115 A Truth (1/2)

Jun was staring at Jennie and realized that the girl was trembling. He has no clue on what she's thinking right now.

He tried placing himself on her situation. On the way to school, the car she was on crashed and she fell unconscious. When she woke up, people told her that her brother died and now the world has change. She probably hasn't accepted the reality and most probably still denying the possibility, but was losing hope everyday.

Then, she met someone who looked exactly like her brother. She probably thought that these people were lying to her and now being reminded and proven that that person is different from his brother, she finally accepted the truth.

Jun ignored her and faced Chairman Sarah instead.

”How did you defend this place?” said Jun, ”This place is huge and from what I saw, your tanod's weren't properly armed.”

Chairman Sarah drank some water before answering his question.

”I think you already know the answer since you were able to survive for this long. All of my tanod's have already leveled up, gaining access to a mystical storage. Every weapon they have is placed inside their dimensional storage.” replied Chairman Sarah.

”Well, its good that you're safe. Its always nice to chat with acquaintances.” said Jun.

”I can relate a bit, but since I have my secretary and tanods to accompany me with, I'm doing fine. By the way, I haven't seen you're father. Is he around somewhere? You left him at home again?” said Chairman Sarah.

”Nah, the old man died. I guess its too painful for him to live, so he gave up.” said Jun.

He was reminded of every old person he met after the world changed. All kinds of old people, on all paths of life were seen around his community; carpenters, masons, smiths, farmers and more variations the longer they searched. But his father died while perfectly fine, enclosed at his room.

”I'm sorry to hear that, I really do. It's too bad that your family got struck by too many misfortunes. I heard of what happened to your father. He's a good man, a good friend and a good father. Ooooh! I'm really scared of politics. Too many things could happen in one wrong move.”

Chairman Sarah opened a wrapper and took a bite from the chocolate cupcake inside it.

”Mhhmmm!! This is good. You should try it.” she said while pointing exaggeratedly at the small cupcakes on the table. When she noticed that Jun wasn't responding, she smiled wryly, then decided to put the cupcakes down on the table.

”People always said that being talkative is good when you're running for government positions, so I tried and I succeeded. But even after doing everything that I could to impress the masses, I never won when I ran for mayor. My oppositions never told me where my fault lies while my allies never look for whatever I lacked. They would always tell me that the opposition was just luckier. Heh, I never believed what they said.” she grabbed the glass of water and drank it all. Afterwards, she placed the glass down and said, ”Do you know why I'm friends with your father? Because he doesn't talk shit and always gets to the point! No bullshits! We're both talkative and can't stand injustices. Do you know what that means?”

”People don't like you and powerful people won't like you.” answered Jun.

”Correct! That's the exact same reason why I'm still a lowly Barangay Chairman while you're father reported the mayor for corruption! I'm talkative and he's a righteous man.” said Chairman Sarah.

Jun frowned upon hearing her narrative. Chairman Sarah noticed his expression and instantly covered her mouth. Afterwards, she removed her hand and chuckled, ”I guess he didn't tell you. After all this years. He's a really tough guy. He bore all the problems and never involved his family. He's idealistic and quite futuristic. You should see his designs, they're fascinating.”

Jun tried comapring his father's image in his head towards the person being described by his Aunt Sarah. No matter how he chose to relate the two, it never clicked! But maybe, she was right. At some point in his life, he felt that his father was the best. Someone who could achieve his dreams while helping those in his surroundings to achieve theirs.

A flash of memory rekindled in his head. That day, that early morning. His father's last smile.