the one i call "dad"

i was just having a chat on icq with my "dad". been calling him dad since my industrial training days. i was working in this e-commerce firm in pj together with a classmate then. chatting over y! messenger was our way of communicating with the outside world. over the 3 month period, we kept in touch with our friends in uni and those who were based all over the country for training.

dad was the most unlikely person whom you would just call "dad". most of the time, he looked like an unshaven grunge rock artist strolling around on campus with his cap pulled back the wrong way. often times i found myself saying hi to this person who was singing the latest hit song to himself. but deep inside, he was really a sweet kinda guy.

since he was still studying in campus and had all the luxuries of campus life (read : 24-hour internet connection), he would sometimes message us and just say hi. when my friend and i were bored with office work, we would start a yahoo conference and chat ourselves silly. he would always end with "take care, i'll miss you and love you lots". very unexpected if you knew how he looked like!

so we decided to call him "dad". my friend and i ended up as his "daughters".

anyways, back to the story of me and him icq-ing one late night. at the same time, a guy messaged me. i had known him a few months back, but never met. so i told my dad about it.

me : hey, guess wat? some guy's trying to kacau me.
dad : over icq? who's he?
me : dunno, some guy i met thru icq. we've been chatting off n on for some time, but i hvnt actually met him lar
dad : who's he lar?
me : some 20-something catholic male, working in singapore, interested in photography n trying to impress me by making cheesecake
dad : lonesome male trying to pick you up. i must admit, he's got good taste though *grin*
me : haahah.. of course! how could it be any less when the dad's a trusted brand himself...
dad : awwwwwwwww....thank you thank you.... now you better be careful with these types. they're surely up to no good, n arent interested in anything serious.
me : ok dad.. i know what you mean. told you i dun really layan him.
dad : in any case, be careful ok?
me : dont worry lar. i wont end up eloping with him and running off to singapore.. haahah...

that wasn't exactly how we ended the chat, but we always had a father-daughter kinda conversation online. haven't met up with dad for a long time already. wonder how he looks like now...