Looking back at the time when sparks turned into fire.
In exactly 3 weeks we would be celebrating our 6th anniversary, and after three months from that, we would mark our first decade as a couple. It’s prime time to reminisce about how we met in a classic Taglish manner.
The Encounter
For starters, we both worked at the same company, with me joining Fujitsu a year earlier than AC. Actually, one year kami hindi nagkakilala even though we both worked at the same company. Fujitsu IS a big company after all.
Yung initial impression ko sa kaniya was that she’s the strict 6s officer. Di niya pinalagpas ung senior sa section namin.
And then, she barged into my life when I had just moved on from my first heartbreak after almost two years of emo-ing. I was just transferred to the same section as her and during some surprise Birthday greeting thingy, two persons didn’t join the commotion. That’s the time we first made our interaction as we had something in common. “Uy, di ka nakiki-birthday? Ako din e”. Not exactly how it went though, as it was one of our colleagues that introduced us to one another after he found out that AC also did not celebrate birthdays.
The Blossoming
At first, our relationship was more of a friendly one, more of a big sister - broke brother kind of relationship (she’s 2 years older than me). I can’t remember what happened back then, but I ran out of money way before the next payday, so she decided to prepare lunch for me, every day. There was no meaning to that, to be honest, as I was just glad I wasn’t hungry for the day, but it certainly is one of those things that aided the relationship to blossom into more than friends.
We often went out with our friends on Wednesdays to do a group Bible Study (yes, mababaet kasi kami), so friendship going strong kami non.
I then went to Japan for a few months in the last few months of 2012, and that’s when I noticed that I started having feelings for her. I got back to the Philippines for a few weeks during the Holidays and went back to Japan in January, which lasted til April.
During that stay in Japan is when our relationship just went to the next level.
I emailed her through the company email frequently (as she wasn’t part of the team that was sent to Japan) kahit alam namin na pwede mabasa ng mga bossings ung email namin if they so wish to (aside: I think they did, kasi pag uwi ko sa pinas and went straight to the office from the airport, parang they were waiting for me to sit besides AC, may kasama pang tili kala mo romance office sitcom show e XD), made a fancy website for her wherein if she guessed the password she would be greeted by my sincere confession of my feelings toward her, and made a conscientious effort to get a personalized chopstick for her before heading back to the Philippines.
It’s Official
I got back to the Philippines on April 2, and that’s when we officially started dating. April 2, 2013.
It was quite early, just a few weeks from that day, when I agreed to meet with her father and make it official-official, like family official.
We didn’t last being an office couple though, as after I was sent to Japan for the 3rd time in the 4th quarter of 2013, I decided to call it quits with the company. It was around this time that we had frequent overtime, both AC and I went home past midnight and had to be back at the office at 7 am. When I was sent to Japan on a 2 days notice, I had to work 12-13 hours a day there, and that’s when I finally decided to resign.
I left the company on January 2, 2014, and joined XSplit on January 4. AC left Fujitsu soon after. We have both since transitioned away from embedded firmware industry, wherein I went into the multimedia software industry, while AC went into the banking software industry.
But our relationship still stayed strong.