story3 - chapter5 : Love, perhaps? Those memories...

Snow starts to fall before my eyes.
Well, it's another year of Christmas. Paris, the city of romance, is now covered with my favourite pure white snow.

No matter it's Sa-rang-he-yo, Aishiteru, Aku Cinta PadaMu, Wo Ai Ni, or even just I Love You, the feeling of numbness all around my nerves as if i was covered by snow.
While I was opening up my wallet to take the parking card, the familiar face appeared.

" It has been 2 years, i guess.. "
I walked out from the lift and drove along the road to nowhere. A little warm-smoky vapour from the exhaust pipe was the left-behind of everything. Everything of those fade-away memories...

story3 - chapter4 : Reality

"erm, tze, are you free tonight? I was thinking that may be we can have a dinner at La Contri' Paso..."

A text message appeared on my mobile.

"ok, 7pm we meet there!"
I replied her.

Time dashed in a blink off eyes. Once I reached the five-star Italian restaurant, a waiter served me to a table.

"Here's the menu for our restaurant, sir."
I opened up the menu, a letter dropped out from it. I thought it was a misplaced by the waiter, so i quickly call the waiter to confirm.

"Waiter!"
I called.

"How may I help you, sir?"
The waiter replied with a very polite manner.

"There's this unnamed letter dropped from the menu, and I would like to pass it to you."
I handover the letter to the waiter, yet the waiter seemed to reject my will.

"I'm sorry sir, just before your presence, there was a lady handed this letter to me, and ask me to insert into the menu which will be served to the customer of this table. And I guess this letter belongs to you, sir." The waiter calmly replied.

Without any hesitation, I opened up the letter, the handwriting, it's Charlynn!

I stunned for few ticking moment, mind went blank... why?
My vision was getting blur, tears fall onto the letter..

Is it a Reality?!

- The letter -

story3 - chapter3 : It's a SecRet

"It's a secret!"
Everytime I saw her writting her diary, I got excited and curious about the content. And, everytime I asked for permission to read, she will reply me with that 3 familiar words.
But i just got my special way to persuade her.

"Come on, dar, erm... how if I play 1 song for you as a trade for your diary?

"1 song for 1 random picked page!" she replied after some considering moment.

"So, it's a deal? haha... "
a very sweet-looking face, laying on my shoulder, and I played " secret " from Jay Chou for the trade.

After I finished the song, suddenly, a soft lips touched my cheek. We hugged together at that very sentimental moment. Thay day went perfectly well, and because of that, I totally forgot about the diary deal though.

story3 - chapter2 : How If?

I've made up my mind, the unforgettable, will only sink, deep into the sea of memories. There's no way I would forget such an adorable girl that appeared in my life...

____________________________________________________

We dated each other after school everyday, to meet at the field near our house. That was our little promise, we sat on the marble bench beside the basketball court, sometimes we even discussed some maths question there, as my math is kinda " pro "... XD

Even though for others, such thing, is not even interesting or in other word, it is really boring, but for me, it has been a certain kind of satisfaction. Looking at her wondering face and confusion about math question, it was really cute. My mind started to go blank...

" Why are you smiling?! I'm asking you question la, wei ... "

I felt a little finger touched my right arm.

" Yeah? Which part you don't understand? ", I quickly responded to her as she was frustrated with the math problem-solving.

" See, is that easy, just use y= mx+c, substitute the coordinates x and y of the point P into the x and y of the equation, then... ", I continued my lesson to her. Her cute face appeared again every time she bumps into a dead-end of a question.

" Owh, i got it, thanks Tze, thanks a million ya! ", her cheerful smile indirectly affected my mood,
I smiled too..

" Tze, why u like to squat and not sitting? hmm... weird guy, but cute... hahaha.. like Lawliet in Death Note, I adore him, he's such a cool and smart character! Don't you agree?? ". I like to squat on benches or seats rather than sitting on it, because of that, she had always been curious about my position of sitting on the bench.

"Like Lawliet in Death Note?! hahaha.. you must be kidding! But he is really cool. Yeah I do agree with you."

" Really?! Oh ya, 'L Change the World' is coming out next week, erm.. I'm asking whether if you would like to accompany me to the cinema for a movie?". Her cheeks and ears blushed.

