FN Blog - Seven heads are better than one!

As I bent down to drink from the water fountain, I heard the cellphone in my hand ring.

“Hello? Nasa’n ka?” asked H.

“Sa may Edsa Walk,” I replied, referring to one of the walkways at school.

“Diyan ka lang, pupuntahan kita,” he said before hanging up.

I wondered what this was all about. I had just come from dance practice (in all my sweaty, jazz-pants-and-t-shirted glory) and was to stay an extra hour at school, as per H’s instructions earlier in the day. We’d known each other for a couple of months, hanging out both in and out of school. The night before, I received a forwarded message from him, one of those standard goodnight messages. Except that this standard message had The Three Words tacked onto the end. I didn’t know if it was a mistake or if he really meant to send it. So I just chose not to acknowledge it. Deep down, though, it hit me that I felt the same way, and it sucked that I didn’t know if it was, from his end, for real or simply an accident.

H showed up at Edsa Walk, cleaned up real nice and smelling really good.

“Naks naman, naka-tuck-in pa!” I teased him.

“May date ako eh,” he answered.

“Ah talaga?” I managed to whimper with a forced smile. I tried not to let on that I felt like someone had just punched me in the gut. Over the past couple of months, I had been telling myself that I was happy enough just being his friend. But after that text message—and feeling like I had the wind knocked out of me with his casual declaration—I knew that wasn’t true.

“Teka, blindfold muna kita,” he said, before we walked any further. Amid my protests and confusion, he covered my eyes. “Ang bait niya talaga, pinuntahan ka pa niya,” he added. I didn’t think my heart could sink any lower, but it did. I knew he was referring to a guy whom I was sort-of dating for a while.

Earlier that day, H gave me a call, asking what time I was going home.

“6:30,” I replied.

“Gawin mo nang 7:30,” he said. “May surprise ako sa ‘yo.”

Throughout the day, I kept pestering him about the surprise. “May kinalaman ba ‘to kay [name of guy I was sort-of dating]?” I fished, hoping he would say otherwise.

“Ah, alam mo na,” he answered. I couldn’t tell if he was joking.

So there I was, walking with a blindfold over my eyes, and thinking that H was serious after all. I love surprises, but whatever this was, I figured I would be disappointed. Because it wasn’t from H.

Over the course of a couple of months, he treated me incredibly well, walking me to class, giving me home-baked goodies, supporting me through nerve-wracking oral exams. People warned me about him because he was the head of an unofficial all-male org at school, one that didn’t have a stellar rep. “Why are you so nice to me?” I constantly asked him, skeptical and also a little nervous about what it all meant.

“Wala lang. Why are you so nice to me?” he would always reply.

Apparently, this niceness extended to helping out that other guy.

“Sa’n mo ba ako dadalhin?” I protested as he led me through corridors. Eventually, he had me sit down. He removed my blindfold and I found myself in the middle of his tambayan, surrounded with countless candles—and what seemed like all the members of his org! And beside me, H was seated. He handed me a bouquet of flowers, and his friends started singing a song called “The Promise.”

It was a good old-fashioned harana, something I never would have expected from H, who wasn’t the ligaw type. One of his friends was documenting the whole thing on video. “I’m never gonna do this for anyone else,” H would later explain. (He would also reveal that, even though we had only really known each other for a couple of months, he had had a crush on me since high school!)

While the boys sang and the candlelight danced in the December breeze, one of H’s friends was even blowing bubbles! It was hilarious, and the whole thing was just touching and sweet and unforgettable.

“I’m not afraid to say…” sang all the guys.

“…I love you,” finished H. And everyone said, “Yihee!” and all its variations.

“Read the card,” H urged me, indicating the card that came with the flowers.

I did as I was told. Now you know why I’m so nice to you, it said. And then, The Three Words.

We’ve been together ever since.