Isn’t it sometimes irritating when someone teases you about something that is a little personal and when that someone does apologize, he/she still picks on you for the same joke over and over?

I must admit I’m not rich. We are not rich at all. I just came from a simple family in a small town of Hinigaran. We don’t own a car, we don’t own a mansion. We just live in a very old house where the materials were “probably bought before Ralph was born” as Ralph would always talk about it. We don’t have a running hot water here that if we want to take a hot shower, we must boil the water first in a non-stove equipment ran by charcoal. After the water’s boiled, we mix it up with the tap/cold water. So you see, the entire process is tedious but that is how it is here in this house. Yes, there are big houses in this town too. There could be houses equipped with hot and cold shower, but that isn’t my house. And that isn’t the house whom Ralph Ritoch married.

However, Ralph has been using that as a running joke since he got here up to now especially when he chats with his friends from ACS (where he used to work at). I personally understand how inconvenient this must be for him but I have always told him about this even before he came here. The thing that ticks me is that, when he jokes about it, it makes me wonder if there is some trace of resentment between his lines; if deep down it’s just his way of saying he’s sorry he’s ever come here at all. He keeps saying he’s only joking. I believe jokes are half-meant. He must mean it enough to keep bringing it up all the time.