This is written in memorial to the 7-1 group. A group formed formally by 7 enthusiastic young men while they were having their secondary education in a school.
7 years ago, I put my very first footstep on the ground of St. John’s. A mixture of feelings was playing in my head. St. John’s was totally an alien to me due to the barrier of language. I was formerly educated in Chinese, written BM wasn’t really a problem to me, but when it comes to spoken BM and English, I was totally screwed. Having difficulty communicating, in addition of my external appearance (sorry to me, it’s the nerdy kind of image, China-looking-nerd). I was often bullied and teased by the Indian and Malay students. Initially, it was really a tough time. Taking dictated notes, instructions, GIVING PUBLIC SPEAKING, especially, etc, I had to put in additional efforts.
At the midst of mist, I whispered to myself, that I shall shine one day, I shall not be bullied and I shall be the ultimate winner of all.
In the dark times of mine, there came this little boy (please don’t laugh, he WAS a little boy that time) named Khai Fatt, that lit a dim light to my terrible life. Strictly speaking, he was the first person I talked to from the first day of school. I could still remember clearly. I wasn’t really close to him, that time. Instead, I was close to a son of judge, given the name Thomas of Kuching.
Time flies, it’s the third year of secondary school. I managed to catch the natives’ conversation, even though I was still not very good at it. There and then, I knew this guy named Meng San. I wasn’t really had a good impression of this fellow. He was in the group of genius kids that time, consisting Yip Hon, Hin Chong, Kevin Chin, MingHao and course, he himself. A giraffe to me, tall guy, ego-looking (due to his group of GENIUS friends). Then, I knew this person better that year, wasn’t really that egoistic, but exactly the opposite, friendly and warm. He IS (note, its present tense) really a big fan of Ma-Jong, he was the one who taught me how to play this evilly-addicting game. That was a exciting year, we were so addicted to this game till the extend that we made our home-made Ma-Jong set and played it in school (to avoid any inconvenience, hard paper board was chosen as the raw material – silent while shuffling, space-friendly and most important, IT IS NOT ILLEGAL to bring card boards to school!!). We played during school formal events, while students were suppose to line up outside and listen to stupid ever lasting speeches under the hot sun, many times. There was one time where we were caught by our school disciplinary teacher, Mr. David Fernandez, known best for his bad temper. Oh no, we were shivering at that moment, whispering to ourselves, ‘oh shit, we are very DEAD now, got caught in action’, but to our surprise, he didn’t scold us for skipping the morning assembly, instead, he HAPPILY JOINED us in the game. Phew, it was really a blessing in disguise.
It’s the fourth year, the initial state of the formation of the 7-1, the year where the fellowship began. At that year, I knew Anthony Yan, a guy full with humor (if you know him long enough), he was really close to Teck Seng at that time, always talked to him, until the extend that made me suspect, are they GAYs? If you ask me, I have a long list of testimonial for Teck Seng, too much elaboration. If there was a union called ATSS (anti-teck_seng-association), I would most certainly be the president of it. I saw this guy ONCE before I was in the same class with him. It was during my sec two times, in an after-school CS tournament in a cyber café. Suddenly, I saw one giraffe hunting for a seat, oh gosh, WHERE IS HIS NOSE?!! If you are imaginative enough, his nose was at the upper floor of the café, one floor wasn’t spacious enough to occupy his TALL nose. All right, enough description of this poor guy. If it wasn’t Anthony, I wouldn’t bother to speak to him. It took me quite a while to get close to him, really difficult. So, strictly speaking, Anthony, you really played your part in the foundation of this fellowship. Ooh, I almost forget to mention, as I mentioned earlier on, that I suspect whether these two poor things were GAYs or not, they had a really BIG quarrel then, till now, haven’t spoke to each other, yet. Pity, pity…
From Teck Seng, I knew Fong Yoon, the snow white of my class, fair and humble. I wasn’t really known a lot about him until he gave me a BIG astonishing surprise when I went to his BIG BUNG-A-LOW. “WHAT ON EARTH, his mates’ toilet is BIGGER than my room”. Filthy rich, rich, and rich, and yet, so humble, humble, and very humble. Then, I learnt my lesson: The moral of the day is, do not judge other people based on their external appearance!
That was my class stories, back to Meng San’s side. He was in the same class as Khai Fatt. Some how, they just become really close to each other, and mathematically speaking, I and the other two was close to them later, too. Khai Fatt, could be easily identified from the rest of us, projecting himself by his professional skillful way of conversation. You can really talk to him non-stop for a few hours. That’s why my conversation technique was improved tremendously. Playful, trouble-maker, were another typical character of him.
Then, it came to Kevin. Kevin was also a difficult one. He was the best student of our school for continuous 5 years, speaking pure and fluent English (remember the fact that the English for all others are really hopeless, except Fong Yoon). For me, he was at another level at that time, far beyond reach and of course, he and his other group of friends, MingHao, Nigel, Ken, etc, all the elites of our school, rich and smart and also good looking. So, from Meng San, I finally knew him. Surely, he couldn’t hide his tail, he IS indeed ego sometimes.
Together, we played, we laugh and had fun. The formation of the 7-1 began when the school holiday began. We spent almost half a month in Fong Yoon’s house, on and off, of course, like no one’s business. His home was more like a grand but free hotel rather than a friend’s house to us. There, chemical reactions occur and therefore the formation of the stable covalent bonds within the six of us. (Note: chemical reaction means tie of pure and innocent friendship, not the … you-know-what)
Then, one day, Chee Hwee came to stay overnight, too. We (or at least me) were not really close to him at that time. While we were walking back to the LRT station from Yoonie’s house, I really couldn’t stand it and shouted, “JOU MEH GIU HUI LEI GEH?!! (Translation: why would anyone bother to ask him to come?!!). We laughed. (Sorry, Chee Hwee, this is written based on our true encounter).
During one of our out-of-school lunch at Mc Donald’s after CF, we were talking bout our experience in the Fong’s Mansion, suddenly Chee Hwee became the topic of the conversation. While trying our best not to mention his name in front of him, Meng San was writing furiously 7-1 with his finger on his palm, showing me eagerly. I wasn’t really known what he was trying to show, until he told me: “NEH, the extra one LEH” I burst into laughter and this idea stroke my mind: Why don’t we name our group as The 7-1 Group?
That was the birth of The Ultimate Group of 7-1. (Chee Hwee, you really played your role). Future planning was constructed carefully, such as opening of a restaurant named The Slipper-Rice Shop (Tor-Hai-Fan-Dim) The idea was extended to establishment of illegal sexual business (I chose not to elaborate it further). It was the peak of Group.
Good time flies, bad time stays. It was our Form Five graduation. Every one had chosen their future path. Some of us decided to continue the national education, the terrible sixth-form, while others preferred other alternatives. The sixth form was long-known for its toughness, but we had made our choice, to take the ultimate challenge, therefore that’s the beginning of the “hash training from HELL (Dei-Yoke-Sik-Fun-Nin)”.
While fighting our way through the exit from this terrible hell, angles of loves dropped by to give us a break. Will there be any romance?
The story continues after the break...
