So.. there’s this guy.

There’s this guy.

It was approximately 18 months ago. It was my 2^nd time in UP Diliman. (the 1^st is my college entrance exam on the campus, which I failed haha). I was a part of a scriptwriting workshop, in this big tv network. We were around 20 participants, coming from different universities and we met every Saturday for 2 months.  For a particular week’s presentation, we were formed into groups. There was me, this guy and our extremely energetic, gay leader. Since our leader studies in UPD, we decided to have our meeting in a nearby milk tea place. It was a Saturday too, the supposed workshop session was cancelled so we can prepare our shows. The afternoon passed while working on a powerpoint presentation for a tv show that we’ll be pitching.  We finished at around 5pm, our leader and the two of us separated ways. We went back inside the campus. I told him I never got around the place, he offered to show/tour me if I wasn’t in a hurry to go. I stayed.

I’ll tell you upfront that I find him cute, he’s a bit chinito (maybe that’s why I stayed haha). Add to it, this guy is tall. My head is still below his shoulder, I think I got a stiff neck the day after this.

I forgot what top I was wearing or which bag I had. I try but I can’t remember the details or the things we talked about but all I have are snippets, flashbacks of scenes.

1.) It was like a scene from a movie. I remember removing my sandals and running barefoot in the grass, at the small open field behind Oble. He followed, he was smiling. We did look at the sky and half-shouted on that field. I remember pleading (in a pa-cute manner) not to think weirdly of me. He assured me, he didn’t.

2.) As we went around UP, we kept seeing couples cuddling by the bench and lying in the grass. I told him, “teka, may gagawin ako”. I held his hand and got closer to his shoulder. We passed two couples, I made a heartfelt laugh and gently tapped his arm. I called him “Babe”. He quickly knew what I was trying to do. He tightened his hand around mine. We started talking loud, babbling incoherent sentences and throwing the word “Babe” after every phrase.

Out of our victims’ earshot and we burst out laughing. In total, I think we were able to disturb 4 quiet and really close-touchy couples. One particular couple was lying side by side and abruptly sat straight, looking a bit alarmed and dishevelled when they heard us.

3.) We mutually planned to have a project, with my writing skills and his good diction and voice, we must (we said), do a radio drama! A rated-18 one! We already came up with titles, some of it containing the words ‘katawan’, ‘init’ and ‘apoy’. (Oops!) I still find it funny how we can casually insert x-rated jokes and not get offended or ashamed. We’ll laugh it off and even contribute to each other’s thoughts.

4.) We attempted to go at the heart of the sunken garden, but just a few meters through it, we decided to step back and go back to the road. It was too dark and we might encounter more of the lovey-dovey couples doing a steamy lovey-dovey stuff. :))

5.) I ultimately remember, how we were supposed to be finding a jeep. Numerous jeeps with the right route passed by us, not once did we try to stop one. Joggers and bikers got ahead, we continued to walk. Normal pace, the air was cold. I playfully stepped on fallen and dry leaves, occasionally kicked some small stones, I laughed a lot. We jumped from one topic to another, funny school experiences to his past relationships and my lack of it, our schools, differences of our course subjects, female professors eyeing on him, future plans.

Yes. it might already be late for me, but I was also too sure that it was early for me to go home.

After UP, we ate at KFC in front of Centris, right beside the MRT. We talked for about another hour. He opened up his past, how he struggled as a child, his family, on school and how he ultimately decided to finish his education. He was older than any other from our group, 6/7 yrs my senior (if I’m not mistaken.) Still, I greatly admire him for that.

We decided to leave at around 8pm. He waited for me until I get a ride, with his height, it was much easier to flag down a Sucat-Bicutan bus. I waved good bye. It was a great night.

Everything went so smoothly. That, probably, was the longest, free flowing, impromptu conversation I ever had with anyone. There was no moment of hesitation for us, no dead air. I kept asking, he kept answering. He asked me and I answered too. There’s just something special with conversations wherein the person gives 100% attention to you. Quite hard to find nowadays, I usually have people in front of me checking their phones every 3 mins, then laughing by themselves without me knowing why. I hate that.

While writing this, I realized how we must have looked like the characters from the movie, Before Sunset. I know a lot of friends who are secretly hoping to encounter such conversation and for 3 hours in my life, I’m lucky to have ‘that’.

We didn’t get together. No follow-up was made after the little UP trip.

  I like someone else, he likes someone too.

Though we didn’t mention to anyone of that night bonding, our fellows soon observed we got closer and can easily joke with one another during lunch breaks. 

After a few more meetings, the workshop ended. Us, participants moved on. Half of the workshop batch, graduated (him included). While half (me included), carried on with our last year in college. We didn’t give a thought about it. He was graduating that time, while I was figuring out my writing. Certificates were given, I left at the last day of the workshop with a handful of solo pictures with him and a lot of pairing/teasing from our friends.

We would sometimes catch-up in chat.  Me asking, where he is working now. Him telling me, that he was able to utilize his awesome, deep and perfectly blended voice isn his work.

I’m not quite sure why I wrote this. He just suddenly reappeared in my notification and liked a status of mine talking about grass (and it was one of those weird status that I’ll probably regret in 3 years haha). This just came rushing back, I don’t think I told this to people so I knew I had to write it down. I had to tell this story, that good conversations does not necessarily calls for a love-dovey status, that you can keep memory of people even if you don’t eventually be together.

As for me, at the age of 20, I still do not have a first date or legit holding hands. Someday. Then maybe, I’ll write about it. How that person will call me ‘babe’ (ayaw ko ng ‘babe’, pwedeng ‘hon’?), this time for real. How that person can talk to me for an hour about grass or just spend the night with free-flowing conversation, no hesitations, distractions or hurries.

And once again, I’ll sleep again at 3:40 am, thinking and writing on how compared to the greatness of this, that ‘someday’ will be much more.

3:39 am 1/13/14