The Road to 40 Day 203/365: Reconnecting and a Spoiled Surprise

I met up with an old friend today, but it wasn’t the only highlight of this day.

I dropped off Vino at school and headed to Vivo, where I was to meet Shaun, a friend of mine from grade school.

When we moved to our current home in the Philippines in 1991, I enrolled in the school near the gate of our village. It was established in 1990, so I joined the school in its second year. I saw the school grow from a two-story building to a four-story one, and later, we welcomed the preschool building and the high school building.

I knew almost everyone in my batch who came to our school, and though I was a bit of a shy boy, most of them knew me as well because I’ve been there for so long. After graduating from sixth grade, my parents told me to take the entrance exam for Don Bosco in Mandaluyong.

I didn’t want to move, but I felt like I wouldn’t know what I’m capable of if I didn’t try to study elsewhere.

Since then, I’d try to visit my old school to see friends whenever I could. But by my third year in high school, I decided to connect more with my classmates in Don Bosco.

Friendster came about, which helped me stay connected with my high school friends even if we moved to different schools. Later, Facebook came, and it gradually helped me connect with people from the past.

Shaun was one of the first of those guys that I reconnected with. Over the years, we didn’t really talk much, but we did catch up with each other through similar interests we post on our feeds. During the pandemic, he helped me join the Lorenzo Ruiz (our school) groupchat for Mobile Legends, so I got to talk to other old friends as well.

He lived in Singapore before, but he and his family relocated back to the Philippines a couple of years back. He hit me up earlier in the week to ask to meet up.

I’m happy to see him doing well. I’ve always enjoyed listening to podcasts that feature different sides of known personalities, and interviewing fighters was really what got me hooked on working for ONE Championship. So hearing stories from people I actually know is always a treat for me.

After catching up, we walked around Vivo for some of his errands (i.e. shopping) and decided to have lunch around the Tanjong Pagar area. He said he frequented a ramen and gyoza shop somewhere there. When we got there, I remember going to that place but not being able to eat because I arrived during an offpeak hour that they were closed.

Food was good, and the company was better. I appreciated that he gave me a bit of his time here in SG to meet up, even if we haven’t had much interaction over the past few years.

We parted ways after lunch, and I headed off to Vino’s school. During this time, my flower delivery arrived.

I got tulips for Che. It’s her favorite kind of flower. I don’t usually give her flowers – something we talked about early on in our relationship. I said I’d rather spend money on something she could use or something we could eat, rather than some flowers that will eventually wilt.

However, from time to time, I’d break out some flowers to make her feel girly again. She has specifically mentioned tulips as her choice if she were given flowers.

It was in season for our pre-wedding shoot, and it was her choice of flower for her bouquet in our wedding.

We’ll be celebrating our 10th year as a married couple on Saturday, the 29th of November. It’s also our 21st year as a couple. I wanted the tulips to be the highlight of the surprise for this day.

I told Vino about the plan tomorrow, and when we got home, he saw the flowers. He asked if he could be the one to give it to Che, but I said he should let me do it.

When we opened the door, she was there. Vino’s face was flushed. He was worried that Che already saw the flowers. I said don’t think about it too much and just keep it in the kitchen, since she’s still distracted by a call.

After her call, she slept for a bit on the sofa. We planned on going to football practice, but decided against it because it was raining hard. I was going to cook adobo later on. It looked like our very open hiding spot was going to be a success.

The problem with tulips is that I can’t just keep them anywhere. It likes cold temperatures, but I can’t keep it in the fridge because she might see it. I can’t keep it in cabinets because it might wilt quickly. So I thought that being out in the open like that would at least preserve it.

We had dinner, and we were watching our K-Drama, so I thought we were in the clear. Until she finally noticed it and called us out on it.

It was still a surprise, she still liked it, but I wasn’t going to have a highlight for my scene the next day. She called Vino to say that she already knows our secret and showed him the flowers. Vino looked at me, as if to ask if she knew “everything” and I just gave him a slight nod to say he should just go with it.

To be fair to this boy, he can keep secrets for surprises as long as he’s in the loop of what’s going to happen. After Che went to the room, I told him a couple more instructions for my plan tomorrow.

I printed out the letters I made while they were in the room. It’s been edited a few times already, as I had to edit my plan quite a bit because of the weather and how I assumed Che would feel about it. So the printing was kind of last-minute, but there’s a backbone of how it’s going to go down, which I explained to Vino already.

When I got to the room, they were both sleeping. I watched for a bit but decided to turn off the TV so that Che wouldn’t wake up to the glare.

It’s going to be a busy day tomorrow, starting with the scene I planned out.