Chapter 55

"Cha, sumama ka nalang kasi. I promise you, my friends are nice! Hindi na healthy yung nagkukulong ka lang dito. Hindi naman babalik sayo si Ye-in if you’re just going to sulk in there.” Sabi ni Chaeng sakin. It’s been a week kasi since Ye-in and I broke up. “Birthday mo kaya! C’mon, there’s no way na hahayaan kita mag isa dito!” She said.

Yeah, Ye-in and I broke up but the decision was mutual, pero syempre, I couldn’t help but feel sad about it. Yung relationship kasi namin didn’t feel like it was going anywhere. Everything was a routine between us. I’d pick her up after work, tapos mag ea-eat out kami, then talk about each others days. Minsan, we don’t see each other kasi sobrang busy niya sa work, and then hindi siya magpaparamdam ng ilang days and then magiging sweet after, and then balik nanaman kami sa dati.

It felt dull, it felt parang may kulang kaya siguro when she opened up about our problem, it led to our break up kasi pareho kaming hindi masaya. It’s like, we are together for the sake of being together. Para may matawag na girlfriend pero it wasn’t as fun and exciting as it was before. Somehow, I felt bad because may contribution din ako why our relationship fell apart. I didn’t try hard enough eh. Or it might be because, I don’t love her enough to try and make an effort. Either way, our relationship ended and I don’t know where to go from here. Siguro dahil nasanay narin ako sa set up namin.

“Chae, ok lang naman ako dito, you don’t need to feel bad for me. If you want to hangout with your friends, go ahead, baka makagulo lang ako don no.” Sabi ko naman. “Ano ka ba? I’m sure you’ll like them, saka may friend akong single, malay mo, mag click kayo. Saka ang pretty nun, magsisisi ka if you don’t come with me.” Pagpilit naman sakin ni Chaeng.

“The last time you tried to set me up with someone, we found out tatlo pala yung girlfriend non Chae, so forgive me kung hindi na ako maniwala sayo.” Sabi ko naman. “Chahee, I didn’t know that time. Saka trust me, this friend of mine, is very single. Broken hearted din, parang ikaw kaya baka you might find comfort sa isa’t isa. Malay mo naman.” Sabi niya naman sakin.

“What are you on about Chaeng? Do you suggest na gamitin namin ng friend mo ang isa’t isa to feel better?” I said while laughing. “Pwede din naman kung yun gusto niyo.hehehe” She said sabay hila sakin palabas ng room ko.

“Tara na dali. Malalate na tayo, we still have to buy chicken for my girlfriend.” Sabi naman ni Chaeng. “Fine, wait lang naman, I’ll just get my wallet.” Sabi ko and with that, we headed out of my house and went our way to Jisoo’s house.

I’ve never actually met her pa. Naikukwento lang sakin ni Chaeng si Jisoo whenever we’d meet which isn’t that often because we’re both busy. Ako with work, and siya naman with school pa. She’s graduating na kasi back then and ngayong wala na kong girlfriend, my life became less productive, nabawasan ang activities so most of the time, I’m just home, watching Netflix. This time. Chaeng didn’t take no for an answer and I figured what the hell nga naman, why not join them? wala naman sigurong mawawala sakin.

When we arrived at Jisoo’s place, mukhang may inabutan pa kaming soft moment because we saw her friends hugging it out. Parang sa mga movies lang when a group of friends were having a moment. And then I saw her for the first time. This woman who looked so delicate yet so beautiful. I couldn’t take my eyes off of her.

“What’s up girlllsssssss dito na kami!!!!” Sabi ni Chaeng breaking the ice. They looked at us and smiled. It was actually the first time I saw any of Chaeng’s friends in college and they were all pretty. When I was in college, I didn’t remember hanging out with women this pretty. Chaeng’s a lucky . Hell even yung girlfriend niyang si Jisoo is so pretty.

If hindi ko pa nalaman kay Chaeng na may obsession sa chicken yung girlfriend niya, I never would have thought a pretty girl like her loves chicken so much. “Friend ko nga pala, si Chahee. Heart broken siya, pero since it’s her birthday, sinama ko dito. Cha, meet Wendy, Joy, Joohyun, Jennie and ofcourse my girlfriend Jisoo.” Chaeng introduced me and I waved at them shyly.

“Hi Chahee, taken na lahat dito maliban nalang kay Jennie. Mabait yan, maganda pa.” Sabi naman ni Jisoo with matching wink pa. I had to laugh because they were downright trying to match us right away. So Jennie is her name. Pretty. Very pretty.

“Yeah, I can see that. She’s very cute.” Sabi ko naman trying my best to stay cool as much as possible and I saw her blush. “Hi” Sabi ko sakaniya and then smiled at her. “Hi” She said it back and her voice. Her voice were music to my ears. She’s soft spoken and shy too. It was all kinds of cute. That moment I forgot, heartbroken nga pala ko, and here I was blatantly planning on flirting right away. “Yiiiiieuuut puta yan ganyan dapat! hi agad!” Their other friend said. I think her name is Wendy, they obviously like teasing from the looks of it. Everyone laughed and so did I. This was going to be an interesting night I thought. I was eager to get to know Jennie.

I don’t know anything about her other than single din siya, pero she don’t seem pretty much into the idea of flirting with anyone. I thought baka may pinag dadaanan din because she looked like kakaiyak niya lang. I didn’t want to ask anything about it kasi hindi naman kami close. We just met and this night was supposed to be fun according to Chaeng.

I also felt this aw