friend crush

yesterday i read the article about "Friend Crush" on rookiemag. it's one of my favorite websites btw, because it feeds my (weird?) always-young-at-heart thirst. sesuai dengan segment utama pembaca rookie, yg di-feature di artikel itu yaa anak-anak sma. hal ini bikin gue jadi inget pas SMA dulu i used to have a friend crush towards a girl.

there was this cool chick (at least in my eyes) yang birth datenya sama 'ma gue. yg bikin gue ngefans bukan karena faktor lahir barengan sih (it was a nice coincidence though), tapi karena i really wanted to be like her. no, she's not the pretty prom queen type. just a regular, a bit fat, teenage girl with messy hair. like we all were. gue jadi terkagum-kagum pas tau dia les bahasa perancis di CCF di jaksel. yah namapun anak sma pinggiran, it really hooked me how she would drive her car by herself all the way from tangerang to kebayoran baru, and moreover, to learn french! not only was she a french learner, she also speaks english fluently. trus di jaman ketika internet baru bisa ditemui di warnet atau pake narik kabel telpon, dia udah membangun her own website. selain personal blog, dia bikin fansite untuk serial Friends sama The X-Files, 'cos she was really into those shows.

pertemanan gue 'ma dia gak intens-intens banget sih, kita sebatas temen bukannya sahabat. maybe that's just as far as my crush would go: unrequited, hahaha. sekarang entah gimana kabarnya doi, maybe she's still strolling around with her fabulousness.

kalo di rookie mag 'kan yg diinterview friend crush yang mutual yah, as in they become best friends. that makes me wanna add another person with whom the feeling is mutual (supaya gak anti klimaks).
they say when you meet the love of your life, time stops and you would remember exactly how the world was at the time. the things people say, the way the wind breezes, and such. and the first person who came up on my mind as i describe this is weiche aka setio. he and i have become good/best/worst friends for 17 years now.

gue pertama kali ketemu dia kelas 1 SMP. di sekolah itu, kita anak baru diwajibkan memilih ekskul dari 3 ekskul mainstream yaitu pramuka, PMR, dan KIR (kelompok ilmiah remaja - in case sekarang udah ganti nama kayak UMPTN/SPMB). i found the first two utterly predictable, jadi gue pilih KIR yg mengandung kata "ilmiah" :P
waktu itu hari minggu, dan kita anak baru disuruh ikut semacam workshop KIR a whole day long. saat itu udah siang, jam 2-an mungkin, dan kita semua disuruh duduk berkelompok. gue ingat kita dikasih tugas yang melibatkan solder-menyolder, dan kebetulan my kelompok consisted of 6-7 boys and 2 girls. me and the other girl (dina) were clueless and bored and sorry as hell as in "why did we choose this damn ekskul", jadi kita duduk sambil ongkang-ongkang kaki di belakang ruangan sambil nontonin cowok-cowok itu nyolder. as we looked around the room, eh terlihat ada seorang bocah cowok yg juga lagi duduk ongkang-ongkang with a bored as hell look on his face! kita segera nyamperin dia, ajak ngobrol... dari situ jadi tau kalo doi juga bete karena dia gak tau gimana cara menyolder, gak mau tau, dan he prefered to gossip with us girls haha.

if only rookie mag would interview me and weiche, maybe it'd go like this:

ROOKIE: What made you think Weiche was a girlfriend material when you first met him?
RISKA [crusher]: he was the only boy in the room who found solder-menyolder boring. he must be my soulmate!

Did people often assume you and him were just another TTM couple?
we got that wrong impression all the time. it only stopped after i got married. we were fine with the misperception, though. neither of us wanted to be branded as "jomblo gak laku" during all those years of our jombloness. that makes us "friends with benefit" in a way.

we often find ourselves wearing matching-colored outfits

So it never occured to you to fall for him?
hmm i do enjoy bersandar di bahu dan dada gempalnya once in a while. but it's "no pulse" condition for romantic chemistry whatsoever between us.

What’s the best advice Weiche’s ever given you?
he told me to stay focused. i am the most random person i know, and he's one of very few persons who knows me inside out, so yeah, i bought it.

What should I ask him when I talk to him?
he'd loove to assess the way you dress, so go ahead, ask him "how do i look?" if you dare. and he'd also give free advices about interior designing, typography, and color composition (i ask him about color names a lot). oh and ask him why he's still friends with me (nyontek jawaban di rookie mag).

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ROOKIE: So I asked Riska what I should ask you, and she wanted to know why you’re still friends with her?
WEICHE [crushee]: i'm probably the only dandy guy in the village she knows. so i'm kinda like her asset-other than her butts. but that's the reason for her party. for me, it's because being around her makes me feel better because she's more "lost" than i am. ahahah!

weiche's birthday celebration in 2007. (weich: "kome, you look good in orange.")

What drew you to her when you guys first met?
*she* was drawn to me. sorry, babe, i'm a natural-burn social butterfly. born this way.

What things you guys do now as grown-ups when you meet up?
we'd sit on cafes and sip coffee like successful middle class dwellers. i'd show her off my uber-sophisticated and most trendy gadgets, and then we'd ramble about our lives, shower each other with cruel jokes, and i'd end up eating her never-finished desserts. bitch makes me fat!

What makes Riska better than other friends?
eugh it's a hard one to answer because she never give me guys...

Now for both of you, is there any trivia regarding your friendship?

RISKA: he looks a lot like my husband in some pictures, it's a bit creepy.

WEICHE: our guru agama in high school accused us of practicing "pergaulan bebas" and she gave us 7 in our rapport book. and that my friend, is the lowest you could be judged for, religion-wise, at our school. tsk. oh, and i once wrote this about her.

anyone notice the significant resemblance?

note: weiche's answers are entirely fabricated by moi. :P