" Okay no problem, but why are you blushing?? hahaha... "

" What... Am I?! err... err... I think the weather is too hot for me, so... "

Before she could finished her sentence, instinct whispered in my mind, spontaneously I hold her little soft hand, she was stunned. I looked through her eyes and asked.

" How if... I say I love you? Would you... accept me?"

She nodded her head, smiling.

That gloaming, the purple-orange-colored sky was so beautiful... The most beautiful
gloaming in my life..

story3 - chapter1 : ShOuld I?

"Au plaisir de vous revoir !"
I smiled and waved to the guy.
The night, was so peaceful.. the city of Paris still lively with lights. Romance fill-up the atmosphere.
Such place, was used to be our dream, 7 hours of flight, 2 person, 1 couple.

Rolling film in my head, as if the movie had just started. A long movie indeed. I was standing alone, in a descending lift surrounded with transparent glass that provide the best view of Paris city at night. 3 years after the history carved deeply in my 'mind-book', weird smile appears on my face..

Remembered the way you smiled at me, our 1st date, 1st movie, even, our 1st kiss. . Lights around the Eiffel Tower represented our love. Passionate red, a very warm color at the cold night... thousands of words is not even comparable with a little touch of lips on your forehead.

......

The memories... I've tried real hard to cover it with tonnes of overloaded daily work, but such memorable moment with you. If I was given a chance to remove it from my mind..


Should I ... ?

story2 - SecReT wiThiN

After the incident, every lonely night, I talk and pray in my heart…
“I do really love you, I will love you always… and I’ll keep it as a promise, I hope you heard that, Annie…” this was probably the first and the last confession I had said to a girl…
In that sudden, my life had changed tremendously. My heart as fragile as glasses, it was just…
Going to break into pieces…

* * * * * *

It was the first day I moved into this new house. After spending half of my childhood in the old house, my parent decided to buy a new house and tried to live in a brand new and unfamiliar environment. At that time, the place was not yet fully-developed, it was only a small housing estate in the town. My life was like every kid, innocent, naughty and playful enough…

Hot sun burned my skin, I could feel the burning heat that shined on my hair when I was on my way back home from a new yet boring school life. Ah… after finished eating a hearty and scrumptious lunch prepared by my mum, I took a cooling and rejuvenating bath. Then I started to do tonnes of homework in my room. Unexpectedly, noise came from outside of the window made me feel curious and looked out from the window. I saw Lorries, workers and mess stuff in front of my eyes. For some reason, I knew, I will have a new neighbour soon. Realised that there was still a bunch of unfinished homework, my pen started to dance on the exercise book again, my life went on as usual for another half a year…

Time slipped off from me in the speed of light, one day, the owner of the opposite house moved in. The children of the family was making loud noise, running and wandering around the new living environment with excitement. I could not see the face of the family, but I was very sure, from my instinct, they will be a very friendly family…

* * * * * *

“Today, we have a new friend joins our class, her name is Annie. Well, let’s welcome her with a big applause,” our class teacher said. Everyone was clapping their hands and cheering for her welcoming, except for me. The first impression she gave me was too good until I was amazed and stunned by her angelic smile and Barbie-doll-liked eyes. Is her an angel? A fair complexion, a black and straight hair… awesome! I just couldn’t resist her beauty and I started to fantasize, daydreaming…

Ring…
Recess bell rang and it woke me up from building castle in the air. After having few mouthful of mineral water, I decided to go to school canteen and ‘kill away my hunger’. Just at the moment, I saw Annie, sitting alone in our class. “Today is the first day of studying in this new school, may be she still can’t adapt to the environment, but… should I walk forward and make friend with her?” somehow, my shyness ask me not to do so. I walked away and joined my ‘gang’ and friends from the other class. I was shocked by the topic they were discussing. It was all related to the new girl, Annie. “How the heck they managed to receive ‘news’ such quickly?”. My friends kept on questioning me about Annie. I hate gossips and disgusted by their questions. So, I just simply responded them.

Few weeks later, I was playing with my puppy, Mocha, in the compound of my house, I heard some noise came from the direction of the new house. I looked at the new neighbour and I was shocked by what was in front of my eyes. A girl was playing with her brother and sister – it was Annie! Thanks to my blurriness, now only I found out that my new neighbour was her. Oh my god! How stupid was I, never know it was her. I planned to greet her, but once again my shyness made me moved a step backward and be a ‘chicken’. Yet, from that moment, I could see her everyday. How nice the feeling is when an angel lives in front of my house.

