My heart could not handle what happened when I professed my love for her.

It was June 1998 when I enrolled in College of the Immaculate Conception in Cabanatuan City, BSCS as my course of study. At the start of the year, I met Imogene. She is so wonderful, brave and very thoughtful. As my classmate, Imogene became my friend, I really enjoyed her company as well as with our other friends. Imogene was very bright and ambitious as evidenced by her status as Dean’s Lister, being active in many different organizations, and she stands as our mentor when any of us struggled. Year had passed, many things were shared together, projects, homework, term papers, out of town trips, etc...

February 16 1999, she celebrated her 18th birthday, and of one big barkada invited, I am the one she chose to stand as one of her 18 roses—an honor I was proud to accept. We all enjoyed the night of her. Even then, I never thought that I would fall for her.

But I did fall in love with Imogene, but I kept my feelings to myself. I guess I was concerned that I could be a distraction to her studies and that was the last thing I wanted to do. Anyway, I kept my feelings silent.

When we passed our thesis and we sure that we are candidate of graduating students of batch 2003, we celebrated in Quezon Nueva Ecija. We were all happy. We enjoyed much food and drink in our victory. In the middle of our enjoyment, I tried to talk to Imogene in private. I started talking to her about all the memories we have shared, how much I love and respect her. I had to repeat this because she needed to know that I had fallen in love with her.

Sadly, she responded by explaining that to keep our friendship I would basically have to ignore my feelings for her as more than friends…

And now the day had come, February 15 2002 that was our JS From. I tried to convince her again that we should be together, but I failed! It so hurt to hear that she didn’t like me. That she can only offer me friendship was a blow that my heart could hardly withstand. I went back to my boarding house and cried the whole night.

Things were never the same after that. Our friendship was changed forever and her feelings for me never grew beyond friendship. She accepted my apologies, but we both knew that our friendship had been forever damaged. I still love her but, she doesn't love me.