"If we don't meet here, we'll meet in the hereafter," these were the parting words uttered by Mohd Afif Tambi Jiee, one of the victims of the ill-fated Malaysia Airlines (MAS) flight MH17, before leaving his rented house in Petaling Jaya for a holiday with his family in Kazakhstan.

His housemate, Khairil Azwan, 21, said he did not expect these to be the last words said by Afif, 19, after the final examination of the foundation studies at Taylor's University.

"What I remembered most when I last met him, he was leaving the house and was keeping his things as though he was going away for a long time whereas the foundation leave was short, and when I asked him why he was taking a lot of things, he just kept quiet," he told reporters after the 'tahlil' session organised by Taylor's University, here Monday.

Khairil said Afif was a good friend and had given him much advice.

"He gave me a lot of advice on the present world and the hereafter, his style of thinking was also very mature, so he was not the ordinary type of friend. It is hard to find a friend like Afif," he said sadly.

Afif, the eldest of four siblings, completed his foundation studies in the field of architecture at the private university and he should be starting his first degree studies in August.

Meanwhile another friend of Afif, Nadine Saedah Nasaruddin, 19, was shocked to hear of the tragedy that had killed her classmate and it was very difficult to accept the passing of a friend who was considered to be a very cheerful person.

"He had a charming appearance, he was very bubbly, he was the joker of the group, he made people laugh all the time, if you were down he was the one who would bring you up and he was always positive.

"I would miss his random text, I've lost someone whom we are all really attached to, although I knew him just a year but I feel that I've known him for ages," she said.

In the air crash, Mohd Afif together with his parents and all the three other siblings died in the MAS MH17 tragedy. The MH17 was flying from Amsterdam, Holland to Kuala Lumpur last Thursday.

His father, Tambi Jiee, 49, from Kampung Gobielt, Sarawak together with his mother, Ariza Ghazalee, 47, and three younger siblings -- Mohd Afzal, 17, Marsha Azmeena, 15, and Mohd Afruz, 13, were returning from Kazakhstan.

Tambi was working with an international oil and gas company in Kazakhstan for the past three years.