Similar Numbers yet Never the Same

Hi I’m Kisszztoffe, Kisz for short. Yeah, I know it’s weird but what can I do? Blame my parents for having a bad taste for baby names? Going on, I am now 35 years old. I have a wonderful wife, 2 kids – a girl and a boy and an awesome job! And I’ll be your “story teller” throughout this story. Yup, read that right! This story isn’t about me. Rather, it’s about three girls that I met when I was 15 years old. Don’t get the wrong impression; we were neighbors at that time. You’ll get to know them better when you just continue reading. After all this is all about them.

We were renting a house in Mandaluyong. The owners (yes, with “s”, 3 families own the apartment) have 3 daughters about my age. We live in 4 different houses but are locked up in only one gate. They are cousins but I can’t really figure out how. They have different surnames; different citizenship-one’s Chinese; and they don’t look alike, nor are they’re parents but they call each other cousin. Since I don’t know much of how they are blood related and never bother asking, let’s go back to something I really know about them, something I discover by myself.

Helping my parents unpack, I carry boxes out of the car. Seeing my parents stop unpacking inside the house to have a little chit chat with the owners, I decided to stop too. I sat on one of the boxes outside our house but inside the gate and got my phone and start to text my friends. I was about to send the text message when someone grab it from my hand. “Hey!” I was surprised to see 3 girls in front of me. They are looking at me, smiling. The girl in the middle, thinner than the other 2 got my phone and is now giving it back. I grab my phone, embarrassed. “Thanks.” I smiled looking only on the ground then on my phone. “I bet you can’t live without your phone.” The girl on the left said, she has darker complexion than the other two. “Yah! I know how that feels.” The girl on the right said. She doesn’t look like a Filipino; she’s more likely to be Chinese. ”Oh, hope we could get along” wow. What a dumb reply. “I’m Kisszztoffe, but kizs is better.” I said with a smile

. “I’m Ziaque” the girl who gave my phone back said. “That’s Bianca” pointing to her left, well, my right. “And that’s Aynn” pointing to the opposite side. I answer with a smile and they return the same smile. “Nice to meet you.” I said with another smile. ”Enough of this formal stuff, need help?” Aynn offered.