That Happy Day: The Day He Asked and I Said Yes

Everyone's asking me for the story, so here it is.

A few months back, my boyfriend Aleq and I attended his cousin's wedding in Quezon City. We passed by Ma Mon Luk - the legendary restaurant famous for its siopao and beef mami. We said we would drop by after the wedding, but we weren't able to that night. He said, let's just set a day to go there. We can even drop by UST - our university - then. Since we always love visiting the school whenever we can, I readily agreed. I even said, "Let's go to mass at the UST chapel on that day too!" So then we just vaguely made plans for one free Sunday when we could go.

As it turned out, it was all a ruse. Little did I know at the time, Aleq had been working tirelessly since December 2011 to come up with a proposal. His entire family was actually involved, and they've all been keeping secrets and lying to me for months! Some of our friends actually knew as well. Mga sinungaling! Haha. He had the ring by the end of January. During February and March, he encountered some hiccups with his job, so he decided to hold off until things were okay. Come April, he decided this was the month! According to him, he was already going crazy, tired of all the secrets. However, the first Sunday of April was April Fool's. The next Sunday was Holy Week. He was raring to go by the third week, but I suddenly announced that I was going to Zambales with my officemates. He declined to go with me on the trip because he was focused on the proposal, and he just gritted his teeth and let me go. Last Sunday was his last chance, because this coming weekend is my birthday, and he didn't want the proposal to coincide with it. He had this planned scenario in mind that he just wanted to execute.

It almost didn't happen. A week before that Sunday, I told him maybe we shouldn't go because his car had a few problems and I didn't want him to drive that far. He told me that his car will be okay, he'll make sure of it. Then the night before, I was wilting from the heat and told him I didn't want to go because it was hot, I was feeling lazy, and I might not be able to wake up early. He said we already made plans, we had to push through, and that he'll wake me up and ring my phone incessantly if necessary. The next morning, we finally hied off to UST. We got there at 9:05am. I said we could still make it to the 9am mass. He got cranky and said no, we should visit "The Forest" – the place where we used to hang out back in our college days – first. We can attend the 10am mass anyway. I was thinking, it was weird, but I agreed nonetheless. So we started walking and I started taking pictures. He kept looking at his watch and telling me to hurry up, and just take pictures after the mass. I thought, man, he was cranky, and I started feeling cranky myself. I was wondering why he didn't want to take pics then, since we had almost a full hour to burn. I didn't want to pick a fight, so I just went along with whatever he wanted.

We both relaxed when we got to the Benavidez park, or what we affectionately call "The Forest". It's really one of our happy places. We started walking around, and then he said he wanted to sit down on one of the benches there and rest a bit. He was pulling me to sit at this bench on the right side of the park, but I said no, there are gardeners working in that area and it was noisy. I pulled him to the opposite side of the park across from where he wanted because I said it was more peaceful there.

So we finally sat down, and he suddenly said, "Gusto ko sana dun kasi dun kita unang linigawan." I said "Huh? Alam ko basta lagi tayong nandito, all over this park nung college."

Aleq: Dun ko binigay yung first love letter ko sa yo.
Julls: Aaah parang naaalala ko yun.
Aleq: Wala lang. I just wanted to see the place where we started... because I want to start something new with you.
Julls: *Shocked. Stops breathing.*
Aleq: *Pulls out a heart-shaped box, opens it to reveal a ring.* Julls, will you marry me?
Julls: *Speechless. Starts grinning so hard.*
Aleq: Teka luluhod nga ako. *kneels in front of me* Will you marry me?
Julls: Yes! Yes. Yes! *Still shocked. Plucks ring from the box. Puts it on ring finger.* Oh wait! You're supposed to do that! *Pulls off ring. Hands it to him.*
Aleq: *Starts laughing* Yes ha? Okay! *Puts ring on my finger.*

So then we hugged and kissed, and he started telling bits and pieces of the secrets he's been keeping from me. After all the snafu, he said things still turned out perfectly. I also did a quick Twitpic/Tumblr/FB post then because I wanted to tell the world immediately what happened. Then, we stood up, walked over to the old bench, took a picture really quickly there, and then went to the chapel for the 10am mass as thanksgiving. I only started tearing up during the offertory song. The choir sang Lord I Offer My Life to You and for some reason I choked up! I told Aleq to pay attention to the lyrics, and later on he told me when he heard the lyrics he got misty-eyed as well.

Afterwards, we walked around the university while taking pictures and calling my family. We saw a dirty ice cream cart, so we spent a while hanging out by the field, eating ice cream. Then when we got really hungry, we popped into Sticks and Bowls – the only non-fastfood place open that Sunday there – for lunch. Then we really did go over to Ma Mon Luk, and ordered take-out for Aleq's family. We went to his grandma and uncle's house unannounced, called his mom and cousin over, and had a siopao merienda. It was still crazy hot out when we finished (it was the hottest day of the year so far), so we decided to go to our favorite chill-out place, High Street, to celebrate by ourselves. (High Street was actually his backup plan in case UST didn't work out. I'm so glad UST worked out, heh.) We just walked around the stores, and then spent a while talking at Starbucks with coffee and a shared banoffee pie until it was time to go home. It was a truly perfect day.

The End

Early Sunday Morning - I thought this was just another random Sunday city roadtrip with Aleq.

— at North Greenhills.