“Hey...Silence...” I slowly crawled out of bed to call one of my friends at university.
”Akira! What’s happened? You sounded very sick!”
”Yes, indeed…” I coughed for a few seconds and continued, “I got Covid-19…”
Silence paused for a few seconds and replied, “And I’m sure that you won’t join us in class, right?”
”Do you really think I CAN?”
“Haha! Just kidding! Anyway, take care!” Chuckled he, “I will send my note to you later!”
”Oh! I will also ask the boys to help you with the notes and give you a take care message!”
“Thanks! That’s very kind of you, buddy!” I coughed after saying his name.
”Have a plenty of rest, Akira! Don't worry a thing! You’ve worked too much recently!” He then hung up the call.
Frustration filled my heart when I knew I got sick. I was infected by my aunt during my grandmother’s birthday party. She was clearly sick and still insisted on joining the party. The worst is she was test positive for Covid the day after. I guessed I have no luck avoiding it.
It happened near the end of the semester and tons of exams were coming. I was getting worried and trying my best at both practical and written exams.
I was hoping to use my quarantine time to study but my throat hurt as hell. It felt like as if a broken piece of glass was slicing my throat. I even needed to think twice before swallowing my saliva.
The worst was the next day I couldn't even speak - that was a huge torture to someone talkative like me.
“Damn…” I had to pause my study and lay down for a while.
I am always an optimistic and strong person but at that moment I felt weak and helpless.
I just hope that excruciating pain can go away as soon as possible. However, after what I had experienced, nothing hurt more than a friend betrayal.
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For the next week, what I could only do was rest. I could't go to class like that. I would just make things worse.
My throat still hurt as hell that I couldn’t write novels and study. I felt bored, weak and exhausted. I couldn’t do anything and I really missed my happy school days with my friends and teachers.
I laid down on my bed again and sighed. Later that night, Silence sent me a message. He sent me the notes he had taken during classes.
”Hey! Feeling better?”
”Nope! It’s even worse than yesterday! I still can’t talk!”
”Sorry to hear that! By the way, have the guys sent you anything?”
”The guys? No?”
”Huh? That’s strange? I told them to help me send some of their notes to you!”
I typed, “Well at least you send me some take care messages, thank you!”
“Don’t mention it! Akira, you’ve helped me and my guys a lot with our study and now it’s time for me to help you now.”
I was touched by his words and thanked him sincerely.
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I wished I could rest for a little longer but since practical sessions were compulsory and sick leave were not accepted, I had no choice but to attend it at night.
Some of my friends, Michelle and Joyce, were worried about me. Although I was still struggling with my excruciating pain, I was motivated by their kindness and did my best in my practical. Thankfully, the results turned out to be good and close to the actual experimental value.
Since I was not able to talk yet, I communicated through writing on my notebook. After class, Silence and I were 'talking' when we encountered the boys.
“Hey guys! I heard you haven't send some of your notes to Akira!" Silence asked politely, "Maybe you guys can give them to her now?”
I wrote my message on a paper and bowed to them, hoping they would help a friend.
Yet, the guys didn't say a word.
I was actually quite pissed at the moment. Not only these guys never pretended to help, they also kept bugging me during my lab class. These people knew I couldn't talk already, and they still expect me to reply their stupid questions.
”Akira, is this how we pipette the solution?”, “Akira, is this how we add the solute into the solution?”… The only thing these men knew was to ask me stupid questions instead of previewing the lab manual. And more importantly, are they blind? Couldn’t they just read the words printed on the paper?
I was always the one helping them and now this was how they treated me.
Even worse is that they believed I was exaggerating my sore throat. Excuse me? Maybe a bottle of concentrated sulphuric acid could help you understand my pain.
I wasn’t surprised, just a little bit disappointed. It turned out that Hong Kong people were always the same regardless of their age.
I ignored them and left without looking at their pathetic faces. Silence was following behind me. He tried to explain the situation to me, saying that they weren’t as cold-hearted as I thought.
Although I agreed to forgive them, I wouldn’t forget what they had done to me. Despite getting hit by a sad and cruel reality, this allows me to distinguish between real and fake friends.
