the friend that i've never met

Way back in college, one of my friends introduced me to this guy via the conventional mail by post. He is a friend of her boyfriend. I was sure she had an "agenda" for the introduction, but I know it was not a malicious agenda so I went with the flow and surprisingly that turned out to be quite a nice friendship.

We exchanged mails, talking about what's going with our lives and many other things too. This went on the whole time we were in the university until we started work. Sometimes we would talk about meeting up but never really go to do so. Then, we both got busy with work and the mails became infrequent until there was a long lapse but somehow we managed to get back on track. Then another lapse, then back in communication again and so on... it was on and off. But the funny thing is we would suddenly be communicating again like nothing happened, no gaps, like we've just been talking the other day.

Lately I've been back chatting with him. Yes, finally we stopped the conventional mails because it is so much faster and easier to talk via the internet. He just got married and just because of that he now believes I should hurry up and follow suit. Hahaha. But still he never ceases to make me laugh and to give practical and sound advice when I need one.

I find our friendship weird because for one, aside from my boyfriend, he is the only other guy I can talk to about almost anything candidly. And we've known each other for more than 10 years now but we've never met each other in person (!) and yet I feel like he has been a real friend, in the truest sense of the word. :)

Yesterday was his birthday, another year older and more years to look forward to. So to Lan, thanks for the weird but real friendship. I wish you all the best in life and I hope we continue to be friends for the longest time, even if we don't ever meet up. But I really hope we would, someday. :)