Chapter 1: The Meeting

As I sat down in an orange chair, I was jolted by a voiced behind me "Boss, Apa mau?". I proceed to order my favourite Tosai Masala and Teh Tarik Kosong. The early morning breakfast after a good morning workout before heading to the office. I had just finish my 10km run and was feeling hungry and thirsty this morning. Looking around the mamak, I noticed lots of people starting their day with a hearty breakfast of either nasi lemak or roti canai and a cup of our local teh tarik or kopi tarik.

The mamak was packed full as it is 8am and just an hour before most office starts operation. "Excuse me, can I seat here?". I look up to find this office lady in glasses looking at me waiting for my approval to join me at this packed mamak. I nodded and said "Sure, please".

She sat down and try to get the waiters attention. After she has ordered, I was looking at her with a sense of dejawu. I know her. I am sure I met her before. And suddenly, it hit me.

"Lin Mei Ling" as I said in an inquisitive tone waiting for a respond if I recognised the right person. She said "Yes" with a surprise tone looking at me trying to figure out who I was. "I am Chris Lee. Remember? From 5 Anggur (meaning Grape in Malay)".

"Hello. It has been 10 years since we left school. How time flies. How have you been doing?" Asked Mei Ling.

My mind wonders back to school days where both of us were in Upper Secondary School. I used to sleep a lot in class. Mei Ling sits next to me as we are both very tall. I am 6' tall and Mei ling for a Malaysian Chinese Girl standing at 5' 10" tall, she is considered tall for an Asian girl. I remember the black board duster being thrown at me by Mr Lee our class form teacher to wake me up. I really cannot help sleeping as the class bored me to death.

Unfortunately, the duster sometimes bounces off me and hit Mei Ling. I also remember the how cross she gets with me when the duster hits her. After that, whenever Mr Lee enter class, she will pinch my arm to wake me up. I really hated that.

We had many adventures together with our gang. Khairul, Siti, Aileen, Matthew, Kok Seong, Ivy, Kamal, Premela, Louis, Mei Ling and Myself used to do everything together. We would occupy the big canteen table together where we would hang out and eat during recess time. We were also in the Leo Club together and we were all boy scouts and girl guides.

Those were fun times that we had. Camping under the stars and chatting until 3am in the morning. The sexist of the gang is Louis. She has almost every guy in school drooling after her. She has a 35C-24-36 figure. We used to tease her that she has "Yip Chi Mei tai pau" (which is a Hong Kong Actress that was famous for her big breast. We started calling our Crazy Big Chinese Pork Bun after her two famous big assets). Also, she has the face of Angela Baby. Which makes her the prettiest girl in school or one of the prettiest. She will get flowers and gifts from guys almost every day. They will put it on her table before she arrives in school. She has all kind of ridiculous items every single day. I think the weirdest one was a pencil sharper. We could not figure out who sent it or why that person sent the gift to her. We would still laugh every time we mention pencil sharpener in our gang.

Mei Ling is also pretty but she was still having braces while we were in school. She has her share of admirers but not as many as Louis. Mei Ling was always been my secret crush. I was a timid and shy boy back then. I never had much confidence. I think part of it is due to my family being middle class. We had enough as food and cloths are never an issue. Both my parents are salary man and we were comfortable. My parents cared for each other and they always show affection at home. Me and My brother grew up with the knowledge that a loving wife and mom is a treasure that we need to cherish. They will always kiss each other before they leave the house and make love to each other every night. We know as we can hear it from our room every night. Being a guy and a teenager, it was difficult for both of us as we would go to sleep with the Radio on.

Now, seeing Mei Ling in front of me again, I just wished that I had the courage then to confess to her. But the past happened for a reason. By the time we went to college, she has feel in love with Ivan who was her in her class when she was doing her Australia Matriculation in Taylor's College. I went to Taylor's also but was doing my A-Level. I was going planning to go to London for my undergraduate program but her parents insisted she goes to Australia where her older sister was studying her Masters in Melbourne University. This is where the gang was separated with all of us heading to different paths. Only Louis and myself went to United Kingdom. Khairul, Siti and Matthew went to different parts of the United States to pursue their undergrad. Aileen, Kamal, Ivy and Mei Ling went to Australia. Kok Seong went to Singapore University and Premela went to Japan.

We hardly kept in touch after we went our separate ways as there were no social media and internet age was just beginning. The only messenger we had were e-mails and ICQ. Everyone started to have new friends and started dating someone in college. Eventually the gang feel apart.

I found out that Mei Ling was working for Genting Malaysia. My office is just opposite her office. So, we are now office neighbours. I also found out that she was single. She is the Marketing Manager for Genting Resort and is reporting to the Marketing Director. I told her that I was working for small internet company as the general manager. The company specialises in internet security and money transfer. Time goes by really fast as both of us have to head back to our respective offices. I asked if she was free for dinner tonight and she said yes.

After work, she came to my office to look for me as Pavilion is just behind my office. We walked to Weissbrau German Bistro and decided to have some Dunkel and some German sausages and Pork Knuckle. She loved Dunkel as well as I found out later. A girl after my own heart indeed. As we are reminiscing old times, I found out that she was single now. She had broken up with Ivan about 4 years ago. She has been in the dating scene for a few years now but did not find anyone that she fancy. A lot of weird guys are out there as we share stories of what happened in the last 10 years of our life. There was this guy who work at another department in Genting. He was good looking as hell and could easily become a movie actor like Henry Golding. However, he was totally in love with himself. He would take 1 hour to gel his hair, moisturise his hand and feet every day and wax once every month. I joked that he would make a perfect girlfriend and Mei Ling burst out laughing non stop for what feels like a long time. She was laughing and giggling as our story continue on.

She was really down when she broke up with Ivan for, he has been her first- and long-time love at that time. He has changed from a decent man to someone who is obsessed with his work. He started to spend less time with her and eventually ignored her totally. What was worst is that he started seeing his colleague and decided that they are not compatible with each other.

As I look at her now, she was even more stunning than ever. I could see that she has at least a C or D Cup breast, no smaller than Louis. Her figure is wonderful with an hourglass body, but her eyes are the most mesmerizing. She has these big Asian eyes that is perfect in Chinese Standard. American would not like them as they think the standard Asian eyes is like Lucy Liu. We prefer more Asian eyes like Lin Chi Ling. Her nose is sharp for a Chinese nose and lips and just right. Not too thick and not too thin. As I look at her, I want to grab her and kiss her more than ever. She was actively touching my arm as we chatted about everything.

Our legs were touching each other under the table. Unconsciously, we are back to our old self like when we were still in school but has 10 years of untold stories to share. I found out that she likes sweet and salty food at the same time. All my friends find it very odd but I did not realise someone share the same taste buds as me.