What’s love got to do with 1st April

April Fools’ Day is typically associated with practical jokes, pranks, and hoaxes. Love, perhaps is the last thing that we would associate with April Fools’ Day.

Many years ago when I was in NUS, I had a small group of friends consisting of both guys and girls. We were quite close at that time – hanging out between lessons, going karaoke, watching movies together, etc. In this group was a guy named R. R carried a torch for one of the girls in this group, named S. Now, R was a shy guy who did not openly make his feelings known to S. However, it did not stop R from secretly admiring S.  (and just in case you’re guessing already, no, I am not R and neither is Shuyi S )

Back then in the faculty where I studied, Valentine’s Day was also touted as “Friendship Day”, an occasion not just for the attached but also for the singles. Anyone can give gifts to any of their friends as a mark of friendship.

On one Valentine’s Day, R came to school with a few individually wrapped stalks of flowers (tulips, if I remember correctly). As our group sat down together, R presented each girl in the group with a stalk of those flowers. Naturally, S was one of the recipients too. R did it in a very good-natured way without any awkwardness. Everyone in the group was pleasantly surprised at R’s thoughtfulness.

It dawned on me that R hoped to buy flowers for S on that special occasion. Perhaps sensing that his chances were small, he had not the confidence to do so. Hence he chose to “hide” his expression of love under the cover of the day’s festivity. By buying flowers for all the girls in the group, he had achieved his aim of buying flowers for S. My heart went out to R.

Yesterday evening as I was jogging, something made R’s story come to my mind again. 1st April is another appropriate occasion to “hide” one’s expression of love under the cover of the day’s festivity. Tell that special-secret-yet-impossible someone that you like him/her! Then you both probably can laugh it off as an April Fools’ joke. At least you’ve told him/her the truth about your feelings.

S later dated another guy who would eventually become her husband in a happy marriage. As for R, he is also happily married to another wonderful lady.