There and back again.

I think I'll be so sad when I get back to Tokyo.

No, I'm already feeling sad.

―

"Where do you wanna go? Let's go to east coast park." Said L.

It was 1 in the afternoon, on a Saturday free of any commitment. It was a luxury -- my first free Saturday in almost half a year. I walked out of the bedroom and sat near an open window. It was a windy day, and breezes of wind blew through the room rhythmically. It felt great just sitting there and doing nothing. 

"Ok." I replied, secretly excited by the prospect of going to east coast again. But when I turned back, L was sound asleep again.

I looked down from the windowsill as the wind breezes through. Oh, Singapore. I couldn't help wondering why this place was so magical to me. Everything was so familiar that it felt like my only home even though I didn't even have my own place to stay. But L's place was good enough, or perhaps even better than my own place if I did have one. Everything, too, was so earthly, so reassuring, so real. It's a place where life's mundanity feels almost tangible, where the air smells like mud and sweat rather than perfume of some luxurious brand. Here, I have such a strong and concrete feeling of being alive and living.

When L woke up again it was already 4pm. The east coast park plan became a gone case, and we went out for Korean BBQ buffet. It was so good. We went to Kelvin Zhou's house because he was inviting people over to drink. We played some card games and I left half way without drinking. Not knowing where to go, I chilled at Parkway Parade, and wondered why wherever I went it was full of memories. It was towards 11pm that L texted me again, asking me to pick him up. He sounded perfectly normal in text, so I only realized how drunk he was when I saw him in person. So drunk that he almost couldn't walk. So drunk. It's an immensely fun Saturday night.

―

Throwing back to Thursday night. I took an early day off to pick up LH from camp, in the joy of having found his house key. (Which resulted in me driving out late, almost crashing and staying over at Google for the previous night.) It was nice seeing him again after half a year, and we had dinner at Bugis. I had work the next day, so we slept early... Kind of.

Then it was Friday. Waffles at Creamier which was as good as always, and we walked back to JC. All the good old times. And ran into some juniors and talked and went back again.

― 

When I woke up again it was Sunday morning. The air felt heavier as the time of departure that I had dreaded was coming in no time. LH had tuition duty that morning, so he was up early too.

"My duty changed the time to 10-12. Let's go east coast park and have some breakfast." Said L as he put on a shirt with style and handsomeness. So we drove to east coast, breakfasted at the grand McDonald there, drove back and went to his duty's house. In the two hours' waiting time I had nothing to do, so I drove to Clementi, picked up Y and had him accompany me to shop for some Singapore souvenirs. B came later, and I drove them back to botanic garden. And it was time, so we said goodbye, promising to meet in Japan next time.

Memories of the last few hours in Singapore were blurry. L and I went for lunch at One KM, and headed straight to the airport. While checking in I was told that my flight was delayed. So the two of us talked, in exactly the same way we would talk during every video call. The conversation, as usual, was mostly crap. And then it was time. Right before I went in, I turned and said, "don't forget about me". He laughed, even though I couldn't quite capture what that meant. I went in. And that, to me, was the end of this trip to Singapore.