Last message...

I scavenged around the house yesterday…
Looking for relics from my childhood days’ or
even for treasures that have turned junk over the years,
just to pass the time.

I found my old photo album hidden underneath piles of old notes.
Sticking out from one of its pages was a leaf-bookmark I received
back when I was in matric...
herm…ancient.

Flipped through its pages without thinking…
Occasionally laughing like an idiot…
Spent about 2 hours on it alone.

Next to the album, was a hardcover book…
With a large sticker of Mickey’s head stamped at the front.
My old diary.
More than words had poured across its pages – I mean, literally.
Rose petals, a broken moon key-chain, several letters, cards, a pendant,
pictures, newspaper scraps, postcards, bookmarks, coupons, stickers,…

Oh God, it’s embarrassing…
Felt like I was watching a video – fast rewound – into high school days.
With me, being stupid acting in all of the plots.
Haa ~

I came across a section for messages and autograph at the end of the book.
I’ve forgotten that I used to collect these…
Running around the classroom at the end of the year…
demanding my friends to write them…
Girls’ ran at least half a page each, but boys’…
just a scratch across the page.

Out of these scribbled-noodles, one stands out the most.
It is a most peculiar signature of all.
I remember him signing it for me before he moved away.
It was on the last day of our form 2 year.

We started out as enemies at first.
With yelling and quarrelling being the usual scenes…
I’m amazed at how we ended as friends after all of that.
We often chatted on IRC in the mornings before school.

…CherryBlossom…Yuri…

He signed, “Hore”.
At least, that’s how it appears to me.
I was disappointed at the time…
With him leaving…signing something not even close to his name…
No message…like a lame joke.

Then, we parted ways and I
simply forgotten about it until a friend of mine snatched the book away,
a year later.
She opened the autograph section and said,
“Hey, doesn’t this looks like ‘I love you’ to you?”
She was pointing at the “Hore” scribble…

Herm…
It is all in the past now…
Whatever it might means, the memory is still
and will always be a sweet one.

Our last chat together…when we got disconnected for which I thought
was not forever…
I wish I had known it then...
what it might mean…
then perhaps, I would've replied you differently…

***

CB : hye…
Yuri : hi…
CB : how r u?
Yuri : 5...so how school?
CB : really, really sucks!
Yuri : y?
CB : u knw…I don’t like the boyz…
Yuri : which class r u in?
CB : 3 A
Yuri : mayb…it sucks a bit.
CB : a lot, I tell ya
Yuri : I think, last yr 2 B is the best…
CB : yupz, best class I evr had…
Yuri : me too…d people…d fun we had…
CB : ur rite…
Yuri : I bet d class wont b as interesting without me…
CB : mayb…just an itsy bitsy bit.
Yuri : ic………………………
-Disconnected-
***

Before calling quits on the ‘expedition’…
I decided to put both the album and the book away neatly,
alongside my favorite novels…
instead of the rabbit hole under the bed.

They were my best findings ever…