The dining room felt like a high-stakes arena as the three of them approached the table.
Sophia leaned in toward Keifer, her voice a sharp, playful whisper meant only for him.
"You know, Keifer," she smirked, "it doesn't matter if you're her husband. She loves me more."
Keifer didn't even blink, his gaze remaining cool and steady. "Is it?"
"Yes," Sophia challenged, her chin tilting up with confidence.
"Let's see," Keifer replied, his voice dropping into that competitive, low rumble.
They took their seats directly across from each other, the tension crackling between them.
Jay followed shortly after, carrying a steaming plate of golden pancakes. As she set the dish down, Keifer immediately reached out and pulled the chair beside him.
"Jay, sit here," he said, his tone smooth but commanding.
Sophia's hand immediately slammed down on the seat next to her, patting it with aggressive enthusiasm. "No way! Jay, come here! Sit with me, we have girl talk to do!"
Jay froze, looking at the two of them like a deer in headlights.
She took a tentative step toward the left, toward Keifer.
"That's a good choice," Keifer noted, his eyes locking onto hers with a satisfied glint. And giving smirk to sophia.
Sophia's eyes narrowed looking to keifer.
"Wait, wait, wait!" Sophia shouted, her face twisting into an angry scowl. "Jay! Are you seriously choosing him over me? After everything? Jay, sit here right now!"
Panicked, Jay scrambled back toward the right, toward Sophia.
"I—I'm sorry, Soph! "
"Jay." Keifer's voice was suddenly much colder. Jay looked back to see his brow arched in a silent, freezing show of frustration. "I thought we were going to discuss the schedule. Sit down."
"Don't listen to him!" Sophia countered, grabbing Jay's wrist.
"He's just being a bossy CEO. Sit with your best friend!"
Jay was moving like a pendulum now—stepping left, then right, then back to the left.
"Jay, I won't ask again," Keifer muttered, his jaw tightening as she drifted toward his sister.
"If you sit there, Jay, I'm not sharing my gossips later!" Sophia threatened, looking genuinely upset.
Jay went left to right, right to left, her eyes darting between the two siblings.
His mom sat at the head of the table, leaning back with her coffee, watching the frantic "left-to-right" dance with absolute delight.
She didn't say a word, she was enjoying the show far too much.
The pressure was mounting. Jay looked at Keifer, then remembered the way his lips felt against her ear and the weight of his "I love you."
The sheer shyness of being that close to him after such an intense morning was too much to handle.
With her face burning a bright crimson, she made a sudden dash for the right and slid into the chair beside Sophia.
"Hah! I told you!" Sophia cheered, throwing an arm around Jay's shoulders.
Keifer didn't say anything. He leaned back in his chair, his eyes narrowing as he looked at the empty seat beside him.
The "quite angry" aura radiating from him was palpable; he picked up his fork with such a stiff, cold precision that the air around him seemed to drop ten degrees.
The atmosphere at the table was thick with a tension only Jay could feel.
She picked at her food, her heart sinking as Keifer continued to act as if she didn't exist.
Trying to break the heavy silence, Jay cleared her throat.
"Mom... where is Dad?"
Keifer's mom looked up from her plate with a warm smile.
"He's gone to the office for an early meeting, anak. There was some urgent paperwork to handle."
"Oh... okay," Jay replied softly, her gaze dropping back to her pancakes.
Suddenly, Jay felt something warm and firm press against her foot under the table. She stiffened as a foot nudged hers, sliding upward with a slow, deliberate touch.
It was Keifer. He was extending his leg, his foot tracing the line of hers in a hidden, flirty provocation.
Jay's eyes shot up to his face, but he looked like a statue. He was wearing a cold, detached expression, his eyes fixed solely on his breakfast as if he weren't currently playing a dangerous game under the tablecloth.
The shock of the contact made Jay choke mid-sip. She let out a sharp, muffled cough, her face turning bright red.
"Jay! Are you okay?" his mom asked, leaning forward with concern, while Sophia paused her eating, her brow furrowed.
