The Story

It has been 7 years since I moved from Ang Mo Kio to Woodlands. I still remember the times we enjoyed when we were kids; when we went to kindergarten together. We became best friends on the first day of school and so did our mothers.

I still remember the day you gave me a container full of marbles. You gave it to me as a gift for collection as you had too many of them. Fate brought us together in kindergarten, and it brought us even closer when we commenced our primary school education.

We were allocated into the same class. We spent all the time in school together. We took the same bus to school every morning, and would usually reach school early. We would then meet our clique and play catching. I remembered the time when I fell and grazed both my knees while playing catching. You even sent me home from where we alighted the school bus, and apologised profusely to my mother for my injuries, claiming full responsibility for something you should not be guilty about.

We were like inseparable twins. We spent a lot of time together, in and after school. We would even meet up on Sundays and play table tennis with your dad. The turning point in our friendship came at the end of 1994, the year we took our Primary 4 Streaming Examination. I was promoted to the EM1 stream while you were given a slot in the EM2 stream. We were thus drafted into different classes.

We still remained quite close to each other at first. We promised to stay as best friends. But as time drifted past, the inevitable occurred. We began to hang out more with our own classmates, and started to drift apart. Our table tennis sessions became more infrequent. There were times when we did not even play table tennis at all in a whole month.

When we went to different secondary schools, we hardly met up at all. After our admission into secondary school, I think we only met up once or twice before I moved away. There was so much to say, but I did not know why I did not. Thus, a friendship that spanned the whole of 10 years was forsaken.

What I Would Like To Say

Dear Chin Tiong (Zheng Zhong),

Perhaps, you had something to say but found it too hard to articulate. Perhaps your newfound friends were more important to you. I do not know, and I do not know if I will ever have the chance to find out.

I do not know if I would ever have the opportunity to tell you what I am going to write. I do not know if I would have the courage even if I am presented the opportunity.

I want to let you know that if time could be rewound, I would tell you what I could not articulate 7 years ago. Until now, I still consider you one of my best friends. Till I arrive at the end of my life’s journey, you will still be one of the greatest pal I could ever find. I can only immerse myself in remorse now as it seems like I did not cherish our friendship enough in the past.

You do not know how fortunate I feel to have known you. But sadly, if we did not part ways when we were 15, I might have already graduated from my diploma a couple of years back. I lost interest and focus in my studies. My grades plummeted and I wound up with a relatively worthless piece of certificate for my GCE’O’ Levels. If we were still the best of friends, you would have motivated me, and I would have strived harder.

If we were still the best of friends, I would not have mixed around with undesirable company in my late teens. I would not have wasted the precious few years, idling my time away. I would probably be pursuing my degree or working in the animation industry.

There is only so much that words can express. I just wish to let you know that I hope fate will let us cross paths again, and our friendship would be able to go on as strong, if not stronger, than it used to be. Perhaps we would be working in the same company in future… Perhaps…

Your childhood best friend,
Jong Hsing (Yongxing)