Letters to Zhe (A One-Shot Story)

Tall, dark and handsome. Women often prefer boys who tend to acquire these characteristics and I, on the contrary, believe boys are just total douchebags. It's the first month of classes and putting an extra effort in our science gallery walk is pretty much expected until this tall figure showed up out of the blue to distract me while I was scissoring colored papers as I thought of him as an intruder among my class. Apparently, this guy dressed weirdly with his formal attire in school and I guessed him to be a maritime student but what annoys me most was that he came out of nowhere at my classmate's house to hangout whilst people were busy for preparing science gallery. I do not know this guy but it seemed like he was close with my new current classmates and I thought about how it would've been a great help if he could've had helped us with our project when he only came to visit and hangout. Anyway, it's not that I care about him, I am just being rational at the moment. I am so mean. The night was fun and the chillness sent shivers to my body. After preparing for tomorrow's science gallery walk, we had dinner in a style of boodle fight at the classmate's house. My new current classmates are actually fun to be with. But diary, why was that tall looking guy with formal attire taking glances at me?

I've had been a hopeless romantic once in my life and I swear to the heavens that I'll never let my heart be driven by butterflies and flowers again. Not to brag but during my school years, I have always been called as cute or tiny or a baby-like person and within these span of years, it already appears to me as a trivial thing. But something came unprecedented today when one of my male classmates relayed to me a message from his friend who said that I was cute and IDEAL. Big word. Of course, it felt strange, mystifying and at the same time scary because that person is anonymous. And today, I saw that tall guy again together with my male classmates wearing his formal suit of course, but who is he and why should I care?

Late at night, I was playing games at my laptop when my phone vibrated. "Hey," says a random message from a person named Zhe. Looking at the displayed picture, with a hair that looked like a floor mop, I thought of some kind of a person who's gay but I was mistaken - it was the tall guy. I replied with a hello to make myself sound nonchalant guessing that he probably just wanted a favor. After a few exchanges, I soon realized he only wants to talk to me. I could imagine how friendly and easy-going he was because he already addresses me now with a new nickname, 'boon'. This guy is really weird. Later on, my heart skipped a beat when he admitted to himself about me being an ideal person. I was just startled diary. And we became friends. Still, I wonder how he'd managed to know my real name.

I don't know how much days and weeks have already passed but Zhe and I have been really close to each other. We would share secrets and talk about life and just about everything. At school, we would take lunch together with our friends and do homework together in the library. After classes, he would wait hours for me at the hallways so we could grab our favorite flavored cookies and cream ice cream and go home. At night, he would give me reminders saying that I shouldn't forget to pray and that he would see me in dreamland. I learned a lot from Zhe from his intergalactic silly jokes and conspiracy stories to serious lessons in school that seemed arduous for me to understand. And what I like most about him is he would do anything just to see me. It was nice thinking how one person can transform to someone very meaningful. Today, as we walked our way home through the long bridge, he said he wanted to finish the bucket list with me containing goals and ambitions like travelling and mountaineering. Suddenly, he picked out 3 leaves from a plant and he handed them out to me. He said to keep them until 10 years when we'd meet again. I did the same for him. He said he wanted to tell something important to me, but that was then he said tomorrow. This had greatly changed my perspective.

I woke up with the feeling of having dark clouds above me. Pillows went wet and my morning face is messed up. Everything is still fresh in my memory about what happened last night. We had a tremendous fight during new year's eve. Yes, new year's eve. Zhe had been busy last December and his attention for what seemed like distant and unreachable was what I needed. Last night, he reported that he'd be alone for new year's eve and he felt lonely and needed company. Frankly and needless to say, I didn't believe him to be lonely since his neighbors were his close relatives who even invited him in their households. But nevertheless, he went out last night and spent the new year's eve with someone else. Eventually, I was the one who felt lonely instead.

They say life is like the sea and trust is a big word for it. I do believe that the sea encountering storms produces giant big waves and one must trust the captain who takes the helm of a ship. Also, this concept applies to every friendships and relationships with one another. The past few months were tough for me. Zhe and I were like a ship in the middle of the sea tossed by giant big waves. These giant big waves were problems like small fights, priorities, school schedules and the like. But no matter how big these waves were, thankfully our ship remained intact. I thank these waves because it did not only bring hurts and discouragements, it also brought lessons of forgiveness and patience and I thank him too for being my sidekick because even when times were tough, he stayed.

It has been a decade and 8 years. I didn't really plan on something on today's date for my birthday since the celebration will take place 2 days from now. I decided to finish our capstone project which is due next week with my group members at my house. Little did I know, Zhe with my best buddies surprised me in my garage chanting that old birthday song. I was shocked to see how amazing and thoughtful they were that I didn't think of this for myself as a special day. Truly, today was significant and remarkable because he made me realized how stupid I was to be thinking that my birthday is on the 24th. Not. As a result, capstone research got cancelled for today.

When it comes to success, there are people behind working on it. In fact, Zhe was one of those people behind my success. Of course, God comes first and my family. Attaining such noble award in my years of schooling will be quite impossible without his help. Zhe was behind the works of my research papers and he was behind the explanations of my ignorance and curiosity. On top of that, he was not just a person who taught me basic science, math and research but he was an inspiration and will always be my very own personal knight in shining armor.