During our school days, Mr F was considered to be a legend. He has a face that resembled those handsome TVB’s actors, his grades were extremely good not to mention that he knew how to play the saxophone. He was the dream boyfriend of every girl in the school.
However, he liked to act cool. He could not be bothered to answer anyone and he gives off a super cold vibe. At that point of time, I felt that he is like a refrigerator, the kind that is extremely silent but kept giving off cold air.
The man of my dreams is Chen Hao Nan. I wanted to be the woman of a big brother, following him all the way from Tung Lou Wan to Causeway Bay, a lifetime of uninhibited freedom and love.
The high school that we were in was considered to be one of the best in the city. For the sake of the student’s result, the school had a rule where our seats were arranged according to our result. Our teacher in charge is a stickler for rules (his horoscope must have been cancer).
Therefore, after our midterms and finals, we will always line up outside the cla.s.s as our teacher took a list and started to read out our names from top to bottom according to our result. It was only when our names were called then we were allowed to enter the cla.s.s.
This experience is a bad one and I felt that this is by far the most inhuman idea ever. Being the top student in our cla.s.s, Mr F had always been the first one to enter the cla.s.s yet he never choose to sit at the first row because he doesn’t like it.
He much preferred the fourth row and the seat that is closest to the window where his view will be un.o.bstructed, making it easy for to drift (act) off (cool).
At that time, there was this one male cla.s.smate of mine who happened to have a crush on me. That male cla.s.smate does not like to wash his hair and he had the tendency to write me poems like > and such. For that exam, I was ranked behind him which means that we could very well be seated next to each other. The thought of my grave being covered with his blood just gave me goose b.u.mps.Looking around, there is only one empty seat in the cla.s.s and it is next to Mr. F. Well, he had always sat alone, I guess that is the privilege of being the first in cla.s.s. I did not know what came over me then as I gathered up all my courage and sat myself beside Mr. F without any explanation.
Mr. F simply looked at me. I remembered that time he had his ear piece on and was listening to music. I gave him an awkward smile as he continued to look at me with his expressionless face, not saying anything until the CD player’s broadcast was finished.
“Jay Chou?” I tried to strike up a conversation with him. During then, Jay Chou was one of the most popular singer around, his songs were being broadcasted throughout the streets.
Mr. F then opened his CD player, changed his disc before putting on his ear piece as he replied me coldly, “The Beatles.”
That is how we were seated next to each other.
Several years later as we reminisced our memories, I said, “Couldn’t you be nicer and friendlier then?”
“I am sorry,” he said apologetically. “After all, I didn’t know then that the person seated beside me is going to be my wife.”