My Krung Krung Bae

Chapter 3: My New World

MY KRUNG KRUNG BAE – Chapter 3

My New World

Aljon Bautista

I woke up to a start. There’s this long static sound that suddenly pulled me out of my sleeping state. That sleep sure felt like forever. Dreamless. I groaned as I opened my eyes. Part of it was because my head hurt so badly and the sound wouldn’t go away.

This is what you get for drinking until you pass out, Aljon. Not to mention, you fell asleep in the balcony. How I remained asleep when it was cold? Beats me.

While squinting because it was too bright outside, I forced myself to get up and walked back to my room with lazy feet. My tired eyes immediately zoomed in to my bed and I walked over just to drop my body on it, face down. I heard my stomach growl just as the sound in my ear disappeared.

To eat or not to eat… Heck! Who says no to food?

Rolling over, I tried to think what I had in my fridge to make for breakfast. Then as my eyes adjusted to the light in my room, I realized, I was not in my room! What the heck? I bolted out of bed when I noticed the huge TV screen across the bed staring at me. Okay, it was not staring at me per se. Back to the more pressing matter!

I was not in my room!

Did I crash somebody’s house? Did my virgin body sleep with someone without my consciousness knowing? Holy—

I gasped when I realized I could just be in one of my classmate’s dorm room. Probably the chairperson’s? Her family is rich and that would explain this big bed I was occupying. The nicely decorated huge bedroom. I began to inspect the room I was in and I was in for a surprise when I found some of things that pointed to me as the owner—a picture frame on the night stand—nice electric blue hair of me, books with my handwritten notes on some of the pages, and a backpack with stuff that have my name on it. Even the emojis on these things were mine!

Did she take these and bring it here? Then again, the choice of color in the room was totally not her. Heck, she’s not a stalker. Is she? I laughed to myself. Also, she’s more of a dark color fanatic. I looked inside the closet and found clothes of colors I would definitely buy for myself— a rainbow must have made a nest in there. And the clothes were for men! My size, too!

I decided to peek outside the room and see if I could recognize the place I was in.

“Hey, what’s up?”

My mouth fell open. Someone just greeted me as he walked past the door I was standing in. Hot! He’s hot! Wait. He’s wearing a business suit. This couldn’t be a student dorm room then?

A growl sounded from my stomach again; I sighed and went back inside. To my left is the bathroom and next to it is the mini galley kitchen. I walked to where the fridge is and opened it. I found all my favorites—yogurt, chocolates, oranges, cranberry juice, and tomatoes. All the others were what I would buy to make my meals. Huh. It’s like I bought them myself. For myself.

My mind was running miles as I made egg omelet with onions and tomatoes, a toast, and sausages for breakfast. To heck with who owned the apartment. I was starving!

After I had stuffed myself, I cleaned the kitchen and straightened the bed. I mentally battled myself with what to do to the stuff I thought were mine. In the end, I couldn’t bring them with me so I only took the backpack and my photo. As I stepped outside, a small woman in her forties greeted me. She was right in front of the door; I was startled.

“You must be Aljon Aquino, my new tenant,” she said with a smile.

“Your what?” I asked, now falling confused on top of the questions about where I was.

“Here,” she said as she handed me some papers stapled together inside a blue folder. “The copy of the rules in this building. Also, I included a copy of your application as you requested. If you have questions, my office is on the ground floor. It’s not hard to find.”

I smiled back at her as I thanked her before she left. With deep curiosity, coupled with an intent to sate my confusion, I opened the folder. Long and behold, I was the tenant of the apartment I thought belonged to somebody else. What was ultimately weird though was my last name on the folder. Instead of Bautista, it was Aquino. My name is Aljon Aquino. Same age, same face. Also, apparently, my rent was going to be paid automatically. I did own the place.

What?!

I was going out of my mind when I saw the other information in my application. It was like I was reading a whole new life of mine from a book. I must be dreaming, I told myself. Yet, I was totally aware I was dreaming. Wait, I can bag a boyfriend while I’m having this lucid dream!

Excited, I went to choose an outfit—a pair of ripped jeans splattered with colorful paint and a white t-shirt that said, “I’m awesome and so are you!” I wore a pair of mismatched shoes and socks—black and white—and then headed out.

So far, I was loving the dream. People were nice. They speak Tagalog. Gay people are holding hands and kissing in public. Nice! I was jumpy in excitement. I was giggling even. This could be a dream or a different world. Either one was good for me. I was practically skipping while waving hello to people. Until, I tripped. 

That hurt!

Wait. Can someone hurt when they’re dreaming?

“Are you okay?” Someone asked me and I just nodded without looking back. My toe hurt so bad that at in a millisecond, I thought everything I was seeing was real. I got up from my crouching and continued to walk down the street, trying to ignore the pain in my left toe. It would be a waste to not to enjoy this dream.

Boy, I was totally in a different city. Somewhere in Manila for sure. The place was exactly like Iloilo City except that the people were speaking Tagalog , the dialect people speak in the northern part of the country. And you would never see gay people being open to giving their partner a peck on the lips, let alone on the cheeks. Even straight couples don’t.

While I talked to myself, making plans on how to make the most of my dream, I bumped into someone. My palm landed on their face when I heard them say to watch where I was going. In Tagalog. Was it his voice? Was it the sudden skip in my heartbeat? Who knows? I already slapped their face! Why did I do that?!

Apparently, I get startled easily in my dream, too. Or wherever I was.

I immediately apologized to the man before me. “I’m so sorry! I’ll take you to the hospital. I’m so sorry. I was just startled—

Hearing his soft chuckle made me stop rambling about. My heart skipped another beat as I looked at the face of the man in front of me. I was looking up because he was flippin’ tall. His hair was dyed silver grey. His eyes were so beautiful and sparkly as he smiled at me. I felt something warm touch my chin.

He was closing my mouth! Oh, yes. I dropped my jaw.

“No need to take me to the hospital. I’m fine,” he said. I was totally mesmerized by him. My gay self was already imagining our wedding if only it was legal.

“Be careful,” he said while I was still frozen. When I snapped back into it, I found myself wishing everything was not a dream instead. I loved this place! Then, I recalled my wish to the moon last night and uttered the same wish.

Please, let this be a new world instead. An alternate world. Whatever. Just make this real.