Derek
Derek is also a long time friend of mine. Counting with my
finger, I have known him for about nine years. Again, we were not
close at all when we first met.
Before meeting him, I had always had an impression that Derek
is a computer genius. In fact, he is. Since his young age, he
already knew Chinese typing and played tons of PC games. He had
started to use internet when I was still having trouble in
handling fax machine. Another thing I had heard of him was he
moved to Sydney when he was in grade 7. For some reason, he
returned to Hong Kong after a half year stay in Australia.
However, the first thing of him that left me a strong
impression happened in form two (grade 8). We were in the same
class for the first time. One of our teachers were absent in a
day, so a sub came to our class. The sub was a kind of sneaky
person who could really embarrass people. When people reacted to
him (of course in a negative way), he could turn his face to red
and yelled at them. He came to our class and criticized on a
classmate's way of holding a pencil. No one appreciated his act
because we all thought he was only humuliating that guy.
Suddenly, I heard a voice saying "chi sin" (crazy or
insane in Cantonese). 
The sub asked
who said that. No one responded to him but he discovered it was
from Derek. He went in front of Derek's desk and asked him to
stand up. "What is the meaning of chi sin?" Obviously,
Derek was in silence as he realized he got into trouble. The sub
made Derek stand there for a while. Then, the bell rang and the
sneaky sub left. A couple of months later, the same class with
the absence of the same teacher brought the same sub to our
class. We all thought the thing of last time was over. But the
sub said, "where is Woo Yik Yuen?"(Derek's Chinese
name). Although he did not do anything on Derek, we all felt
upset as such narow-minded people was our teacher.
We started getting close when we were in form 3 (grade 9). I
was in class 3B while he was in 3D. I did not know what brought
us together. Fate? Perhaps? I guess I started talking to him when
I was visiting some friends in his class. Later, we exchanged
phone number and called each othe everyday. Although we were in
different classes and had different teachers, we took the same
courses and wrote the same exam. We shared gossips on how the two
Chinese Lauguage teachers disputed over the marking of a test.
That year past very fast, but was a very happy year. But, things
did not look good at the end of June when my Chinese Language
textbook got stolen! I was anxious and angry because I wrote all
class notes in that book. I thought it was waste of time to
transfer the notes from other classmates into a new book.. I
decided to make photo copies! Derek lent me not only the text,
but also his class notes. It was so great to me because the exam
would be set and marked by his teacher. Eventually, I got a high
mark in that course!
About the end of
exam, we got the news that he would leave for Australia again.
That was my first time of having a close friend leaving. He left
in July and he really missed the things in Hong Kong. He even
asked me to send him some old magazines to him. We all thought he
settled in Sydney after school started. Things turned out to be a
surprise when he appeared in our annual swimming gala. He was
back! He wore our school uniform. We did not ask why he was back
because we all expected the same answer of his first migration.
Anyway, it was a joy of having him with us again. Although we
were in different academic streams (he was in science and I was
in arts), we deepened our friendship foundation. Perhaps, the
different streams allowed us have no direct competition. So, it
was easier to get close. In the final exam, we both ranked at the
second place in our stream.
So, Derek did really encourage me to work hard. Derek, Ah
Bong, me and other friends took over the English Society in our
form six year. Together, we shared most of the fun of holding
activities. Every time I went back to Hong Kong. He was always
the first person I phoned to. This year was very good for us
because we went to SEA countries together. We will miss the food
in Lau Pa Sat. We'll miss the day we both got good news from our
transcript. We won't forget the funny things in the train ride to
Malaysia. We will always remember the short and unforgetable time
in Batam.
Edward
Other Friends
The sub asked
who said that. No one responded to him but he discovered it was
from Derek. He went in front of Derek's desk and asked him to
stand up. "What is the meaning of chi sin?" Obviously,
Derek was in silence as he realized he got into trouble. The sub
made Derek stand there for a while. Then, the bell rang and the
sneaky sub left. A couple of months later, the same class with
the absence of the same teacher brought the same sub to our
class. We all thought the thing of last time was over. But the
sub said, "where is Woo Yik Yuen?"(Derek's Chinese
name). Although he did not do anything on Derek, we all felt
upset as such narow-minded people was our teacher.
About the end of
exam, we got the news that he would leave for Australia again.
That was my first time of having a close friend leaving. He left
in July and he really missed the things in Hong Kong. He even
asked me to send him some old magazines to him. We all thought he
settled in Sydney after school started. Things turned out to be a
surprise when he appeared in our annual swimming gala. He was
back! He wore our school uniform. We did not ask why he was back
because we all expected the same answer of his first migration.
Anyway, it was a joy of having him with us again. Although we
were in different academic streams (he was in science and I was
in arts), we deepened our friendship foundation. Perhaps, the
different streams allowed us have no direct competition. So, it
was easier to get close. In the final exam, we both ranked at the
second place in our stream.