Soon after I recovered from my illness, the guys started to act friendly towards me again. I still hanged out with them, helping them with their homework and study. However, I didn't plan to express myself too much as I knew their true colours. We were just normal classmates, nothing more and nothing less.
I enjoy helping the others - I will to lend a hand to my family, my friends, my teachers and sometimes strangers that ask me for direction. I enjoy the feeling of helping one another. It makes me happy and understand the world better. However, it turns out that I'm too kind and there will always be someone sabotaging my kindness.
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In my circle of friends, there was a chubby guy named Kian. He was known for his arrogance and impatience, but he was still a friendly guy at that time. Since he had been working in a laboratory as his part-time job, he believed he had better practical skills and experience than us. Nonetheless, his grades said otherwise.
He had been a competitive person and trying to get on the Dean's List. Since he knew that I had been on the Dean's List for two years in a row, he was getting more and more jealous. He believed that he had worked twice as hard as I was by burning the midnight oil, and he deserved to be on the Dean's List.
Unfortunately, what he didn't know was effective study requires plenty of sufficient rest, setting reasonable goals and forming study groups. More importantly, skipping lectures would bring nothing beneficial.
He was usually the one who asked me to help him with his study. He had been hiding his true colours until that day after our Clinical Chemistry lab exam. The exam wasn't too difficult if we had studied beforehand. Besides, the hand-ons part was quite easy - it was just some easy dilution calculation.
After we left the exam venue, we were all chatting happily about having a nice dinner nearby. At that moment, my friend Bentz noticed Kian quickly packed his stuff and left. He also noticed his eyes were swelled with tears. The next day, he didn't even attend the lectures.
Bentz tried to comfort him but he never truly told us what had happened that day. He slowly turned into a cold person, distancing himself from us and especially from me. The only thing in his mind were his GPA and money.
Whenever I showed up in front of him, he turned his back to me. This happened a few times and I quickly realised his hatred towards me. Later, he started to turn down all of our offers to hang out.
Deep down I knew he was consumed by hatred and jealousy. Comparison, superiority and pride were things that twisted his heart.
I was truly disappointed, to believe I would make friend with someone like him. Even so I still reminisced over the happy memories before. We are friends...right? Well, that's just a pathetic illusion.
I sighed and I believe it was time to move on. Forget him - there was nothing left to do now.
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Shouldn't friends help and support each other? That's something that I always wonder. I have encountered many kind people, yet also a much greater number of bad people. They don't have any compassion and sympathy, putting the blames on other people that do nothing wrong.
Hong Kong people were always the same, snobbish and materialistic...
Hong Kong...just when did Hong Kong become such a terrible place?
Of all the countries I have been to, I can be sure that people in Hong Kong were the least compassion ones. Hong Kong has changed a lot since the pandemic. People have become grumpy, impatient and aggressive. They look down Southeast Asians like Filipinos, Indonesians, Malaysians except Singaporeans whom they consider their equal.
Generally, most Hong Kong people are very individualistic and only care about their own interests. It is rare to find any HK person who knows their neighbours in an apartment block. Besides, Hong Kong people don't trust anyone and every relationship is transactional.
Moreover, they are very materialistic. Their only aim is to get rich as fast as possible with whatever means they can get away with. This is why financial frauds were everyday news in Hong Kong.
These people never show any kindness to people in need. You can even see people fighting on the street, on the bus or on the train just for trivial things like accidentally bumping into each other. I seriously think these people really need a bottle of chill pills.
I was born in Hong Kong and has been living here for quite a long time. Yet, I grow to hate this place. Even though I try to keep an optimistic view, sometimes it's painful when you see people hurting each other for nothing.
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I am not ready to give up yet, not yet. If I fell down now, no one will care about me. I have to be strong for myself and for everyone in need. I don't plan on exposing all the evil in this world. I just want to care for all those broken souls living in this cruel world.254Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2eDce0eMjS
I just hope...my kindness can at least make the slightest changes in this cruel world.
Maybe one day...this place and this world would become a better place for everyone...
That's what I am still believing in...
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Pondering over our world
Akira
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