counting platonic friends

Current books read: The Sky is Falling by Sidney Sheldon - boring

Four.

Zentralbibliothek Bücherhalle Security.

I go there like twice a week in a rare occasion. Most of the times, three times or more. I think his shift is early monday wednesday friday and late tuesday thursday saturday. I'm not sure, though. I suck at remembering days. However, I encountered him again when it turns out that he is also a security guard at Völkerkunde Museum.

The start of the platonic friendship is when I was like, "Hey." And he's like, "Hey." We know each other's presence.

The Gym Boy.

He is awfully young. Around 21 or 22 I think. Every Sunday afternoon, when the gym opens, almost certain that he will be there. That is when I kept bumping into him. Sunday afternoon.

One day, there was this guy, who's a bit full of himself, confident and all, kept doing stupid stuff that even I got so embarassed for him. Let's call this guy Ulf. During that day, I was all smiles everytime Ulf did his stupid stuff. The Gym Boy as well. All smiles I mean, not did stupid stuff.

And then Ulf made us laugh together. You see, at that time, our gym's hair dryer is not working, so people must go to the reception area to borrow it and normally, people will go back to the changing room to dry his hair in there.

What did Ulf do? He asked for a hair dryer, and then plugged the hair dryer, right there. In the reception area. You know, wiggling his head, blowing his hair (and only God knows what is also in there) everywhere in the reception area, seen by all people working out.

I witnessed this from a mirror at the back of the room. And so did The Gym Boy. My reaction was a clearly audible "O. My. God.". Shortly after, The Gym Boy looked at my looking direction, and we both laughed.

So the platonic friendship is like, everytime I caught him in the eye, I smiled, and so did he. We never talk, but we always share the memory of Ulf.

The Döner Restaurant Owner.

I respected him a lot. He supports his family by keeping a Döner Restaurant in Dithmarscher Strasse. The Döner, is not the best in Hamburg for sure. But one of the best. He's so friendly and non-annoyingly talkative.

There was a time when I visited him like twice a week. And because of that, of course we started to notice each other's presence. Or he started to notice me.

Around two weeks after, he started to start conversations. You know, the normal conversation between a customer and a seller. How's your day?, Having Feierabend?, Going to sport?, and all.

We talk, but we don't know our names.

The Usher or Studio Guard in BSM 21.

Eventhough it was deadly far from the place that I lived in Bandung, BSM 21 is my favorite place to watch a movie in Bandung. It's somewhat cheaper than it's fellas in Jakarta, it has THX in studio 1, it's in a mall, and because it is so far away, not so many people (or half uniformed after-school students) went there, and it's new (CiWalk wasn't even planned yet).

I went there normally during the day, so there are only two mbak-mbak twenty one working as cashier, two mbak-mbak twenty one working as usherette and two bapak-bapak berbaju safari as ushers. One of the bapak-bapak is the youngest bapak-bapak berbaju safari I have ever seen.

The platonic thing started when he started to look at me in the face with the expression of asking himself this question: Where did I know this guy from? And it was growing when his expression was saying: My God, he's already watching another movie? Doesn't this guy have a life or something?

And of course the platonic thing was more as a cat & mouse relationship because I always hid snacks and drinks in my bloated bag (who am I kidding not stopping by Hero and buying some chocolate bars and smuggle them in) and he always suspected that I did that but never dared to ask me to open my bag.

I think he was always torn between, Hmm.. he's a faithful customer and hmm.. why is that bag unnaturally bloated everytime.

We never talked. Well, I kept saying, "Makasi Mas." everytime after he tore my tickets. But that's all. Currently, I can't figure out how his face looks like, or how's he doing now.