Erica kiss / NYE
I decided to just ask Erica about the photo, and so sent her a message asking if her photo was from Sydney. She replied "no, Korea".
I said I knew a good place to watch sunrise and asked if she had any days off soon. She replied saying she was at work and was tired. I said I'd go to the shop to see her and waited for her reply, knowing whatever her reply was could affect my timetable for the day, although I was pretty intent on going.
I drove out to the supermarket in the Wick to get some chips and snacks for the NYE bbq at G's place, then went home to play a bit of video games as I waited for 3:15pm to come around so I could drop my dad off at work.
Gambling was re-entering my mind and temptations arose. I started googling about being overpaid in a casino. The overwhelming number of replies stated that the casino would be all over you the next time you entered, and so that was enough of a deterrent for me.
Anyway, when time came, I drove my dad to his restaurant and then proceeded to go to Erica's shop, but not before checking my phone. She had replied with an angry face emoticon.
What the? Why was she angry?
Now I was confused, and maybe even a little bit scared. What had I done to upset her? Did she think it was an insensitive thing to say when she said she was tired? Or did she think I bailed on her last time I said that?
I replied saying "just talk, I miss you". I called the shop and made a booking. As the phone rang and rang, thoughts of her lying and the shop actually being closed re-surfaced. But then the guy picked up the phone, and I was able to make a booking without leaving my name or even details of how long I wanted to stay.
When I parked, I had to go look for an ATM, and I kept checking my phone for a reply. I was thinking something along the lines of "I don't want to see you" would be coming. But even after I got my money and got to the shop, she still hadn't read my messages.
I entered the shop, and the guy answered while talking on the phone. I walked into the closest waiting room and he closed the door, although I could see another customer walk in soon after me - looked like an Asian student with a backpack. Don't know what a student would be doing blowing his money here.
As I waited, I half expected Erica to be watching me on camera and her telling the guy she didn't want to see me. Then the guy would recommend another girl - what would I do then?
When the guy finished his phone call, he came to me and asked if I made a booking. I said yes, for Erica. He closed the door and I waited some more, flicking through some car magazines, telling myself I'd be able to afford one someday.
Eventually Erica came to open the door, and she ushered me to walk in front of her. We made our way upstairs to that mid-second level, into a room where we'd been before. I said something about being in this room again, and she closed the door and started unfolding the towels on the bed. I asked her if she was angry and she said no, and I said she didn't have to prepare the bed as I just wanted to talk.
I sat down on the couch at first, but she sat on the bed, so I went to sit next to her, and I noticed she moved away from me a bit as I sat down.
Wow...the distance.
She asked me about my plans and I said I had to go to a party at 5pm, and she could see it was now 4pm. I asked again if she was angry and she said no. I held her hand but she said my hand was sweaty in Korean, and turned on the air-conditioner. She asked me why and I gestured I was rushing here to see her. We started talking but she wanted to get her phone for translation, so she went out, and I said I'd go to the toilet, and she pointed me towards it even though I knew where it was.
When I returned, the door was slightly shut and I thought she was in there but she wasn't. I sat down on the bed where she'd been sitting, and she came in sitting where I'd been. I grabbed the air freshener can and pretended to use it as deodorant, causing her to laugh. She felt my forehead and said something in Korean, which I presumed to be something about being hot, and I said it was hot outside.
She took out her phone and I was again amazed at how big it was. She began typing and the translation was something about her having a week off at the end of January. She said she wanted to go to nude beach and asked me to take some time off work. I said ok, and joked that she'd get a lot of looks from old men if we did, and I'd get a lot of looks from women. I did the pinky promise to seal the deal, and she agreed.
I felt like lying down on the bed, because 1) it was a bit of an awkward positioning between the two of us sitting on the bed like that with no contact (I wasn't even really sure who was creating it, her or me) and 2) I was tired.
I finally laid down backwards saying I was tired. She asked me why and I said at 7am I went running. She immediately laid down next to me on her tummy. She rolled onto her side a bit and was grabbing some boy-ish fat on her tummy, saying she was fat. I played with it and she said it was from her drinking. I asked why she drank so much. She started typing something on her phone and I had to flip around to read it. It started causing me a bit of cramping in the side, and I thought about how old I was. Geez. I finally adjusted so that I was now fully on my tummy and we were leaning into one another. She threw her left arm over my lower back, holding me for a while, before she let go and I wrapped my right arm around to hold her shoulder.