"I—I'm fine," Jay managed to wheeze out, shaking her head and forcing a small, strained smile. "Just... swallowed the water wrong."
She shot a fierce, burning glare across the table at Keifer, her eyes screaming for him to stop.
But Keifer didn't even grant her a glance. A tiny, infuriating smirk tugged at the corner of his mouth as he calmly cut into his food, his foot still lingering against hers.
He was enjoying her panic while maintaining a mask of total indifference.
Suddenly, Keifer's phone buzzed on the table. He picked it up, his thumb swiping across the screen, talk. Without even a flicker of his eyes toward Jay, he addressed his mother.
"Dad needs me at the office right away," he said, his voice back to its professional, clipped tone. "I need to go now. Bye, Mom."
He pushed his chair back and stood up, the chair legs scraping against the floor.
He turned and headed toward his room to grab his things, casting one last, triumphant smirk in Jay's direction—though he still purposefully avoided making eye contact.
He left her sitting there, her heart racing and her face flaming, completely unsettled by his "flirty anger."
The breakfast table was finally quiet after Keifer's dramatic exit, but the air was still thick with Sophia's mischievous energy.
Jay sat there, picking at the remains of her breakfast, trying to get her heart rate back to normal.
Sophia leaned in, her eyes glinting with a pride that seemed a little too intense. "You know, Jay... I am really, really proud of you."
Jay paused her fork halfway to her mouth, looking at her friend with genuine confusion. "Why? Because I survived a left-right war?"
Sophia leaned even closer, lowering her voice to a conspiratorial whisper that made Jay's skin prickle.
"No. Because in the morning, you came to the kitchen so easily."
Jay raised a brow, her head tilting in genuine bewilderment. "Easily? What do you mean by that? Huh?"
Sophia didn't answer right away. She stood up, smoothing out her shirt with a smug, knowing grin.
"I just mean... I wasn't expecting you to still be able to walk like a model after surviving everything that happened last night."
With that, Sophia turned on her heel and began walking toward the hall with a triumphant swagger.
Jay stayed frozen in her seat. She replayed the words in her head.
Walk like a model... surviving last night... It took a few long, silent seconds for the gears to turn, but then the realization hit her like a physical blow. Sophia wasn't talking about the "walk" in the garden. She was talking about... that.
Jay's eyes widened to the size of saucers. Her face didn't just turn red; it turned a deep, pulsating purple.
She looked toward the hallway where Sophia was already sauntering away, looking back over her shoulder with a devastating smirk.
The embarrassment was too much to handle. Jay stood up so fast her chair screeched against the floor.
She began to walk—slowly at first, like a predator stalking its prey—toward the hallway. Her hands were curled into fists, and her breath was coming in short, panicked gasps.
"SOPHIA!" Jay screamed, her voice echoing through the entire house. "GET BACK HERE! I'LL KILL YOU!"
She broke into a full sprint, charging toward the hall as Sophia let out a delighted shriek and started running for her life.
The house was suddenly filled with the chaotic sound of thumping footsteps and high-pitched shrieks.
Sophia burst into the hallway, her head thrown back in a fit of hysterical laughter, while Jay was hot on her heels, her face a blazing shade of crimson.
"Who knew you had so much energy, Jay!" Sophia yelled over her shoulder, ducking behind a large vase.
"I guess the 'nocturnal exercise' really built up your stamina! Mom, look at her go! She's practically sprinting!"
"SOPHIA, YOU SHUT YOUR MOUTH! I SWEAR TO GOD!" Jay screamed, her fist raised in the air as she skidded around the corner.
The commotion was so loud that Keifer, who was just coming down the stairs looking like a page out of a business magazine in a crisp, tailored black suit, stopped dead in his tracks.
He gripped the banister, his eyes widening as he took in the sight of Jay—usually so composed and shy—transformed into a screaming whirlwind of fury.
