How quickly, the heart moved on, once it’s confirmed, that “I’m not interested in dating right now” for the males here…translated…
Dan-Hwa Li entered into the student center, walked up the, stairs, the notice told that the freshmen orientation is on the third floor, as she’d entered, all the chairs were lined to the side, with a long narrow table in the middle, with two rows of paper cups, with coke in them, and there were also the pastries on the paper plates too. More than twenty had arrived. Ma, the president of the drama club, the juniors from the sociology department, the names of eight new freshmen were, named one by one. Every member came forth, introducing themselves to the group, what major, what grade, what high school did they graduate from. As Dan-Hwa heard that the guy on her right said: Bing Chiao, electrical engineering, graduated from Kaohsiung High School, she’d looked over at him, tall, with a, squarish, face. When Dan-Hwa’s turn came, as soon as she sat back down, from the right, a huge hand came towards her, Bing Chiao said in a serious manner, “welcome, new member, from Kaohsiung!”
Dan-Hwa started smiling, he’d played the role of an experienced member! Bing Chiao stared at her smiling, such a, beautiful, smile, when had he, seen it from before, he couldn’t recall, she’s slender and petite, with her chin lifted, showing that, elegance about her, with her eyes, lively.
The drama club had a performance, Dan-Hwa was the second female lead, Bing Chiao, responsible for the lights and the sounds on the mic. For the two rehearsals after supper per week, the rehearsals lasted to late, and he’d, always, escorted her back to her dorm. The five-minute walk, he’d either shown a ton of care and concerns to her, or that he was, working really hard, to make her, laugh, he’d, modeled after the performance of the male lead, looked just like him, a bit funny though. Dan-Hwa thought he was very warm toward her, and there’s not that many who are, truly, and genuinely, warm, it’s a precious trait, you must be really stable on the inside, to show that warmth out to others, and can, make fun of, oneself, she’d become, curious, as to what the source of this warmth she’d found in him was. While she herself, was the, radiant type, and, the radiance in her, naturally, attracted others to her, and she’d, enjoyed being in the spotlight too, not knowing, that she was, actually a colder sort of a white, with a, lower, heat that’s, emitted from her.
In the winter breaks, they’d returned back to Kaohsiung, the president of the drama club, Ma also lived there. Danwha told her mother, that she had invited two members of her drama club to come home to have a meal, and told Chen, what she’d needed to cook, Danwha is the commander in her home. Bing Chiao and Guo-Dong arrived by bus in the afternoon, Danwha first invited them to the dorm of the factory to have some popsicles, the two boys had two peanut flavored popsicles, Bing Chiao smacked his lips, “such flavorful peanut!”, then, had two red bean popsicles, and commended, “so soft!”, while Danwha slowly, sipped at a mango flavored popsicle herself. Then, she took them to the newly opened bowling alley to play. By five they’d arrived at her home, five were sitting for supper, other than the three of them, there were still Danwha’s mother, and her younger brother who’s still in the elementary school years, her father went on a business trip to Taipei. Her mother is slender, with a straightened back, courteously, ushered them in. Bing Chiao felt that the home had a huge living room, four times his own home, it’s become clear, that Danwha’s a bit too proud, from such a, rich, family. He kept putting the foods in her younger brother’s plate, adding the soup, asking him everything, clearly, he was, trying, to earn the favors of her, younger, brother.
A couple of days, Danwha and Guo-Dong were invited to Bing Chiao’s home to dine, it was the day that the cold front arrived, the wind was, chilly, she had a sky blue felt coat, Guo-Dong was in a gray jacket, they’d, entered through the wooden door of the army retirement village, three steps in from the front yard, there was the front door, opened up, ushering them in, there’s the heat that’s going on inside the house, with everybody who was, there, the living room was, connected to the dining room, very small, the owners, other than Bing Chiao’s father, were also, his, two, younger, brothers, a younger sister, they fought to talk, the laughter burst out, his mother in the kitchen, working to make the meals, the room was like a wok with the water filled in, and broiling.
