We had already said goodbye for the day after lunch. I was almost home, in the middle of crossing XinSheng Road before reaching my block, when I got her call. Just by her calling and asking me where I was, I knew to turn around first, and then ask why she was calling.
She wanted more help with her bike research. But "help" isn't the right word. She didn't need my help. She's perfectly capable of doing what she needed to do on her own.
The backstory is that a sort-of acquaintance of hers in Korea has a sort-of acquaintance with someone who wants to buy a bunch of high-end mountain bikes from Taiwan to sell in Korea. So knowing Hyun Ae was on the ground in Taiwan, she ended up being enlisted to to gather information, even though she knows next to nothing about bikes and barely even knows how to ride one. That's the way the Korean network works. Apparently it would be a social faux pas for Hyun Ae to come up with less than full satisfaction for the person requesting the information.
The first thing Hyun Ae did was to call me last Friday night. I'm trying to trace the progression of this thing. Last Friday night, our relationship was absolute. We were just friends, she has a boyfriend, I'm still considering going to the monastery, I'm too old for her, it's just fancy, it's just flirting. But we were good friends – that feeling that we can make certain assumptions and take certain liberties.
Friday night we planned to get together on Saturday. I was surprised first that she was agreeing to meet up on a weekend, I thought she would wait to discuss it on Monday at school. Then on Saturday, I was pretty confident, based on our past interactions, that she would bail. I was ready to go about my own plans on Saturday when I was surprised second that she called and still wanted to do a round of bike research. Still, it was nothing terribly out of the ordinary. It was a one-off thing. We did it, even though I spent more time with one person than I'm normally comfortable with.
Sunday, I sent her a link I have with all the major bike shops in Taipei. She responded thanks, everything back to normal, meeting my expectation that she would shut down any idea that we would meet.
Today, it was unusual for her to call me after we had already parted ways, but her other plans for the afternoon fell through and maybe it was the press of being Korean that she had to do this thing. She had printed out the bike shops list I sent and she wanted to visit some, but it started raining and we ended up in the school library lobby on a couch and talked for more than an hour. That was unusual. Either we were going to visit bike shops, or we were going home. We weren't going to waste a chunk of time simply in each other's company. We did.
No kissing meditation. Today, my mind sent one arm around her on one side, the other around her on the other side. Right arm coming up to her neck, left arm running around her waist. Snake striking and coiling around a mouse, squeezing, embracing. I didn't want to. I had to study.
We left it on the couch and parted ways at the school gate. I had to study. What was that about? She has a boyfriend. But if I'm thinking this much about her as a result of our interactions, I would be a fool to assume she wasn't. This can't go beyond this.
Sunday July 16, Pentax ZX-5n, Kodak BW400CN:
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| Shilin District, Taipei. CD-R, untouched |
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| Waishuangxi (Waishuang Stream), Shilin District. CD-R |
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| Scan. The CD-R cropped the man's reflection in the water so I couldn't use it. |
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| CD-R |
1. Leave You Behind (Sleater-Kinney)
2. Black Little Stray (Shannon Wright)
3. Strawberry Julius (Bikini Kill)
4. Garden Party (live) (Marillion)
5. August (Rilo Kiley)
6. Death or Glory (The Clash)
7. Hail, Hail (live) (Pearl Jam)
8. On The Run (Pink Floyd)
9. Cruel (Enon)
10. In A Little While (U2)
WordsCharactersReading time
