3 Play House

"You can start away if you want, I'll be in my room for a while. Don't disturb me." Maiko said and went ahead to climb the stairs to his room.

"It'll be lunch soon, what do you want me to prepare?" I asked at the last minute.

Waving his hand, he said "Don't bother. I'll be busy doing manuscripts for the rest of the day." Right after telling me that, he disappeared from my sight.

How could he go on without eating anything?

I'm still caught off guard thinking that Maiko Yu turned out to be someone younger than I anticipated. And I admit, good looking too.

I sighed heavily and scanned my surroundings.

Now that I mentioned it. Even though outside the house looked sophisticated, it's very messy inside! Sa sobrang gulo parang di na ata matatawag na bahay 'to!

I left my suitcase at the entrance and went ahead to check every cabinet. Puro cup noodles and instant coffee! Yung refrigerator? Don't talk about it, puro canned beer ang laman. Yung sink puno ng mga hugasin na sa tingin ko a week ago pa naka tambak. Dirty clothes were thrown everywhere and books were lying on the floor sa kung saan saan. This doesn't look like home at all, parang tambakan, jusmiyo!

Apparently, there's another door here on the first floor. The other one was the bathroom so I should check out the other. I opened the door to a room that seemed to be a spare room but more of a storage room by now. May folding bed and a lot of random stuff were stored inside the room. It wasn't big but it would be enough for me since I don't have a lot of stuff. And for someone living off charge, this is already fine. Pwede ko namang linisin.

I grabbed my suitcase and changed my clothes to a comfortable one. After tying my hair into a bun, I went to start by cleaning up the spare room.

Nang makuntento na ako sa estado ng magiging kwarto ko, I picked up the cleaning supplies I found habang naglilinis ako kanina. I did the dishes first then cleaned the whole sink. Grabbed the dirty clothes and threw them inside the washing machine. This one even looked brand new tapos di niya man lang ginagamit para labhan tong mga damit niya, ang kalat tuloy. Well, trabaho ko naman yun. Anong silbi ko kung wala akong lilinising kalat? Duh.

While waiting for the clothes, I decided to do the bathroom too. I scrubbed every nook until I was satisfied. The laundry didn't take that long after I placed them inside the dryer. If I wasn't used to washing men's underwear I would be awkward by now, hay nako.

The living room took me a few hours to clean kasi I had to get rid of everything. Andaming basurang nagkalat kaya I accumulated a few trash bags already. It was almost dinner ng matapos ako sa buong first floor. And I only ate cup noodles for lunch. Speaking of dinner, maybe I should go buy some groceries too to fill in the cabinets and refrigerator. He can't keep eating unhealthy food as long as I'm here. It's my job after all.

I climbed the stair towards the second floor. Jusmiyo pati ba naman dito! I should have expected that. Every corner was filled with books. Scratch papers and empty cans of beer were flooding the floor. I'd get back to this later after dinner. Sa buong second floor there were only two doors, one at the end of the hall, which I think his bedroom while the other one was a double glass sliding door that leads to the veranda.

I walked towards his room and knocked. I didn't get any response so I knocked again, yet the same thing happened. Sinubukan ko namang pihitin yung door knob na, fortunately, di naman naka lock. When I opened the door I found him sleeping on his swivel chair. His right arm was propped to support his head while his glasses were still on.

The room was pretty dark and only had the computer screen lighting up the whole place. Surprisingly his room was a lot better than the rest of the house. The books were organized on a bookshelf that covered more than half of the room. A whiteboard stood in one of the corners that had flow charts scribbled in different colors. His desk was placed in the middle of the room. The trash bin was overflowing with crumpled papers and a few hanging scrolls that had foreign handwriting on the walls. No windows and only a simple wall clock was hanging on one of the empty walls. If not for that, there'd be no telling what time is it already. On the left side of the room was another door, perhaps his bedroom.

Maybe I should not disturb him, hayaan ko nalang muna saka ko nalang siya balikan pag may dinner na. Alright!

It was already a few minutes before 6 in the evening when I got out of the supermarket. I took my time picking the food also. Napansin ko kasi kanina na puro cup noodles lang merong stock sa cupboard. Buti nalang at maraming sale ngayon!

I went home to prepare dinner and made braised pork belly and potato soup. After placing the utensils, I heard footsteps walking towards the dining room.

Maiko came walking in while scratching the back of his head and his eyes still half-close. "Crap, I overslept."

"Hey little girl, would you make me some coffee." He said in between yawning.

Agad ko namang sinunod at pinagtimpla siya ng kape. "Sir Maiko, kakatapos ko lang po magluto ng dinner. Kumain ka na din po habang pinagtitimpla kita ng kape." Nakangiting sabi ko sa kanya.

"Wag na, sapat na yung kape. Babalik na ko sa itaas paki dala nalang." Sagot nito ng di man lang nagdalawang isip.

Aba, sayang din to! Tsaka di siya nag lunch kanina pati ba naman dinner? Hanggang san aabot ang cup noodles niya? Nako.

Kumuha ako ng food tray at ipinaghain siya ng pagkain. I placed the food and the coffee sa tray saka nagtungo sa room niya.

Pagkatapos kong kumatok, pumasok na ko at inilapag sa table niya ang pagkain. "Sir Maiko ayan na po. Hindi pa po kayo nag lulunch saka dinner kaya pinaghain ko nalang po kayo. Di makakabuti po sa inyo ang hindi pagkain sa tamang oras."

"Hindi na, wala akong oras na kumain ngayon. May kailangan pa kong tapusin." Sagot niya na hindi man lang humihinto sa pagtatype sa kanyang keyboard.

"Saglit lang naman po yan, ako naman na din po ang magliligpit."

"Sabing hindi na nga, ba't ang kulit mo?" Iritang baling niya sa akin na ikinagulat ko. He looks at me through his glasses with an annoyed face. "Busy ako, wala akong oras. Pag sinabi kong hindi, hindi. Katulong ka lang kaya hindi mo kailangang pakialaman yung mga desisyon ko. Don't butt in when you're not needed."

He looked back at his screen and continued where he left off. "If you want to play house, bumalik ka dun sa inyo. I don't need one right now."