Fate's Masterpiece

When It all Began

This is a story that only lasted for a while, but it felt like forever. People come and go all the time, but memories always remain.

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Hi, my name is Kyle Zamora, and this is my story. I wrote this book in memory of someone whom I loved, and, at the same time, loved me back.

Let me introduce a little bit about myself. I am a Filipino, born in the Philippines with Filipino parents. We migrated to Bangkok, Thailand 15 years ago, that was when I was 12 years old. We got our residency visa in our 5th year. However, my father passed away four years later, just when I was about to take my final semester. The rest of what happened is in my story.

Now, what I am about to tell you happened 3 years ago when I was around 24 years old. Anyways, I won't keep you waiting, so let's see. Where should I begin? Maybe during the day when we first met, and also the day fate decided to come out and play with my life a bit.

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It was the 5th of January, 2016. I was on my way to school to enroll for my final semester of college. It was already my 6th year. This might be surprising, but I actually stopped for some time because of some financial problems.

My family went through hard times after my father died and I had to stop my studies until we could get back up again. I stopped just before my final semester, and when I returned to school, my previous classmates already graduated so I had to be with my juniors. The good thing was I knew some of them.

In our university, the last semester of each course is when we would do the senior project. That means I had only one subject left to graduate.

I am taking a course for multimedia and graphics design. It has always been a dream of mine to be a film director, but people always told me that I would be better off as a writer. Of course, I didn't believe them because I had my own dream.

Nothing changed in the university while I was away. There were definitely a lot of students, but I haven't seen anyone familiar while loitering around before going to the registrar. I got bored immediately and I wanted to get the job done so I went and enrolled myself, paid my fees and stopped at the coffee shop for a drink.

There weren't a lot of people in the coffee shop because everyone was busy doing stuff for enrollment here and there. By the way, it's called "Coffee Hour House." I often went there to chill with friends. There was only one other customer there besides me, and she got to the counter before me. I was thinking what to buy because it's been so long since the last time I tasted their coffee.

I was probably lost in thought for about 10 minutes already until I noticed how the lady in front of me hasn't made her order yet. The menu was in Thai, which is weird for a coffee shop with an English name. I wanted to get my coffee so I helped her choose. That time, I didn't know that I was in for one of fate's surprises.

"Uhm. Are you okay miss?" I said.

"Sorry. I can't read this. You can order first," she replied. As she said that with an apologetic expression, I can only think of how pretty she was when she turned to face me. Cupid hit me right to the heart that time. Of course, I didn't make it obvious, so when our eyes met, I avoided it to play it cool. I just proceeded on helping her.

"Nah, it's alright. I could translate it to you," I said, trying to look cool in front of her. "What do you want?"

"Oh. Thank you so much," she said. "Do they have cold latte here?"

"Yeah. That's what I'm going to get too." I was talking to her as I was ordering the drinks.

"Oh. How much is it?"

"It's 30 Baht."

"Let me pay for your share too, since you helped me and all."

"Haha. It's alright. I didn't do anything special."

"Haha. Okay. Anyways, thank you Mr.?"

"Kyle. Just call me Kyle."

"Oh okay. I'm Eve. Eve Mendoza."

As far as I knew back then, Mendoza is a Filipino surname.

"Wait. Mendoza?" By this time, my accent changed when I said her surname. "Filipino?"

"Huh? How did you -? Are you a Filipino too?" She said this excitedly and almost shouted at me. Well, that's how Filipinos talk though.

Our drinks were ready so I invited her to talk as we drink our latte.

I've met different people in the campus, but never once did I meet another Filipino. I was so excited that I almost interviewed her about her entire life. As it turned out, she was Filipino, but lived all her life in New Jersey. She can't speak Tagalog, but I didn't care. A Filipino is a Filipino, no matter the background. She was my first Filipino friend in school and that's what made her more special.

To be continued. . .