Goodbye
Goodbye is not the saddest word, because it doesn't mean that you stop loving someone or you stop to care.
"Hi!"
I don't know who was the sender. I immediately deleted the message and put the phone down beside me. I wanted to go back to sleep so I tried to, but before I close my eyes, the phone beeped again.
"Hi again! Please care to be my text-mate," the message said.
Without agitating to reply, I deleted the message again. I was tired and I wanted to sleep before another day would come.
I was not like someone who enjoys texting someone else especially at the midnight hours. I closed my eyes and wanted to return to my dreamless sleep, but the phone beeped again. I wanted to turn it off but I decided not to, because I set an alarm to ring at 4:00 AM.
"Could you be my angel?" the message said from the same number.
"Who the wicked could this be disturbing someone like me at this hour?" a question on my mind.
As I was lying down, I pushed the keys and realized that I was replying to the message.
"I'm not an angel. I'm only a human who you disturb at this hour of my sleeping. Do I know you?" I typed.
A minute later, the reply came.
"No. You don't know this lonely one,but I want to be your friend. I'm Timothy. How about you?"
"Just call me Bhing-Bhing. This is what my friends call me. How did you get my number?" I sent.
"Hi Bhing-Bhing, I'm glad to meet you. Well, I just shambled the last three digits of my number," he replied.
That was not the first time I received messages from unknown person but that was the first time I met someone over the cellphone. We exchanged short messages and shared simple information about each other that time. That was how that all started. I only said goodbye when the alarm rang at 4 o'clock.
"Good morning! Sorry for disturbance last night and thank you for accepting me as your friend," a message from Timothy.
I didn't reply to his message because my friends and fellow SSG officers were already awake and we needed to prepare ourselves because our SSG adviser told us that we have to prepared early.
After the day of being part of the meaningful sessions, my friend and I went to the food station to get our dinner.
"Good evening friend! How did you spend your day? I thought you are busy because you're not replying to my messages," a message from Timothy when I once look for my cellphone after the whole afternoon.
"Good evening too! Yes, it's true. I got busy, and texting is not my habit while focusing on something," I replied.
"May we text now?" he asked.
"Yes, we may. Do have something to share about your day?" I asked.
It's a busy for me too, but I enjoyed it. It's full of learning."
"And what did you learn?"
"I learned the value of the teamwork, something like that. Hahaha!" he replied.
"Oh! I think I learned something related on that," I sent.
"What's that?" he asked.
"A team is always a group, but a group is not always a team. Haha!"
That's a quote mentioned by one of our Atenean Facilitators during the session.
"Really? How it happened that we have the same topic learned? Ah, wait, where did you learn this?" his questions.
"From the session this afternoon," I sent.
"Session? What session?"
"A session on our leadership training," I sent.
"Are you now attending leadership training?" he asked.
"Yes, why?"
"Cause I'm attending too. Oh! Are we talking the same leadership training? Are we attending only one training? Is it possible that you are here too?" his consecutive questions.
After reading this message, I was not able to reply on this because my phone beeped three times reminding that it's low battery and not able to send a message until it shut down. I put it on my small bag as I entered the Benitez Hall together with my friends waiting for the entertainment part of the training.
The morning came and my cellphone got fully charged. When I turn it on, it's continuous beeping sound surrounded the room where my five friends and I sleep. And the messages from Timothy appeared on the screen.
"Good morning Tim, sorry for not having texting back last night. My cellphone shut down. Have a nice day!" I sent to him.
"Good morning! It's okay. Anyway, are you SSG officer?"
"Yes," my one word replied because I was starting getting busy again for a new great day.
"I get it. Last night, I was thinking if it is possible that you are here too, and if it is, I thought I want to see you. I am here and you are here too. We're both attending the NLTSGO."
"Huh? National Leadership Training?" I typed and sent.
"Exactly! Here at Baguio?" his replied.
"Hahaha! Small world," I replied.
"Wonderful destination," he sent.
After the breakfast hour, my phone beeped.
"Where are you?" a question from Tim.
"Benitez Hall," I replied.
"Oh! You're too early. It's one hour before the plenary session."
"Yeah. We always want to be seated in front."
"I'm entering the Benitez Hall. I'll go there to meet you."
