Jan 25, 2026

Sunday had yet another trip going on! This time we'd be 4 people in SM City BF Paranaque, it would be Naomi and her girlfriend Jane, along with Renne and I. I took a while to book a ride and I thought about something on the way there. I eventually arrived at SM BF and I heard that Naomi and the rest had already met up. Naomi teased me a bit and I eventually saw the 3 of them behind me. Naomi was being her cool, chill self, Renne was super shy and didn't even look at me, and Jane was close by Naomi's side. I joked about how Renne was so shy and that she shouldn't be, and the eventually was fine enough and got the courage to talk to me and stuff. I asked them if they're down for Starbucks and they all agreed, and I got their orders. Renne had a cheesecake and java chip, Naomi got the usual strawberry acai drink that I got her before, Jane had this chocolate chip thing, and I got a venti juice drink. All in all, it totaled to 1,000 Pesos but the cashier didn't allow me to use my Apple Wallet to pay for our drinks and said that I should use the app. Which just made me furl my brow a little because I had literally used the same card for thousands of Pesos worth of purchases with no issue. It ticked me off but whatever, I just paid for it all and got seated with the rest of them. We mostly talked about a few things going on in their lives and we took a few pictures. I don't know why, but I made it my duty to make sure that no one felt like they were left out and I asked everyone equally how they were doing, and stuff like that. It felt strange to be the extreme grown-up in this situation, which I kinda was, but it was fun too since I got to play the role of an extrovert again. We eventually finished our drinks and walked around for a bit. After that, we decided on eating at Sumo Niku instead. They told me that it wasn't like their usual samgyupsal place before because this was expensive and they could only afford the 200-Pesos ones, but I told them that it was fine and I was paying the bill. We cooked a lot of beef and some pork, but it was mostly beef strips. I somehow made a mistake and ordered a lot of the wagyu cubes that they had, which wasn't everyone's liking, I guess they mostly preferred the beef strips. We mostly talked, shared stories, and I mostly cooked alongside Naomi. I made sure to give everyone a piece of the cooked meat equally and make sure everyone got their orders in. I eventually had to help Naomi finish her food by the end because she wasn't looking great and it seemed like she was full, so I offered to take some of her food. I even ordered some extra gochujang because I really like that sauce. I eventually finished my food and then paid for the bill, which was 2,700 Pesos for all 4 of us. I was pretty much fine with it, but I was just initially surprised as my wallet took a beating these past few days, haha. But it's fine, I think I have enough money to go to Korea anyway if I budget properly AND get my visa approved in the first place. We just walked around more after that. We stopped by National Book Store and I asked if Naomi wanted a book for her birthday. She said that she wanted this FNaF book but couldn't find it anywhere so I just took a note of it. Renne said that she wanted to read this book but said that it was expensive, but I secretly took a plastic-wrapped copy of it and eventually bought it. I gave it to her and asked about the book as we were all walking and then gave her the book. It's nice to give them a gift as they gave me a painting that they made, plus I got myself the 3rd book of the Diary of a Wimpy Kid anyway. We walked a bit more but eventually had to part ways. I booked a ride home and eventually got some well-deserved “me time” which I used to catch up on so much stuff. I decided if I would go to my usual hangout, Starbucks on 32nd Street in BGC and if I should bring my MacBook Pro to work there, but decided against it and that I would just catch up on my 21 journal entries at home instead. I spent the majority of the evening just catching up on my journal entries and publishing them at the end. It even extended to the next day, but I'm glad I just locked in and finished all of it in one night.