
Jay Jay was lying flat on her stomach under the bed, completely squeezed into the dust space. She was clutching her knees to her chest, her glossy eyes staring out into the room. Even from the reflection, I could see the highly satisfied, bratty smirk plastered across her face. She was completely fine. She had been watching me panic the entire time, treating my genuine terror like a private reality TV show.
A sudden, vengeful rush of adrenaline hit me.
Oh, she wanted a drama? I was going to give her a masterpiece.
I closed my eyes for a split second to compose my face, then let out a sharp, ragged gasp. I stumbled backward, making sure my heavy boots dragged loudly across the hardwood floor.
"Jay..." I choked out, making my voice sound incredibly weak and strained. I pressed a hand over my heart, letting my knees tremble violently. "Jay Jay... oh god..."
I looked directly toward the bed, letting my eyes go wide and glassy. I took one final, dramatic breath, yelled her name with pure, breathless agony—"JAY!"—and let my body completely give out.
I collapsed entirely onto the plush rug right beside the bed with a massive, floor-shaking THUD. I made sure to let my arm fly out limply, hitting the floor with a heavy slap.
I lay completely motionless on the plush rug, committing 100% to the bit. I shut my eyes, dropped my jaw slightly, and stopped moving altogether.
But the reaction wasn't what I expected.
Instead of a sassy remark or a haughty laugh, a sharp, terrified shriek tore through the room.
"Keifer?!"
The sound of her frantic scrambling was chaotic. She scraped her shoulders against the bed frame as she dragged herself out from the dust space, completely abandoning her "fortress." Within a second, her tiny hands slammed onto my shoulders. She began shaking me with desperate, frantic force.
"Keifer! Wake up! This isn't funny!" she cried, her voice cracking, skyrocketing into a raw pitch I had never heard from her before. "Get up, you giant tree! Stop it!"
I kept my eyes locked shut. I forced my muscles to remain completely dead weight. I kept my breathing so shallow it was practically non-existent.
"Keifer!"
Then came the slaps. Smack! Smack! Her small palms stung against my cheeks, but I forced my face to stay relaxed. I didn't flinch. I didn't twitch a finger.
"Oh my god... Keifer, please..."
Her voice suddenly broke completely. The dramatic, bratty tone vanished. It was replaced by a heavy, suffocating wave of pure, unadulterated shock. I felt her heavy, hot tears begin to rain down directly onto my neck and cheeks. She wasn't just throwing a theatrical tantrum anymore. She was sobbing, gasping for air as a deep, primal panic took over her entire body.
"Don't do this... you can't do this," she wailed, her chest heaving violently as she collapsed forward, burying her face into the crook of my neck. Her entire body began to vibrate against mine, shaking with heavy, gut-wrenching sobs. "Wake up... I order you to wake up..."
Lying there, feeling the wet warmth of her genuine tears and hearing the absolute terror in her voice, a sudden knot of immense guilt twisted sharply in my gut. The joke wasn't funny anymore. I had pushed the prank way too far. She was in absolute, true shock. I needed to open my eyes and comfort her before she completely hyperventilated.
But as I prepared to break character, her frantic, shaking hands suddenly gripped my face, and she let out a sound that broke my heart.
Jay Jay's POV
The world stopped spinning.
One second, I was under the bed, giggling to myself and feeling like the most brilliant mastermind in the villa. The next second, Keifer was screaming my name in absolute agony, gripping his chest, and crashing to the floor like a felled redwood tree.
"Keifer?!" I shrieked, my knees scraping painfully against the floorboards as I desperately clawed my way out from under the bed.
I threw myself onto his chest, my hands shaking so violently I could barely grip his shirt. "Keifer! Wake up! This is a direct order!"
He didn't move. His body was completely limp. His face, usually so expressive and full of life, was entirely blank. His jaw was slightly slack. His eyes were closed shut, deep and unmoving.
"Stop it! Stop playing!" I screamed, a horrific, choking sob tearing its way out of my throat. I slapped his cheeks, hard, trying to shock him back to life. Smack! Smack! "Get up, you stupid tree! Get up!"
