The Riddler’s Birthday

Today is the birthday of one of my best friends – Ngangi. Let me tell you the story of our friendship.

I’ve known her since we were little kids; we went to the same school from preparatory to high school. As kids, we both frequented the school library.

LOL. What do you think of my drawing? Drawing is not one of my talents, but I tried my best, okay?

School let out at 3:40 pm and most kids would be fetched from school shortly after, but not us. Ngangi’s dad was a teacher in our school, so she’d wait for him. Meanwhile my mom worked until 5pm, so our tricycle driver would fetch us around that time so we could swing by mom’s office to fetch her too. So with no other playmates left, we’d head to the library and read in solace.

I say “solace” because even though we were both in the library every single day and we knew each other by name, Ngangi was two batches lower than me, so we weren’t friends. So I’d known Ngangi for years, but I only talked to her in 2008 when we were both working in Singapore and her sister Chi, who was my high school classmate, finally formally introduced us to each other the night we rode the Singapore Flyer.

Inside the Singapore Flyer, the night we officially got introduced

We clicked immediately, and became fast friends. Chi would often comment how much we were like each other, and joked that we were soul mates. She laughed so hard when she saw this picture:

Bookworm alert!

We had met up with former school mates that night when we came across a Christmas decor statue with a book.

It was my idea to copy the statue, and I quickly pulled out an ever-present library book from my bag.

Ngangi did the same. So funny! After all these years, some things didn’t change! Haha! Bookworm alert!!

One day, while we were emailing back and forth, we somehow got to the topic of the library.

“I remember you even had your special chair, where you always sat, and you always had a book rest,” Ngangi said about me.

She then confessed that she once had a dream where she was her little self in the library, watching little me, wondering if I too had a parent who was a teacher because I was also staying late in the library.

Meanwhile I ‘fessed up about my favorite book. “There was this giant book of riddles in the library,” I shared. “It was so big and thick that it was too heavy to borrow and bring home.”

We had around eight subjects back then, almost each subject with its own book, all of which I had to carry in my bag, so bringing home said book just wasn’t plausible.

“So what I’d do was, at the end of the day, I would hide the book in another shelf behind other books so that no one else would be able to borrow it,” I admitted.

“OMG I remember that book!” Ngangi replied. “It was color green and really huge, wasn’t it? That was also my favorite! Sometimes it would disappear and I’d wonder where it went. So it was YOU who hid it!!!”

Oops. 😅

“Ngangi used to ask us riddles every night!” Chi added. “She’d read them from a notebook where she wrote down riddles that she copied off a book. So was that the book were you got those riddles from?” Ngangi confirmed that it was.

And that was how we were from then on called “The Riddlers” instead of “The Bookworms.” We are part of a group called “The Meanies.”

Ngangi’s Birthday at P.S. Cafe (2010)

When we were all still in Singapore, we’d have brunches and impromptu dinners and watch movies and drive bikes in parks and hang out at our places.

Then Ngangi and Chi moved back to Manila a few years ago. That hasn’t changed our friendship, however, as we still keep in touch thanks to technology, and we meet up every time we’re in Manila or Singapore or even go somewhere else completely, like that Taiwan trip last year.

Jumping around in Taiwan, 2012

Last month in Makati

Ngangi is more than just a nerd, however. She is pretty, incredibly sexy, fashionable, generous, and has lots of friends. She is the reason why I was able to buy this macbook I’m using to type this blog, and whenever I’m in Manila, I always stay with her. And I am so grateful for that.

The thing I’m most grateful for, however, is her best trait – her empathy, her ability to listen and understand in a way that no one else does. She is always there to pay attention to whatever I have to say, no matter how inconsequential it may seem. Sometimes I feel like she’s the only person who sees me, the only person who understands that a seemingly innocuous phrase I dropped actually meant a lot more than I let on, and is there to throw out a lifesaver before I drowned in my tears.

I am so lucky that she was born, and I celebrate her birthday for that reason.

Happy birthday, Ngangi! I wish you more blessings this year, you lucky year of the rat you! Love you!