"If you can find us."
"Off course I can. It's easy because at this early hour, only few groups are here inside and the rest are somewhere else."
I didn't reply to that message but another message appeared.
"Is your group wearing the NLTSGO shirt?"
"No. We are wearing our SSG shirt."
"What color?"
"Peach."
My friends and I were talking about some things that make us laugh in chorus until we heard a voice at my back.
"Bhing-Bhing, is that you?"
"Hey! Is he talking to you?" my friend asked to me.
"W...who? I asked looking at my friend.
"At your back," my friend said.
"Huh?"
When I looked at my back, the boy said "See? I told you, I can find you," he said with a friendly smile.
"Timothy? Ahm...how did you know that...," I didn't finished that question because he suddenly answered.
"The nae on you shirt," still smiling.
"Ah, yeah."
"Excuse me, do you know each other?" my friend asked between us.
I became speechless that time then Timothy spoke.
"Yes. We are text-mates. We are friends."
"Oh really? Our friend doesn't tell us that she has a text-mate here," my friend said in a jesting mood.
"Actually, at first, I don't know that we will meet personally like this, because I just shuffled the last three digits of my number," he explained.
"Amazing, huh?" my other friend said.
I cannot describe what I felt during that time, but meeting him in person infatuates me. His radiant face, the look on his eyes, and his smile are like the works of an artist. He's one in five thousand plus students at the training and I didn't expect that happened. I wished his eyes would turn away from me because they are just holding me as fascinated. Aside from feeling well in the plenary session on that day, my mind was juggled with thoughts about him.
Seconds, minutes, hours, and days passed. We were text-mates, friends, or group-mates until we faced the last day and last night at Baguio. One evening after the event officially ended, our facilitators let us bond with friends. It's two hours of waiting for the distribution of certificates. We were allowed to form groups with new friends. I decided to stay on my place under the robust pine trees together with my friend until I saw him walking on a distance with his friend. They joined us at our area. His eyes and smile caught my attention. I stared at him smiling that suddenly made my heart beats twice as fast. It's also hard to have an eye to eye contact during that time, maybe that's what you feel when you are entering the kingdom of love.
My friends took his friend out of the scene and their naughty way led us into a private moment. Entering into a more personal conversation was the difficult one and I couldn't find myself listening from what he was saying. He told me everything how he felt from a friendly love of being text-mates to the very root of love itself. But I ignored what he said not because I didn't believe him but because I believe from the start that you should not find someone who you will love through text. It's not a true way of finding a true love.
He was looking at me straight into the eyes and I saw that there's something in them. There was something in those lovely yet lonely eyes that directed me to ask a question.
"On the first night you texted me, why did you ask me to be your angel?"
"It's because I really felt alone," he said.
"How do you say so?"
"I'm the only one son of my parents. They got separated just three months ago because my father has another woman. Then my mother decided to go abroad a month ago. They are both saying that they love me but what happened to them, to our family hurts me so much and makes me alone."
"I'm...I'm sorry for asking."
"It's okay. I was thinking about what my father did and I told to myself that I'll not be the one like him. You know, I was never a textmaniac but everywhere I go, sorrow comes with me. And as I tried to shuffle the last three digits of my number, I thought that if someone would care to be my text-mate, she would be my angel who would lessen my sadness. And thanks cause you cared."
"Hahaha! I'm not an angel. I told you."
"But it is really you. It was then I learned to appreciate text messages and become excited every time my phone beeped. I learned how to care, how to be kind, and how to love. And in life, we seldom find a true person, and if you ever find, hold on and never let go."
"I think, if someone learned how to care, how to be kind, and how to love, he must also know how to let go."
"Do you believe that goodbye is a painful way ta say I love you?"
"Maybe it is. But for me, goodbye is not the saddest word because it doesn't mean that you stop loving someone or you stop to care," I said staring at my friend's face, memorizing his face, a face I knew, I would never forget.
"Tomorrow is our homeward bound. Goodbye Mr. President," I said to him with a cheerful tone.
"Well, goodbye Ms. Secretary."
The evening full of wonderful words that came from the heart and cut though the heart has ended. We met and parted at the Summer Capital of the Philippines. Goodbye Baguio!
