To tell my Percy story, I need to start with a question. It's a rather common question which most of us have been asked before at one point or another:

Have you ever had a crush on a total stranger?

To me, it's a funny feeling, really; that irrational, unexplainable feeling. It's irrational because it defies all logic and common sense to have a crush on someone when I don't know her name or don't even know if I'll ever see her again; it's unexplainable because there are no reasons and no words for it. It just exists as some forgotten segments of my memory buried in the hidden corners of my mind for a clandestine purpose.

For me, that stranger was Percy.

I first saw Percy in 1999 when I was fifteen. she was a friend of a friend of a friend. Even though she was only in the background, she stood out like a character glowing in color in a black and white film. I only saw the side of her smiling face for a split second, and she disappeared before a memory of her could take hold in my brain.

Despite the shortness of our encounter, Percy was never far away from me; she existed as an extremely faint, almost untraceable, but yet undeniable feeling of comfort in my mind; and this feeling would resurface at every important emotional moment of my life as a steadfast beacon to help me overcome and recuperate.
In 2009, this feeling finally found its muse, and her real name was Percy So.

So after fifteen years, two half non-dates, and a cosmic proportion of luck and courage later, I knelt down in front of Percy to fulfill that clandestine purpose of having a crush on a total stranger all those years ago...

and she said yes.   =D!

Our first encounter was at the 2009 Rugby Seven's. Gibson sat a few seats away from me, focused on taking photographs. I was tagged to a few of the stunning images and subsequently added him on Facebook. Albeit our brief encounter, his photographs spoke a thousand words, the depth of his images compelled me to reach out to him. We communicated briefly via chat and I invited him to visit me at the photography gallery which I worked at. He didn't end up showing up...

Early 2011, out of the blue he asked me out to dinner to discuss my website needs. I recently started my own paper and book arts studio and wrote my own website employing a template and he started his own website company. Gibson was sitting handsomely in a suit as I arrived to the quaint restaurant where all the furniture was made of cardboard. Due to his proper attire and our serious conversation topics at dinner, I couldn’t help but think that it was purely a business affair. We kept in contact through chat, but our conversations were always cut short, although I found Gibson captivating I never had a chance to develop our friendship further.

Fast forward to end of January 2014, I messaged Gibson out of the blue under the persuasion of my good friend Gary. Gibson messaged me back instantly and asked me out to coffee. He found a unique art store with prints and laser cuttings by my favourite paper cutting artist, when I arrived he showed me a laser cutting that he thought I would like; I had bought the exact laser cutting a few months ago. We then went to a tea house as I mentioned the day before that I loved tea, we sat there and talked for hours and we both didn't want to leave. He walked me to the MTR station and we hugged each other goodbye. On my way home, all I thought about was what an incredible time I had with a lovely, thoughtful, kind, intelligent guy, all in all the perfect guy, my soulmate; instantly I knew that Gibson is the person that I can’t live without.