#bokyo

moumoon - Hikari No Kage (Full Version)

I've never had a brother. But if I can choose and have one, I think I'd pick one of my most favorite male friends, Bokyo. He'd be a great 21-day-older brother, methinks. Let's see why.

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We've been friends since first year high school. Our sisters were in the same circle of friends so we're basically stuck with each other in some situations.

I remember during freshmen year, there was this one time in the cab, our sisters were there and we weren't talking. "O bakit di kayo naguusap?" my sister asked. We looked at each other, smirked, snickered and looked away.

And I think, in our class of thirty, I was the only brave one to ask him during the first months of school the very question, "Bokyo, bakit minsan loner ka?" LOL.

Same, in the class of thirty, he was the only brave one to ask me, "Bakit ba ang kapal ng mukha mo?" in our Math class cos we were seatmates and I was always "courageous" enough to sleep while sitting on the front row-aisle, even during discussion. CRAP I'm not proud of that.

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(First year, fair and dance night photo of our barkada) (From left to right: Tco, Jel, Dynna, Andrew, Bokyo, Bernard, Glenn)

(First year, field trip photo) (From left to right: Andrew, Bokyo, Tin, Monique, Dynna, Kenneth, Jel)

(First year, kada pic--IKR? THAT WALLET SIZE THING HAHAHA) (From top left to right, bottom left to right: Tco, Tin, Heather, Jel, Glenn, Andrew, Monique, Bokyo, Bernard, Dynna)

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Classmates since first and second year, he became one of the guys that I easily got along with. Too much to talk about: music, crushes (specifically my long-haired one-batch-higher crush), original cds (specifically broken original cds), and believe it or not, gossip (sometimes the gossip starts from him!). Basically, it was a cool friendship.

Junior year, we weren't classmates. But we're still cool, we still talked a couple of times in the 'pasemano' to chat about high school stuff--why this person's annoying, love life, the very news about him leaving Manila, "why don't you just finish senior year", this and that.

The cool part is that with this guy, never did he ever get involved in drama. Even before he left, it was still all smiles (or maybe because it was just a phonecall and I didn't attend his despedida because of a family thing?). Nevertheless, point is, with this dude, it's always good vibes.

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(Junior year, JS Prom. He went with my best friend Janelle, but here's our photo together, with him sleepwalking, trying to be funny but failing.)

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When he got to the States, we still got to talk once in awhile since there were Friendster, email, IDD call cards, Multiply and Facebook.

Got stupid favors from him like downloading and burning the most popular OPM songs cos he missed them (I don't know why he found inter-country piracy hard to do). But the funniest part of all was when there was this phase in my life back when I was 17, when I got into shisha-ing in Absinth in Greenbelt. No drugs, we only had Apple Vodka in it. But since I was being a kid posting all those shisha photos in Friendster, some people mistook it as... (see below)

On Friendster Mail 08/06/2007 6:08pm Message from Jomarie:

may isang tao jan na pa-doobie doobie na lang. bakit? seryosong doobie? nka naman iba ung doobie mo sa doobie ko. marijuana? oh, please... i know it sounds cool and all, but it will fuck up your life. get it? total fucknation. bakit ko sinasabi? kasi may mga kakilala ako d2 na napunta sa tae ang buhay dahil dun. ung isa namatay pa. ilang taon? 16. my point is... i dunno. stop? kasi magkaibigan tau at ndi maganda kung may mangyayari sau. and im being paranoid. so fuck me for that. sorry. hehe, why would you even listen? mag online ka mmyang hapon.. anong gagawin? ewan ko, chat cguro. duh? un lang. enjoy your life. club anytime you want, just dont do drugs.

peace out

See! I told you he'd make a good 21-day-older kuya! (LOL. But to end the story, I told him it was just shisha with Apple vodka, so he was like "good, good. fuck! i didnt see that shisha part.. ang tanga ko. kung ganun pala, e di, wow. good. better.")

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2008.

Though we all had a clue, it still came as a surprise when I got a call from an anonymous number only hear these words: "Oy. Andito nako." And oh boy, that sure got me jumpy. The next day, I went to Camp Aguinaldo and visited my doctor there, then when my session was almost done, I got a text that he was already outside.

I went out of the clinic and there I saw some tall guy with long brown hair with blond streaks.

"WHAT THE--"

And then he pulled the wig off.

"YO ANGEL!" (Take note: with his AM-BOY accent. SHOW OFF.)

And of course I hit his arm annoyed by the stupid hair-joke surprise. But like I wasn't used to that act. We then, played badminton, where he sucked BTW. Hahaha!

The cool thing about him being home was that it automatically creates a mini reunion with the high school friends--not VGANG, but with a different set of friends. Awesome, right?

But the parties were a little tame. We were just college students there and we didn't have any money to spend and money to use to get wasted (this is my subtle attempt to intro the 2011 party). To top it all, we had school and classes too. So we just stayed in their house most of the time, which was still fun.

