The internet lets you connect with everyone. Aside from helping people around the world communicate easily, the gift of the internet is to link me with one of the greatest friends I could ever have. What once started as a medium for me to express myself and get updated on everything about One Direction, Twitter brings me to Ghina, a precious internet friend of mine who has been through it all with me for 7 years.
Of course, communicating virtually just doesn't automatically grant you a best friend. Ghina and I met through mutual friends on a LINE Messenger group chat. Being in the same group chat with members who are pretty active, we eventually follow each other's Twitter fan accounts despite never having a private conversation. It all gradually changed in 2015, where One Direction was going to hold their first (and last) concert in Jakarta. We chat almost every day and we grew closer with each other, then we started to follow each other's personal Instagram accounts.
However, some groups of friends don't mean to last. We got into an argument that eventually strained the friendship of the group. Me, Ghina, and four other group members made an inner circle where we feel more comfortable discussing things just with the six of us. After talking for almost a year, Ghina and I only got the chance to finally meet each other. So, our first encounter was not at the One Direction concert, but rather at the 5 Seconds of Summer concert in 2016. Eventually, we all grew up--we got our own priorities like the National Exam and university entrance exams, so we became inactive on Twitter and social media for a while to prepare ourselves for our future.
Fast forward to 2017, where I was in my second year in university. Something shifted when I saw BTS Love Yourself: Her comeback music video "DNA"; it's like my inner fangirling soul suddenly resurrected. And this is what reunites me with Ghina. I'm not the person who remembers details, so I asked Ghina regarding our story in becoming even closer to complement this article.
"I was only getting into BTS, and I remember how you keep replying and commenting on my Instagram stories about BTS. You would encourage me to further know about the group, to the point where I personally texted you in order for me to gain information about BTS," Ghina explained.
"We would talk about them non-stop until midnight. You would explain their personalities and keep sending me YouTube links for me to watch. You are basically my encyclopedia for BTS," she laughed.
From there, we started to grow closer. Our chats are becoming more frequent, even if it's mostly about BTS. While we reminisce and try to remember what exactly made us become inseparable, we can't come up to a certain moment. Ghina said she vaguely remembers the details but she was the one who initiated the first personal talk, you know, besides conversation about Jungkook's beautiful Bambi-looking eyes.
"I think you were feeling down on your Instagram story updates so I approached you like, 'Are you okay? If you want to talk, I'm all ears.' And then you started talking about your boyfriend at the time," she explained.
"After that, we share bits by bits about ourselves more personally. Along the way, we found out that we think similarly, right? The more we talk about certain topics, the more we find how similar we are," she stated.
The funniest yet most magical thing about me and Ghina is how often we literally send the same thing at the same time. A flip-and-flop moment, but it happens too often that it feels as if we're sharing the same brain cell. From this repeated occurrence, there's a phrase I use to explain our bond; Parabatai. A word reference from the fiction TV series Shadowhunters, meaning warriors who fight together as lifelong partners and bound together by oath-basically a soulmate in their universe.
Due to the distance that separates us from each other, we would only catch up through chats, phone calls, and video calls. This is because I was studying in Bandung, while Ghina was in Jakarta. We would only meet each other whenever I decided to go home during the semester break. Even though we both may be busy because of university, somehow, our friendship never fades away. "You were so busy with uni that I would always get a late reply. But whenever we're on semester break, we'd be on the phone until hours and hours, remember?" Ghina tried to share the memories with me.
After I graduated, we stopped being in a long-distance relationship. What once can easily be counted with fingers, now our meet-ups doubles, and triples in frequency. We just click so much and she has become the person I trust and my #1 destination for spilling anything from my day, the person I'm seeing, down to my insecurities and adulting problems. In fact, aside from my Mom, she is at the top of my WhatsApp chat since I pinned our conversation.
Saying this makes my tongue go stiff, but honestly, I don't think I'll ever survive without her. Upon writing this whole article, even, I know she will screenshot some part which she will tease me for later, sending a "Cie, you love me so much." But that's the truth. I am grateful for her presence and thankful for the internet for bringing us together.
While the internet may seem like a scary place, it is also able to bring me to some of the loveliest people out there. What once started as two people who share the same interest can bloom into a friendship one will cherish forever.
(HAI/HAL)