call

This morning around 8:45 am, I had a surprising call.  I didn't recognize the number but picked up anyway.  The guy on the other end said he was T.  T what?  He added we had been in the same seminar on Anglo-American Law.  It took a couple of seconds for me to put a face to the name.  The last time we saw each other was more than two years ago.

The first time I met T was probably half a year before that.  We had decided to take the same seminar under the same professor at the same university.  He came up to me right after the first class and asked if he could have my number.  Soon, he asked me out for lunch.  We talked about the books we read, our respective future dreams, and he told me about his ex girlfriend.  He said he would work anywhere; if he could support his wife so she could enjoy her life doing whatever she wanted to, that would make him happy.  He asked if I had a boyfriend; I said yes.  He complimented me anyway and said (with no hint of shyness) I had a great figure.

A couple months later, he sent me a text saying he really liked me.  I said I really appreciated his feelings but that I didn't want to break up with my boyfriend.  He said he understood but that he couldn't stop crying -- that he would be waiting if I ever changed my mind.

When the semester ended, we never met after that.  He texted me a couple of times, but I said I couldn't meet.  I had already broken up with my boyfriend but I was going through a very busy period.  More than a year went by.  I wondered about him once in a while, but never thought about calling him.  Nor did I expect him to call one random Saturday morning before leaving for work.

「電話帳を整理してたら、なんか懐かしいなと思って(I felt kind of nostalgic when I found your name in my phone book)」 he said, when I asked what was up.  He asked me what I was doing now.  He said he would've been shocked if I had already gotten married.  "You know, I really liked you.  Well, not that I called to check or anything..."  From what I heard in his voice and the way he talked, he seemed a bit exhausted from all the work but he hadn't changed.  He was still the T who came up to me right after class to ask my number.  I wondered if he thought I had changed.

I never had feelings for him.  And I don't think I ever would.  But his affection was always straightforward and earnest.  It did mean a lot to me -- probably as much as his bittersweet memory did to him.