Hazia’s Reflections

Yesterday, I was sitting at a table near the entrance at this café in Bangsar, punching away at my laptop’s keyboard when a Malay man suddenly walked in and sat across from me.

He mentioned my full name and his name, said that he knew me. Of course I recognised him. We chatted for a while. He said he saw me many times before around the area but dared not greet me. Well, I was there every other day, my gym was there, my book project discussion was there, I lived 10 minutes away. Coincidentally, he joined the same gym.

He had a boutique across the road; it was managed full time by his sister. He showed me an article in yesterday’s newspaper featuring his design. He catered a lot to celebrities, for fashion shows and weddings. He asked if my company could do PR for his business. I told him that I could do it freelance; to do it under my company would cost him a bomb. Come to think of it, I’d do it as a favour. Fashion is fun; I know I would enjoy it.

He invited me to his boutique. I’ll call him when I’m going, most probably next weekend. We would meet up on Sunday anyway, to discuss PR.

He was still holding on to his Accountant job at a UK company at the same time though. Yeah, we are both Accountancy graduates from the same varsity.

He asked me a repeatedly if I still remember him. He seemed to think that I couldn’t recall but was only pretending to. Hmm… how could I forget? Never.

In fact, I was asking my friends a few months back if anybody knew him or keep in touch with him. None did, I doubted that we even have mutual friends. Out of the blue, he just came to mind. I was looking for him. So, imagine my surprise when he suddenly appeared right in front of me. We haven’t seen each other for 12 years! And, he was still single;)

Flashback:

I think it was during our first year in varsity; for 2 weeks, we used to study and hang out at the canteen together, just the two of us. I couldn’t even remember how it started or who started it or how we knew each other.

We weren’t in the same class, not even for 1 subject. I stayed at college 9 and he stayed at college 1; any UUMers would know that it was like 2 different sides of the world. The average human being can only walk half of that distance. However, he was one the few students with a car, so he’d come to my college.

At that time and place, a girl and a guy spending time doing routine things together like that were considered a couple. My roommate couldn’t understand our friendship. ‘You guys are girlfriend and boyfriend,’ she insisted. Yeah, he was attractive but we were platonic friends. I remember him saying that he came from a close-knit family; he had an older brother and 2 younger sisters.

Same goes, I couldn’t remember how it ended or who ended it but very soon after, it did. Probably he just stop coming to my college or something. And then, both of us just parted for good.

Wow, that’s a huge gap in my memory bank on this. What happened back then? I surely would like to know.