LOVE, Kloudiia

“A Japanese Christmas” – Ming Chern (a.k.a TofuMonkey) from Singapore 

Love is a wonderful yet so mysterious thing. It happens at the times least expected …

Perhaps it hits you when you are crossing the road and you cross path with the person you are about to spend your rest of the life with. Perhaps it strikes when you look over your shoulder and voila, you future-partner is just across the other table.

Or maybe, love doesn’t hit you until really late. I can relate to this. I felt nothing for my wife during the first 2 years in Japanese class. I guess love between us took some time to blossom, especially when the lessons only happen once a week.

Then something strange happened during the start of the 3rd year. As I sat down beside her, I suddenly felt that she’s the most beautiful creature I’ve ever seen in my entire life. The way she talks, the way she laughs and the dreamy eyes of hers.

Suddenly I blurted out that if she can be my girlfriend, but in Japanese. As I was always the class joker, it took her 2 weeks and 3 confirmations that I wasn’t joking with her and am serious in courting her.

I, being the shy person, wasn’t too brave enough to go full force, so during the initial courtship days, I wrote her a love letter, declaring my love for her and my intentions of us being together.

I was initially rejected, for the fact that she wanted to concentrate on her studies and for the fact that she was 3 years my senior. It was hurting for me in the beginning. I thought I wanted to die and hope this all to end. But no, the fighting spirit in me kept me going. I wasn’t going to give up. I can wait, I have time.

So the courtship continues outings after outings, movies after movies. It was also during this time that I hatched a plan.

It was coming close to Christmas; I had to do something, right? So I started to fold paper stars, all 999 of them, yes, using the big butter fingers of mine. It wasn’t easy in the beginning. Furthermore, during the 3 month period, I had to go to Australia to attend my 2nd sister’s convocation. But hey, since I’m pretty free there. I brought all my materials there and continued folding them.

Finally I completed them and was approaching Christmas. So as usual, I asked her out to celebrate Christmas on 24th Dec 1999. I brought along my present, full of my sweat and labor, specially held in a pretty glass bottle. The celebration was a blur as I hatched my plan to make the final move.

We stroll along the Nicole highway and came to the area under the bridge where the merlion used to be. We sat by the ledge looking across the sea and taking in the wonderful sight and the romance in the air starts to thicken up.

Yes, I admit I’m very lame in this area. I asker her how come her hands are always so stiff? I said that she needs to relax and so I took hold of her hands and started “massaging” her hands. YES! I KNOW! It’s very lame. But it really works. So at 10:23pm, I held her hands, grid-locked. It was a very dear moment to me. After 4 months of courtship and rejections after rejections. I finally held her hands.

But hey, the fun does not end there. As I ask her, so can you be my girlfriend? This time in English, she replied, “Can half agree or not?” I said no, and she said okay, though I didn’t know why she said that. Since we both are very filial people, at around 11pm, I started to send her back. Upon alighting at the bus stop around her place, we realized that there was a small party at the lobby of a nearby hotel. Before your mind start to wander off, NO! We didn’t utilize the hotel room; we only wanted to go to enjoy the live band at the lounge.

Again, my wife, being the filial daughter, has to report status to her parents that she’s in the area. And so she did!

Probably due to the festive mood, she was rather cheeky and “invited” her parents down for a cup of tea. Guess what? Her parents did! I was like, what in the baloney? I’m meeting her parents 50 minutes after I held her hand? Whoa!

To tell the truth, I was so nervous that I choke on my peanuts while being “interrogated” by her mum. Haha! But I guess I didn’t do too badly. It was only when her parents returned home that she gave me a “full-agree”. She explained that she would like her boyfriend to be accepted by her parents first. Come to think of it, how thick (editor’s note: meaning ”thick-skinned”) can she get? Ha!

Thereafter, we went through 5 long years of courtship where we had our fair share of sweetness as well as the bitterness, the bombastic quarrels and the sobbing sessions. We’ve been through them all. My one year studies in Australia in between, serves only to strengthen our relationship, in which I’m truly grateful for. It is through this time that I understood the meaning of:

Do not find someone you can live with for the rest of your life. Instead, find someone you cannot live without.

(To be continued …)

Love,
TOFUmonkey

Editor’s Note: This happy story continues with how he proposed to his wife. But as this series is themed “When I First Fell In Love With You …” I’ve decided to cut it out and post that part in another series where the theme is, marriage proposals!

So Tofumonkey, this means you have automatically qualified for the next Love Stories Writing Project series! Which also means you’re up for another chance to win the prize for that series, whatever that may be. Congrats!

[tags]True love stories,First date,Couples,Dating & Relatinships,Love and Marriage,Attraction[/tags]