Nothing.
No reaction.
He didn't even flinch from the pain.
A wave of icy, paralyzing shock crashed over my entire body, freezing the blood in my veins. This wasn't a game. He wasn't breathing. I pressed my ear flat against his chest, straining to hear anything, but the terrifying roar of my own blood screaming in my ears drowned out the world. I couldn't hear a heartbeat.
"No, no, no, no..." I wailed, the tears spilling out of my eyes in a furious, blinding torrent.
A suffocating, heavy weight pressed down on my lungs. The room felt like it was spinning out of control. Images flashed through my mind—his warm hands holding mine when I had the fever, his voice singing that Tagalog song to me, the way he carried me like a sack of expensive goods just to make me smile. He was always there. He was my giant, unyielding shield.
And now, he was entirely still. Because of me. Because I wanted to play a stupid, bratty game.
"Keifer, please!" I sobbed, my voice breaking into a raw, ragged whisper as I collapsed completely onto his chest. I buried my face in his neck, clutching the fabric of his shirt so tightly my knuckles turned white. My whole body shook with violent, helpless gasps. "I'm sorry... I'm sorry I hid... I won't be a brat anymore... just breathe..."
The silence of the villa was deafening. He was cold. He was completely unresponsive. The absolute finality of the shock broke something deep inside me, and I let out a loud, heartbroken cry, completely lost in the dark.
I reached up, my trembling fingers framing his face, squeezing his cheeks in a desperate, final plea just to see his eyes open. "Please... don't leave me alone..."
AUTHOR POV
The heavy silence of the villa was deafening.
Keifer lay completely motionless on the plush rug, committing one hundred percent to the bit. He shut his eyes, dropped his jaw slightly, and stopped moving altogether, forcing his muscles to remain dead weight. He kept his breathing so shallow it was practically non-existent.
But the reaction wasn't what he expected.
Instead of a sassy remark or a haughty laugh, a sharp, terrified shriek tore through the room. "Keifer?!"
The sound of Jay Jay's frantic scrambling was chaotic. She scraped her shoulders against the bed frame as she dragged herself out from the dust space, completely abandoning her "fortress." Within a second, her tiny hands slammed onto his shoulders. She began shaking him with desperate, frantic force.
"Keifer!"
Her voice suddenly broke completely. The dramatic, bratty tone vanished. It was replaced by a heavy, suffocating wave of pure, unadulterated shock. Keifer felt her heavy, hot tears begin to rain down directly onto his neck and cheeks. She wasn't just throwing a theatrical tantrum anymore. She was sobbing, gasping for air as a deep, primal panic took over her entire body.
The joke wasn't funny anymore. He had pushed the prank way too far. She was in absolute, true shock. He needed to open his eyes and comfort her before she completely hyperventilated.
But as he prepared to break character, her frantic, shaking hands suddenly gripped his face, and she let out a sound that broke his heart.
"Please... don't leave me alone..." she whispered.
The raw, bleeding vulnerability in her voice sliced straight through his chest. The satisfying rush of vengeance vanished, replaced by an icy, suffocating wall of guilt.
The joke wasn't just dead,it was monstrous.
He had set out to teach his bratty girl a lesson, but he had accidentally broken her.
Keifer snapped his eyes open, grabbed her wrists, and sat up abruptly on the rug.
"Gotcha!" he blurted out, trying to force a bright, playful grin to shatter the illusion.
Jay Jay froze. Her hands stayed hovering in the air, her fingers stiff. The frantic sobbing stopped instantly, cut off mid-breath. For two agonizing seconds, she just stared at him. Her swollen, glossy eyes scanned his face, searching for a medical emergency, but finding only a guilty prankster.
The absolute silence in the room was louder than her screams.
Then, the shock transformed into pure, unadulterated fury.
Smack!
The slap echoed off the marble walls. It wasn't the frantic, desperate tapping from before. This was a solid, stinging blow that snapped his head to the side.