* * * * * * *

I had been living as a coward for more than four years, even though my other family members and her family had became good friends. Yet, I still managed to get her mobile number, until the year of Form3, I wasn’t study in the same class with her anymore. One day, I received news that she had a boyfriend, my heart was broken; totally. Every time when I saw them, the scar in my heart grew deeper. Although I pretended to be strong and not to show out my sadness in front of my friends and family, but every time I tuned and listened to sentimental songs, my nose will get itchy and tears started to fall.

That year, I had grown into a different person, after such disastrous thing happened on me and the aftermath changed me a lot. Yet, at year-end school break, her relationship with the boy was found out by her parent. Her parent was so upset and decided to separate them off forcefully by sending her to another new school. Should I feel happy or sad? Happy because she broke up with her boyfriend? Or feel sad because I couldn’t see her in school anymore? I faced dilemma.
I gained my courage, to send her a short message with mobile service. I did not put much hope on the action I had taken. I was waiting for her reply from afternoon until evening. Wait and wait…

Miraculously, my mobile alarmed with message tone at night, I quickly rushed to get my mobile and read what she replied. This was the starting point when I got to know her closer and we kept in touch by this way. Sometimes, we would meet at shopping complex and watch movies in cinema. I even had a chance to celebrate her 15th birthday with her in a restaurant with surprises. I thought it was the happiest moment I had ever been. Yet, the worst was just few steps ahead from me…

* * * * * * *

It had been almost a year we chat in SMS and MSN throughout our Form 4’s life. The chance to come out and meet each other became lesser and lastly reached zero as there were too many exams and we were too busy with our study. Slowly, I could feel that she started to neglect me… and my worry was I might be disturbing her if I always SMS her. And after some time, I stopped contacting her…
I had lost confidence and I thought it will be better to let things go naturally…

One day, just as I was thinking the same rubbish, suddenly my phone rang and distracted my mind. I picked up the phone…
“Hello?”
“Hello, is there Chad?”
“Yes, who is speaking?”
“I’m Annie’s mum, Annie… she had just met a serious car accident, please come to Central Hospital quick! The ward number is 3b9. Please come quickly, she wanted to have LAST conversation with you… she is going to... leave us very soon…” her mum hung off the phone call just like that…
My phone slipped off from my right hand. Before I could react and my mind went blank totally, adrenalin drove me and I rushed to tell me parent… on the way to the hospital, my soul was chasing with time, hoping that everything was not true. Tears fell from my eyes like the rain outside of the car. Could it be God’s tears?

* * * * * * *

I rushed into the hospital without losing any second and looked for Annie’s ward. I was afraid, if everything had been too late…
“3b4… 3b5… 3b6… …ah… 3b9”
My heart was beating so hard as if it was counting the time like a ticker timer when I was searching for Annie’s ward…

Everyone was standing beside the bed include her dad, mum, brother and sister, many were sobbing, some cried uncontrollably. I forced myself not to let Annie see my tears.
“Ann…” I was holding her hand, remained speechless and the pain took over and conquered my whole sense.
“Chad… I’m sorry for not replying your message and stop caring about you… because I don’t trust love anymore and I’m doubted if I can give u happiness. But I have regretted, I have regretted for everything… I do love you Chad, I do… but everything is useless now… I …
Before she could finish her words, she closed her eyes… I could hear doctor and nurses’ footsteps rushed in… Without any signal or warning, I blanked out and collapsed at the moment…

I had lost contact with her whole family after I woke up… It had been 3 days I was in unconscious state… I tried so hard to ask my parent about them, they remained silent. I only knew that they moved out of the house when I reached home…

* * * * * * *

After the incident, every lonely night, I talk and pray in my heart…
“I do really love you, I will love you always… and I’ll keep it as a promise, I hope you heard that, Annie…” this was probably the first and the last confession I had said to a girl…
In that sudden, my life had changed tremendously. My heart as fragile as glasses, it was just…
Going to break into pieces…

* * * * * * *

One year later, I graduated and finished my secondary education with flying colours. I had proved to Annie and myself that I lived well. Looking at the sky, I believed she will always watch me and bless me…

“Knock-knock”

