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Last Saturday after taking our exams, my boyfriend and I had plans to hit this big, annual party which pretty much was already a tradition for me to attend. I won’t lie, I was really stoked and pumped after taking a very stressful midterm exam (Oh, Opman…) and most especially because of the company of good friends I will be with later that night. But it turned out most of them won’t be going anymore, so we decided to ditch the party and go straight home and well… just chill. No big, I was really, really too tired to care and wanted more than anything to sink into my wonderful, soft, comfy bed.

After the sodium-high (Mcdo large fries) of my fast food comfort food staple, the Burger Mcdo meal, for my extremely late lunch at 5pm, I was finally able to dispose of the two tickets I had purchased for the party. And so we went home.

I remember being too tired (or bloated, I think) to eat that I just watched Kev and my younger brother have their dinner when we got home. I didn’t know what it was, but it was the tired kind of tired. That I just wanted to pass out and never wake up. I couldn’t stand it and just told my boyfriend to go to my room once he was done, my bed was just calling out to me and I couldn’t wait any longer. Yup, I did not even wait for him to finish, which was obviously the most polite thing to do.

I remember waking up to the sound of my younger brother’s voice pretty much announcing his arrival and Kev standing outside my room, refusing to go in. Technically, he wasn’t allowed inside my room but that night was a special case. And being the girl with the best manners, I still nudged him on (forced) to go enter the room so that he can turn on my laptop and download the movie I needed for my Philosophy class. Yep, I can’t torrent to save my life.

Being the gentleman that he was, he immediately stepped out by the door outside my room after he started the download, telling me how the whole torrent thing works and that I just had to wait for the download to finish. It was getting late so he had to get going home. Being so tired and sleepy, I sent him away without our usual long goodbye. Minutes later, as I was lying down with the TV on, I checked my phone to see him calling, with two messages unread (his usual sweet thank you-goodbye-I love you text message, and a second message saying, “May nakalimutan ako!!”).

And then I remembered I still had not returned his handkerchief, that piece of cloth he never fails to offer me as he has grown to learn that I have this huge aversion to smoke, in all kinds and forms. And so I answered the call telling him, “Yeah, yung hanky mo, sorry.” I was about to tell him to just get it the next time we see each other but was surprised when he said he went back and was actually outside our gate. I also noticed that I had checked my phone a good 15 minutes too late so he must’ve been waiting a long time outside. (Tsk, for some reason, he has this thing of not ringing the doorbell at my house!)

It took me an extra 5 minutes or so when panic struck as I couldn’t find the hanky in my bag. I thought I had dropped it during our commute home but was relieved it had been in our dining table all along. And so I stepped out saying, sorry I forgot, that he had to walk all the way back to my house and the precious time wasted when he could’ve been well into his way home (it’s a 2-hour commute from my school to his house so… what more from my house).

And then he said, “Actually, hindi yan yung nakalimutan ko. Nakalimutan ko to,” and gave me a long, tight hug with a couple of kisses. “I love you,” he smiled. The effect was instant. I cannot even begin to describe what I felt, it was like this big weight was lifted off my shoulders. On cue, all the weariness and all the exhaustion I felt from that day went away with the words he uttered, with the way he smiled his smile. I gave a genuine smile back, at the same time feeling deeply ashamed of the way I had been, when he always goes the extra mile to do these things big and small things for me, as his best friend, his girlfriend. And here I was, just because I was “tired” that I only thought of getting my rest, as if it were the only thing that mattered, disregarding the wonderful human being who was standing right in front of my very eyes. 

I repaid this gesture with a rain of kisses and tight hugs. The huge smile I had on my face was not going away. My tired spirit came alive as I uttered the words, “I love you” to him over and over and hearing him say the same.

That night, like most nights when he would be going home from my place, again I realized I really could not bring myself to sleep without knowing he had made it home safe. We ended up talking while on his way home up until the wee hours through text, without him even mentioning he was tired. And to think he had come from Friday-Saturday exam days of study and errands to make, of taking me home and commuting home. Whatever it is, I’m really convinced that God has blessed me with the best friend I could ever have in the form of this Superman. He may appear tired physically (your eyebags don’t lie) but his happy disposition and loving smiles every single time we’re together always tell me otherwise.

From the girlfriend who may sometimes take her ever-patient boyfriend for granted (but never really intend to), thank you. Thank you for making me feel beyond the expectations I had of being truly loved. Thank you because you always understand. After more than two years together, nothing’s changed — even the little things you got them covered. The simple, little things that matter most to me than any grandiose gesture ever.