There are things I vow never to repeat. Every thing I did on this day in 2015 is something I want to erase. I’ll never dine again at Hoshino Coffee. I’ll never walk across the foot bridge on the opposite side of Helix Bridge. I’ll avoid the Christmas lights display at Gardens by the Bay which I visited that afternoon. I don’t feel comfortable eating at that corner restaurant in Tiong Bahru.

All of these places remind me of the moments that led up to that phone call.

It was a day of independence and celebrating my time alone. But when I got that phone call from my boyfriend at the time, everything changed. I was standing at a street corner in Tiong Bahru trying to digest what he just told me over the phone.

In minutes, I was in a taxi and rushing home to Bishan to pack his luggage. This was barely 24 hours after my other housemate packed her luggage to rush back to Manila for her own family emergency.

Two family emergencies in two days. Our lovely home in Bishan never felt so…

A year has passed and we are all in different places now.

😦