Kai taps his phone with his thumb and sighs when an empty notification greets him back.

He looks at the windows. The morning light is steadily filtering in through the glasses, bathing the suite in the light gold color of the sunrise.

It's been hours since Milly's last message that she's on her way back.  It's a short and plain text—nothing to give away what's going on— but Kai knows her, and he knows how she is. Milly's the type to send updates every now and then, and the fact that she's not is very telling that something's gone very wrong and she's far from okay.

The tightness in his chest keeps getting worse the longer he waits for her.

But he waits, still.

Quietly, like he always does.

Because this is not about him.

He knows well enough that people need space to breathe, being like that himself, and Milly's quite similar to him in that sense. It's one of the many reasons they get along so well. They understand each other.

They respect how they function and operate.

What troubles him is something else—it's Milly's penchant for shutting people off.

Sure, he's like that too. He's done it countless times before and he has inherent understanding as to why people do feel the need to seek solace away from others.

But the thought that she's doing this all alone is making him restless, and it's even worse because he doesn't really have any clear idea on what's going on with her.

Somehow, he knows it has something to do with her family. They've always been the only reason why Milly would choose to keep to herself. And if she went to Baguio to deal with it, then it must be about her maestra.

Whatever her family friend said must've set her off. But apart from the little clues he has, he's got nothing else. He's completely at a loss.

Not knowing has always unsettled him, now even more so because he can't stand the idea of not being there for her when she needs him the most.

The passing minutes are agonizingly slow.

Still, Kai waits.

His phone never leaves his hand, and despite the hours, he never caught a wink of sleep, either.

No message comes in.

That's fine.

She's coming back.

That's all that matters to him.

***

The doorbell rings at around past eight in the morning. He jumps to his feet, opening the door even before the second ring could come.

A sigh of relief escapes his lips when he finally sees her again.

Milly, his Milly, with eyes now bloodshot and swollen with dried tears.

She looks up at him and smiles. The weariness and exhaustion don't escape him despite her attempt to hide, and his chest tightens because this, this is who Milly has always been.

Gentle, tender. Strong. Lonely.

"Hi, baby."

The cracked voice unsettles him. Kai breathes in again, and then he's taking her into his arms. His hand finds its place behind her head, cradling her against his chest, as if by doing so, he can discard all the seen and unseen distance between them and cross to what she's choosing to keep behind her walls.

Where were you?

How have you been?

I'm sorry. I hate that you've been crying without me.

All these words, yet Kai chooses to go for what he knows is the best, what he knows she needs.

"I'm here," he whispers to her. "You're home now."

With her sharp intake of breath, the wall breaks, and Milly breaks and melts into him — and when she finally lets the tears go, and sobs start wracking her frame, he tightens his hold even more.

Her soft sobs fill the silence of the penthouse, and Kai thinks there's no other sound in the world that is more excruciating than hearing the most important person in your life quietly crying in your arms.

Kai's always been logical. He's quite aware that he can be colder and sharper than the average man. Emotions and pain are just secondary to him, maybe not even—because he's always seen them as something fleeting; trivial. Inconsequential.

Despite the heartbreak, and the bitter taste of betrayal it left in his gut, he never cried when he and Alliana called it quits.

It's business as usual for him, who picked up the pieces of his life faster than what anyone thought was normal after the fall out, something that Alliana to this day had held against him because she thought he never cared for her deeply enough to nurse the pain.

It's why she cheated on him over and over, she reasoned out. Because he never cried or showed any ounce of emotion when she did. Of course, Alliana didn't know the dreadful nights when he drank himself to sleep. Her point was, Kai was incapable of feeling the same way she did—and she felt too much.

While he always felt less.

Over the years, Kai had no problem believing that. He agreed with her.

But that can't be true now, can it?

Not when Milly's in his arms like this, shaking and crying, clinging on to him, and there's nothing else he can do for her but hold her.

Dread, helplessness, and frustration had never been this potent, and they beat so strongly in his chest now, tightening around his lungs like a coiling, suffocating chain.

If he can, he would. Take all of it away, because it's not true, it seems.

That he's unfeeling and cold.

That he cares less, that he feels less.

Because he can handle his own emotions just fine—but it seems he can ignore everything else but not hers.

