Those Weird Facebook Chats From the Past (Do they Still Exist?)

His name is Ken. And, of course, it’s not his real name. It’s a fake account, you can tell. He’s male — at least because I am using ‘he’.

It all started in mid-June three years ago, on 12 June 2016, at 10:36 a.m., with a ‘hy’. That’s a ‘Hi’.

Hi, I replied.

"hw are u???" he wrote.

"I am fine," I said. "Have we met before?"

"not just wanna know u nwy ma name z Ken"

"Okay"

"u???"

Yes, he put three question-marks. I did not respond to that one.

On 3 July 2016, at 8:47 a.m., Ken returned: "hy!" But I was somewhere else, so I could not respond.

The following night, at 10:34 p.m., he re-launched. But with a different (though with the same style) starter: "Slt"

"Hi," I replied. "How is this?"

"Ken as u see," he wrote.

"Have we met before," I asked, and made sure I add three question-marks.

He replied: "Nop i told u dat i wanna be close to ya"

He added: "I want to be ur friend coz i like making freindz"

Then I said, "Okay. I appreciate." At this point, I was getting more curious to know where this was going. So, I said, "I thought there's something specific you wanted to tell, or ask, me."

"Nwy nabnye ur pics u look handsome. dat’s why i decided to talk u"

"Okay"

"So can we be close buddies??"

"No," I wrote.

"Why??"

To ease communication, I thought I should put in some explanation. And then I wrote, "bcs m nt a badmn." In my head, really, I had "because I am not a buddy-man" as the meaning, but I decided to simply write it that way. And he went like, "Ur not??"

He did not get what I meant.

"ya," I said.

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