"SOPHIA! I SWEAR, IF I CATCH YOU, YOU'RE NOT SEEING TOMORROW!" Jay screamed, her voice bouncing off the high ceilings.
Keifer stood frozen on the bottom step, his briefcase forgotten in his hand.
He looked like a statue of a businessman dropped into the middle of a zoo. He watched them circle the large mahogany coffee table, Jay's hair a wild halo around her face and her fists clenched tight.
"I'm just saying, Jay!" Sophia yelled, ducking under a floor lamp as she rounded the second sofa.
"I'm proud of your form! Most people would be sluggish, but you're so... limber! Do you know any special stretching techniques?"
"SHUT UP! SHUT UP! SHUT UP!" Jay bellowed, her face a shade of red that Keifer didn't think was biologically possible.
Their mom was practically sliding down the kitchen doorframe, her hand over her mouth, but the loud, shaking sobs of laughter gave her away.
She didn't understand the "techniques," but Jay's murderous energy was comedy gold.
"Girls! Please! The furniture!" she managed to wheeze out.
"Mom, tell her to stop being so sensitive!" Sophia teased, taking a sharp turn around a lounge chair.
"I'm just admiring her endurance! You must have done a lot of repetitions last night to be this fast today, Jay! Was it a full-body workout?"
Jay let out a sound that wasn't even human. "SOPHIA! THAT IS DISGUSTING! I'M GOING TO PULL YOUR TONGUE OUT!"
She lunged over the back of the sofa, nearly catching Sophia's shirt, but the younger girl rolled away just in time, cackling like a maniac.
Keifer's eyes followed them back and forth, his head moving like he was watching a tennis match.
The "Ice CEO" was struggling to process the scene. He looked at Jay—the girl who usually hid her face when he looked at her—now shouting about repetitions and endurance while chasing his sister like a bounty hunter.
"Jay? Sophia?" Keifer finally found his voice, though it was drowned out by another one of Jay's screams. "What workout? What are you—"
"DON'T ASK HIM!" Jay shrieked, pointing a vibrating finger at Sophia while still running. "SOPHIA, ONE MORE WORD AND YOU ARE BURIED!"
"Oh, so it was a leg day?" Sophia shouted back, jumping over a beanbag. "Keifer, you're a great trainer! She's got amazing muscle memory!"
Keifer's ears turned a deep, hot crimson as the implications finally started to click in his brain.
He stood there, trapped between the stairs and the front door, his crisp black suit feeling suddenly very tight as the chaos swirled around him.
The chaotic laughter and the thunder of footsteps suddenly cut to a jarring, heavy silence.
Sophia skidded to a halt near the edge of the rug, her chest heaving as she sucked in air, her face flushed from the chase.
She slowly turned around, her smirk softening into a look of focused, playful defiance. She didn't run this time. She stood her ground, looking directly into Jay's eyes, her gaze locked on her target.
Jay stopped a few feet away, her hands slowly lowering from their defensive curls. Her face was still a burning, vivid crimson, and her breath came in ragged, shaky intervals.
The air between them was thick, charged with the weight of the secret Sophia had been teasing and the raw, unfiltered rage Jay had been venting.
The living room felt frozen. In the background, Keifer remained paralyzed on the stairs, his suit jacket sharp against the chaos, and his mom stayed leaning against the frame, her laughter finally subsiding into a watchful, amused silence.
Jay took a deliberate step forward.
One. Her eyes never left Sophia's. The murderous screaming was gone, replaced by a quiet, intense determination that was somehow more intimidating.
Two. She closed half the distance, her shadow stretching across the floor toward Sophia's feet. Sophia didn't flinch; she just tilted her head, a final, knowing glint in her eyes.
Three.
Jay stepped into Sophia's personal space, her presence looming large, the silence in the room echoing like a heartbeat.
Hey buddies, here's your chapter, now don't disturb me (but it doesn't mean you'll not comment, I just love ur comments 💞).
Ok bye 👋🫂
Just Tell me how's it 😁.
Love u 😘😘
If u can give me suggestions for romantic moments.