“Sorry sir, I was late,” I say to the 60years-old-lecturer with wrinkles on his friendly face. He turns and nods his head. I quickly find myself a comfort seat, settle down and take out a notebook to take down what the old, white-hair-lecturer teaches in class. Just as I am preparing myself for the class, I look up and take a glimpse at a corner. I see a familiar figure sitting not very far from me. I take a closer look, almost unbelievable, it is HER, it is… Annie…

Flowers need sunshine,
Violets need dew,
All angels in the heaven know I need you;
Years may fly,
Tears may dry,
But my love to you will never die…

THE END..

story1 - prOmiSe

“Promise?”
“Yea, it’s our promise!”
We put our last finger together, outside of the fence of our secondary school and we exchanged present as memorial purpose… looking at her smiling face, it had been a satisfaction for me… I really thought it was…

* * * * * *

I had just finished my degree course in a music institute. It had been 12 years since I graduated from secondary. After I graduated from the secondary school, my dad instantly got a job promotion and sent to a newly-opened branch in New Zealand, and of course, we followed him to a place where everything was so unfamiliar, so lonely…

Before the flight, I gave Rosabelle a call…
Thinking about that, it had been quite a long time I lost contact with her. Her blurry image is still in my mind…
A long black hair, big watery eyes and a little mole on her right cheek… I could never forget…

* * * * * *

“Remember to practice everyday, ok? See you next week then…” I reminded my new student, Aaron, before he left the class.
“Ok teacher, I will! I wanna be as good as you teacher!” that cute little
5-years-old student replied… he handed over the piano book to his mother…
She gave me a smile, I smiled and I waved at them… After they left, I started packing up my teaching materials and walked out from the small music class. It was a dream comes true when I become a piano teacher.

Ah… It was good to be home, finally. I rented a house a year ago when I came back, as my family were still living in New Zealand… I quickly took a refreshing bath and filled my hungry stomach with some pizza. For some reason, I recalled about the class I had just now, the strong determination of learning shown by Aaron, it made me remind of my life as teenagers…

“Wow, I love this song, can you play once more, please?” she clapped her hand and requested…
“Okay, with a condition…” I pointed on my cheek, and, she kissed me… I smiled sweetly…
That gloaming, it was the most memorable moment… I sat in front of the old acoustic piano in the music room of our school, and she was beside me, laying her head comfortably on my shoulder… we didn’t speak a lot, I let my fingers danced gracefully on the black and white keys, a perfect melody came out from the piano…

* * * * * *

“Well, today teacher will teach you a song, since you have mastered the fingering practice, so, it’s up to you which song you would like to learn…” I said.
“Teacher, I wanna learn ‘The Promise’, I love that song so much. My mummy loves it too, she told me to play the song for her one day. Mummy also said that there was a boy played this song to her before she met my papa.” Aaron told me…

I was stunned by what came out from his mouth. But I forced myself to remain calmed and continued the piano lesson. I really hoped the lady that was going to appear before me was not her…

An hour later, the class finished.

“Mummy!” Aaron ran towards her mother.
“Hm… mummy heard what my little boy was learning just now, it is mummy FAVOURITE song, right? Look at you, sweat all over your forehead, come and let mummy clean your face…” her mother said as she was wiping Aaron’s face with a little handkerchief.
“Thanks for teaching my son this song, I hope it won’t be any difficulties for you.” She smiled and thanked me gratefully.

Wait a second, the mole, on her right cheek, I recognised that! How come I never realized it before… at first, I doubted, until my instinct whispered and gained my courage to ask her…

“Are you… Rosabelle?” she responded and looked at me curiously…
“Yeah, that’s my old name, but people know me as Rose now, do I know you? Sorry if I couldn’t recognise you…”
“I… I am… Timothy…” she looked at me with a blank stare. The situation was like a time-stop…

* * * * * *

Ring…
“Hey Tim, are you going to fold your love letter into a paper plane and throw it to her? Tell me that you’re joking…”
“How if the wind blows in the wrong direction and you may miss it…”
“Yeah, probably you will throw it to the wrong person and it’s bad…”

I just ignored what my friend said and warned… ah, finally, the paper plane completed!