"You absolute jerk!" she screamed, her voice cracking as fresh tears immediately erupted down her face.
She began pounding her fists against his chest, throwing her entire weight into every strike. Keifer didn't even try to block them. He just sat there, taking the brunt of her anger, his heart aching at the sight of her completely undone.
"You giant, cruel, horrible tree!" she yelled, her voice breaking into a ragged sob. "How could you do that to me?! Do you think this is a joke?!"
"Jay, hey, I'm sorry—" Keifer stammered, raising his hands to catch her wrists.
"Shut up! Don't touch me!" she screamed, tearing her hands away from his grip. She scrambled backward on her knees, creating distance between them on the plush rug. Her chest was heaving violently, and she was trembling from head to toe. "I thought you died! I couldn't hear your heartbeat! Do you have any idea what that felt like? I thought you were gone! I thought you left me!"
There was no theatrical drama in her eyes now. No bratty smirk. This was a girl who had just stared into an abyss, utterly convinced she was entirely alone in the world. Her voice carried a raw, bleeding fear that stripped away all her usual haughty armor.
"Jay, listen to me," Keifer said, his voice dropping to a soft, urgent tone.
"No! I won't listen to you!" she cried, wiping fiercely at her eyes, though the tears kept coming faster than she could clear them."You're horrible. You stayed completely still. I was begging you, and you just lay there!"
"I saw you under the bed," Keifer confessed softly, crawling forward on his knees toward her. He ignored her defensive swats as he reached out. "I saw you smirking in the mirror. You watched me panic, Jay. You let me think something horrible happened to you after that fever. I got mad, and I wanted to scare you back. I went way too far. I am so sorry."
"That's different!" she wept, her voice dropping to a fragile, broken whisper. "I was just hiding. You... you pretended to die, Keifer. You made me think I killed you."
The sheer weight of her words broke his heart into pieces. He didn't care about the sting on his cheek or the bruises forming on his chest. He lunged forward, closing the distance between them, and wrapped his massive arms completely around her.
She fought him for a split second, kicking her legs and burying her face into his shoulder to scream, but the anger quickly drained out of her. The rigid tension in her spine snapped. She collapsed entirely against him, clutching the back of his shirt with white-knuckled desperation. She buried her face into the crook of his neck as a new wave of heavy, gut-wrenching sobs took over her body.
"I hate you," she muffled against his skin, her voice shaking violently. "I swear to god, Keifer, I hate you so much."
"I know," Keifer whispered into her hair, rocking her back and forth on the floor. He squeezed her tighter, resting his chin on the top of her head. "I know. You have every right to. I'm an idiot. I'm so sorry, baby."
"My heart... it literally stopped," she gasped for air, her fingers tightening on his shirt so hard her knuckles turned white. "I was calling your name and you wouldn't move. You felt so cold. I thought... I thought it was my fault because I hid under there."
"It wasn't your fault," Keifer said firmly. He gently pulled back just enough to look at her, using his thumbs to wipe the hot, heavy tears from her flushed cheeks. "Look at me, Jay."
She looked up at him, her eyes wide, raw, and completely exposed.
"I am perfectly fine," he promised, taking her small, trembling hand and pressing it firmly against the center of his chest. "Feel that? My heart is beating right here. I'm not going anywhere. I am right here."
Jay Jay stared down at his chest, feeling the steady, powerful thudding beneath her palm. Her bottom lip trembled. "Don't ever do that again. Don't even joke about it. If you ever leave me alone like that... I will never forgive you."
"I promise," Keifer said softly, kissing her forehead before holding her face gently in both of his large hands. "No more fake heart attacks. No more terrifying games. From now on, if you hide under the bed, I'm just come down there and drag you out."
Jay Jay let out a weak, watery hiccup, her voice dropping to a fragile whisper as the last of the panic began to leave her chest. "Good. Because you're too big to fit under there anyway, you stupid tree."
Keifer smiled softly, relief washing over him as he pulled her back flush against his chest, locking her into an unbreakable, protective hold. "Yeah. I am. I've got you. Just breathe."