The voice coming from my phone sounded familiar. Yet, it took me some time to recognize it. It was the guy I texted before Takaya. I realized it was his voice since he used to send me a lot of voicemails.
"...What do you mean?" I stuttered, after a long moment of silence while trying to process what he had said.
He snickered sarcastically: "Don't play dumb with me honey! I know everything! Actually, it's been my plan all along."
"What are you talking about?"
"I have been waiting for this since the day you dumped me for no fucking reason! I had to make you pay for it. That's why I hired that dude to hack your phone, and break your heart while he's at it."
"I just.. I didn't know you were serious!"
He yelled: "Don't give me that shit!!"
His tone switched from extremely angry to terrifyingly calm as he continued: "It's because you have been unfaithful that you think everyone is like that too! I have all your passwords now, and believe me, if I want to I could fuck your life up real bad. But for now, I guess your post-breakup picture is more than enough."
The shock made it hard to breathe. I obviously chewed more than I could swallow and messed with the wrong guy.
"What picture!? You're lying! There's no such picture!!"
He laughed: "It's such a beautiful confirmation that my revenge was a success. I like how you're looking hopeless, with your stupid little romantic world crushing around you. Red eyes and tear-stained cheeks. How tragic!"
He paused for a moment. "Yeah of course you have nothing to say. I just wanna say that I wish you an even more trashy life. Because that's exactly what you deserve." With that, he hung up on me.
I was speechless. A lot has been happening in the past two days, and it's too much for me to process. Takaya turned out to be just a manipulative hacker. And he was hired by my ex-lover. What a messed-up situation!
By the end of that call, I couldn't even cry. Tears wouldn't come out. Also, I have no guarantee that he's not watching me. I need a new phone. This one isn't secure anymore.
I've been feeling terrible ever since. I kept lying in bed the whole day with random stuff playing on TV. I wasn't really watching, it was more of an attempt to distract myself from overthinking past events.
My stomach growled several times but I ignored it since I've lost my appetite. I heard multiple knocks on my door at different times asking me to come out and eat. I turned down every one of them by saying I wasn't hungry.
By evening, my phone buzzed. I sighed deeply then checked it. Thankfully, it was just my stepsister, not another disaster.
"Nanakooo"
"Are you awake?"
"Are you home?"
"??????"
I replied: "Yes and yes! Stop spamming me!"
"Great! Can I ask you a liiiittle favor?"
"What is it?" I hope it's not something annoying. I hope it's not another shopping trip!!
"Look I ordered pizza but got busy and had to leave! It should be here any moment"
"Can you pleaaase recieve it? No one else is home!"
I got relieved that it was indeed a little favor.
"Yeah okay no problem."
"Thank youuu!" She followed that with a bunch of heart emojis.
Few minutes later, the doorbell rang. I went to open it and passed by a nearby mirror. Damn I totally forgot! I look so bad!! I shouldn't have agreed to that! I have no time to cover up with makeup!
I quickly threw on a hoodie from Aki's closet and hoped that it would do the trick to hide my horrible red swollen eyes.
I opened the door, grabbed the pizza as fast as I could and gave the money to the delivery guy. He reached his hand out to give me the change then stopped and glanced at my face. I think my attempt to hide my face has failed.
I was almost sure there would be a "What's wrong? Are you okay?" follow-up.
But instead, he just gave me the change, left his hand on mine for a second and said softly: "I hope you feel better very soon".
He took a step back, smiled at me and said: "Enjoy your pizza!" It was a warm soothing smile. It's surprising how a stranger's smile made me feel somehow better.
I took the pizza inside. Even though I've lost my appetite, once the warm pizza box was into my hands, I was dying to feast on it. I opened the box and hungrily devoured a piece then another.
The door opened and Aki caught me red-handed dining on her pizza. I thought she would be mad, but she actually laughed! I looked at her confused with the pizza still in my mouth and waited for an explanation.
"Gosh you look really hungry! I'm glad you're eating!"
I swallowed then asked: "How come you're not angry when I'm eating from your pizza? And without telling you!"
She sat across me. "Because I actually ordered it for you! You refused to eat and I thought you'd be really hungry! So I guessed if you had pizza into your hands, you wouldn't be able to resist!"
I was touched. I didn't think she was that worried. "Thank you.. that was very thoughtful!"
She came to me and hugged me. "You're my sister, silly! Of course I won't let you starve to death!"
She added excitedly: "And I walked to the nearby grocery store just to get you your favorite drink! And a lot of munchies! So, wanna have a movie night?! Maybe even a sleepover?!"
"Sure. That sounds fun!"
We walked to my room. She noticed I was still wearing her hoodie and teased playfully: "If you wanted the hoodie, all you had to do was ask."
I chuckled and teased back: "Consider it the payment for your favor."
That night, we watched a movie and munched on a lot of food. We had a sleepover like she suggested and chatted a lot about many things.
She looked at me for a bit, as if she was hesitant to speak up. Then, she finally said: "So? Are you going to tell me what happened or what?"
I averted my eyes. "I don't want to talk about it."
She insisted: "Oh come on! Get it off your chest already! Believe me it will feel a little better when you share it with someone and rant about it!"
I gave in and told her everything that's happened, from the beginning to the very end. It took a while to narrate it to her, and I wasn't sure how was she going to react. I was afraid she would blame me, look down on me, or tell me I deserve it.
She didn't. She came to me and hugged me again. A lot tighter this time.
"Awww this must have been very painful for you!! I'm sorry you had to go through all that heartache.."
Her reaction surprised me. I hugged her back and murmured: "It's my fault though.."
"Don't say that! I bet you were just lonely. It's okay! One day the right guy will come to you and then none of that will matter!"
Despite doubting that, I nodded. "Hopefully". After that, we kept talking for some time then we slept.
Early at morning I woke up to Aki's voice, but when I looked around she wasn't in the room.
Apparently, she was outside my door talking on the phone.
"So, do you think you can track the number I sent you? ..Yeah as I said, my father told me to ask you that!"