Not her grief.

And certainly not her tears.

***

"Sorry for taking off like that," Milly says after a while, her voice broken and hoarse, when she finally calms down a little.  "And I'm sorry for asking you to wait for me."

Kai loosens his embrace, and with a thumb, wipes her tears away from her cheeks. He plants a kiss on her forehead before asking, "Haba ng byahe mo. 'Di ka nagpahinga. Kumain ka na ba?"

Milly shakes her head and she looks extremely tired, worn out.

"I don't want to eat. Wala akong gana," she answers before roving her gaze over his clothes. "You won't go to work?"

"No," he says. "It's fine. Nagpaalam ako. 'Wag mo na isipin si Papa."

She closes her eyes and breathes in, nodding. "Sorry... for always doing this. Sorry for always taking your time off of important things."

There it is again, her hesitance to take and receive. From him. From others. Despite always being the one to give.

Kai cups her cheeks with his palms.  "Wala nang mas mahalaga pa dito, Milly," he makes sure to say, to drill in the truth that she does in fact deserve to get as much as she gives. "Wala nang mas mahalaga pa sa 'yo."

Milly gives him an appreciative smile, and it cuts him to think this is how she's lived her life all this time. Hesitant to ask, hesitant to take. Always facing everything all alone.

But she's not alone anymore.

"You know what I mean."

"And I'm telling you... you're more important than everything else."

Milly shuts her eyes and sighs. "I know, I know," she's saying, "I know, baby. Thank you for saying that." She presses her cheek against his chest again, and his arms automatically wrap around her body by default. After taking another long breath, she adds, "I know I asked you to wait. But can you give me time? I promise I'll explain after this, but I need... I need to see the piano... I need to..."

Kai nods, stroking her cheeks with the pad of his thumbs."Take your time. I'll prepare breakfast. Tawagin mo na lang ako 'pag ayos na."

She smiles at him again and presses a lingering kiss to his cheek. Then she drifts into the mini library in quiet, little steps.

Kai doesn't know how long she stayed there. But it feels like a long time.

Soon, the sound of the keys mixes with the sound of her sobs, and it's the most haunting form of music that one can ever hear in his lifetime, but he listens to it all as if he can absorb all her unspoken hurt if he does.

It lasts for a while until the piano stops and the dreadful silence returns to take its place.

When her cries have finally ceased, Kai approaches the door and knocks, two tentative raps, as if to ask if she's ready to see him again. A soft "come in," signals her consent, and he breathes another sigh of relief when he makes his way to her.

There are two sheet music leaning against the music rack. Milly's fingers are hovering over the white keys, high enough to touch but not heavy enough to press any note.

He sits beside her and presses a kiss to her shoulder, his left arm snaking around her waist in reflex. He doesn't ask her, doesn't prod.

He waits for her to be ready. It takes another minute of silence before she finally draws a breath.

"You know what this is?" she starts, her voice hoarse from all the crying, and Kai turns to the sheets that she's gesturing to. "This is it. Her last legacy. This is what she was writing before she died. And it's for me, but I had no idea. I didn't know. Nobody told me."

Her hands withdraw from the keys and drop to her lap, fisting over her trousers.

"I knew Maestra was playing the piano when she had the attack. But I've always thought she was just playing a random piece... Kung 'di pa sasabihin sa 'kin ni Maestro Hermenio, I wouldn't know that her last piece, the last thing she's been working on, was a gift for me. And you know what hurts?" Her voice breaks. "You know what's breaking me? It's the fact that this is a duet. She wrote this so I can play it with Mom. Because that was my dream before and she knew that. She knew how much I wanted to do a duet with Mom."

She takes a breath, adding, "And you know what's even worse?"

Milly's hands return to the keys, pressing, and the piano responds, playing a melody that he's not familiar with.

"Do you know this melody? This short phrase right here?" She pauses. "It's mine. I wrote it when I was young. I didn't know she was developing it into an actual piece. All this time, I was in her last thoughts and all I did after her death was run away from her memory. She didn't even get to finish this."

Her lips twitch and tears fall from her eyes again.

"If I knew... If I knew... I wouldn't have quit... I would've tried... to complete this... for her..."

Kai scoops her into his arms, the side of his cheek leaning against her head as he soothes her.

