I have a phobia.

You wanna know how someone is trying to get something out of you?

Let me teach you one thing to look out for when you something is trying to get something out of you. This is just one method, for the other methods please wait till enough people try to get something me to let me see the pattern then I’ll teach you kids.

You know when you have “friends” you’ve known forever but the only thing you do is say hi to each other? Or people you know from aeons ago but have since ceased to contact each other?

When they start contacting you, and be so bloody chummy with you, that’s when you should watch out.

Yesterday I had a “friend” whom I knew a year ago and forgot the name of, come up to me and be very “friendly” with me. Then she asked me for my number. That’s when I had this biggest suspicion about her intentions because she used to see me many times before and had never asked for my number. So, what’s with this sudden “kawan” act?

Turns out she needed help on “doing a survey on advertising.”

So I agreed to meet her today and help her out with her “project”.

The first thing she did when she sat down is fumble for a pen. That’s very normal, I thought, she must have prepared a pen for me in case I didn’t bring any. So she next reached into her bag and I was anticipating a survey form, nicely typed maybe with some grammar mistakes [as were a lot of survey forms done in English by UKM students]. And I knew things were not right when she pulled out a stack of foolscap papers, and the top one had some things [items from 1 to 9] written on it.

The horror came when I saw that the first item is “FINANCIAL FREEDOM”.

I prompted her about what course is this for [since she said it’s for a project]. She told me it was for something outside UKM. I prompted further and she took out her name card.

When I saw the name of the company I immediately gave her probably the biggest “NO” she ever heard in her life. By then I’d known what her agenda was, and I rejected right away.

She asked me why. With all my vigour I told her WHY.

She patiently waited for me to finish. I finished ranting. And ate lunch together amiably. Then we went our separate ways.

So I knew, and now you know, that when someone you rarely talk to comes out of nowhere trying to be your friend, it’s almost always something hidden behind that fake smile. And some of the time these people will ignore you completely after your rejection, probably because they feel you have no more use for them and that they shouldn’t waste their time trying/pretending to be friendly with you.

Now I have a phobia of ****t**t and people suddenly trying to be friendly with me.