Once upon a time, there was a girl who loved bears. Whenever she had a birthday or any special occasion, she would pester her parents or friends to get her some teddy bears. Sometimes, she would buy them herself if nobody gave her any. She even remarked, "If some guy were to give me a teddy bear as a present, I will marry him!"
Across the globe, an adventurous little Romeo bided farewell to his family and went on a journey of his lifetime. Ambitious yet apprehensive, he travelled across continents to reach an unfamiliar place which enlightened scholars for more than eight centuries. Feeling as he’d travelled back in time, he pulled out his camera and took photos of this ancient town, with its cobbled streets and all. For some strange reason, the first photo he took was this:
A few weeks later, our dear Juliet was having her quiet little dinner when Romeo sat right in front of her. There was an introduction, a brief exchange of words and a simple farewell. The only thing that registered in the boy’s head was the girl’s name (not to mention that he found her cute). No visible sparks formed but little did they knew that the hands of fate has started to move…
The second time they met was another uneventful episode. The girl, still scratching her head over the boy’s name, was too shy to ask. She eventually found out the boy’s name by chance: his name was engraved in the matriculation group photo she’d just ordered. The boy, on the other hand, did not purchase that photo. Once again, they’d brushed across each other.
One night, while our Juliet was bored, she started adding her college friends into her MySpace account when she remembered him. She tried adding him but little did she know that this Romeo had switched to Facebook a long time ago. Also by chance, he felted compelled to check his MySpace account for no apparent reason, after abandoning it for more than a year. To his surprise, he received an invitation from an unknown email address. Half-guessing it could well be that cute girl he met in the dining hall, he added her, but tried to verify it was her by searching for her profile on Facebook.
True enough, he found her but she didn’t like taking photos so out poor Romeo could only confirm her identity by making another trip down to the dining hall some day. Again, feeling bored, Juliet clicked on Romeo’s blog address and read his entries, where anecdotes from different points of his life gave a summary of his thoughts and character. This left Juliet with a deep impression that this guy was a sincere and honest man, filial to his parents and loyal to his friends. For a while they communicated using Facebook, but the poor boy had no information about his girl except her birthday – Boxing Day.
“Will anyone be celebrating your birthday this year?”
“No. I haven’t celebrated my birthday since I came to UK.”
“Poor thing! Well then. Since I’ll be around, I’ll celebrate for you then.”
“It’s OK. There’s no need to.”
“Will you be around College on Boxing Day?”
“Yes, I’ll be in my room.”
Christmas period came and most students went home for the holiday season. A female traveler from the same hometown as Romeo came by and they went shopping for Juliet’s birthday cake together. As Romeo picked his choice of cake, the traveler seemed inclined to look into the dessert section. The boy was deciding whether to buy bright pink cake with a flower on it, or the one with the “Me to you” bear. His gut feeling told him that the cake with the bear was the right one, so he bought it for the girl.
Juliet on the other hand, was buying coffee. Anticipating Romeo to come by on her birthday, she thought it would be proper to ask “Do you want coffee or tea?”
Since she didn’t drink coffee, she couldn’t ask that question, until she bought some. That was her rationale, but that dumb Romeo asked for water instead. (Don’t ask why, but that coffee is now sitting in my room...)
ALL shops were closed on Christmas Day and but the shops reopened on Boxing Day with clearance sales and great discounts. Intending to buy some clothes and present on that day, a “Me to you” bear caught his eye. Thinking it would make the perfect present, he bought the bear and wrapped it up himself. In the evening, he knocked on her door and presented her with cake and present. (He didn’t know she was waiting for her all day and felt guilty for it till this day.)
They agreed to go for a visit to the Ashmolean Museum the following day but when the female traveler turned up, Juliet was under the impression that she was his girlfriend. At the same time, Romeo was panicking, “Oh dear. She is going to misunderstand for sure! How am I going to explain it to her? If I tell her directly, how will she react?”
The misunderstanding was only cleared on the very next day, when we went to the botanical gardens.
“Is she your girlfriend?”
“Nope. She’s just a friend from Singapore. We have no special relationship. Why do you ask?”
“Erm.. no reason.”
Deep inside, both of them heaved a sigh of relief.
That night, they confessed their feelings for each other in the rain. For the first time, both of them felt the flames of passion slowly igniting in their heart. The cold winds were no match for the warm glow they now felt inside. The hands of fate had brought them together. In time, things will happen and their bond will grow stronger. Eventually, they will live happily ever after.
The End.
PS: Did I mention she studies Statistics?