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(Bokyo in Manila 2008, Welcome Party, Veloria's Front Yard) (From top left to right, bottom left to right: Benjo, Azul, Bernard, AJ, Kevin, Andoy, Bokyo, Reynold)

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His 2008 despedida party was just as fun. There was that "pretend tourists" afternoon around the canyon area, pictures with our sisters, more hangouts with friends, and of course, the "gang rape".

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(If I can have this as my little sister too, I will. Hahaha! Here's my favorite, Maimai!)

(Still the same caption from Multiply, don't ask how I got up all those. LOL)

(From left to right: Benjo, Janelle, Jel, Bokyo)

(From left to right: Maricris Veloria, Jomarie Veloria, Lux Directo, Angel Directo)

(From top left to right, bottom left to right: AJ, Reynold, Benjo, Bokyo, David, Azul, Janelle, Xandy)

(And like I said, the gang rape. Hideous.)

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Because he works in the US Navy, it's not easy to maintain communication. Or at least regularly, so we just talked during birthdays and stuff. But more often, we'd annoy each other's lives by posting shit on each other's wall.

Like one time, I was living a happy life, and then I got this on my Facebook wall.

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(My least favorite photo becoming the cover of a fake Forbes magazine. I have no idea how this was supposed to be hilarious. Too, I don't know what kind of job he has in the Navy to have time to do some fugly layout of a magazine.)

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But how cool it was to receive another email from him about going home to the Philippines for another visit. So emails became more frequent, as we all prepared for the stuff to do.

We planned for the awesomest Manila Trip ever

An unforgettable party

Something we'd want to brag to other people

At the same time, something everybody will hate remembering

A no-minute-wasted trip

So he figured out all his "butas days" (i.e. days that are not for family) from the schedule he got from his family. And the objective was to put all crazy hang out, band jam and 'unkabogable' parties in his "butas days".

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2011

The cool part is, he always manages to make a surprising entrance whenever he gets in Manila. Like for this year, I was expecting to see him in the afternoon, but at noon time while eating lunch in the pantry, I heard the sound of the office doorbell. The office "ate" called me to say a guy named Kevin was looking for me outside. When I went out, I found this dude snickering outside. So that deserves another hit in the arm. (See? Consistent!)

"Really? 12nn? Straight from the airport?"

"Well I need to get the cell phone I'm borrowing. And... Can I have a glass of water?" Three glasses of water straight. Good job, Navy boy.

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Let's skip the Bokyo in Manila 2011 stories because that deserves another blog entry. I don't even know how I'm going to do the flow of that specifically including our jam sessions, which was kinda cool BTW, plus a couple of other videos that we did.

But let me just post a few pictures.

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And two funny pictures.

There is absolutely some thing about that pose and his relationship with my bags.

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Okay, since technically, I'm already allowed to share this already, let me. Though I did the party-organizing thing as a friend, I also did all those cos he "paid" me to do it. From him, I got this dress that I wanted from H&M and an authentic Panama hat cos their ship went to Panama before he went here.

So yes, thank you for the gift!

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Question is, how do we properly end this post?

I don't know how many of you have a friend in the opposite sex. My boyfriend has a lot, and I have a couple of other male friends too and I think they rock.

Love and friendship, they are two separate entities. It is important to always have space in a relationship, and to have time for other people so you'll get a 360-degree experience in life.

And when you spend time with your friends, it's not always girl talk you need. Bokyo, as a male friend, is just as annoying an email-mate as he is on Facebook. As hard as it is to imagine, most of the time, he makes the most sense. When I present to him a problem, he answers me back with a long email that makes sense, that I have to stop reading in the middle because he keeps pointing how wrong I am and it gets annoying. You know, discussion that may create a big argument if with the boyfriend, so you need to talk to someone else but your girlfriends have heard of it already?

Or when I'm problematic, caught up in some shit, and I don't have anyone to talk to, I've already found myself direct dialing a +1 country code number, as if it's part of the SUPERUNLI. There was this time few days ago, I called Kevin but he kept on cancelling my call. I was about to break down in 20 seconds and I had to instantly find someone to talk to. Who else knows the story? Janelle. She wasn't answering the call either. This dude was the third option. And there he was, stuck and was not given a choice to reject the call. LOL.

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Point is, I'm glad to have maintained this awesome friendship I've had with this guy since high school. I think I'll always look forward for when he visits Manila. I mean, like we keep saying in the email, how many more years do we have before we all get serious with work, saving up, and raising each of our own families? Good good point.

Conclusion? I think I'm well-surrounded by awesome friends. Hell yeah. So this dude, who happens to be not my brother, can always pretend to be one. That annoying kind of brother ("Ano ba yan ano nanaman pinost mo sa wall ko?" "*laughs*"). You get the point.

LOL.

Thanks, Bokyo!