Dear You

letter one | the day we met

i remember the day.

it was late in the afternoon, roughly five or six as my group of friends and i walked the rough roads of the school.

i was giggling at something my best friend had been saying as i excitedly thought over what i was going to do when we reached our destination. i hadn't noticed that someone in our group had disappeared until someone at the back called out for us.

"hey, wait up," they said. "that one is talking to some people."

my best friend and i stopped and i peer back, curious as to who was holding us up.

i can't quite see who it was, that one's body blocking who he was talking to from view.

i turned my attention back to my friend and we start talking about how classes had gone. every now and then, i glance at my watch, impatiently waiting for that one to hurry up so we can head to our destination.

a couple of minutes pass and he is finally finishing up. i cast another curious look as trying to see who his companions were. i only catch sight of a forehead before that one blocks the view again.

i walked closer, inching forward a bit to get a better look. and just then, that one turns around, a small smile on his face as he heads over to the entire group.

"who was that?" i found myself asking as i looked over his shoulder and catch the back of a guy.

that one turned around to look behind him before he faced the group again.

"my brother and his friends," he replied.

this time, everyone in our group is curious and looks past that one and studies the brother.

as if he sensed all the curious eyes on him, the brother turns around and stares back, not fazed at all by the numerous set of eyes studying him intently.

the silence and wonder that echoes in our small group of friends is profounding.

they do not look alike. that was what was going through everyone's heads.

where that one was big and more muscular, his brother was tall and lean. where that one had more facial hair and had a rough face, his brother had a more smooth, childlike look to him.

that one chuckled, filling the silence that had dawned on the group as our eyes darted from him and his brother. he had already encountered it numerous times and wasn't surprised anymore by it.

"i know," he said, "i know. we don't look alike."

"no way," everyone said respectively as they continued to look back and forth between the two. "you can't be brothers."

however, at this time i wasn't paying attention to the differences between that one and the brother. i had long moved past that.

instead i was busy studying the brother intensely, my brows furrowed together as i tried to place the face that stared back at me with equal curiosity.

i knew that i'd seen him before somewhere. his face was familiar and it was grating on me that i still couldn't quite place it.

it lingered on the tip of my fingers and i rifled through my brain to remember where i knew him from.

after seconds, the answer still evaded me.

by that time however, the brother and his group of friends had started talking amongst themselves and was starting to wander off, away from us. my group of friends were also starting to continue to our destination.

i followed after them grudgingly, my brain still working full-time to place the face with the memory.

then it hits me where i knew the brother from. i turned around as if to see if he matches the younger face in my memory only to see that the brother is also staring back, his friends already a couple of metres away from him as he stands still.

we watched each other and it seems like we have both remembered where we knew each other from.

"dude," my best friend called out for me and i turn to look at her. "hurry up," she added as she waved her hand back and forth, beckoning me to catch up.

i nodded before i cast a final look back at him.

he wasn't looking back anymore. he had already reached his friends, his back the only thing that faced me.

i caught up to my friends, and instead of heading for my best friend, i headed to that one.

"hey, your brother go to ***?" i asked, breathy.

that one stared back at me with a confused expression. "yeah, how did you know?"

i shrugged nonchalantly. "i think we know each other. he was in the other class."

"and you remember him?" that one studied me as if i had grown another head.

"he was the class clown," i replied, "everyone knew him."

i smiled as i pondered over how weird life was.

i had been in the same year as the brother and here i was in the same class as that one, who was the older one of the two siblings.

what i found to be hilarious was that if it wasn't for that one, i wouldn't have met my old classmate again, after seven years.

thinking back, i never expected that that day would be significant. i never expected that it would play in my memory over and over again.

however it was significant.

because that was the day that i met you.