This was a more intimate position.
She typed 'insomnia' (translated) into her phone. So that was why she drank so much.
She asked me how old I was and I said 30, and then asked how old she wanted me to be, 40? She said she was 70, and I joked I'd go out and ask for a change of girls.
As I held her, she started flipping through her phone, showing me her Kakaotalk and game. I said I had beaten her in one of the mini-games, and she showed me that she had beaten my score. I didn't even realise! She said she had tried all day to beat me, haha. We swapped phones and played a couple of games on each other's phones, and I was amazed at how quick she was able to play on my phone. I was equally amazed at how easy it was to play on her phone with a bigger screen.
After that, with me still holding her, she scrolled through her Kakaotalk contacts, showing me some of her friends. I caught a glimpse of a "I miss you" message and immediately thought it was some other guy, until I also saw the words "photo, Sydney?" which came from...me. Fuck my mind. It was just hard because her Kakaotalk theme is different to me, and I didn't recognise my photo or even really see my name.
I watched as she sent game messages to each of her contacts.
She went to my current photo and said it was dark, and I teased her saying she was the one who took it. I pointed to my cover photo of my basketball on a court, and she asked if I could dunk. I said when I was 18 I could grab the ring and she didn't believe me. I told her how when I was 26 I hurt my knee and needed surgery. She was laughing and I asked why she was laughing and poked her in the sides. She indicated she understood by pointing to her wrist.
I asked about her theme and she said she liked pink. I looked to see if she was wearing pink and she showed me the outfit she was wearing, which was black and pink.
I asked her where her boyfriend was, and she showed me some married guy. When I asked again she said she had no boyfriend, and I said me, and poked her in the ribs to tickle her but she wasn't ticklish. I said "chagiya" and she laughed, asking me where I learnt it (Naby) and I didn't answer.
I remember at one point touching her lips with my left index finger, and she pretended to bite at it. She then turned to me and pecked me on the lips.
I joked that other rooms were making moaning sounds while we were just laughing like crazy. I still couldn't really get over how different she looked - most noticeably the fake eye lashes and eye liner.
The other thing I couldn't believe was how we could actually maintain conversations over an hour, given not only the language barrier, but my own social skills. Hmmm.
I went to the calendar and said she had to take 14 February off work. She said 11 February was her birthday and she'd take day off. She also said the 14th was Valentine's Day. I asked if she liked flowers, and she said something. I couldn't understand so she typed it into her phone. It said something about wilting, and I finally understood that she meant she liked them when they are fresh, but they are of no use when they wilt.
The buzzer went and after a bit more talking, we got up. I said I was sad to go. She asked really, and I joked no, and pretended to quickly grab my things to leave, and she laughed, saying I was crazy. She asked me about my keys and I joked that I had one for every girl except her. We kissed on the lips again. I had kinda under-estimated a kiss, but now I finally appreciated it - her lips were so soft, it was just an unreal experience.
We walked down the stairs and she offered me the exit through the back door. I chose the front door and waved goodbye to her, and walked out. The guy receptionist said goodbye and I just waved. She sent me a message when I checked my phone back in the car, but I didn't have time to read it as I had to go to G's house.
As I walked out of that place, I felt like all my insecurities had been washed away. I suddenly realised how silly some of the things I had thought of had been.
NYE party
I drove to G's place and knocked on the door, greeted by Shuing. He was there with G and Brain. They asked me where I'd been, and I couldn't think of an excuse in time, so just said I had something to do. Shuing said "yeah with your girlfriend eh?"
Anyway, nothing had really been set up, so while G and Shuing were figuring out the barbeque, I started opening the chips and getting them onto plates and that. You know what really annoyed me? Seeing Brain just sitting there on the lounge as if he was 'entitled' to. I have come to the conclusion that he is not the way he is due to social ineptitude - no, he has been brought up with an entitlement attitude.
