They shook hands and left for home with his grandparents.
Sometimes it was irksome to be so obedient to his elders. With this feeling, he suddenly realized something really really very bad inside him that time. An argument between his mind and heart began.
Was he becoming a rebellious youth? But why? Was it because he was dying to hobnob with his dancing partner?
Was his heart pulling him to be an evil guy? I refuse to be rascal with my grandparents who has been nurturing me from infancy and until now. How shameless and grateful was I, should I become troublesome.
My poor old grandparents, my heart was starting to dislike your over protectiveness for me. My brain.... don't you... ever... listen.... to my heart!
Gosh! My body was torn down by my heart and mind. What should I have done?
He heard his subconscious mind that told him to blame the arrow of Little Master Cupid that mistakenly hit your heart bullseye. Not us, your heart and mind.
His heart beat up and down, up and down, in and out, in and out like the anal of those chicken strutting at their wide yard.
So irritating... So disgusting... So frustrating... So depressing..... that gave him sleepless night.
He left his bed for the dining room so that he could serve himself a cup of hot milk. He had to forget her even for a while.
Still... he was defeated by his defiant heart. It contineously protested and dictated his mind to push his hands to get his cell phone at his night stand.
"Have you left the auditorium?"
"Yeah! Why?"
"I am starting to have a sleepless night."
"You have an insomnia?"
"Nah. I have you in my heart and mind."
"How come I am inside them... when I am on my comfortable bed covered with a quilt while hugging a stuffed Mickey Mouse?"
"How I wish I was that Mickey Mouse!"
Her eyes was starting to droop unable to fight her drowsiness when she read his text message once again.
"I wish it would not you and that Mickey mouse. I pray to God it would be you and I"
There was no more reply. He assumed that she was already asleep on that memorable night.
It was already three at dawn when he was able to sleep. His too late sleep affected his usual waking up time. Loved and cared by his elders, they didn't bother to wake him up until quarter to seven in the morning. It was okay for him to be in school at seven thirty in the morning skipping the flag ceremony.
What was more important? He was not absent on that day.
It was the day he started coping up with the lessons he missed and with his shortcoming as a group mate in their research work written output.
He had to be ready with what his group mates asked him to draft and research if he wouldn't like to have a poor mark or a failing mark. After all, he wouldn't like to be the disgrace of his family.
Time and days flew so fast making his each day very busy. Nevertheless, at the midst of his hectic obligation and responsibility as a student, a well-taken care of by his grandparents, and God's beloved child, he had never forgotten to send a text message to Ms. Leonor.
"Ms. Leonor, I hope it was still Valentines night celebration until now."
"And why was that?"
"I still want to be dancing with you."
"Well... A lost time could never return unless you invent a time machine."
"That would give me a long time to complete a discovery."
"Yay! Someone wanted to conduct an experimental discovery."
"I won't... if you promise to wait for me until I become a degree holder."
"Why would I wait for you? Who Am I to you? And Who are you to me?"
"Would you like to be my girlfriend and I.. to be your boyfriend?"
"You're quick! Isn't it too early for that stage? We've just known each other for only two weeks."
"My feeling for you would have never changed till the end of time."
"You mean... forever?"
"Don't you like a forever relationship with me?"
"Can we just be friends as of now?"
She eluded his confession by disconnecting from that texting session between him and her.
Alas, he was amused of his brazen confession. He found it better texting her rather than talking to her in person. He knew his palpitation would again make his tongue stammer.
That Valentines night on the 14th of February he had planned to confess. Only to discover his diffidence talking to his love at first sight.
Good he was in the library when he thought of this. He tried to analyze himself.... A soul searching was indeed, done.
Would his reaction be the same had his heart throbbed for another young lady?
Would he likewise stutter? Was it a strange feeling for her that made him stammer helplessly?
Was this strange feeling the so called love?
Would it really possible for him to be fallen in love at his first glance for the first time?
Would there be second, third, and several times that he would possibly be in love at first sight?
Heaven! It was not only nerve-wracking but also mind blowing earth shattering experience at the age of seventeen.
Little Master Cupid! Why did you not wait for me to grow older? At least at my twentieth birthday I would be a second year college during that time.
Should it happened on that age, I could gather my courage to tell grandma and grandpa to get married to her immediately.
Who knew that she might be snatched away from me by another.... Am I already a man? Not yet? Oh, my God.. It really made me too impatient to wait for the right time.
"Mr. Kenneth Allen Lacandula, we are closing for our home. It's already five in the afternoon."
He was really in deep thought for a long time that he was unable to track his time in going home.
Since he was not the one who cooked their morning meal, he should be the one to cook their evening meal. It was so embarrassing for his guardians who were already old to be the one serving him.
