HER: Hong Kong
Hong Kong is the girl you would never get. She's the girl who is really hard to understand, and her various personalities is an enigma itself.
She usually wears a simple black hoodie with hip-hugging jeans, together with her bronze Buddha amulet from her late grandmother. Sometimes she'll wear a grey beanie and carries a black umbrella on rainy days. She has a tattoo of the sun and the moon on her wrist as if representing 2 different parts of her. Hong Kong also plays the ukulele and she has an amazing voice. So I'm always ashamed whenever we go to karaoke together.
Sometimes she would cry with you, and sometimes she would laugh with you. And on some nights, she'll disappear as if vanished from the trace of the Earth. But you'll see her again the next day as she comes to you again as if nothing happened. She'll run, smile and jump onto you while giving you a full embrace asking why you're not happy when you see her.
Hong Kong seems to have a lot of troubles.
Her abusive parents made things worse for her, even though most of the time they left her alone in her tiny box apartment. Sometimes she said that she doesn't think she deserves to be happy. I asked her why, but she just looked into the distance and said.
"I don't even know my purpose, so how could I be?"
I wanted to ask her more but figured it might not be too nice to pry. I let her be while I looked into the distance, hoping that the abysses could whisper her secrets to me.
But when Hong Kong is her cheery self, she can be quite a geek. She's an anime fan, collects figurines and goes for anime-cons yearly. Since she's a fan of "Slam Dunk" she's also part of her school's basketball team, Typhoon. She's also good at arts too, she draws comic characters very well actually. Her art group, COMIX is actually a pretty cool and I love their works. I stumbled upon their home base while I was getting lost along the street, and that's actually how we met.
It was actually quite rare for me to be able to see Hong Kong's room. It's definitely not for the weak heart of the claustrophobic. The faint neon pink light lit up the room together with her warm table lamp. I could see her PMQ bangle watch on her dressing table, alongside with Disney's ring and her Clock Tower bracelet.
Beside the mirror, I could see a bowl with 2 goldfishes swirling in circles. She placed her phone on the table, where I now noticed a red tram ding ding charm.
There's also an old poster of the dolphins jumping up across sea, with a torn outside. I could barely make out the words that are written by the corner.
Ocean Park.
"Ngor ah mah... Well my grandmother used to bring me there"
She said, hastily switching from Cantonese to English.
I smiled, before gesturing for permission to sit by the corner of her bed.
"Ay, turn around I wanna change", she said while pushing my head to face the wall.
It was then I noticed several tattoos on her arms, from a bird flying out of its cage, 3 rows of geometric stars, and a happy valley pin-up icon.
That night we watched a movie together. Chungking Express.
Yep. Strangely we have the same love for arts and movies.
I then told her my stories, my darkness, while the bittersweet music from Dear Jane played in the background. And as if to cheer me up, she suddenly held onto an imaginary mic start singing. She wanted to walk me back since it was late, and we walked all the way from Shatin to Mongkok.
"Hey! Mou Mong Kei Ngor"
She hugged me and said with a wink before walking off while gesturing goodbye without turning back.
"Mmmhm, uhm hui gah."
And that's how I fell in love with Hong Kong.
Leave a comment
Please note, comments must be approved before they are published