JE T'AIME

CHAPTER 3

CHAPTER 3

JACQUES should feel tired by now, normal people should feel tired, but him? No. He couldn't feel it, but he knew in his mind that after working in the café that long, he must rest his body or else he'll collapse. Ever since he can remember, he'd been suffering from CIP also known as Congenital Insensitivity to Pain — in short, he can't feel pain. At all. But unlike other patients, he has the ability to sweat — enough to regulate his body's temperature.

And when someone couldn't feel pain, they also couldn't feel hunger, they don't feel tired, they don't feel discomfort in their body and so on, but unlike other patients, he can feel when it's hot or cold, but not the pain and discomfort accompanied by it. CIP can result in different gene mutation, and in his case — since it's different with every patient — it causes him to lose 80% of his sense of smell and that's already severe.

The odor must be extreme for him to be able to smell it and since his sense of smell was lacking, it also affected his sense of taste. The food tastes different and most of the time, it's even tasteless.

How his parents kept him alive when he was a child, he had know idea. Normally, CIP patients die young, so it's a miracle that he's still alive.

Physically, he's numb. Emotionally, he has them like everybody else, but he's unstable. He easily gets irritated and moody and just plain jerk. But he was trained at a very young age how to live with this disease. And it helps him live a normal life — well, maybe not even close to normal, but it's bearable and it keeps him alive.

And because of his training, without actually feeling tired, he knows that he should be tired by now, after working for so many hours.

Lady SM didn't return to the café after leaving with the motherfucking Count. So he and Cloud helped around the café. Good thing he understands Tagalog because his father forced him to learn it a year ago for the sole purpose of being Lady SM's butler, though he couldn't speak the language fluently.

Monet said she'll take care of everything after Jacques acted and pretended like he's tired, and when she said that, he immediately dragged Cloud out of the café.

It's a good thing Cloud didn't resist and just went along. Wala siya sa mood para makipagmurahan dito pero gusto niya ng kasama. He's used to being alone, but sometimes he craves company.

"So fucking tired..." Jacques groaned while walking. That's what normal people would say after working that much, though he doesn't feel a thing at all.

Yes, he already perfected the art of acting like a normal person. His mother forced him to learn and act like a normal person for years and it has been engraved on him because she hates imperfection.

Umaakto siyang ganun dahil ayaw din niyang malaman ng ibang tao na may ganito siyang sakit. Because when people finds out that he couldn't feel pain, they usually avoid him, looked at him weirdly and pitifully, make fun of him or take advantage of his inability to feel pain.

Naputol ang pag-iisip niya ng makitang tinuro ni Cloud ang Mercedes-Maybach Exelero na nakaparada sa labas ng café ni Lady SM. "Get in."

"Your car?" Tanong niya sa kasama.

As far as he knows, Mercedes-Maybach was one of the most expensive car. Jacques sometimes forgets that Cloud came from a very wealthy family in Spain that hailed originally from France.

"Mmm." Cloud just hummed to answer him before getting inside the driver's seat.

Kaagad namang sumakay si Jacques saka sinuot ang seatbelt. He knows how to do it now, thanks to Cloud.