who are you? 10.4.08

I was not getting any message from Sya. The time was already leaving me behind; I guess I had to leave already then. It was about 20 minutes till my next class and I still had not gone out yet to start walking class. It usually would take me 15 minutes, at least, to get to Monash.

I walked out as usual. The day had a nice feeling to it, somehow, walking pass Sunway University College with my purple bag on my back. I was trying to walk as fast as I could. From behind me, I could hear some footsteps approaching, quite fast.

A guy appeared to my left.

“Monash eh?”

That seemed sudden. Those were the footsteps I was hearing, and there he suddenly spoke up to me. Sort of curly hair, casual clothes and a bag hanging on his right shoulder. I looked at him, my usual blurred face, and said, “A’ah.”

He nodded as he looked to the front. “Berapa lama dah study kat Monash?”

Digging up on a conversation, this guy, I see. That was interesting, though. Not the typical moronic male voices yelling out from the workshop near the traffic light up ahead, where the guys seemed to love to disturb girls who passed by everyday.

“Baru first sem,” I answered, with my usual sort-of-smiling face, trying to be friendly. Not pretending to be, but trying to be, even if I did not look like it; that was so typical of me.

“Oh, sama la,” he responded. “Duduk apartment ke?”

It seemed weird there, as he might have come out of the apartment area himself, so maybe he knew that already. “A’ah…”

“Blok mana? Aku blok B. Nampak gak tadi bila jalan keluar.”

“Blok C. Blok depan skali tuh.”

As he seemed to think to himself for a moment, I looked at him. He was nodding to what I said, as if only realising where Block C was. He was still walking to my left, me on the road while he was on the grass; quite an approachable guy to talk to if I ever knew him, if he was not the one approaching me first.

“Kat Monash ni, sponsor ke?”

“Yup… under MARA.”

Some words he said I was unsure of, it came out not too clear to me but I came out too shy to ask again. Maybe he said he was under the same sponsorship as well. Quite many questions for someone I did not know or never saw before. Not those typical bothersome boys who would flirt with girls in that annoying way, though. This had a good feeling to it, like a peaceful conversation with a new acquaintance at Monash before 9 am on a goody Tuesday morning, so this seemed really harmless.

“Sebelum masuk Monash, buat apa dulu?”

Saying AUSMAT somehow did not seem complete, in my thoughts, some people may not know what it really stands for. “Australian… Matriculation.”

“Oh, buat AUSMAT la ni?” he said, seemed familiar with it, though.

“A’ah…” I smiled, nodding my head. “Buat AUSMAT, tak lepas… MARA hantar sambung sini, buat twinning.”

He chuckled a bit. “Sama la… aku dulu buat A-level kat Taylor’s, tak lepas jugak. Kau buat course apa?”

“Biotech.” I was going to ask him the same question, but wondering whether I was going to call him by kau, awak or anything else like anda (my typical weird sense). I could not recall saying awak to any guys before this in my life, it did not seem to suit me even for someone I just knew. I am really no I-you person either, seriously. But to call him by kau might seem drastic, like he was already my close friend that I had known for a while when I just met him, would it seem polite? Too much thinking about such simple things making it complicated, it did not end up coming out of my mouth.

“Oh. Aku engineering. Jap lagi dah nak ada lecture kul 9 ni.”

Em, the other me was telling me at that moment, I didn’t even ask, you told me. Silly, he was just trying to make a conversation here with me – do not be so timid or anything. But then, engineering? It seems interesting, somehow. He did look like an engineering student-person, like how you can tell back then for Ausmat18.

“Oh yeke… err, aku pulak ada tutorial jap lagi.”

“Berapa jam?”

“Err, sejam je.” I looked at him while talking. “Chemistry.”

“Owh, ok ek. Kalau kitorang, tutorial lebih sejam.”

“Oh, yeh?” I inquired, lost at what to say more, just chuckling on my own. “Kesian gak, heh…” I muttered. I suddenly had a very good feeling inside. I was imagining weird things in my head. It kinda reminded me of eating lunch at a stall near RSB the other day, probably Sunday, when suddenly the woman at the stall came up to my table and gave me a piece of paper. A man named Nizam gave me his phone number, written on the paper. No, not that Nizam in my Agama class. Sya and Juan were surprised; somehow I was thinking inside, this has got to be for one of them both, not me; you have got the wrong person!

“Ada laki ni bagi nombor kat adik. Nak terima, terimalah, akak cuma jalankan tanggungjawab je,” the woman told me. I stared hard at the paper. Mimpi lagikah aku?

And here suddenly some guy I did not know came up and talked to me, and I had no idea who he was, what his name is or whatever else about him. Suddenly I wanted to know his name.

He turned behind him and stopped to talk to a Chinese girl walking behind us. At that, I just continued walking. He was still walking near me, and still talked to me after that.

“Itu classmate,” he said to me. “Sama kuliah la, I mean.”

Me and my usual smile; I said, “Oh… then korang lecture yang sama la ni kul 9 ni?”

“A’ah, ye lah.”

The girl said something to him and he was once again stopped from talking to me. We were then about to cross the busy road to Monash opposite of us. Realising he continued talking to her, I kept moving on without turning back. Something felt weird somehow, in me.

Getting across the road, the two of them were still talking. Suddenly I realised that Rahman was walking right next to me, from where he came from I had no clue; was I walking too slowly? He lives in the apartment as well. He just laughed when I realised it was him to my right.

“Kau lagi ke, terkejut aku.” I laughed. We were approaching building 2.

“Kau kelas kul berapa?” Rahman asked, smiling.

“Sembilan la.” I smiled.

I was probably on time, or even earlier than usual. Rahman and I went separate ways, and soon after I looked at the guy who talked to me earlier going to Auditorium 1 with his lecture-mate. And me, I walked farther away to my class in building 6. Maybe that would be my last time seeing him. Last chance now, if I ever wanted to know his name or anything else, that was the last moment. After this, maybe, I would not see him again.

Strange, when I never even knew him, suddenly I cared whether I would see him again. There was something interesting about him; the fact that he came up to talk to me that way. Walking away, I realised I still did not know his name or who he really was. Darn, did I spoil a chance by talking too little, maybe?

From then on, I wanted to see him again, somehow. It had been a while, I don’t know if I ever will. And I had not felt that way for the longest time already now. Who is he? Will I ever meet him again?