My Life

11. A Memorable Day

This was a day where, I forgot, whether it happened before the exams or after the exams, but I do so want to remember. It was a motivation campaign for presidents, vice presidents and secretaries of all clubs in school.
According to my chat records, it was on a Thursday of March 24.

As you remember, the day before, he didn't show up until the last second although I waited for him.

It was quite heartbreaking if I say so, but then I reminded myself that he was still only my friend.

He only said a simple sorry and changed the topic.

And on this day, even though he was from afternoon session, we finally had a chance to spend the whole day together, for once.

There was plenty of people in the hall, and as usual, boys had to sit on the left and girls had to sit at the right side of the hall, for in my country, contact between males and females are not recommended so to avoid immoral doings, or so they say. And thus I couldn't be seated beside him. But I looked at him then and now.

Registration ended and a boring talk commenced in front of us. After that too ended, the facilitators arranged for us to be separated into groups. They knew we would pick our own people and therefore they used another way.

"One." I said as they pointed to me.

"Two." The person beside me said as a facilitator directed his finger at her.

"Three." The person one seat away from me said.

And so on until number fourteen. Then they would start the counting again from one.

There were around a hundred and fifty people who were present, so in one group there would be either ten or eleven people. Fifteen minutes were given to us to find our own teammates.

As you would have guessed, I found myself face to face with him. Chaol, yes, while Verlac ended up in group number fourteen because he was seated directly beside Chaol.

How coincidental. Nicholas could have received any other number other than number one from the range of two to fourteen but he received the same number as me. Now that I thought back, I did not even give myself hope that he would receive my number for he was seated so far away and there were just too many people for me to count properly. Besides, if they changed their direction of counting, he would have gotten a different number.

What do you think?

There goes. I spent my whole morning and part of the afternoon doing group activities with him.

Drawing, presenting ourselves, running from station to station, getting lost and finding them again, everyone holding tissues and circling a building while making sure that the tissues did not break, carrying a rubber ball with a piece of cloth, all eleven of us, around the canteen while making sure it doesn't fall, holding up a balloon with 11 blunt pencils held by all different people and making sure it doesn't fall or get pierced, going around another building with our hands linked on each other's shoulders, making sure the line doesn't break, while having our eyes blindfolded, all except the leader.

Pretty childish games, but still it made me able to spend time with him, and therefore it was worth it.

Remember when I told you contact between boys and girls are not advised? So during the last game, the blindfold game, all the boys lined up in front, and the girls lined up at the back, leaving a space for someone that can fill in, a girl that can hold a boy's shoulders, and a boy that can allow his shoulders to be touched by a girl.

That's where we come in.

Nate, I call him Chaol, me and him, we are both Chinese, and our religions are not Islam, therefore there's no rule as to I can or cannot touch him.

Besides, we are friends, and close friends already. Therefore, even if there were plenty of other people like us, having any other religion than Islam, they still wouldn't be okay with holding the other's shoulders or getting their shoulders held because each would have to be a different gender.

This is so hard to explain but the main point is that in the end both of us were together in the middle of the line because of that situation.

It was really hard to move because the line was very long and when the people in front move, the people at the back would move too slowly and drag our hands, sometimes even unlinking them from the person in front's shoulders.

During those times, I would grip his shoulders really hard and sometimes even shout at the people in front to stop for a while. Now that I think of it, he probably had his shoulders aching and his ears ringing because of me.

We could not see anything. It was all dark and we could only feel and listen. I guess I felt what I shouldn't have felt. I loved the way his shoulders were built. I tried to ignored it but I could feel a blush rising up my cheeks and I was so extremely thankful that everyone was blindfolded, and we continued until we were around a corner that led to the left.

The leader asked us to feel the wall with our left hands and to remain holding the-person-in-front's shoulder with our right hand while walking. That was even worse than two hands and at that time, we almost unlinked and had to start again.

I could remember that I lifted my voice and asked him where was the wall for I couldn't feel it.

What intrigues me right now as I type this is about him being so quiet throughout the whole activity. I wonder if he was annoyed with me or happy that I was the one behind him.

I felt his left hand holding mine, leading me to feel the wall, accidentally scratching it with the rough surface of the wall, a little. Then he gave up, and asked me to hold his left arm with my left hand while he becomes the one feeling the wall for both of us.

I don't remember anymore, whether it was me helding his arm or his hand, or him helding my hand. But I remember feeling really happy.

Really, really happy.

***

I wrote something for him too.

C
H
A
O
L

Each with it's own word... I cannot remember what were they, but it's alright.

I only remember the words for A and H, both Awesome and Handsome.

I wonder if he still has that paper.

I miss him so much.