Our Story

Part 1

It was a sunny day on September 5, 2000, the first day of college years at Ryerson University. I got to class early and sat in front of a computer in the middle of the class room. A classmate sat next to me and introduced himself: “Frankie Chan”. The two of us exchanged some info as a pack of three girls walked towards us. “My name is Amy,” said the first girl. “My name is Maria.” The last, dressed in a psychedelic pink / yellow shirt with wide-leg jeans and permed, reddish brown hair that looks a little like an afro, spoke with a little shyness: “My name is Gloria”.

The first week, I had to deposit a cheque in China Town. After hopping on the street car and found a place to stand, I looked around and saw the unmistakable permed, reddish brown hair that must belong to my classmate. “Gloria, was it?” I said, hoping to find someone who could help me navigate in the unfamiliar China Town streets. She nodded, gleaned over, and moved ever so slightly away from the street car stranger. Confused with the shy personality and the fashion-forward appearance, I continued: “are you heading to China Town? I need to find a bank there.” “No. Going home.” The hidden face behind the permed reddish brown hair murmured. “So what did you think of the class? ITM?” “It’s ok.” Short sentences. The sure sign of someone who did not want to carry on a conversation. I waited for my stop, hopped off the street car, and said bye to the fashion forward girl named Gloria.

The four people I met the first day of class have a lot of classes in common. Between classes, we ate lunch together, went to the gym together, studied together, and had what all normal university students would do. We became good friends in a new environment.

Part 2

Fast forward another year. After a summer in Taiwan, I came back to Rye-high finding that only Gloria chose Telecommunications as her major. With others in other classes, Gloria and I were now in a relatively small class. Having almost identical schedules made us think that we were going to kill each other by the end of the year. Gloria was the type who liked to draw pictures of strange objects and passed them to me for fun. As I plowed through most of the group work while Gloria most likely daydreamed about things, we peacefully made through our second and third years without much bloodshed.

Towards the end of year 3, I was asked to take the role of Public Relations for the Taiwanese club. My first task was to promote the first movie night for “Infernal Affairs”. Being the sucker that I was, I couldn’t find many people to take part in it. Seeing Gloria was the only one who would be in touch with Chinese movies, I asked her to come with me for the movie. It was March break, a lazy Saturday afternoon, that Gloria decided to come out and watch a movie with the smart dude that she mooched off of for the past two years. We went to Salad King for lunch, a restaurant that I had little familiarity with even though it was right beside the school (back then I was more of a Milestones kind of guy). The two of us ate, shopped, went to the movie, and ended up having a late dinner at a Yorkville sushi restaurant named Asuka. It was, strangely, a really good day that felt a little like a first date.

Part 3

Third year of university was full of changes and choices. I started a company with Tommy Weng, bought the first place where I reside now, and got some new friends. The most obnoxious of the bunch, Andrew Kee-Son, discovered that my temporary rental place on Sheppard and Yonge had a pool table. Andrew started showing up randomly for pool games and chats. Before long, the two of us decided to have a karaoke night at Monopoly. Being a good friend that I am, I invited Gloria, who decided that since I was going to pick her up for karaoke, I might as well help her go buy a giant armoire and carry back to her house. After an afternoon of jostling at Ikea & trying to deliver the armoire, I finally got Gloria to the karaoke where Andrew, along with Frankie and Mike Duong, were already partying up a storm. This quickly became a weekly tradition, and the “karaoke club” grew larger with weekly drama that could rival the best of soap operas. As we spent more and more time together, Gloria and I grew closer. Soon, I gave Gloria the nickname “G” that became common to everyone who knew us from that point forward. Few days after the karaoke, I took G to a bar called Remy’s in Yorkville. She wore a very pretty outfit, and the two of us had a great time again. I started to feel attracted to G, and started going after the same girl that I thought I would kill earlier years of university.

I had never tried to go after a girl before. Things just sort of happened for past girlfriends, whereas G was a lot more difficult to pursue. Thinking back, the process must have taken more than 5 months. Towards the end of the pursuing days, I thought I had no chance so I decided to give her a special birthday present that commemorated the time we spent together.

The present had two parts: the first part was 5 vials of scented oil that reminded of the places that we went over the past few months. The second part was a computer animation of the few friends singing her a very special birthday song. G was touched. Two weeks later, we celebrated the first day of our relationship, on July 6 of 2003. Thus, our story began…