He dropped by at the market to buy some goods for their viand. He would purchase the fish that he would be cooking for the favorite menu of his loving and prudent guardians despite their strictness.
From that eventful Valentines night, not a single day would he forget to send his message of love, care and concern for his first love even though he was busy with the chores and outputs he had in his hands.
As a matter of fact, he was tempted to be presumptuous that Leonor and him had mutual feelings for each other as she never failed him to receive a reply from her.
However, the saying.... "An active and alert individual surely defeated a hard-working man" should never slip his mind. He had to be strong-willed through an incessant confession of his Pulsating heart... Only for her....no other maiden could have her heart quaver like an earthquake shaking the earth at a magnitude so strong of more than six or seven.
It was February 28...fourteen days from the day they danced..he would sent him the lyrics of the popular song by a Filipino singer and song writer a stanza each day.
For the first day.. he sent him this stanza of 'Buwan' by; Juan Karlos Labajo
Ako'y sa'yo, ikaw ay akin
Ganda mo sa paningin
Ako ngayo'y nag-iisa
Sana ay tabihan na
He translated it in English:
I am yours, you are mine
You're so lovely for my sight
As if now I am alone
Hope you're by my side
He did not text anything but these lyrics that he translated in English language.
Ms. Leonor was at a lost for words how to reply an adapted lyrical message from him. So, she just texted back honestly that her astonishing feeling gave her nothing to say.
He did not reply back that day. But the following day, he sent him the second stanza with an English translation.
Sa ilalim ng puting ilaw
(Beneath the bright white light)
Sa dilaw na buwan
(That golden bright moonlit night)
Pakinggan mo ang aking sigaw
(Listen to how I would shout out)
Sa dilaw na buwan
(Before the golden Bright moonlit eyes)
Ting! A notification sound in his mobile phone moved his hands to check it.
"Kenneth Allen! You're giving me a hard time to reply. I could not think of a precise word to react on this musical message you sent me."
A naughty smile was plastered on his face but went on with his output.
On the third day he sent another stanza. Just like the past two days, he had the lyrics translated.
Ayokong mabuhay nang malungkot
(I refuse to live so lonely)
Ikaw ang nagpapasaya
(You're making me happy)
At makakasama hanggang sa pagtanda
(I want to be with you till we're old)
Halina tayo'y humiga
(Come to me lay down by my side)
(Until the last breath of our lives)
"Kenneth Allen, I really really don't know what to say. You seemed to be so serious with your feelings for me. We're still too young for it. "
"I am. But you and I are going to wait for that right time."
On the fourth day all he did was to resent the stanza he sent on the second day of his decided adapted lyrical love confession.
Came the fifth day of his insinuation to accept him as her boyfriend.
Ang iyong ganda'y umaabot sa buwan
Your beauty has emitted up to the moon
Ang tibok ng puso'y rinig sa kalawakan
In the outer space the heart's throbbing can be heard
At bumabalik Dito sa akin
(And returns back to mine)
Ikaw ang mahal
(You're the beloved)
Ikaw lang ang mamahalin
(You're the only one to be loved)
Pakinggan ang puso't damdamin
(Listen to the heart's feeling)
Damdamin aking damdamin
(Feeling my only feeling)
"Thanks for this versical lyrical poem of Juan Karlos Labajo you translated in English. May God bless
you always."
The sixth and the last dayof his love confession through a Filipono love
Song had him sent only one a half lines.
Sa ilalim ng puting ilaw
(Beneath the bright white light)
Sa dilaw…
(That golden bright... Source: LyricFind
"You might think that I am an easy girl. I am not. Only that I can also feel the same way you have in your heart."
"Does it mean that we're lovers from now on?"
"Isn't it too sudden and not yet the right time?"
"Is it wrong to be sweethearts while studying hard for our future? We're not seeing in person with each other anyway."
"Maybe there is nothing wrong about it."
"So.... Can we now declare that we're officially young lovers?"
"Yes, Ken."
"Wow, I like the way you give me a nickname, Leony."
"I'm Leony to you? I love it, too."
They hung up. Kenneth Allen shouted while jumping who was on the playground yelling "Yes!" with his closely knitted right fist that he moved upward.
Then because of the sweltering heat of the sun he ran, twirled, leaped toward the building for the Senior high school students. Under its roof, he immediately took out his phone and texted his father.
"Dad, I have a girl friend now! The more I shall study very hard."
"Congratulations, son! I believe you're priority is your study. Make her your inspiration. No fooling around with her and with us. Is that a deal?"
"Sure, it is." She is my inspiration dad aside from you all."