“Hey! Give it back! I mean it, give it back!” I chased and shouted. My voice could be heard all over the class like I was a mad person…
Darn friend grabbed it from me and ran to the next class…

“Since the first encounter with you, I know I have fallen in love with you; my heart was stolen by you; if you absent for a day, that day would be a dull and grey day for me… your presence painted my life and it turned incredibly colourful… I…”

Before my friend finished reading, I managed to grab it back, but, in a very short moment, Rosabelle and I became the focus in the class, everyone was looking at both of us, my face quickly turned red… as well as hers…

“Woo... Accept him! Accept him! Accept him! Accept him…” whole class cheered… and surprisingly, she nodded her head, shyly… she took a little glimpse on me and faced down again… everyone was so excited and made a lot of noise like there was a goal in a football match…

Suddenly, our school ‘monster’, discipline teacher walked in with a long and big cane, everyone quickly dismissed and ran like mice met a Persian cat… leaving me behind and put me in responsible for the incident… I was caned and punished to stand for a period in the discipline room… but, the feeling of happy overwhelmed the pain on my palm. My mind was all about the confession made moments ago… was it a dream after all?

“You may go now, but remember, no more next time! School is not a place for monkeys to play around!” the discipline teacher warned me with such ferocious tone…
I nodded, took a little glimpse on her, and quickly walked away… huh… I was relief after I left the hell-like place…

* * * * * *

Ring…
Yeah, school dismissed! I walked out from my class and a girl next class informed me to visit our school field. She said that Rosabelle was waiting me there… my heart was pumping hard as I was on the ‘journey to the west’, well, our school field was really located west from my class…

“H—I, are you…” before I could finished my sentence, Rosabelle turned and faced me… she pulled my left hand and observed if there was any injury during the battle with ‘monster’. I could see her watery eyes…

“Is that hurt? It looked so red and swollen.”
“Is… Is okay…”
A little tear was at the edge of my eyes… it was a mixture of happy and touched… little salty and sweet…

“Erm… about the confession just now, what your friend read from the paper, is that true?” She looked at me, hoping for an exact and certain answer that would come out from my mouth…
I only nodded with a smile, and surprisingly, she hugged me. Although everything was out of my expectation, I was still so happy though…

Since then, everyday, I got a scrumptious breakfast prepared by her… when there was exam, we studied together and discussed about the questions in the exercise book… we were so close to each other, everywhere I go, she would just stick on me like a koala bear… sometimes, we would go out to a shopping mall for a walk, watch some movies. I even drove her to a lake nearby one night to watch the falling meteors reported by astrologist.

I secretly drew her portrait and prepared to give her as a surprised gift, as I was going to walked out from my room, I heard a discussion of my parent accidentally, my mind went completely blank… no way… it shouldn’t be like that… but I kept it from Rosabelle, it was too cruel for her to accept such reality… I would rather share my last few moments in this country with her, happily.

Days after days, weeks after weeks and the moment of truth had arrived, I had to go, leaving this old home, my buddies, my school, and most importantly, my beloved Rosabelle… I still kept the present we exchanged, she received the portrait, and I got a necklace she made by her own… I was afraid that I couldn’t do like what I had promised to her, which was to go for a trip, just for both of us… I knew, I would definitely leave her a deep scar this time…

Toot-toot… Toot-toot… Toot-toot… … hello there, I’m Rosabelle, I’m sorry ‘cos I couldn’t answer your phone now, please leave your message after the beep sound, thank you… …Beep…

“H-I, is me, Timothy, I… I have to say goodbye now… I’m leaving this country and follow my family to overseas, I’m… sorry… sorry for not informing you earlier, I know, it will be a certain shock for u, and now, I would probably on the plane already… I won’t blame you if you hate me…” I hung off the phone… tears dropped uncontrollably and fell down to my cheek… I swore for god sake, I won’t forget you…

* * * * * *

“What a beautiful night view from here, right? Looking at the image of the moon reflected on the surface of the lake water, it was not much of the difference here… it had been 14 years since I left this place, so many memories…” I said to Rosabelle… I meant Rose.

“Yeah not much difference here, only some sky scrappers were built after you left… … Oh! The necklace?! Don’t tell me is that necklace… haha… you are such… …”

Eventually, she turned out to be speechless… and silence, took control on us, we both know that we still care for each other…
That night, we talked about many things… and the night was the longest night ever in my life…

After what we have gone through for such a long period of time, I become confused and uncertain now, the relationship between us, is it a pure friendship? Or it’s a true love that I missed for 14 years?