Chasing After Wind // Jordi GDL FF

Chapter 24

"Tatanga-tanga ka rin talaga ano?" she jeered. "'Early morning training'? Naniwala ka talaga? O nagkunyari lang magtiwala so you won't feel guilty about being selfish?"

Realization slowly dawned upon me.

Early-morning trainings never existed.

"I guess you were wrong, no? Akala ko ba kilalang kilala mo? Bakit naloko ka sa ganito?" pagpapatuloy niya. "Jordi collapsed thrice in the middle of their training dahil sa puyat. You didn't know that, did you?"

I had no words. Wala akong masabi dahil sa nalaman. Magkahalong pag-aalala, sakit, at poot ang aking nararamdaman. If I stayed any longer then I would have broken down and I didn't want to add that to her satisfaction.

Kaya pala ganoon na lamang ang tono ni Tita Anna.

I gulped back the lump that formed in my throat bago ko siya tinalikuran. Dumiretso ako sa condo at hindi na siya nilingon pa.

Pagdating ko sa condo'y agad kong kinuha ang phone at binuksan ang Twitter. I've combed through news sites to get a glimpse of anything major that may have happened to him.

Pero ngayon ko lang na-consider na maraming insider leaks na kumakalat sa Twitter. The ones that never got through news sites.

I looked up his name first pero walang lumabas na kaugnay sa insidente. My fingers were shaking as I typed in another keyword.

j/ordi
jo/rdi
jor/di
jord/i
j/or/di

I looked at the sole tweet found under the last keyword. It was a video that showed their court. Nasa gitna sila ng shooting drills at kitang-kita si Jordi sa gitna.

The sound of their shoes grazing the floor and balls  bouncing filled the video nang bigla silang natahimik. In that exact time, Jordi's limbs slackened before he fell unconscious.

I could barely make out the words in the replies dahil sa lakas ng panginginig ng aking kamay. It looks like a lot of them know that it wasn't the first time he collapsed pero hindi rin nila alam kung bakit.

I felt betrayed.

Maayos ang naging pag-uusap namin noong nagdaang taon tungkol dito. I thought we reached a consensus! Nangako siyang hindi na siya magsisinungaling and yet I learn about this!

Even now, kahit hindi ko pa nahahanay nang maayos ang nararamdaman tungkol sa nalaman at ang naiisip tungkol sa ginawa niya'y alam ko na ang nararapat na gawin.

That night, I didn't get the sleep I looked forward to having. It was filled with thoughts of how far we've come in our relationship. Thoughts of the plans we were gonna fail to accomplish. Thoughts of my problems from our org. Thoughts of the career I wished to have for me. And the career I knew Jordi deserved but could only achieve without me.

Hindi tulad ng mga nagdaang araw ay sinabayan ng mga luha ang isa pang gabing hindi ako nakatulog.

Nagising ako sa ingay ng aking phone. I was still groggy when I answered it, namamaga pa rin ang aking mga mata dahil sa pag-iyak kung kaya't bahagya pa rin akong nakapikit.

"Hey...I heard you called."

I stopped rubbing the sleep out of my eyes dahil sapat na ang boses na iyon para tuluyan akong magising. Muli'y naiiyak na naman ako, but this time, I managed to rein it all in.