The Love Triangle Story of Mr. Nice Guy, The Campus Crush and the Girl-Next-Door

My stay last week in the bloodbank, when I had my three days and two nights straight duty, would have been less cheerful if I didn’t get to know Juan Paolo Sanchez. Juan Paolo is the clerk’s son. He is seven years old and is already in Grade two. I met him months before but we were not introduced properly since that time I was paying more attention to the kid of the previous utility man.

The new utility guy, VeronicO, is an old classmate in college. He was forced to stop his schooling before our capping ceremony. I was in fact surprised when I discovered that he is now working in the organization. I cannot say that we were buddies in college but I can say that we were in a very reasonable term, even though he’s a bit of a heckler. So when we met, it didn’t take long before we resumed the taunting from our college days. Whenever VeronicO says a punchline Juan Paulo will surely be on his side laughing with him. Afterwards, Juan Paulo became quite comfortable with me that we were able to hang out and play- I got to teach him some traditional Pinoy games that he hasn’t even heard of (agawan base, syato, teks, etc.), he taught me how to play pog, we even played hide-and-seek.

One time while we were seating in the reception area I pressed him a question- “Sinong crush mo sa school?” (Who’s your crush in school?). Whenever I ask this to my little cousins they usually shy away and then I finally get to tease them, but Juan Paolo is different. He boldly told me that he is torn between two girls- Katrina and Erhanna- and he sounded really problematic.

Katrina is his classmate- THE CAMPUS CRUSH- while Erhanna is her neighbor- THE GIRL NEXT DOOR. I asked him, “so who’s prettier?” He couldn’t seem to decide so I asked him again, “Who do you like more?”

He was like, “I like Erhanna more. Katrina doesn’t even want to be touched.” Unfortunately Juan Paolo tried to hold Katrina’s hand but she shooed him away. I was really amused so I asked, “Why? Does Erhanna allow you to touch her?” He smiled meaningfully. He said Erhanna hugged him when he told her that he likes her.

So I pored in a little deeper, “So you like Erhanna more?”

“Katrina doesn’t like me. She said I am just her number two since she already have a number one. His number one is Dominic.”

“Then you should punch him so you’ll be her number one instead.” He said he can’t because Dominic is “BIGGER.”

The talk went on to my very own amusement. God I couldn’t believe that I was just talking to a seven-year old kid, he’s so smart. i didn’t know that everyone in the area, who were supposed to be doing something were intently listening pala. They were silent but all their pretensions of busy-ness were unraveled when they laughed after he said “Basta secret lang natin yun ha. Bukas magdadala ako ng picture nila.” (This is just our secret, okay. Tomorrow I’ll bring their pictures.)