"You didn't know. You couldn't have known. It's not your fault," he says into her hair. "Wala namang masama na lumayo sa kung anong nakakasakit sa 'yo. You did what you had to. No one's blaming you for that. I'm sure your maestra wouldn't have wanted you to live in grief, either."

Milly buries her face in the curve of his neck and clutches his shirt, hands trembling. "I feel... so so bad... I feel so bad for leaving her legacy... I shouldn't have. 'Di ko dapat siya iniwan."

"'Di pa naman huli ang lahat. Pwede ka pa naman bumalik. Pwede mo pang tapusin 'to."

Milly halts and leans away slightly to look up at him, eyes wide with surprise. "You think? But do I even deserve to do that? It's been so long. Can I even attempt to finish this?"

Kai tucks a strand of her hair in her ear. "Bakit hindi? Wala naman pipigil sa 'yo. At kahit ano pang gawin mo, mamahalin ka pa rin naman ng maestra mo." Then in a softer voice, he adds, "You need to forgive yourself for something you didn't do, Milly. Wala kang kasalanan."

More tears fall from her eyes, but Milly doesn't answer. Kai chases all of it with his thumb.

"Ito ba yung rason bakit ka umuwi ng Baguio?"

She nods.

"Mm," she hums as an answer. "Can you believe it? This is Maestra's last legacy, a gift for the both of us, but Mom stacked it away at our old house like it was nothing. As if this isn't important to me. She brought everything with her: The violin, her jewelry. The compositions, naiwan kay Lolo. But this? She left there, to rot, to gather dust. Can you imagine?"

Her brows furrow as a note of anger passes over her face.

"She keeps doing that, you know. Leaving things behind. She's always running after her dream, and she doesn't care about who or what gets left behind. And it's sickening to me. This is why it's so hard for me to go back to classical music. How can I run after what destroyed my family? How can I still love... what she chose over us? She chose this over being my dad's wife. She chose this over being my mom. And she chose this over being Maestra's daughter. We're just second priority to her. I'm just a child she had and her family's just a second thought, and would always be, next to her music. So how can I come back to that?" Milly tears up again. "And why, despite knowing this, do I still long for it? It hurts so much, but I still badly want to play. Why? Why?"

"Baka dahil alam mo. Alam mong walang kasalanan ang pangarap mo," Kai answers, embracing her again. "Alam mong hiwalay ang pangarap mo sa kung ano man ang ginawa ng mama mo sa inyo. Pwede ka pang bumalik."

"I should've thought of it like that back then: that this is also Maestra's memory as much as it's hers. And that it's also mine. Maestra spoke with her music. It's how she loved the world. I wish I never left that."

Milly sighs.

"I don't know what to do. I don't know what to feel anymore. I'm so tired."

Kai presses her closer to himself. "You can rest here, with me. You don't have to make any decision now. Just rest. Stay here with me."

When she doesn't answer, he adds, "One day, I would like to hear you play again. For yourself. Pero sa ngayon, ayos lang yung ganito. Magpahinga muna tayo."

"Thank you... Kai... for everything. I mean it."

Kai lets out a deep breath. "I never realized you were so lonely. You carry it so well."

"I'm so tired of it all now—of feeling so empty. Of loving her. I'm so tired of chasing after her. I'm so tired of seeking my validation from her. I'm so tired of finding the meaning of my life from her. I'm so tired of looking where I should be. Kasi bakit gano'n? Why am I here if the people who had me didn't even want me?"

"Baka kasi para ka dito. Para sa 'kin," he answers. " 'Di mo na kailangan maghanap kung sa'n ka dapat, Milly. May uuwian ka dito sa 'kin. You wouldn't even need to ask. Your place is here, with me."

Milly hesitates and then whispers, "But one day, you'll leave, too. They all do."

"Maybe. But people know how to come home, too. I can't promise you a smooth-sailing relationship with me. But what I can say is, no matter what happens, I'll always come back to you. So you need to remember too. Na may babalikan ka lagi dito sa 'kin."

"Home? This? With you?" she asks softly, longingly, desperately.

"I told you. I can be your family, too."

To that, she doesn't answer. But the arms wrapping around his neck is enough to let him know that she heard him.