Bing Chiao led his siblings to the door, one of the younger brothers gave Danwha the slippers, the other younger brother, put her shoes up, the younger sister pulled on the sleeves of her big coat, Uncle Chiao turned to his son and nodded, turned to her, smiled, and, everything told her, that he had, told his families about her often, and maybe, even, that he liked her too. In the school, she wasn’t quite sure if he did, but now, she’d understood, he’d, hidden his feelings toward her, but not to his families, totally different from how her own families related to each other. Uncle Chiao was a lieutenant colonel in the services, very mild-mannered, without that toughness of the servicemen.
The guest entered the dumpling production line then, everybody stood around the table, started competing over who made the best shaped dumplings, anything that’s too minute can, make this, family happy! In the kitchen, Mrs. Chiao would, toss over a joke or two. Bing Chiao taught Danwha how to make the dumplings faster, and, Uncle Chiao was smiling as he’d watched the two. Then, it’d dawned on her, she’d been wondering, what was the source of Bing Chiao’s warmth? The answer was now, revealed: his loving parents, totally opposite of her own parents, who are, too quiet with one another at home.
In the second semester, the drama club hastened on their rehearsals, had the director of the drama club in the armed services to help out. When Danwha was rehearsing, Bing Chiao would drop what he was doing, and arrived at the entrance of the stage to watch her perform. She’s a natural performer, the director told her, “You can’t say, ‘I disagree’, you need to add the gestures, and the head movements, that way, the audience in the backrow can see clearly.”
She only had the facial expressions, and this time, she’d added in the head shake, the waving of her right hand, quite natural. Bing Chiao sighed to himself, the director told her, “exactly like that!”
At this time, the third year older student, Cheng who’d portrayed the grandmother, was originally standing next to Danwha, suddenly felt to the ground, the director immediately ran to check on her, breathing normally, the president of the drama club, Ma ran to the first floor nurses’ office to get help, the director and Bing Chiao carried Cheng to the couch, Danwha was worried, quickly loosened the buttons on her shirt for her, then, took her sneakers off. Bing Chiao then, took the other sneaker off of the older schoolmate, Cheng’s other sneaker, thought, Cheng wasn’t even her friend, Danwha is, truly, good, natured, he was, moved by her, and at this time, Cheng who’d fallen down from the fatigue opened up her eyes.
That very evening, Bing Chiao escorted Danwha back to the girls’ dorms, the two walked to the streetlamp outside the door, he’d halted and told her, “Danwha, I have something for you!”, he’d pulled out a tiny paper box, opened it, there was an agate, the size of an egg inside, on it, Bing Chiao had painted the face of Snow White. In the winter breaks, the three of them from Kaohsiung, all members of the drama club, went to the bed of Kaoping Creek to visit, at the time, Bing Chiao picked up many agates. Danwha got the rock, and, smiled at him, and, Bing Chiao blurted, “from the first time I laid my eyes on you, I’d liked…”, he’d not expected that Danwha would, quickly stop him, “I think, it’s best, that we stay, good friends, and continue to watch out for each other.”, as she’d stated this, she seemed nervous, a bit, hurried, and after the words, she’d added, “thank you for the rock!”, then, turned, entered into her dorm.
Soon as Danwha heard Bing Chiao confessed his love for her, she’d turned into, a porcupine, there’s that tiny voice that told her, that relationships are, abysmal, that she shouldn’t, take that, leap. The following day, Bing Chiao seemed to have, wiped his confessions of love for her completely clean, continued, covering up his feelings for her, and now, he’s not just, covering up the fact that he’d liked her a lot, but also, the wound he’d, received too. The first year female student who was in charge of wardrobe, from the history department, tall and slender built, started, striking up conversations with Bing Chiao, and started, tagging along his side. Before the end of second semester of the freshman year, they’d become, a known, dating, couple, he’d needed, the warmth.
And so, this woman was one who can, live without a man, and this man was one, needing someone to complete him, to make him, whole, and so, that was why it’d not, worked out between them, and, it didn’t matter, because, he’d quickly, sought out, another, “victim”, soon enough, see how quickly men moves on to their, next, “kill”???
The Ivory Tower of My Mind 