So went to the same University. She was this girl sitting in front of me during Math 28. We hardly had any interaction back then; aside from the usual "pass your papers to the front" thing, no words were ever spoken between us. I, however, had this very fond memory of her during that time... to me, she was the girl who lured her friends into skipping a class...
A couple of semesters after, I found her again in class sitting at the row ahead of mine; it was Computer Science 141. From time to time, before the instructor came to class, I would arrive finding her at my seat. Though I temporarily have to seat elsewhere, I never bothered asking her to transfer, I thought it would be rude and she really didn't appear friendly enough to me.
Thanks to our surnames, we'd get grouped together a couple of times on certain class activities, despite that, there were still no interaction whatsoever. Separately, we went on with our semesters. I got to see her 3 times every week and every Friday, she comes to class with a huge Chicago Bulls bag (presumably a week's worth of laundry)--to me it was like, "Chicago Bulls? That' so 90's!". And I didn't know why, but on Wednesdays, she comes in late to class with a big frown on her face... So yeah, I did notice her a bit during those days.
Things went on like that until the end of the semester when the group projects are assigned. I was friends with some of her friends, so we hooked-up... as a group that is. For some reason the group decided to work on the project at my place, so alright, it's not as if I have any choice.
I believe it was a Saturday when we finally decided to meet. The entire group cramped in my small apartment (which I share with my sister), particularly in front of my aging computer. So there she was, sitting on my deflated bean-bag, dictating code which needs to get typed-in. We used to have cats so I was quite worried that the bean-bag would smell like cat excretion--as you know, that would be a major turn-off.
I had several of paintings hanging in my apartment. There was one painting that she truly admired, she actually joked about taking it home, to which I might have willingly agreed to if she seriously insisted so. The painting was in fact my best as of yet, I thought she had great taste.
We finally had some real interaction and remained acquainted for the duration of the project, sad to say, the project only lasted for the day. Fortunately, we met-up again in time for the submission. She was wearing jeans and a red shirt which she would later on deny ever owning, I vividly remember the way she jumped while clapping her hands, cheering that we made a good grade--I found that interestingly cute.
The next time I saw her was on another class, Computer Science 142. This time, we were seated far from each other: I chose to seat with the guys I knew--she, with the girls she knew. The instructor arrived and announced that he would re-arrange the seating--alphabetically. So again because of our surnames, we again had to seat near each other. This time though, she was seating next to me--on my left.
Well, we didn't exactly "clicked" right away, I was shy and can only manage to make a faint smile every time she and my friend to right chatted and joked about. Yeah, they were talking over me. With the help of several group conversations, we did eventually end-up in "talking terms"--this actually came in handy at a time when the instructor threw me a question, I was entirely clueless on what to say but she offered a glance at her notes for the answer.
Morbid, but I knew that I can already consider her my friend when she started teasing and making jokes about me (not that there's something to tease or joke about). Right before the December break, she was really on to making fun of me--she even had some of her friends join in the assault for some reinforcement. I thought to myself, "Yeah, you can make fun of me today, soon you'll go crazy over me anyway". I remember thinking about her that night. Maybe because I was dead drunk, but I was seriously thinking about her.
Some time during the break, I received a friend request from her on some online community site, it said something like, "Add kita ah, friend naman kita diba?". So laughed, accepted the request, took the indicated email address and added her as an IM buddy. The next day, I found her online.
I am a lot more brave when I'm online, so I was able to actually initiate a conversation. We ended-up talking about everything: from school, to classes, to hobbies, to past relationships, and eventually to gifts for x-mas. She actually had the guts to ask for a gift when she herself wasn't planning on giving me anything. We started talking at about 10 PM and ended at around 3 AM the next day. From then on, we were online buddies.
When classes resumed, I simply had no idea how to approach her. We were quite close online, but I know for a fact that things would be different in person. I can vaguely remember that as she walked past me by the classroom corridor, I uttered a joke about her gaining some weight due to the holidays. If my memory serves me right, the response that a got was a playful hit in my arms.
One day, I saw her standing in front of the school building staring aimlessly. I hesitated before I approached her, I asked her what she was doing there and she told me that she needed to be in a seminar at that very moment. She told me that she doesn't feel like going to the said seminar but after a couple of minutes convincing her to go, she finally decided to attend. A couple of minutes after she left, I realized that I should have offered to accompany her--it was however, too late.
Since we had the same professor in one of our classes, we met-up to schedule a consultation with him. Unfortunately, the professor wasn't around when we arrived. I was already walking home when I received an SMS saying, "Wag ka umalis sa kinakatayu-an mo, sasabay ako palabas", so I did what I was told and stood there at the middle of the street patiently waiting for her. She was going to a friend's house, so I went on and walked there with her.
Later that day, I decided to finally ask her out. I sent an SMS asking her if she made any plans that night and if she'd like to have dinner with me. Minutes later, I received a positive reply. We started hanging-out that moment on. After our class together, I would follow and walk with her going to her next class.
We had this trip to Baguio in one of my classes, she was taking the same subject but was unfortunately on another class. I convinced her that I would only join the trip if she's going to come with me, she agreed. Because she was from another class, she was supposed to be in another bus different from mine--it took a lot of trickery for me to convince my professor to let her join my bus. Eventually, we ended-up seated together in an 8 hour bus ride.
We had fun during day, we hanged-out like we were actually together except, we were not...
That night at around 10 PM, January 31, 2004, I told her that I love her...
She wouldn't believe me and even questioned how I am so sure...
So I kissed her...
Four years after that, I end up asking the single most important question in my life...
Ms. Ma. Recah E. Austria, will you care to spend the rest of your life with me?
at 10:40 PM
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yes... i love you bu...
ano ba!!!! bat sa blog.... hahahahaha ang kulit bu!!!!!!
coz she ruined my surprise, that's why... hehe
awwww!!! :D
wow ikakasal ka na.. congrats!!!
aw... ang sweet naman... :)
(yes you don't know me... i stumbled upon your blog via another friend's blog... couldn't help commenting...:) )
wow!!!!! congrats' jr =) sooo excited and happy for you!!!! and yes, i loved the story-teling =)
ayan... talagang ni-review ko ulit ung love story nyo. haha. =)