Following her suggestion to go and hangout at another place after buka puasa, we got into my car so she could guide me to this restaurant somewhere in the suburbs of KL. I just met her, and I was too full from the buffet to think of anything to talk about.

Then came Asian Kung Fu Generation - Rewrite on the CD player. She was nodding away at the guitar riffs, which got me wondering if she was familiar with Full Metal Alchemist. When the vocals came, though, she’s got this perplexed look on her face, and checked the LCD panel for the artist and song title.

“Eh, is that Japanese?”

“Yeah. Why?”

“Wow, you listen to Japanese songs?”

“Yeah. I do.”

She gave me a long hard look.

“What about Japanese songs?”

“Nah, it’s just… weird.”

“I don’t look like the type who listens to Japanese songs?”

“No. I mean…well,… not that I know how Japanese music fans generally look like to begin with. But, you know?”

That blind ignorance made me grin.

“Hmm…I suppose that means you’re not familiar with Japanese music, then?”

“Yeah. I really honestly didn’t expect you to be listening to Japanese songs.”

It was then my turn to give her a confused look, just to hide my amusement. She looked away, entertaining her own thoughts.

“That’s just weird.”

“…”

Hours later, I came back home to unfinished assignments, Mai-Hime downloads [I can hear you gasp in shock] and a freshly installed copy of Halo: Combat Evolved. Lots of things to distract me from life, but that short conversation just keeps playing itself in my head like a single-track playlist on loop. I wonder if her remarks mean that I’m actually an accomplished undercover ninja otaku?

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Small Talk:
I don’t hate this country.
I just hate how it’s being run.
And I hate the fact that I can’t directly change it.

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