every night, a dragon would bring out the monopoly board, set it on the center of the two beds pushed close together and lean against the wall, sitting at his favourite region of the bed. strategically near the wall for easy resting and indirectly proportional to the air conditioner. cold enough to wrap himself with his blanket comfortably, warm enough to extend his hands out of his little cocoon.

soon, the door swings open and in comes a walking ball, a comedic stick, and a self-claimed diva. behind them, a puffy penguin waddles close behind, staring at the monopoly board hungrily. they circle the board and greet their respective tokens. "bark bark bark to you, little puppy!" says the walking ball, while the comedic stick starts to feign sewing; the dragon proudly rides his horse and the diva, surprisingly, opts to handle the wheelbarrow. the puffy penguin though, it's a tough one for him. the gleaming silver car or the equally sparkly left shoe? slyly, the penguin reaches for both of those tokens with his tubby-wubby hands. he is satisfied.

the battle commences. it begins at a snail-pace, all competitors evenly pacing forward into the game. for those who forget their turns, namecalling that ranges from lembabun (a mesh-word of lembab and babun) to OOOHH OOOHH AAAHH AAAHH arises. the dragon takes the lead, for he is the wisest. the comedic stick delivers a demanding challenge, but she's not quite there yet. the others though, they're just there. they're just following those standing on top of them, imitating each and every movement of their beloved idols.

the dragon checks his watch, gosh, it's already 10pm! time for the iguana drama!abandoning their tokens, leaving the board, all of them quickly scramble to the room opposite. huddling in front of the big box emitting animated light forming shapes and patterns, it entrances these unadultered minds albeit the language barrier. the drama is cliched, overdone and highly ridiculous. but they enjoy it anyway.

little did they know how precious these times would be. little did they know that they would look back -when the dragon isn't a dragon anymore, but an accountant, when the comedic stick isn't a stick anymore, but a literature-manic martial artist, when the self-claimed diva isn't just self-claimed, but a widely acknowledged diva, when the walking ball isn't a ball anymore, but an erratic wind, when the puffy penguin isn't a penguin anymore, but an oblivious flower boy- and cry, and laugh, and miss those moments of pureness, of simple thinking inundated with joy, of happiness spent together.

i miss it.