We all ended up outside in the backyard watching the cooking of the sausages on the barbeque, and I enjoyed taking photos of the guys, to savour the moment of another year having gone past. Ele and Yang arrived later, and then Malay arrived even later after that.
We all sat out in the backyard eating and talking, and doing minor bets/dares like who could touch the basketball ring, and who could get the basketball in from a distance. To everyone's surprise, G just chucked it with his left hand and it went in, lol.
Although Shuing mentioned his suspicions about marriage troubles between Michael L and Eva, Ele and I played dumb.
After that we all went inside to play Jenga, which always manages to surprise me as to how exciting it can be for everyone. Shuing had never played the game and was entertained by it every time we played. He was immediately looking for strategy and trying to use physics to support his moves.
Whoever made the block fall had to eat something with wasabi on it, and the game would end when someone loses three times. That person happened to be me, even though after my first two losses I did fairly well to stay alive, but on the third one all I had to do was place the block on the top but that managed to tumble it.
I noticed Erica called me at about 8:30pm, but I didn't answer.
We played poker and then watched the fireworks on tv at midnight. I looked around the room as Shuing told Ele of our NYE days since the high school era, and I thought "and we're still single". I remember telling myself every year that the next would be experienced with a girlfriend. Well, now I sorta have someone, but she's not here.
We continued playing poker, and Shuing became increasingly aggressive/competitive. Although Ele was still smiling, I avoided looking at him as I had seen this 'mode' he's been in before - it's not pretty. When he lost, he actually stormed out of the house, saying he wouldn't come back to do the push ups as agreed. I knew he'd come back, and so did everyone else I guess, as we all just continued playing, lol.
He did come back, and the game was left to just Malay and G. Malay ended up winning, so he didn't have to do any push ups. We all went out to the backyard to do our push ups, and spent a long time waiting for Brain to complete his 30. Somehow he had managed to break it up into eight sets *shrugs*. I just felt sorry for Ele, being pregnant and in a cast, she probably wanted to go home.
After leaving the house, and after Ele and Yang drove off, the rest of us stayed on the street a bit doing more push ups, which meant more waiting for Brain. Malay didn't finish his due to pain, and then I was too tired so I just left and went home.
I said I knew a good place to watch sunrise and asked if she had any days off soon. She replied saying she was at work and was tired. I said I'd go to the shop to see her and waited for her reply, knowing whatever her reply was could affect my timetable for the day, although I was pretty intent on going.
I drove out to the supermarket in the Wick to get some chips and snacks for the NYE bbq at G's place, then went home to play a bit of video games as I waited for 3:15pm to come around so I could drop my dad off at work.
Gambling was re-entering my mind and temptations arose. I started googling about being overpaid in a casino. The overwhelming number of replies stated that the casino would be all over you the next time you entered, and so that was enough of a deterrent for me.
Anyway, when time came, I drove my dad to his restaurant and then proceeded to go to Erica's shop, but not before checking my phone. She had replied with an angry face emoticon.
What the? Why was she angry?
Now I was confused, and maybe even a little bit scared. What had I done to upset her? Did she think it was an insensitive thing to say when she said she was tired? Or did she think I bailed on her last time I said that?
I replied saying "just talk, I miss you". I called the shop and made a booking. As the phone rang and rang, thoughts of her lying and the shop actually being closed re-surfaced. But then the guy picked up the phone, and I was able to make a booking without leaving my name or even details of how long I wanted to stay.
When I parked, I had to go look for an ATM, and I kept checking my phone for a reply. I was thinking something along the lines of "I don't want to see you" would be coming. But even after I got my money and got to the shop, she still hadn't read my messages.
I entered the shop, and the guy answered while talking on the phone. I walked into the closest waiting room and he closed the door, although I could see another customer walk in soon after me - looked like an Asian student with a backpack. Don't know what a student would be doing blowing his money here.
As I waited, I half expected Erica to be watching me on camera and her telling the guy she didn't want to see me. Then the guy would recommend another girl - what would I do then?
When the guy finished his phone call, he came to me and asked if I made a booking. I said yes, for Erica. He closed the door and I waited some more, flicking through some car magazines, telling myself I'd be able to afford one someday.
