The thing about online relationships …

I saw an online friend of mine on msn, Zoozee, whom I met from Cybertown. I haven’t met her for a while, so I decided to say hello. It turned out that she just accepted a proposal from Lion (Also from Cybertown) and I was really glad for her. I wasn’t surprised though, because they were one of the most closely knit couples in-world that I’ve ever met and I was really happy for the couple.

As the far as I could remember, online relationships has always been around ever since the ability to communicate with other people was possible. Romance bloomed even in the the days of the BBS bulletin board, moving to the heydays of IRC and then to 3D communities.

I was just looking at my backup CD and saw an old email that an online boyfriend gave me. My first online relationship would be somewhere in late 1996. Mirc was really popular then. I would log on and spend time with the people there, ranging from the weird, the interesting, the crazies, the funnies. There were many different types of characters there that I didn’t even needed to watch television any more since MIRC was more entertaining for me with all the antics there.

As how human nature grows there are a group of people that you’d feel connected to and I felt a close bond to a group of menageries and we hang around more. They were a really close bunch of real life friends and went for frequent outings and thus on-line friends became real life friends in just a few moments.

I wasn’t able to go to these outings since I was in Jurong Institute then and didn’t have that much free time. Nevertheless, I got to know this guy and we easily became friends. I don’t know how we suddenly became closer but he was interesting to me. I found myself chatting with him till the next morning. His comment of “Hey, it’s time for me to wake up now!” in particular made me chuckle. We then proceeded to talk on the phone for a few days and I liked his voice and looked forward to talking to him.

Online, he was always sweet, funny and protective which was very endearing qualities that I liked. Reading that email, I forgotten the nickname he used to call me “wify”. Now I think I’d turn to mush if anyone calls me that again but I thought it was sweet then.

He tried to meet up with me but since I was busy with school, I had to decline many times. But after a while, perhaps out of guilt (?) or a sense of curiosity, I agreed to go to a channel gathering. There I was, an awkward 18 year old, straight from school, in my grey school uniform surrounded by these rambunctious and boisterous hip and funny people. I then saw him and I smiled at the Chinese guy with the long floppy hair and he smiled back at me.

At the end of the gathering, he took my hand and we walked hand in hand and had our first kiss. I couldn’t help but taste the strong chilli sauce on his tongue. That really put me off.

We met again for a couple of times more, and he was even more sweeter on MIRC to me. And it was obvious that the channel regarded us as “the couple”. That was when he started calling me “wify” and became even more protective towards me.

Unfortunately, there was a problem. After we met, I didn’t feel that connection and didn’t feel anything more towards him than a friend. So I told him and he didn’t take it well. Called me names and since he was a mod in that room, banned me. So, that’s the end I suppose.

Anyway, I think I’ll stop here for the moment. There are still other things that I’d like to say about this topic, but I guess that would have to wait till another day.