chinky at the library

Chinky Mae came to the library last week, as i was talking with two other officemates at my table. He asked for my immediate supervisor, one whom he came to know through me when we were still friends. He didn’t look in my direction, smiling his sweet chinky smile, as he was asking them her whereabouts. In fact he didn’t look at me at all, like i wasn’t there in the first place. My officemates were quick to give him the information that my supervisor was currently out of the room, to which he politely said thank you, and left as quickly as he entered. After his exit, my officemates looked perplexed, and went on to ask each other his surname, and in which department he works, precisely. They’re probably thinking why a mild mannered gay man would approach them, as they were talking with an equally mild mannered officemate who hasn’t yet revealed publicly, through a prepared press statement, his sexual preference. As none of them apparently knew his surname or where he worked, exactly, i supplied the needed information with the word yata after each data. It’s almost two years now, since he started ignoring me. in my heart, i still longed for a return to our old glory days, meeting at the bat cave in the afternoons just to check on each other’s loves and lives. Now i know that moment is never coming back at all.

inseparable

Chinky. My shuttlebus seatmate. My partner in crime. My confidant. My friend. I miss our "batcave" days when we just meet at the stairwell to talk in hushed tones of last night's affairs; or krissy's bad girl moments wherein i get to top the list of office casualties. I miss our dinners before heading home. I miss your one-liners. I miss my visits to your office or yours to mine; just to talk, using the standard codenames just in case the person we are talking about pass by and accidentally catch on the subject. I miss going to the shuttlebus at night or in the mornings looking for you; immediately sitting beside you, and once again resuming on where we left at, prior to the last shuttle ride we took.

The shuttle was half-filled tonight. At the entrance i immediately looked for that familiar haircut, and the jawline, and those chinky slits for eyes. I immediately saw your back as i entered from the rear entrance of the bus. Beside you, my girl officemate called my name and motioned me to sit between the two of you. i tentatively approached, taking care not to look at you in the eye. I mustered to say a little "hello" and you replied with a little "hi"; doubting all the while as i'm hearing it, if your gaze even wandered in my direction. As i sat beside you, girl officemate began her endless prattle covering an already quite familiar terrain. I steered the conversation so that girl and i talked for the duration of the ride; all the while taking note of your hands—the one beside me—never leaving its grasp on the headrest fronting you, your elbow substituting for a vicious guard dog.

I did the same.

I miss you chinky.

pie and chinky : the descent continued

And so pie met codename chinkymae. Chinkymae is a cute older guy from another department that pie used to have a major total crush on. Cute slits for eyes, yummy lips, fair complexion, taller than pie, plus older—he was the stuff of pie's dreams.

When they were introduced by a fellow officemate, riding the company shuttlebus on the way home, pie's harbored feelings got a little more intense! They were not mere faces meeting along corridors anymore; he's chinkymae aquino and he is pie oh pah! This could be a start of something, pie thought. And so pie got to know a little more of chinky, on the daily basis that they rode the shuttlebus.

Slowly, pie's dream bubble deflated the more he got to know chinky. He was wiser than pie in many ways, and that's a good thing; but despite his age, chinky's not the settling down type. he's a player who likes to keep his contacts accessible in case the itch down under got too itchy for self-scratching. Deep in his heart pie knows this is not the kind of set up he wants to end up with, when he got older.

But seeing how chinky seems to be enjoying and having the time of his life meeting guys, pie quickly assimilated the lifestyle that chinky led. Chinky takes credit for pie's initiation to the underground bath houses in the metro. Seeing guys scantily clad in bath towels, prancing around endless mirrored walls and mazes is such a novelty, that pie kept coming back for more.

we all know that one does not just play this kind of game without any battleplan. You go in battle-hardened, never exposing your heart for anybody to pick on. But pie was such a newbie to all of these, that every encounter left a scar on his person. He entered the baths and left a little lonelier and sadder than when he came in. This would go on for months, searching for the one in a place that's not meant to be scoured for the one in the first place. So from crush du jour, chinky slowly assumed the role of a trusted friend and confidant to pie, knowing every heartache incurred from that place and giving what bit of advice he could to make the pain a little less painful.

Pie, in time, learned his lesson and started avoiding the place. he was unsuccessful at first, but in time he mustered the courage to say no to the urges that never seem to die down. His tour over, he set his eyes on online communities that cater to PLUs.

While chinky, well he was everywhere.