Eventually Erica came to open the door, and she ushered me to walk in front of her. We made our way upstairs to that mid-second level, into a room where we'd been before. I said something about being in this room again, and she closed the door and started unfolding the towels on the bed. I asked her if she was angry and she said no, and I said she didn't have to prepare the bed as I just wanted to talk.
I sat down on the couch at first, but she sat on the bed, so I went to sit next to her, and I noticed she moved away from me a bit as I sat down.
Wow...the distance.
She asked me about my plans and I said I had to go to a party at 5pm, and she could see it was now 4pm. I asked again if she was angry and she said no. I held her hand but she said my hand was sweaty in Korean, and turned on the air-conditioner. She asked me why and I gestured I was rushing here to see her. We started talking but she wanted to get her phone for translation, so she went out, and I said I'd go to the toilet, and she pointed me towards it even though I knew where it was.
When I returned, the door was slightly shut and I thought she was in there but she wasn't. I sat down on the bed where she'd been sitting, and she came in sitting where I'd been. I grabbed the air freshener can and pretended to use it as deodorant, causing her to laugh. She felt my forehead and said something in Korean, which I presumed to be something about being hot, and I said it was hot outside.
She took out her phone and I was again amazed at how big it was. She began typing and the translation was something about her having a week off at the end of January. She said she wanted to go to nude beach and asked me to take some time off work. I said ok, and joked that she'd get a lot of looks from old men if we did, and I'd get a lot of looks from women. I did the pinky promise to seal the deal, and she agreed.
I felt like lying down on the bed, because 1) it was a bit of an awkward positioning between the two of us sitting on the bed like that with no contact (I wasn't even really sure who was creating it, her or me) and 2) I was tired.
I finally laid down backwards saying I was tired. She asked me why and I said at 7am I went running. She immediately laid down next to me on her tummy. She rolled onto her side a bit and was grabbing some boy-ish fat on her tummy, saying she was fat. I played with it and she said it was from her drinking. I asked why she drank so much. She started typing something on her phone and I had to flip around to read it. It started causing me a bit of cramping in the side, and I thought about how old I was. Geez. I finally adjusted so that I was now fully on my tummy and we were leaning into one another. She threw her left arm over my lower back, holding me for a while, before she let go and I wrapped my right arm around to hold her shoulder.
This was a more intimate position.
She typed 'insomnia' (translated) into her phone. So that was why she drank so much.
She asked me how old I was and I said 30, and then asked how old she wanted me to be, 40? She said she was 70, and I joked I'd go out and ask for a change of girls.
As I held her, she started flipping through her phone, showing me her Kakaotalk and game. I said I had beaten her in one of the mini-games, and she showed me that she had beaten my score. I didn't even realise! She said she had tried all day to beat me, haha. We swapped phones and played a couple of games on each other's phones, and I was amazed at how quick she was able to play on my phone. I was equally amazed at how easy it was to play on her phone with a bigger screen.
After that, with me still holding her, she scrolled through her Kakaotalk contacts, showing me some of her friends. I caught a glimpse of a "I miss you" message and immediately thought it was some other guy, until I also saw the words "photo, Sydney?" which came from...me. Fuck my mind. It was just hard because her Kakaotalk theme is different to me, and I didn't recognise my photo or even really see my name.
I watched as she sent game messages to each of her contacts.
She went to my current photo and said it was dark, and I teased her saying she was the one who took it. I pointed to my cover photo of my basketball on a court, and she asked if I could dunk. I said when I was 18 I could grab the ring and she didn't believe me. I told her how when I was 26 I hurt my knee and needed surgery. She was laughing and I asked why she was laughing and poked her in the sides. She indicated she understood by pointing to her wrist.
I asked about her theme and she said she liked pink. I looked to see if she was wearing pink and she showed me the outfit she was wearing, which was black and pink.
I asked her where her boyfriend was, and she showed me some married guy. When I asked again she said she had no boyfriend, and I said me, and poked her in the ribs to tickle her but she wasn't ticklish. I said "chagiya" and she laughed, asking me where I learnt it (Naby) and I didn't answer.
I remember at one point touching her lips with my left index finger, and she pretended to bite at it. She then turned to me and pecked me on the lips.
