?MAY
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(R0m-nce is a Meal)
By Sommy Pearl F.
Chapter 77&78.
☆ ☆ ☆ ☆
West sat down on the chair, while May sat on the bed,, they were facing each other.
West coughed lightly.
“Firstly, I’m gonna hear your explanation before saying anything. Now,,, why didn’t you leave for ltaly. What made you stay back?” He asked.
May’s eyes looked at the ground briefly before looking at his face.
“I didn’t want to study law… I wanted to just follow my heart. At the airport,, my eyes met with someone whom I fell in love with it. Guess what? I followed that person because I was blinded by love”
“Do you know I even to-re my ticket cause of my decision, not to go?” She added.
West listened carefully without saying anything to her.
“I eventually followed him but then after reminiscing,, I decided to go to Italy. I hurriedly went back to the airport where I disposed the torn ticket. Lo and behold,, I couldn’t still find it despite looking around, and even scattering everywhere”
“Getting a new ticket became my only hope. Since I was tired and hungry,, I asked Raymond,, the guy whom I fell in love with at the airport to let me stay for a while. Being a nice person,, he agreed”
“It wasn’t too long when I got scammed. All the money in my savings account disappeared. I was left with nothing. I was stuck here. No money to get to Italy too. I couldn’t even call Mum. I knew she would be upset and sick about it,, so I decided to clean the hu-ge mess all by myself”
“I applied as a staff in the restaurant where I began to earn,, and save. My aim was to save a lot and travel to Italy,, then start studying…”
West inhaled de-eply after her brief pause.
“You done?” He asked.
May nodded slowly.
“Well,, I do guess love can be sometimes crazy. Was there any other aim you had while working in the restaurant except for money?” West asked.
May slowly raised her head and looked at him.
“Yeah… I wanted Raymond to fall in love with me back. I wanted us to feel the same way for each other”
“Obviously. Like I said before,, Love can be crazy” West murmured.
“…Just say what you wanted to say” May muttered.
“Hmm?” He hummed.
“About him… that man,, called my father and why my mum wants me out of Korea to study law in Italy”
****
“May has been caught” Sasha told Raymond.
“What?” He said.
“It’s my fault. If only I didn’t bargain anything with Coral” Sasha sobbed.
Raymond’s eyes twitched. He quickly held her by her shoulders, grabbing the two like he wanted to pull it out.
“What happened! Tell me!” He yelled.
After Explanation, Few Minutes Later**
“The hell!!!” Raymond bellowed.
“Why! Why did you both do that! Yours isn’t that serious. I’m not furious her mother got to know. It’s fine,, She’s bound to know one day. But why? Why did Coral pretend not to know when she was the main cause of May’s disappearance!” Raymond shouted.
“I’m really sorry I had a hand in this. I’m gonna check her at home now,, you wanna follow me?” Sasha asked.
Raymond blinked his eyes and stared de-eply at space without moving his li-ps.
“Raymond? Raymond?? Raymond??!”Sasha called and he je-rked.
“Huh?” He answered, looking at her.
“What’s on your mind? I’ve been calling your name since. You okay?” She asked.
“I guess” He muttered.
Sasha sighed de-eply.
“So, I was asking if you could follow me to May’s place. I wanna check on her and confess my wrong doings. I also wanna apologize for them” She said.
Raymond ru-bbed his hair and shook his head.
“Sorry,, but I can’t follow you” He said, muttering.
“Why?” Sasha’s eyes wide-ned.
“Her mum. Who knows what she might do. When you get there,, Just call me. I wanna hear her voice” He said.
Sasha sighed and nodded.
“I will do that”
“Thank you” Raymond muttered.
“Your number, please” Sasha said, and gave him her phone which he collected and saved his number on.
Sasha later left and Raymond entered the restaurant. He want upstairs to his room and broke down into tears. He opened the cu-pboard and brou-ght out a ticket,, a flight ticket to Italy.
“I’m so sorry, May… for leaving you so early” He kept crying,, as he talked with a shaky voice.
He planned that,, after he was done with the event on Foreign-Ko-rean Dishes Nationwide,, He was gonna leave Korea and go back to Italy to stay for 8 years and then come back and open a better franchise business… Italian cuisines eatries all over the world.
“The event is gonna hold on 3 days time” He thought.
****
West was going down stairs when he saw Sasha waiting close to the door.
“Sasha?” West called.
Sasha quickly looked at him and bowed her head.
“Hello, sir” She greeted.
“Yeah. How are you?” He asked.
“Good, I think” She replied.
“What are you doing here? It’s late and cold” He said.
Sasha was already shivering.
“I’m sorry but I wanna see May”
“What? May?” West blinked his eyes fast.
Sasha nodded.
“Who told you May is here?” He asked.
“I know cause I had a hand in it”
“What? You were the one who called Sandra and told her everything? I thought it was a girl who works with her in the same restaurant”
“You’re right but I knew May worked there when I went there to eat on my birthday with Marcus. May begged us to keep it a secret but alas, I betrayed her and planned with Coral to make Sandra see her”
“Geez. Thats so bad,, I guess”
“Yeah..Thats why I wanna see her and apologize… Where’s she now?”
“She’s upstairs”
“Okay,, thank you sir. Oh,, what of Miss Flawn?” Sasha asked.
“Oh Sandy?”
“Huh?”
“Huh?…Uh…Sandra… She’s drunk but asleep”
“Uhmm… Okay then. I’m off to her room. Have a nice night” Sasha said and walked in.
“Wait” West said and turned to her.
Sasha looked at him.
“May… She isn’t feeling too good. So, please,, console her” West said, and left. Sasha inhaled de-eply, closed the door and ran upstairs.
****
Raymond wiped his tears and walked out. He moved to Coral’s door and knocked it.
“Come in” He heard her say.
He entered and nearly barfed the whole room. He cli-pped his nose which his fin-gers and looked at everywhere.
It was quite dark, and was in a big mess. He switched on the light and saw dirt everywhere.
He noticed she hadn’t cleaned the room nor threw out her trash for days. Even he saw spoilt foods and alcohols spills and remains.
He took his eyes to see Coral drinking heavily.
“What are you doing?” He asked, with a muffled voice.
Coral looked at him and smi-rked.
“Drinking as you can see, Care to join?”
“We nee-d to talk” He said.
“About what? May, I guess?? You heard already? Aiish,, Sasha that cheap mouth! I ought to take off her mouth” Coral scoffed.
“Let’s talk, Coral…now! And let’s do it outside!” He said and left.
Minutes Later***
Coral walked outside slowly. She stopped when she saw Raymond looking at the hu-ge tree. He was backing her.
“Raymond” She called.
Raymond slowly turned to her. He looked at her from head to toe and noticed her bag,, her things with her.
May’s Room***
Sasha barged inside when she heard May’s wailings. She ran to her and quickly jumped on the bed.
May was crying loudly and ha-rd. She looked up and saw Sasha.
“Sasha?” She called.
“Hey,,, Hey,, Stop crying. I’m here” Sasha whispered, wiping her tears, despite having tears falling down her eyes.
“What am I gonna do now?” May kept on crying.
Sasha inhaled de-eply and hu-gged her ti-ghtly.
“How am I gonna face my mother now? That woman suffered cause of me” She didn’t stop crying.
“She couldn’t love cause of my selfish and greedy desi-re too”
“What’s wrong?” Sasha said, softly.
May slowly broke the hu-g and looked at her face. Sasha returned the stare.
“I know everything now” May muttered, crying softly with running tears
“About?” Sasha asked.
“My father… I know everything mum hid from me”
TBC