I joked that other rooms were making moaning sounds while we were just laughing like crazy. I still couldn't really get over how different she looked - most noticeably the fake eye lashes and eye liner.
The other thing I couldn't believe was how we could actually maintain conversations over an hour, given not only the language barrier, but my own social skills. Hmmm.
I went to the calendar and said she had to take 14 February off work. She said 11 February was her birthday and she'd take day off. She also said the 14th was Valentine's Day. I asked if she liked flowers, and she said something. I couldn't understand so she typed it into her phone. It said something about wilting, and I finally understood that she meant she liked them when they are fresh, but they are of no use when they wilt.
The buzzer went and after a bit more talking, we got up. I said I was sad to go. She asked really, and I joked no, and pretended to quickly grab my things to leave, and she laughed, saying I was crazy. She asked me about my keys and I joked that I had one for every girl except her. We kissed on the lips again. I had kinda under-estimated a kiss, but now I finally appreciated it - her lips were so soft, it was just an unreal experience.
We walked down the stairs and she offered me the exit through the back door. I chose the front door and waved goodbye to her, and walked out. The guy receptionist said goodbye and I just waved. She sent me a message when I checked my phone back in the car, but I didn't have time to read it as I had to go to G's house.
As I walked out of that place, I felt like all my insecurities had been washed away. I suddenly realised how silly some of the things I had thought of had been.
NYE party
I drove to G's place and knocked on the door, greeted by Shuing. He was there with G and Brain. They asked me where I'd been, and I couldn't think of an excuse in time, so just said I had something to do. Shuing said "yeah with your girlfriend eh?"
Anyway, nothing had really been set up, so while G and Shuing were figuring out the barbeque, I started opening the chips and getting them onto plates and that. You know what really annoyed me? Seeing Brain just sitting there on the lounge as if he was 'entitled' to. I have come to the conclusion that he is not the way he is due to social ineptitude - no, he has been brought up with an entitlement attitude.
We all ended up outside in the backyard watching the cooking of the sausages on the barbeque, and I enjoyed taking photos of the guys, to savour the moment of another year having gone past. Ele and Yang arrived later, and then Malay arrived even later after that.
We all sat out in the backyard eating and talking, and doing minor bets/dares like who could touch the basketball ring, and who could get the basketball in from a distance. To everyone's surprise, G just chucked it with his left hand and it went in, lol.
Although Shuing mentioned his suspicions about marriage troubles between Michael L and Eva, Ele and I played dumb.
After that we all went inside to play Jenga, which always manages to surprise me as to how exciting it can be for everyone. Shuing had never played the game and was entertained by it every time we played. He was immediately looking for strategy and trying to use physics to support his moves.
Whoever made the block fall had to eat something with wasabi on it, and the game would end when someone loses three times. That person happened to be me, even though after my first two losses I did fairly well to stay alive, but on the third one all I had to do was place the block on the top but that managed to tumble it.
I noticed Erica called me at about 8:30pm, but I didn't answer.
We played poker and then watched the fireworks on tv at midnight. I looked around the room as Shuing told Ele of our NYE days since the high school era, and I thought "and we're still single". I remember telling myself every year that the next would be experienced with a girlfriend. Well, now I sorta have someone, but she's not here.
We continued playing poker, and Shuing became increasingly aggressive/competitive. Although Ele was still smiling, I avoided looking at him as I had seen this 'mode' he's been in before - it's not pretty. When he lost, he actually stormed out of the house, saying he wouldn't come back to do the push ups as agreed. I knew he'd come back, and so did everyone else I guess, as we all just continued playing, lol.
He did come back, and the game was left to just Malay and G. Malay ended up winning, so he didn't have to do any push ups. We all went out to the backyard to do our push ups, and spent a long time waiting for Brain to complete his 30. Somehow he had managed to break it up into eight sets *shrugs*. I just felt sorry for Ele, being pregnant and in a cast, she probably wanted to go home.
After leaving the house, and after Ele and Yang drove off, the rest of us stayed on the street a bit doing more push ups, which meant more waiting for Brain. Malay didn't finish his due to pain, and then I was too tired so I just left and went home.
posted by toey | 12:07
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